Our plans for the STF car:

- replace the 30k mile oem shocks and springs with some Bilsteins and swift springs
- OBX header
- custom cat added in
- custom exhaust
- reflash ecu
- race seat on driver side
- fugly but lighter old miata OEM seat on passenger side for national weekends


And of course more seat time...we're hoping to find about 1/2-1 sec with this stuff. As for the suspension choice...I haven't seen good hard evidence suggesting that coilovers are significantly (0.5 or more) faster on the mini with street tires. The car did well last year on an HS suspension so it's gotta be better with fresh shocks and slightly lower and stiffer springs right?

then in 2014 we'll have Shakiah at Fat Cat Motorsports rebuild and revalve them for a mild coilover setup he'll do. It needs to be streetable and fairly comfy still

 

That sounds like 2014 to me - unless I can resist.

I wish you the best with that development process.

I have an unanswered question on the effect of lowering on roll centers, which I cheerfully ignored on the STX car. But it is a valid question I think.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Ok...update time...got the Bilsteins put on, the pieces from Vorshlag to put the camber plates on and trhe swift springs on.

Initial impressions? WOW...car feels planted and precise.

 

I am grinning vicariously...

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Yep so far so good. Exhaust will probably come next since that will sound good :D

And if I ever find free time a seat or two may find there way into the car...fabrication time is something I have very little of these days...bolt in stuff...no sweat

 

Ok...so I got to drive it in the wet and dry. Felt awesome and more predictable than on the OEM stuff. Took top pax and FTD in the rain on Saturday on the COntinental DWs...and would have had top pax by over 2 seconds on Sunday had that been my primary driver...but I ran the D Mod car for competition and the Mini in double entry runs (which don't factor into pax).

All in all the car feels great.

 

Sounds like a good day sir!

What club were you running with?

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Local scca event. We'll see how this Sunday at the BMW club goes. I gotta find my camera.

 

Top Pax in February and coned away a good finish at the last BMW event. The car is AWESOME on concrete...we'll get to try it at the next SCCA event at the same concrete site

 

Top Pax this month on concrete...on the new BFGs...AND I remembered the video camera this time LOL

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lhnjRcJqSM

 

Nice driving there sir!

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Had a "rival" show up to the first event in the new BFGs. Last year, equal times. This year, he got me by 1.5 seconds. I want to blame it on the tires but.....

 

Didja forget to empty the ashtrays this year?...



I shudder to think what my first competition run is going to look like this year - I bloody well forget a lot every winter...

Consequently I shall go and run with the Corvette Club before showing up with the NER SCCA crew (although there is a fair overlap some days).

Kind regards and just kidding,

Charlie

 

Going with the mods listed in my signature for 2013. I still need to corner weight the coilovers, however. A lighter battery would be nice too.

 

come to the TX tour Greg Reno is making the drive so you can't say it's too far

We need more STF folks...and more Minis...Joe Austin is even gonna run STF with us

 

So why don't you have 15x7.5 wheels yet? I'm curious

 

I'm lucky to get to the local events! Hope to run Nationals this year. Last I ran was 2008, I think.

I have had a lot of battles with Reno in H Stock, and I remember running against Joe a couple times at Nationals. Sounds fun!

As for wheels, I was ready to go with some 15x7.5 6ULs, but I heard the SCCA was considering a 15x8 for STF at the time. So, I held off. Long story short, I just continued to use these wheels that I have had forever. They are light @ 10.5lbs and will hold a 205/50/15 just fine. 7.5" wheels and 225/45/15s would be on my wish list.

 

fun run vid from this past sunday

 

Day 1 run from the last tour...car is coming along great.

 

Y'all still enjoying those BFG tires huh!

That looked like LOTS of fun... made me grin 1st thing in the morning.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Day 2 run

 

UPDATE: so a seat was purchased for the driver side. One of these babys


I got it from my buddies at Pro-Am Auto Accessories -
http://proamauto.com/i-10791841-pole-position.html

John is always a great help (as is Cliff) and they had these in stock with the Profi XL to try on The XL is a great seat for those 5'11 and up so we went with this since my car owner is about 5'5".

I went with the Recaro bracket because it looks good and is a perfect fit for the seat AND has more adjustment than the Brey-Krause one. And since nobody makes one for an R56 Mini yet they all require modification. I will have to drill the 6 holes in this to make it fit...and drill a hole in the side for the seat belt bracket (easy to do and I'll do this to start off) but later I'll add a modified piece of angle iron with a nut welded on the back over the hole for a more OEM style fitment... My estimated weight for the whole rig is about 26-28lbs with hardware.

On the passenger side I'll be welding up a bracket to adapt an ugly miata seat in the car. It will be closer to 30-35lbs when done but only cost about $20-30 in supplies and a free old seat

I hope to have this stuff done by mid June

 

Nice video David, thanks. In and out of 3rd!

Cheers,

Charlie

 

OK...update time...got the seat put in a few weeks back (wow almost a month ago now!) and it works great. BUT...I can't get the damn airbag light to go off. The resistor mod from the motoring alliance site R56 seat install didn't work...so it's got a light for now. I'll be resetting the light soon I hope to see if it sees the resistor but I have no hopes.


Here's the seat in the car though:





And here are some more goodies I hope to slap in tomorrow night and Thursday AM...






I also plan on trying the 9" wheels and 225s up front at the BMW event this Sunday...we'll see how it goes...

 

And a couple more videos...

Local Texas A&M club event:



Last SCCA event I tried the iphone for incar vid LOL...yuck:



Both events were top pax...but not so much at the pro solo LOL Ah well...that was a fun event too