Prepping The Car

So I’m doing some little things to the MINI to get ready for Lime Rock next month. I’m really not sure what sort of weather to expect mid-October, but I know I needed new tires.

After much deliberation, I went with a set of Kumho XS in 215/45-16. I’ll be mounting them to my 16×7″ gold Konigs. Originally I was itching to get 225/45-16 Toyo R1Rs to mount on the 16×7.5″ Koseis, but the r-comps continue to perform. I expect the XS to work great as a track tire.

I’ll need to do the requisite brake bleed, and while I’m at it I figured it was time to do stainless steel lines. The Carbotech XP10/XP8 brake pads worked out great at Watkins Glen, but the feel could have been better. I’m hedging on an improvement by replacing the stock rubber lines. I nicked one too changing the last axle and figure it’s a liability.

In marginally related news, I just checked out MotoringFile for the first time in a few months (the site is unbearably slow loading) and the latest “speedster” MINI concept caught my eye… Not bad.