white male consumer

I had my brakes replaced under warranty at about this time last year, after getting the car inspected and told the brakes were barely legal. Apparently Keeler only replaced the front pads, as about two months ago my idiot brake light came on. Determined to do the job myself and avoid expensive OE mark-up, I looked into various options you might call a “stage one” brake upgrade. Pads, rotors, and fluid. Originally I wanted to include stainless steel brake lines and metal caliper bushings, but with a tight budget and both of these upgrades being more about feel and less about actual performance, I skipped them for the time being.

After a bit of searching, I finally went with Carbotech Bobcat 1521 pads and the Texas Speedwerks rotors (along with Motul RBF600). This combination promised better initial and overall bite than stock with less fade, and was available from a prominent MINI vendor, AutoXCooper.com.

(Unlike many,) I had always been fairly content with the stock brakes. I thought they were adequate for autocross, although I had experienced fade on the streets during more “spirited” runs. But after running this new brake combo for several weeks, I have to say that it’s a significant improvement. The difference is especially appreciable during autocross, where I’m able to brake harder and later, shaving off valuable tenths / hundredths of a second.

May 11th was Mother’s Day and the first home points event with MoHud. The event was held at the McCarty Parking Lot in Albany, an odd little lot sandwiched between highways. There were 48 entries and the recent upgrades to the MINI (aforementioned brake upgrade, coilovers, tune, Schroth Quickfit harness) have made my little car extremely more competitive. I had the 5th fastest raw time and placed 3rd out of 11 entries in SM. I was beaten by the same car with two drivers (with the co-driver beating the owner). I was .119 seconds off of second place and .182 off of first. This was a car that I was consistently a second and a half (or more) slower last season. Granted he’s running old tires, but I feel as if this season will be much more interesting than last year where I placed 4th-5th on a good day. I was running sloppy and could have made up the difference given a few more runs.

The next event is June 15th, Father’s Day, which will be at Columbia-Green Community College. We’ll be running the event in conjunction with the Poughkeepsie Sports Car Club. I’m looking forward to this one because it sounds like the lot is in good shape and I might have convinced a few more MINIs to show, including another in SM who provides a good benchmark (this will be the first time we’re both running dedicated autox r-comps, Kumho V710 vs Hoosier A6).

And then I need to decide whether to make the trek to Divisionals at Seneca Army Depot, a two day event in August. Because of our shortened season it’s being considered a points event for MoHud (we’re hosting). I assume the year end awards will be decided by who will and won’t be able to make it. It’s a four hour drive and you’re there all weekend. I’m not sure whether I should bother chasing points this year (never have before), but the June event will help me figure that out. If things are still looking rosy, I’ll be at Divisionals.

This has been a really dense post so I’ll leave it at that, but I still haven’t said more than two words about my new Schroth Quickfit harness, a really significant upgrade for the loose nut behind the steering wheel (literally).

And I’m not sure if I’ll be sinking more money into the car any time soon, but if I did, it’d be for a Revolution Mini Works header and cam, plus tune should Jan be in the area. The cam is being shown to be good for 10 more horsepower and pounds-torque on a stock head car, with the header probably producing the same (or more, if I replaced my leaky, rattle-prone cat-back) and the tune making the sky the limit. I’m not sure if I’ve seen a MINI with “everything but the head” as new RMW products are introduced daily and it’s possible you could be seeing 220-230+whp cars with the stock head running around spanking cars with 2x, 3x the displacement. Which is amazing since fully built MINIs were barely breaking 200whp a few years ago, unless you went twincharged or turbo-only.

On the other hand, whenever I sneak a peak at the R56 forums (2007 model year and newer MINIs), I see huge, fat torque curves and whimper. Turbo is still the way to go for producing way too much power than your front wheels will ever be able to handle. I don’t see it happening however, with loans and $4/gal gas over my head.