Assorted Ramblings related to the MINI experience (no small thing!)
 

Yes, it seems insane to modify a brand new car that took BMW engineers years to design and British workers weeks to make.  But a large chunk of the US economy would disappear if some people didn't know better than those dullards back at the factory, or want a car other than the one they actually bought.  I fall into the category of: "I know it's a great car--I bought it--but let's see how much better we can make it, with a little of this and a little of that, a dash of spice..."

Actually, even before I picked up my MINI I was convinced that cars are *meant* to be modified.  But they're like jeans--every one wears them to be different, but ends up buying the same brand and style.  The MINI lends itself to personalization, with something like 300 different permutations of body, roof, wheel and trim choices.  And that's only skin deep.  The size of the aftermarket for a particular car is directly proportional to the sporting, or racing, potential of the vehicle, so you don't see too many modified Geo Metros, but lots of Civics, Golf GTIs and Dodge Neons (huh?)  Of course, you don't see too many modified Porsches, but that's because they are pretty much at their potential when shipped from Germany.

I don't know what a stock MINI Cooper S drives like, but I'd guess it's a whole bunch of fun.  I know that driving my modified MCS is also a bunch of grins, and maybe my bunch has a slightly bigger mass than stock.

Rating the modifications

Having done a few modifications, I list here my subjective ratings of each on three dimensions:
Performance - How I feel the car accelerates, stops and handles
Fahrvergnugen - despite being used in VW adverts, this is the pleasure one gets from driving the car with the modification
Bling - very subjective, but let's face it, chrome is passe, stripes are for racer-boys, and subtle is cool.  And some mods just look strong.

Legend:
Performance – measured by the old seat of the pants
Fahrvergnugen – a real German word meaning driving pleasure
Bling – entirely my aesthetic opinion
– means not applicable
5 indicates as good as stock
Less than 5 indicates worse than stock

Sandia Motor Speedway Performance Driving School (aka Novice Driving School)

I’ll admit it—I’ve been bitten by the MINI bug, and the prognosis is not good.  I spent the 3 months waiting for my MINI to be born and delivered scouring the internet, first for the downloadable MINI owners manual, then lurking on the many MINI owners forums, including MINI2, MiniMotoring, and North American Motoring (NAM).  It didn’t take long to discover Webb Motorsports and that sealed my fate.  I picked up my2005 dark silver and black MINI Cooper S (those in the know will expect me to write DS/B MCS,) from Ralph Schomp MINI in Denver and drove it 5 miles to Randy Webb’s shop in Littleton.  Four hours and some serious cash later I drove away with a much altered MINI, still with 17 miles on the speedo.  After another trip to Denver, and a few at-home modifications I finally realized I’d forgotten about the “best upgrade for you car, period.”  This was, of course, a driving school! 

Adjusting the nut behind the wheel is pretty easy, relatively inexpensive and offers great bang for the buck.  Thanks to SouthWest Motor Sports and postings on the weekly eNews from NM Mini Motoring, I quickly found the required website, paperwork and some great help from Steve Elkins.  I have to admit, the SWMS website leaves a lot to be desired, and perhaps Steve should post the help file he sent me on the NMMM website, as it was the critical input that made me decide the Driving School was just what I needed, and what I needed to do to make it happen.

The Driving School at Sandia Motor Speedway is not just for racers, but it’s mandatory for anyone who wants to drive or race their MINI on the track.  And let’s face it, we really can’t, or shouldn’t, be driving our cars with “intent” on the streets—not because we’re lousy drivers, but because everyone else certainly IS!  The track, or the autocross course, is the only place where you can legally, and with a clear mind, go as fast as the track, your car, or your mind, will allow you.  Sandia Motor Speedway is no Taladega super speedway, nor is it the North Loop of the Nurburgring.  It’s short (1.65 miles) and tight (14 corners, mostly lefts.)  But it’s best feature is that it’s really close by, and open most weekends.  SMS is the only game in town and the home of the Performance Driving School.

Intended as an introduction to the race circuit, the Driving School is full of information about your car, the physics it—and you—must obey, and how your car interacts with the track, and more generally, any road surface.  The school is taught by experienced and knowledgeable instructors who are passionate about driving better, and faster (in that order!)  Each student gets 3 classroom hours and three 20 minute sessions on the track with an experienced instructor in the passenger seat.  Each instructor has their own style—some are more laid back and quiet, others a little more assertive and interactive.  Both styles, and all those in between, seem to achieve the same desired objective.  At the end of the day, all the students I was in class with including five MINI owners were happy, tired, appreciative, and excited.  We got our money’s worth ($125 for the day) and we learned a lot about the track, our limits and maybe some limits of the car, even though I felt my limits were much closer at hand than those of the wonderfully designed and built MINI.

