Had to dig us up from page 3 to post my 1,000th post. I'v got to much time on my hands.

Made an appt today to have the dealer fix my dash rattle It has become unbearable.

Tomorrow my EBC's and power slot rotors are supposed to be here. I haven't decided on tires yet. A friend says he used to go to Infineon and buy used race tires cheap from some of the shops. Anyone tried that?

If I can get some, I may just buy some nice smooth riding street tires.

Happy mororing April Club remnants:smile:

 

Just got back from another Glen driving event with my baby.

It was a sucky event the first day. Torrential rains and flooding in the area meant that the track was DANGEROUS. They close it for thunderstorm-level downpours, but not soon enough for some poor people out there. One instructor hit the tire wall, but no injuries and the car is reparable (broke a headlight and mangled the hood/fender area). Someone else at the very end of the day had their instructor drive their car and ended up flipped over and over the guardrails. Car is totalled :( Owner of the car ended up with a broken finger.. not bad for an 80mph hydroplane, blown tire, and the flipping.

That scared all of us.

In other news, the MINI hydroplaned at the same point on the track (earlier run session though). My instructor screamed like a girl. The car settled down perfectly and mostly unperturbed. First time I've had to talk my instructor down...

The second day was sunny and beautiful.. learned a lot about the handling of the car: stiff setting on swaybar with the 17" wheels and F1's is probably a bit much unless I want to wag my tail a lot. Not a concern with the 15" wheels. In the hot, the MX's are probably grippier (they don't have a sliding greasy feeling like I got with the F1's, but that could be a result of the swaybar).

And don't be stupid and forget the hubcentrics for your track wheels.

 

Page 6 It's been 2 weeks since an April club post. Could these be the last gasping days of the "April club"?

I finally got fed up with my dash rattle and took it to the dealer. They put some felt around a retaining pin and it is now nice and quiet

I also got v38 loaded. Don't notice much difference. I also put power slots and EBC greens on. Nice improvement.

I am getting some 15 inch holeys from another NAM member this weekend. I plan on using them as track tires. Thay have Kumho 712's mounted. I will give them a try next friday at Thunderhill. We are running the track opposite direction of normal. Just like a new track:smile:

Should be lots of fun. Here's a lap at thill. http://www.jeepvideos.com/mpeg/030208thcw-open.mpg. enjoy:smile:

 

20,000 Mile Update:

Well, MM2 has been truckin' along like a trooper! Apart from the absolutely never-ending h/k passenger door speaker rattle, which I've determined is due to shotty engineering and plastics, the car is tight as a drum and good to go. Last dyno runs averaged 217cHP and 192cLb-Ft, MM2 is certainly a fun, quick, and fast monster! To date my global average is 26.3 MPG, but the last 6600 miles with the UNIchip have yielded 27.4 MPG, which is quite good considering the dyno figures, IMO. Handling, with my Detroit Tuned Stage 1.5 spring set and H-Sport Competition swaybars, is phenomenally stable, balanced, yet still livable on harsh Michigan roads. Braking is now handled with the Detroit Tuned Big-Brake-Kit in front, and stock rotors with Ferodo 2500's in back. I'm still running my Exel TZ-10s with Parada2's, but got way spoiled with a short stint with Kumho MX's (great tire!). Since my Parada2's are BALD, I plan on getting MX's next. I couldn't live without my Schroth harnesses, they are totally awesome and basically mandatory for the MINI.



I'm still totally thrilled with my MCS. Every morning I go into the garage and see MM2, I'm geeked to be driving such an awesome piece of machinery. Whenever I get a chance to flex the UNIchip muscle with 100+ octane, the car's even more fun! I've been using Royal Purple oil, and have kept up changing it every 5-6k miles.

Cheers, and Motor-On!
Ryan

 

Great to hear that MM2 is still hauling!

My dealership refuses to put v38 on my car. They keep resetting the fuel mapping, so I get horrible gas mileage instead of the horrible yo-yo (but that comes back once the mapping re-adapts). Most annoying :/ I'm hunting down a power loss at 80-85mph as well. Car bogs nastily, then recovers as I increase speed/rpm.

