Two things bug me. The first is cold drivability. I don't mean frigid conditions, I just mean not warmed up. Power delivery is very uneven until the car is warmed up. Ok, I can live with that, just give me a temperature gauge or some indication of when it's ready to have the spurs put to it.

Second is pedal position. How can such a sporty car have such terrible pedal position? It's possible to heel and toe but it involves dislocating your ankle.

All of the pedal kits I've seen have been pretty much cosmetic. The problem is that there's too much difference between the level of the pedals (wouldn't want someone to hit the gas instead of the brake). Are there any fixes for that?

 

The easy way to add coolant temp readout is with a ScanGaugeII. It just plugs into the OBDII port under the dash. I've always heard it was bad to drive a car hard before it warms up.

Why bother to heal & toe when the transmission has syncros?

 

Any temperature indication is better than nothing, but oil temp is a better indication of when the engine is fully warmed up than coolant temp. My coolant gauge routinely levels off at normal operating temperature a good 10-15 minutes before the oil temp does.

As for "heel-and-toeing" with a synchromesh transmission, it's still useful to keep from upsetting the suspension while you're simultaneously braking and downshifting. While a synchro tranny will let you perform just about any downshift imaginable without blipping the gas, it can make for a rough re-engagement unless you either slip the hell out of the clutch or blip the gas before re-engagement to match the revs.

 

I've never had any problems with cold drivability. I crank her up and go, I might drive her easy for the first 3 or 4 blocks but I've never felt the engine uneven or anything like that.

 

My brake and gas pedals are OK. When I am braking, the level of brake pedal and the gas pedal are even. The clutch pedal has too much travel distance.

 

How cold is it in Hawaii?

 

That's it exactly. Obviously it's not a big issue when you're not on a track, but I enjoy driving as smoothly as possible even at reasonable speeds for the street. The beauty of a well executed heel and toe down shift is how smooth and fluid it is going through a corner. (Not saying I always get it right )

 

Have you tried adjusting you seat up/down? I heal tow often on downshifts, not because I am on track just because I learned to do it while tracking another car. They are not perfect but at least my shoes don't touch two pedals at a time when I don't want them to. I agree completely about the lack of gauges, I am also using the scan gauge2 for now.

 

My MCS doesn't like the cold. It was about 45f out this am and as seems to be routine the engine stutters the first time I take it over 30mph.

I'm getting used to it but I've learned to make sure there is no traffic coming before I pull out of the drive as the car will bog more than likely while trying to accelerate. Once I've gotten it out of 3rd once..it's golden after that. This is on a car with 3k miles.

Weird...

 

It's been pretty frigid lately. My temp readout in the MINI read 66 the other morning!

 

We had snow on the ground both yesterday and the day before

 

I have no problems with power at cold start. I live in Toronto and spend winters in Montreal Quebec.

I have no problems with seating position at all, i am 5' 8" and i think the seating in the R56 is great. I drive in my auto cross position 24/7 witch i could never do in my ITR.