cars « white male consumer

Springtime MINI work, first track day

Posted May 29th, 2011 at 6:26PM

The MINI was off the road and up on jackstands for two weeks earlier this month, as I went about replacing the front control arm bushings, front ball joints, header, and added a short shift kit and new gauge faces.

It was an ordeal, but I’m glad to have done each and every item. The bushings were apparently shot, but the replacement Alta Positive Response Steering System firmed things up and gave me 1.5 degrees of added caster per side.

The old ball joints were probably fine but I replaced them anyway.

I bought a used Alta header off of North American Motoring for pretty cheap. It had been hacked off below the expansion pipe, so I went to Synapse Motorsport in Cohoes to get the stock cat and flange welded onto the new header. They were able to make a jig and get the fit perfect without ever laying an eye on the car.

The new header has three inch longer primaries than stock, but they featured identical bends. The car now pulls harder and sounds meaner, fer shure, and I’m not throwing any codes. Not sure on the air-fuel, but I did pull the plugs recently and they looked in tip-top shape, with 75,000 miles on them and a 100,000 recommended replacement interval.

I do have a new obnoxious exhaust heat shield rattle, but that’s due to the short shift kit install. I bought the Helix unit (but received some other company’s imitation piece) which snaps onto the stock shifting mechanism underneath, keeping the same geometry but reducing shifts by an advertised 37 percent or something. It’s pretty neat. I like it.

I also finally pulled the plug on OutMotoring‘s colored gauge faces. I got the charcoal color, which does indeed match up nearly perfectly with the stock black interior. I was a little disappointed when they first arrived, but that was mainly due to the chintzy-ness of having tachometer and speedometer faces in-hand. Once installed, I think they’re a real nice little improvement. And they look really great at night, with the different font and all the extra hashmarks.

Make sure you do the two little ‘mods’ to the back plastic, however, or you’ll get ugly “dead” spots not lit up. Also, if you’re a chronic speeder, be like me and leave the speedometer off-center and indicating 2 MPH faster than the car believes you’re going (ie. 5+ MPH faster than reality). Even though you know it’s wrong, you’ll still cruise at the same indicated speeds, and your blood pressure will not soar when you get behind some lumbering barge doing the speed limit (or under).

I also have some R56 front brakes to install, and new rear control arm bushings. Then it’s time for an alignment, and then June 12 is Watkins Glen International with Patroon BMWCCA.

I took photos which I’ll upload sometime, somewhere.

And I need to do some maintenance to that damn Subaru.

The Long Awaited AutoX Update

Posted July 24th, 2008 at 9:17AM

I know everyone has been on the edges of their seats, sitting with bated breath, waiting to hear of my latest autocross escapades. The reason for the long delay is because we still do not have results from the June 15th autocross at Columbia-Green Community College. I believe I placed 1st in SM, but wanted to verify that, as well as see how my times compared to the rest of the field. I believe I was up there, placing 3rd-5th in raw times out of a field of about 70-80. But now it’s anyone’s guess as to whether we’ll ever get results from the event. Sucks for me.

This past weekend (July 20th) was the 3rd points event with MoHud, back at McCarty lot in Albany. The usual suspects were there, and SM was filled with 9 competitive entrants. My 7 runs were as followsâ€¦

25.746
25.330
24.471+1
24.502+4
24.587+1
24.449
24.364+5

Two things are readily apparent. I was pretty cone crazy, but also consistent, improving throughout the day. I took out cones at the finish box on my 4th and 7th runs. For comparison, the fastest raw time was a 23.837, and best time in SM was a 24.174. Second was a 24.290, and I captured third place. Although I was solidly beat by the end of the day, I was winning SM at the end of the morning session (first four runs, excluding conage). My main competition at this point is the same pesky blue Evo as ever, and now (once again) an 05-06 STi. Last season, I was consistently running a few tenths behind the STi’s main driver, and a few tenths ahead of the co-driver. At that time we were both on street tires, and the Scoob was a good benchmark. I expected to be ahead of him this season as heâ€™s still on streets (another set of Falken Azenis). But apparently he’s fitted gobs more rubber underneath the car and is a lot quicker. I need to talk to him and see what else is different, because the car hauls now. Both Evo and STi are more seasoned drivers. Well, and they both probably have close to double the horsies.