But the good news is that it doesn't happen at WOT, so it's still a blast on the track.

 

Why won't they load 38?

What size are your 15 inch tires? I think you said they were MX. I was going to get them, but the holeys I'm getting have almost new 712's, and the price for wheels and tires is less than just a new set of tires.

 

I think I have less "bog" in 1st gear with the DSC on with the latest software update a couple of weeks ago.

Got new wiper blades and they did an oil change at 8,300 miles because, as far as they knew, it had not been changed in over a year.

Also had to replace a rear tire because they found a nail mid way up the inner sidewall. Who knows how long it was there?

Drove it over to the only tire dealer in town. A Dunlop run flat in Southhampton set me back $230!

My wife and I love it like the day we got it. We still won't leave it unattended in a parking lot unless friends park on either side!

Hope all is well.

Red

 

OK. It seems we are down to me, and you three!

What oil filter are you using, and where did you get it?

When throwing a nice shift to second, and getting a chirp, the damn TC/DSC shuts things down for a while.

So when I want to play, the DSC is OFF! Man that thing is just too sensitive. My 1966 S had no such problems!

You guys get to relive your early days with me, because of the low mileage.

Hope all is well.

regards,
Red

 

Hey Red,

We are just still hanging on. Just a few more posts until we reach 4,000.

I get oil filters form Moss.

No DSC to comment on because I didn't order it.

Got some 15 inch holeys from another NAMer. I dropped 14 poounds per corner. Big difference.

Track day on Friday

 

The DSC is not all bad. Tested it last winter on 3 acres of glare ice. Easy to spin around and around with it off. With it on , it wanted to go straight with much clacking sounds coming from the wheels.


Pretty cool for $500. And it has an OFF switch!

regards,
Red

 

The DSC is way less intrusive with V38. That said, DSC deactivation is still part of my pre-flight checklist

I get my oil filters, as well as all my MINI OEM parts, from Classic MINI

Cheers!
Ryan

 

Thanks for the oil filter tips!


Andy, saving 14 lbs per wheel must make a huge difference in ride and handling. How is it working out?

regards,
Red

 

The ride around town is much nicer that the runflats. Smoother, and the car is much peppier. The HUGE difference came yesterday at the track. Big time difference. Before, I only used 4th gear at the end of the front straight, and then only for a few seconds. With the reduced rolling mass, I was using 2nd more often, and getting wheel spin if not careful, and using 4th for most of the front straight and the back section of the track which had 2 wide dogleg turns. Turn in with the 712's was mushier that the runflats, but grip was way better. Really worked on throttle steering this time. With the low HP on a standard cooper, momentum is key. Can't afford to lose any speed, so it's hang on and drive

Monkey boy was at the track. Had a great time playing lead/follow with him. Did some good lead/follow with an instructor in an E46 for a session. Track time is way to addicting.

 

[QUOTE=asodestrom]The ride around town is much nicer that the runflats. Smoother, and the car is much peppier. The HUGE difference came yesterday at the track. Big time difference. Before, I only used 4th gear at the end of the front straight, and then only for a few seconds. With the reduced rolling mass, I was using 2nd more often, and getting wheel spin if not careful, and using 4th for most of the front straight and the back section of the track which had 2 wide dogleg turns. Turn in with the 712's was mushier that the runflats, but grip was way better. Really worked on throttle steering this time. With the low HP on a standard cooper, momentum is key. Can't afford to lose any speed, so it's hang on and drive


Have not had this one at the track, really should. Used to be good at "gymkhanas", but not in 20 years! The best one was winning a Jaguar Club of North America gymkhana at Floyd Bennett field in a company car (V6 Citation) w/40 psi.

My TR3 and 66 Mini were far more fun, esp because of the narrower tires. I bet the "S" is not as good as the MC in autocross with it's heavier wheels and supercharger mass at low revs.