I’d recommend the Driving School to anyone interested in driving their MINI faster and more aggressively in an environment designed for doing just that.  I guarantee you’ll be much safer doing it on the track than anywhere on the public roads in New Mexico.  Sandia Motor Speedway is designed with the MINI in mind.  You don’t need horsepower out there, you need a car that handles exceptionally well with pep and snap in the power and braking departments.  There’s good reason why we read so many rave reviews of the MINI in car magazines—it’s a great driver’s car, just begging to be driven.  I say go for it, and get a taste of what those German designers at BMW put into our little wonders we so lovingly give names to.

The Albuquerque Pulley Party (Oct22, 2005)

This was the second pulley party in Albuquerque, hosted by Eric and Kellie Griegos and offering installation of go-faster goodies by Randy Webb, owner of Webb Motorsports in Littleton, CO.

A full weekend of mods began on Saturday morning, fueled by coffee and muffins kindly supplied by Kellie and Eric.  As always Randy was in good spirits and after setting up his make-shift shop with the help of Brian, also down from WMS, he started on the first car—Alan Luebs’ MCS to be fitted with a reduction pulley and cold air intake.  Things went on from there and I left as more people started showing up just to “hang around.”

My turn was first thing Sunday morning and it took no time for Randy to install the H-Sport springs on my car that has already seen a substantial amount of work done on it  during two previous visits to Littleton.  Again I stayed around for a little while to see Randy start on the next car (Barb Butcher’s MCS,) then headed home, only to return at the end of the day to make sure all had gone well.  Randy and Brian seemed happy, if not tired from two solid days of upgrades to about 14 cars.  Apparently the police had been called on a “public disturbance” issue relating to excessive noise.  Of course, I won’t name any names, but it seems that Randy started up Ken Martin’s car without any exhaust on it!  I’m sorry I missed it…  Brad Hueftle was making noises of his own up and down Alameda just behind the house—all centered around the sweet whine of that MCS supercharger!  He didn’t appear on the schedule, but somehow his face gave me the impression that something had happened while he was there (mmm…)

So I think we can all reflect on a very successful Pulley Party.  Randy likes coming down to visit with us, Kellie and Eric are wonderful hosts, and everyone appeared to leave feeling that their money was very well spent.  Looks like there’ll be more opportunities for us to spend our money as Randy continues to design new parts for our MINIs, including a new exhaust system and new rear sway bar he mentioned at the party.  I cant’ wait…

Aero Grille installed on stock bumper.

A lot of people don’t want to spend $1300-odd on the aero kit, especially as a retrofit since you have to get it painted to match as well.  One of the cool features of the aero kit is the black mesh grille that matches the lower opening in the spoiler and adds a little custom look to the car, especially as a contrasting or complementary color.  It certainly looks good on my Dark Silver and Black MCS and complements the other “de-chroming” I’ve done to go along with the window and light tinting.

The black mesh grilles can be purchased on the Web for about $80 separately from the aero kit and the top part, which fits into the bonnet, is a direct replacement for the stock grille.  It takes about 20 minutes to fit and looks great.  Unfortunately, the lower part of the grille, which fits into the stock bumper, is not at all easy to fit as this is the part that is not actually designed for the bumper, but rather the aero bumper.  There’s some good write-ups on NAM how to do it, and suffice it to say that some patience and a Dremel are required along with a commitment to the project as it’s essentially non-reversible!  If anyone’s interested, drop me an email (gandini@unm.edu) and we can chat about it.

“De-chroming” the belt line.

Some people love the chrome on the MINI as it fits the retro-60s look.  Others aren’t so keen.  I prefer my chrome to be subtle and minimal, and I particularly didn’t like the chrome belt-line that sits below the windows all around the car.  It seems to cut the car in half to me, making it appear taller than it really is.  Removing it is simple—you don’t need to!  I just covered it with black-out tape, sold as such by Pep Boys and others on the web.  Pep Boys might not have the right width in stock, so a search on the web will produce more options.  You need about 25ft of half-inch black out tape, which is matte black vinyl tape.  Simply start at one door edge and proceed around the car, making sure you don’t stretch it too much as once it shrinks back to original length it will leave a little chrome showing at the ends.

Removing the rear wiper

The rear window of the MINI gets really dusty and messy due to the aerodynamics of the hatch-back.  To make matters just a little worse, the rear window wiper seemed to act as a nice shelf to collect an even greater quantity of sand and dirt.  I realized that if I was ever to use the rear wiper to clean the rear window, it was going to act more like a swipe of sand paper than something to enhance my rear vision.  So I removed the wiper, arm and motor, and replaced them with a small black plastic plug to seal the hole in the rear window.  It sure looks neat, and is so discrete that even have to point out is absence to other MINI owners.  The loss isn't great, as I would never have used it anyway!

Replacing the thermostat

There are many people on NAM who say this is easy.  It's not.  There should be a How-To for it in my opinion.  Here's what the area looks like:

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