That's just a flesh wound The tweet pic with the guy pointing at the wheel arches. lol

 

I missed that! Hilarious lol

I swear they must keep a ton of those wheel arches at the shop. Seams like they lose quite a few at every race.

 

The picture for everyone else to see

 

Screen shot that, the picture is priceless. lol

Maybe someone just stole the wheel arches and the stubby antenna ... The NM Wheels on the ones car are polished.

Edit** looks like one of the crew

 

Does anyone know what engine setups those cars are running? I'm doubting they even have JCW power plants in those cars. The body's are MCS's, not JCW's! I know this is one reason I didn't get answers about why the wheels fit on these cars, because they don't have the larger brakes (the stock JCW brakes anyway). They may have modified brakes.

I'd like to learn more about how these MINI's are set up...could be the reason they aren't more competitive, especially compared to the Porches.

I've been a long time fan of the 12 Hours of Sebring, but I gotta tell ya I'm very disappointed that the organizers have made the decision to not let the slower classes of cars compete in the 12 hours. It's an endurance race after all, and it's just not the same watching all the higher speed & prototype cars exclusively competing this year! All classes should be on the track!

 

The accident at the end of the Sebring race wasn't the first brake failure Mark Pombo has experienced. He had a similar incident back in 2012 that was even more vicious. Thank goodness he was able to walk away from this one. I posted an article about it and the 2012 incident here: http://miniracefan.com/2016/03/22/pombo-the-fighter/

 

I was at Sebring... Here is my recap: http://www.motoringfun.com/2016/03/2...e-sebring-150/

Great time had by all!!!!

 

Nice recap and pictures. I thought I remembered hearing that they were not allowed to use the JCW brakes but could not remember where I heard it from. Do you know why?

 

Guess they thought it would give the MINIs too much of an advantage... However, after the brake issues at Sebring, they are going to petition IMSA to make some changes from what I understand.

 

I finally saw some of the rerun of the race on tv...the MINIs appeared to be fairly competitive actually. Why not let the stock JCW race ? Makes no sense...rules can be so unfair sometimes. They need to allow stock brakes at least! No brainer right?

 

I hope IMSA does allow them to make a change.

The fading brakes could explain why they started out so well and gradually fell back. If you watch the opening laps of the Sebring race the #37 and #73 were charging hard to the front.

 

That looks like fun , wish i was there

 

You are correct...exactly what I saw. Very impressive!

 

In both of my Gen II Cooper Ss the heavy cast brake calipers would heat soak in about 20 minutes of a HPDE on a brake challenging track like Watkins Glen. When they heat soak, they get softer and softer feeling as time went on. I can't imagine going faster than my Cooper S (stock), in a heavier car and for a longer period of time with those stock brakes. One reason for the Wilwoods on my car. It would be understandable for them to have brake problems at Sebring. Also, it is not like the Porsches they are running against don't have better brakes. Seems like things are stacked against the MINIs. Hopefully the organizers look at leveling the playing field a bit.

 

Do you feel like the Wilwoods make a big difference? I'm thinking about getting a BBK in the future. Not sure if I should do JCW upgrade or third party.

I did an HPDE event at PBIR last year and the brakes definitely didn't feel as responsive by time I was in the 3rd session.

 

James Vance (driver of the #52) did an interview with Motor Week Live today. It's a pretty cool listen and he talks briefly about Sebring. Though he didn't mention the brakes. It also sounds like he agrees with you guys that they will out perform the others in wet conditions. More here: http://miniracefan.com/2016/03/28/mo...h-james-vance/

 

very cool!

 

Those guys deserve to do better!.....they have worked so hard! Would be nice if they had some support from MINI! It would great for the brand.

 

It looked like they had quite a bit of support from MINI at Sebring. MINI engineers were on-site working with the team in programming their DME modules, etc. MINI technicians working the pit crews, MINI providing hospitality for the fans. What makes you think they don't have support from MINI?

 

Free food ?

 

Yes - they provided us with free food

 

Great, usually MINI when they have a tent and free food its great at MTTS.

 

I didn't know....just seems that they should "at the very least" have new JCW bodied cars & B48 engines (stock)...not MCS's with JCW add-ons. That's what makes me think they are on a shoestring budget.

 

Gotcha - the reason for that is that the factory JCW was not available when the team put together their fleet of cars. They actually do have B48 engines in the cars, just like the factory JCW (keep in mind when they built these cars, the B46 wasn't even out yet and the B48 was the only option anyway).

The team is running a factory JCW DME module (ie. ECU) and JCW exhaust and JCW/custom body parts (with the exception of the side indicator lights on some cars - some do have the "S" side markers still) as well as the equivalent or better than the JCW coilover setup made by KW Suspension (just like the factory JCW pro suspension).

Unfortunately in racing, you can't just swap out cars every year - that gets crazy expensive. Even top teams in NASCAR carry some cars over from season to season. You replace/repair the panels and parts that get damaged and move on.

However, I do agree that in a perfect world with unlimited budgets it would be awesome for the team to get new cars each season to match that of what is in the showroom.

 

Good info mct...thank you! Now, if they could only run the "STOCK" JCW Brembo brakes! Jeez, what's wrong with that? If the rules don't allow stock brakes, that's just plain wrong! Maybe we should start a petition & submit it to IMSA? I guarantee you the stock brakes on the Porsches are better than whatever the MINI's are running right now (which may be stock on non-JCW's, but they're not stock JCW brakes)!