How long are your tires lasting? "Icekhanas" are far more forgiving on tires!
Anyway, glad to hear someone is at the track!

regards,
Red

 

[QUOTE=Red]OK, I'll bite, What is a gymkhana

Here is a shot of my left rear tire after about 130 miles of track time. Mid 90's temps. T-hill clockwise has 11 right hand turns.

 

nice rubber chunks!

I should'a taken pics of my rear tires last track day. I literally had to rotate them to the front and do burnouts to get the chunks off 'em!

 

I got the chunks off the fronts on the way home:smile: About 50 miles of twisty mountain roads And about 50 freeway.

 

A Gymkhana is what they used to call what is now known as "autocross". Running through pylons on an abandoned airstrip (Floyd Bennett and Mitchel fields on Long Island back then).

Icekhana is done on a frozen lake. Very easy on the tires! No chunks!

Guess I have been out of it too long. "Autocross" still sounds weird to me.

regards,
Red

 

Hey, um... did I ever mention that I thought that the aero kit wasn't so bad for an aero kit?

After my last track session, I'm thinking I might look into that :( Luckily the car is okay, no airbag deployment, but the front bumper rather resembles a guard rail. I think I've gotten most of the grass from the interior of the car... but I definitely need a new bumper.

Sometimes you learn the limits of the car the hard way...

I don't remember exactly which size of the 15" MX's that I'm currently running. If you'd like, I can check the next time I see them. 205/50 or /55 15".

If any of you ever get a chance to check out Le Circuit in Mont-Tremblant (Quebec), RUN there! What a stunning track and area. It's owned by the CEO of Tommy Hilfiger and originally intended for his Ferraris and those of his friends, but they've opened the track for a few club events a year... he spent millions redoing the track, and it shows... though *some* of us made it less pretty than it was before.

 

If any of you ever get a chance to check out Le Circuit in Mont-Tremblant (Quebec), RUN there! What a stunning track and area. It's owned by the CEO of Tommy Hilfiger and originally intended for his Ferraris and those of his friends, but they've opened the track for a few club events a year... he spent millions redoing the track, and it shows... though *some* of us made it less pretty than it was before.[/QUOTE]


Do you have pics or a link to that track.

 

Don't have video up quite yet... but their website is Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant

 

Are you going to tell us the details? What happened

The last few weeks at California tracks have been tragic. A few weeks ago at Buttonwillow, a convertable without a roll flipped during some "parade" laps and killed 2 occupants, then last weekend at Thunderhill during open testing sessions for weekend races, a collision on the back straight sent a car off the track, then back onto another part of the track wher it was hit by another car killing both drivers.

http://p081.ezboard.com/fdsrforumgen...cID=1090.topic

A sober reminder that even though tracking is fun and exciting and safe, accidents can an do happen.

Let's be careful out there.

 

Early in the session (I think it was the first or second lap), I came through the esses a bit hot and early. Normally I can lift the throttle slightly and correct the understeer push to the outside of the turn by bringing the back end out a bit. Tires were still cold and the back end stepped out a lot. I corrected it, but ran out of track on the outside to catch the counter-turn. Dropped the front right tire off the track, but the momentum of the weight transfer from the oversteers spun the car around and I bounced off the guardrail on the left side of the car's bumper.

First time my instructor's ever been taken off the track by a student. He admitted that he'd spun out there earlier that day, though he'd managed to keep his car on track.

We do everything we can to try to stay safe, but the risk is definitely there. I'd like to think that overall I'm a safer driver that I was before I started tracking, but sometimes accidents just happen. I got lucky that the damage wasn't a LOT worse. I'll probably wait to get the bumper or aero kit in the spring after the winter season (taking the car up to a winter driving school and don't want to worry about taking off another bumper). I'm still trying to figure out what part of the fog lamp broke - the light still works, but if the mounting part attached to the radiator support is smashed, it's pretty pricey to replace.

*sigh*

 

Hey, I'll just call this my thread now

I'm engaged!

Also, a pic of the damage:

 

Congrats Rachel When is the big day?

The nose of your mini doesn't look too bad. I nice aero kit would make a fitting engagement gift. You car has to be looking sharp for the wedding:smile: