That's a dramatic difference. Great job.

 

Now on to the mechanical side of the car. Nothing is wrong with it, as would be expected with a 40K mile car.

It is just time t make it a little more fun.

I washed it last night and did an old school dry. I took it for a quick spin, ripped through the gears on a empty back road and just giggled listening to the supercharger whine.

I have not driven it in weeks. So that was a fun treat.

It made me realize I need to get the E30 supercharged as it was intended to be.

Hopefully a productive weekend getting some go fast parts on.

 

Nology Wires and MSD Coil pack installed while I was installing the Airtec intercooler. I was going to install the cat back but started too late and ran out of time. Plus I had to help my wife with some yard work.

Tomorrow we are heading to Palm Beach Raceway to watch my niece run in her first Autocross with her F56 Mini.


All the fun parts installed

Had to cut the little casting braces off in order to make room for this massive intercooler.

It is much bigger than stock.

And about 1/2" thicker.

 

That was pretty cool. Sadly this cool thing is coming to an end. The Palm Beach Raceway has been sold and will be closing its gate forever to be bulldozed on 28 April. I am pretty bummed.

This event was a free event by the local BMW/Mini/Porsche/ Audi dealer. You sign up by car type and get about 6 runs on an old Karting track set up for AX. I have run it in my RX7 with the SCCA, it is a deceivingly slow course. Much more technical then you think it will be.


My niece in her F55, this was her first ever AX, there was no real instruction, I wish I could have jumped in her car and helped her a little. We did some talking over lunch.

This cat stole the show, I talked to him afterwards. He says this little R53 is making 270HP and had a 100 shot of NOS for 1/4 mile racing. He had Ethanol injection and a water cooled intercooler. Sweet setup, sounded and looked great out there. It was the only R53 there. All others were much newer.

H2O intercooler

The beast, 6 piston calipers as well. Very well setup car.

Porsche / BMW crew running next

 

Hi Jim, beautiful job on resurrecting this R53. I stumbled upon a really clean Chili Red and working on correcting some issues and making some upgrades.

I’m interested in your taillights. My car is an ‘04 and it has the center reverse light on the bottom of the rear bumper. It would appear that your new lights do not have a reverse light provision? I have seen them advertised as fitting all R53’s just wanted to make certain that my non-facelift version would accommodate them.

Your thoughts? (And might i ask for a link for your vendor?)

Thanks Jim, carry on, we’ll be watching!

 

Thank you. I am hoping to have a productive weekend and get the Cat-back installed. Possibly the Pulley too, I spoke on the phone with Way yesterday and he calmed my nerves about running lean on stock fuel.

These are the tail lights. I used a vendor on here for them, their name rhymes with Sleezy S, I will not be using them anymore. I purchased a part for my E30 2 months ago, it was not cheap ($700) I have also spent a good amount of money with this vendor over the last 2 months buying parts for the mini and have used them in the past for my E30. They BS I have been through trying to get my part has pissed me off, there is zero communication from them. You have to turn into an A-hole and I am not even sure that would work. I gave up on them, I did some searching around and this is typical of them.

Here is the exact same units on ebay:

https://tinyurl.com/Spyder-Tail-Lights

 

Thanks for the reply Jim, Sorry to hear of your negative adventures. I’ll look into the link. So you would feel no issues with installing them on my pre facelift ‘04?

Good luck this weekend with your continued upgrades. I’ll be interested in your opinions and performance of the new parts/pieces.

 

These tail lights have been around forever. My buddy had them on his 2003 MCS back in 2004.

He recognized them on mine when he saw a picture of it.

I did have one small issue while installing the pins inside the plug (male) were not quite centered and would not go into the chassis plug (female) we had to bend them slightly more to center to get them to mate up.

 

I wish I could change the title of this thread to the adventures of a EB MCS.

Stop here and hit the back button if you do not want TMI. I love exploring places and just wandering. No town is too small for me. I will find something cool everywhere. It's all a state of mind.

I purchased this car for one reason, to takeover duties as the road trip car from the 1991 BMW 318i sedan I purchased about 7 year ago. It will still be used for road trips, just not as much as it is becoming a very rare car. I have a trip planned in almost exactly 1 year that caused me to purchase this R53, I will disclose that as I make my reservations and plan my road trip. It is a bucket list item for me.

I wish I had more car pics, I only have one I took during a pee break at a rest area in Palm Bay, FlorRida.



That pic was right before I went on a triple digit run about 60-70 miles to my exit, thereby ruining my stunning 30 MPG average until that point.

We ran up to St. Augustine FloRida to spend a weekend. We stayed right in the downtown area with the Ripley's Museum across the street from us. Walking distance to everything we wanted.