So? The MINI fawking rocks, at least on a regional level. I’m getting closer and closer to getting it completely dialed in, if there is such a thing. Chances are I’ll add a few more “powuh” mods and continue to fine tune the suspension over the coming months.

August 9th and 10th is the North East Divisionals at Seneca Army Depot, which I’ll be attending. Should be a good event.

CART AutoX 6/8

Posted June 25th, 2008 at 5:52PM

For posterity’s sake:

Went to an event on the 8th in Hartford, CT, and placed 2nd in SM out of a field of 5. My best time was a 28.824 which was 0.296 off of first (an Evo, of course). Third place was another SM MINI who had whupped me at the two previous CART events I had made it to, when he had an advantage tire-wise.

I was inconsistent, but had that one good run. Still could have improved a lot. This event in Connecticut was basically preparation for the MoHud points event on 6/15 at Columbia-Green Community College. I think I took 1st at this one, but I’m waiting for official results before posting.

No pictures. No MINI love. But I did have a picture in the latest (July ’08) edition of the “Knock Off,” MoHud’s monthly newsletter. A small “woot” is warranted, I suppose.

I should create a sub-category solely for autocross…

9/10 Autocross @ Xerox (Rochester)

Posted September 12th, 2006 at 3:28PM

This autocross (my third this season / ever) was with the Finger Lakes SCCA club, at a parking lot at a Xerox (yes, the photocopying company) compound in Rochester, NY. This group puts on, dare I say, a very polished and well-run event, at least compared to Mo-Hud. I was able to pre-register online weeks before the event, they have a program in place to help novice drivers (including their own class), and everyone got five runs in, despite there being more than 120 cars. I pulled out of Rochester at 4pm. Tight.

Halfway through, someone even hit one of the timing sensors at the finish line. They were able to replace the sensor and get the event back up and running in fifteen or twenty minutes.

As for how I did? Well, like the last two, I feel mixed. My runs were clean for the most part, I ran good lines mostly, and my times steadily improved. I placed #13 in novice class, PAX-adjusted, out of a field of 23. (If I had stuck with G-Stock, I would have placed 2nd out of four…)

Times:
51.843
51.371
50.22
49.9
48.623

The fastest time of the day (FTD) was 40.398. Overall, in raw time, I was #82 out of 124 drivers. The general impression I got this time around, is that I just need to push my car harder. I need to brake much later into the turns, and I need to get on the gas more progressively and sooner. I wasn’t running any of the slaloms as fast as I could, and there were two corners that got me probably three out of five runs. Still, there was improvement, and by the time the day was over, I was content with that 48.6.

Another neat thing about this SCCA chapter, is that they have a dedicated guy taking pictures of every car. Of course, they don’t focus on people who aren’t regulars (and who aren’t likely to even know about this perk), but they got the MINI going around one corner. I re-uploaded the photos onto my flickr:

Notice a few things. First, that astonishing amount of body roll on my MINI. I was totally overcooking this corner, and ploughed pretty bad in this shot (although my line was OK), but jeez. Secondly, the instructor riding shotgun. Finger Lakes SCCA requires those in the novice class to have an instructor riding shotgun for at least the first two runs. He was sort of helpful, with a few tips, but also obstructed my view of the upcoming course around some of the curves. Plus just unnecessary weight.

Anyways, it was fun regardless, and I think I might go to another event this weekend. There’s no such thing as too much seat time.

white male consumer

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Springtime MINI work, first track day

The Long Awaited AutoX Update

CART AutoX 6/8

9/10 Autocross @ Xerox (Rochester)