The hotel was high end (we traded points for a free weekend - woot!) it was the new Renaissance St. Augustine Historic Downtown Hotel. When we pulled up the millennium Valet immediately asked if it was a manual. LOL!! Yes it was.. He said we could self park because he cannot drive manual.* (side story coming)

I laughed and told him he needs to spend a weekend with a friend with a manual and learn, it is not hard and can be learned in a weekend. He said no one he knows has a manual. I had sadness..

So I got to self park and pick the safest spot in the underground parking lot. Yay for me.

We arrived in St. Augi at 8:30 PM we were not ready to retire, it was time to check out our surroundings. We found this place called Colonial Oak Music Park where this really good Reggae band was playing, it was a large courtyard surrounded by bars. The croud was amazing the band was better the band was a local band called i-vibes here is a sample of their work. This is actually from when I was there recorded by someone else, the cat with the prosthetic arm was from Brazil. they had a lot of stand in guests, It was a very chill scene and great vibe. A good way to start our evening. Wife was grabbing Tequila/Orange juice drinks, I was drinking Stone Hazy IPA's.



We wandered away from this venue eventually and found a killer bar called Prohibition Kitchen, we heard the music as we walked up and KNEW we had to be inside there. a Motown / funk vibe we knew was our scene. So we wandered in, got drinks and headed upstairs where it was empty and we could enjoy this amazing band.




Best video I could find.

Short video I shot in the moment, it is not long, I am not the type to look at a moment through my phone, I prefer to actually experience the moment.


The reason I came to St. Augi was to meet 2 E-Friends I made in 2004 when I sold me 2003 JCW to buy my 1980 Porsche 911 Targa.


Left to right Byron, Hugh and I. Bryron took the pic, I just stole it from him, not sure what happened here it is poor quality I think he uploaded a screen shot.

Bryon runs an management company in Jacksonville that books acts with local bars and restaurants, he also has contracts in Vegas.

Hugh worked for Disney for 30+ years as a Medical/Safety advisor. He worked on the first Jackass movie and can tell stories for days. He also worked on all the Pirates off the Caribbean movie and all of Denzel Washington's movies. The guy can tell stories, a real rags to riches story. One small part, when he was in the military stationed in England he purchased an Aston Martin DB4 for $1,100 USD, which was a lot at the time. He kept this car for his entire life. When is came time for an engine rebuild, he had to commission custom pistons be built.

A friend convinced him to take the car to a concourse car show, it was not a concourse car, it was a driver, he drove it. A man approached him to buy it at the show. He said how much? They offered 495K He said yes but doubted the offer was real. They asked where he banked, he told them, they said meet them there at 9AM Monday. He did, they showed up with 495K in a briefcase. Car sold. Paid off his mortgage, kid college and put some in savings. Win for him.

So back to the R53.

I ran perfectly, the new larger intercooler creates a wild sound at red lights and low RPM, you can hear a distinctive whistle from it. Premium gas prices are a buzz kill, it reminds me of 2010 when I had my RX7 and premium was over $5 a gallon, you do you best to make the most out of the situation and offset the cost. Investing in dividend paying energy stocks takes the sting out of it.

The car ran great, I could not be happier. I cannot wait to let the cat out of the bag about our trip next year and trust me, MANY more planned before then, I worked my behind off these last 6 years putting in 70-100 hour weeks, time to have some fun.

 

***Side story coming later too tired need to crash for evening.

 

A lot of good stuff in that post but what's sticking with me is the 45000% return on the DB4.

 

Its been a while NAM, I hope all are well and enjoying their Mini's.

I have been busy as usual, too busy, that is a good problem.

My wife found a event that was going to happen in Pompano Beach, it was called Ocean Blues and Beers. It had 20+ breweries from all over Florida there offering samples. There were 3 blues bands playing. We found a Motel that was across the street and really affordable so we book a night there so we would not have to worry about driving and drinking.



We parked the old gal in front of the Motel and went on over to the event.


Ever seen a Limo Beer Kegerator? Neither have I until this moment.


How about a Gulfstream Cigar Bar?


The stage and the venue surrounding it, a great beach vibe and good time.


My tshirt for the day, sadly the joke was lost on many... correction, everyone.

I am hoping to book my big trip for next spring soon, maybe one night this week, once I hit send on this I need to spend the evening working. Such is the life of a small business owner.

Houston, we have a problem, which will be detailed in my next post.

 

We took the car out today to run to my inlaws, on the way home the clutch pedal went to the floor. I nursed it home and quickly figured out it was the slave cylinder. I order a master and slave and will do both later this week.

Since it is up in the air, I am going to tackle the cat back and rear sway bar while it is down.




Yup, there is the problem...

Once the Bini is fixed I am finally motivated to get the Classic back running, the paper on the windshield is a punch out list of things to do. Time to finish this thing up and start enjoying it again.

 

Nice job with all that you've done!

I see your strut towers suffered paint loss too - it really is too bad MINI did such a crap job on the underhood paintwork. That area really should have gotten at least one coat of clear! Keep us posted! Love the pics!

 

What up NAM gang. Its been a while, I have been really busy with life and have not had much time to jump on here.

A couple of weeks ago I did my first oil change on this car. I got under it and tried to break the drain plug loose and it would not budge. I also noticed it was slightly damaged like someone had slipped off it with a socket one time too many.

I had a new drain plug on hand with every intention of replacing the old one anyway. So no big deal, except, I could not break this plug loose and each attempt was making things worse.

I spend hours trying everything, of course, each attempt was making things worse for me.

This is what I ended up with.



I could not get anything to stay on there, every attempt broke off more of the nut. I was starting to get really frustrated. I decided to hammer a smaller socket on then try to tack weld it.



Then I remembered I cannot weld to save my life. I could not fit under the car with the mask on and function so I had to use safety squints while trying to weld without looking. It did not go well.

Complete failure would be the best way to describe my efforts thus far.


I start group texting with some friend who are all pretty good mechanics. One suggests a nut remover set. I run around town to try to find a set, no one has one. Amazon to the rescue, I had it the next day.



My plan of attack was to try to do this on a cold engine, if I could break it loose, then I would keep it snug and warm up the engine for the oil change. I felt the cold engine might give me a better chance, since the parts will not be heated up and expanded.

I was very doubtful these nut extractors were going to work. I felt the nut was going to continue to disintegrate. I hammered one on really tight and put a long breaker bar on, pulling as hard as I could... it moved!!! I finally broke it loose. I did a happy dance in the garage, then took it off the ramps and out for a spin warming up the engine.



The final carnage. Good riddance!!



I would come to realize that was only half my problem. The same King Kong that put on the drain plug also did the same to the oil filter housing.

It took 8' of pipe on a breaker bar to get that cover to break loose. In this pic I put one half of my floor jack handle on, I ended up putting the other half on in order to make it move.

 

Yep they use metric instead of standard: it takes a standard 1/2"

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...lug-tight.html



https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...very-time.html

 

What is up NAM!! I FINALLY installed my resonated Milltek Cat-Back 2 weeks ago. I purchased what I consider the best tool I have ever added to my garage. A Quick Jack 5000. What a game changer!!





The only issue I had with my installation was the tips touching the bumper, it's never good when tips touch. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

I ended up pulling all the mounts off the frame of the car and installing 1/2" spacers, then re-installing. That dropped the tips to exactly where I wanted them to be.









The resonated sound is very subdued, you sort of feel a little growl in the seat back at low RPM, it sounds much better outside the car with no droning or overwhelming sound inside the car. I am very happy with it.

4 weeks ago, we added a new stablemate to the garage, giving the Mini a break from longer road trips. I found a 2014 M5 with 38K miles on it for a pretty fair price. What a monster of a car, or as Jeremy Clarkson says, "What a machine!". You drop the hammer on that monster and it will scare you.

3 weeks ago we went to Ft. Lauderdale for a concert, we were staying the night and knew we were going to be forced to valet the car. Since it was only a 1.5-hour drive, I left the M5 home. I did not want joyrides happening, and have not figured out how to get it into valet mode yet. We took the R53, which is always fun with a Valet, mostly because there is usually only 1 there that can drive stick. Now the Mini is more for shorter trips and the M5 will be used for longer trips. We drove the Gainesville for another concert last weekend and took the M5, it was so nice cruising at 85 MPH with the engine purring at 2100 RPM and the interior of the car silent. When I needed, you could turn sublime into mental, push the go pedal down and hold on, 70-120 happens so fast and so brutally it's almost a religious experience. Every time I do that, just utter the word, Jesus quietly while trying to comprehend how something so big can be so fast.

This gives me a chance to get the Mini up in the air for some more mods with no pressure of finishing in a day. I have a few more parts on shelves that need to make their way onto the car.




It is HUGE compared to my E30 and Mini, the garage had to be re-arranged in order to make it fit comfortably.

 

Got any exhaust vids of the sound? I like the tips! Nice F10 btw! I've got a F80 ZCP 6 speed and mini too! They compliment each other well!

 

I do not, but I can get some, whatcha want to hear?

I can do one of the interior and another of a drive by, I can probably complete those tasks this weekend.

I toyed with an M3, we wanted something a little bigger and more subdued for road trips. In about 3 years I will consider what is next, or maybe not, I love this car and cannot see changing for a while.