November 28, 2013

It's Thanksgiving and I'm thankful that a bunch of parts came in for the MINI this week; some of them to be installed this weekend!  Because of the lack of a power aftermarket for base Cooper's, we will be going through some experiments.  Yesterday my OBX header arrived. SHINY!  It's built for the 07-09 MINI which have the same body style but a slightly different motor.  Fingers crossed that it will bolt up with minimum adjustments needed. It's so pretty even the dog is checking it out.

Also arriving was an ALTA lightweight crank pulley.  It is designed for the turbo motor, but it appears that it will work for mine.  It's really light, only 0.6 pounds. I don't know how much the stock one weighs, but I'm sure it's heavier; so that should be a nice bump up in horsepower.

Probably more important than the power mods, some used parts arrived from a fellow MINI racer who is getting into a different car next year. Adjustable rear control arms will help me dial in some rear camber and carbotech front brakes will give me better stopping power and hopefully better brake pedal feel.  The brakes will have to wait until spring, but the control arms will go on soon.

Right now the MINI is in full on winter mode with it's stock battery and even the stock seats (I had to give the Recaro's back to the Evo unfortuntely).  It's looking pretty aggressive with some meaty snow tires.  With all the extra weight and the tall tires it is incredibly slow and actually decelerates when floored going up hills; maybe the header and pulley will give me a little bit of oomph! And in case you were wondering, a set of tires easily fit in the rear hatch.

 
 WINTER MODE!!

October 27, 2013

Sometimes life gets in the way of building cars so the MINI project has been sidelined for bit. Things are settling back down now though so progress should start again soon.  Just after my last blog post I was offered a position at DirtFish Rally School and accepted it; needless to say I was a bit busy working to transition out of my old position to something totally new!

The official Evo part-out started in the last couple of weeks as there was no interest in the car in STU trim. This is keeping Chris busy as well as his "new" car, a BMW E36 M3, which he will be building into a track car. This will help him keep his hands off the MINI.

The only update to the MINI has been a K&N Cold Air intake. We haven't had a chance to dyno test it yet, but my ear dyno says it's fast.  We will have to wait and see how it compares with the pieced together cold air intake from September.

Next up: Raising the ride height and finding some snow tires.

Racing update: Yesterday, Chris and I headed out to Bremerton Motorsports Park for the last Porsche event of the season and had our own challenge in the MINI vs. the M3.  The M3 took the straight time win by 0.7 seconds.  The MINI felt great and I was pretty happy with it's performance.  Really looking forward to getting some power pieces on there.

SCCA Solo STF Mini Cooper Build

September 10, 2013
Now that the 2013 autocross season is coming to a close and we have 3 years competing in the STU Evo IX, it's time to start a new project.  We will be converting my current daily driver, a 2011 Mini Cooper, into a STF machine over the next year or so.  To make thing more interesting and to develop my skills, I will be attempting to the do the majority of the mechanical work myself.  In the past I have always helped out but this will definitely be a new challenge for me.  Chris will help me come up with ideas for modifications, do research and parts ordering and I'm sure there are times when I will need him to hold something or bring me tools (or a sandwich).

Here is our Evo, which will be going back to stock over the winter. The car and parts will be for sale...

Here's how we came to be:

Specs: The car is a base model 2011 Mini Cooper with the sport package in triple black.

YEAR 1: Despite it being leased there were a few things that I needed to do to make the car a better daily so in the first year of ownership it got new 16" Kosei K4R and Toyo R1R tires (no more runflats), a rear sway bar and the stock seats from a Mitsubishi Evo IX.  These three modifications pretty much fixed everything that I didn't like about the car and made it much more enjoyable to drive.  In it's first year it went to a couple of autocross events to do fun runs and to Pacific Raceways for a driving school with the BMW Club.

YEAR 2: All the bad stuff was pretty much fixed in year one, so I continued to daily the car and did a driving school at the Ridge along with a couple of autocross events when the Evo was down on its luck.  We were really starting to enjoy driving the car.  We got 6-point harnesses and a lighter battery for the evo so the mini got the hand-me-down 4-point harness and a 9 lb battery

YEAR 3: The Evo IX was pretty much done as far as modifications (except for maintenance items) and we are getting bored. The Evo is so fun to drive, tons of power and AWD to help put it down, but we are ready for something new.  Just after the San Diego Tour, a local autocrosser was selling some Kosei K1 in 15x7, so I figured why not get a little lighter and smaller wheel since the Toyo's were about shot anyway. A buddy gave me some springs he found that ended up not fitting. Since I already had the car apart, I was contemplating getting some H&R springs. Then, just before national tour, a friend found a smoking deal on some coilovers and I could not resist buying them. Thus starts the progression of a new build.  I installed the coil overs and camber plates with a few little hiccups that Chris helped me through and got an alignment. What a difference that made! And I thought the rear was awesome!  After my 20k check-up at the dealer I ended up with new brake pads and rotors, and then I decided it needed some stainless lines and ATE Blue fluid - yes I'm a rebel.  A couple of weeks later we headed down to Monterrey for the BMW CCA Oktoberfest. We competed in the autocross where we put down one of the fastest times of the day against much higher horsepower cars and then did the driving school on Laguna Seca - so cool.  On our way there and back we did a lot of research and discussion about building up the car.   After a lackluster performance at Solo Nationals in Lincoln we decided why not!  
So here is what the current suspension set-up looks like today:

Suspension
AST 5100 Coilovers
Vorschlog Camber plates
450 lb springs
Hotchkis 25 mil 3-way adjustable hollow rear sway bar
15x7 Kosei K1 with 205/45/15 BFG Rivals
Stainless steel brakelines

Alignment settings (still need a corner balance)
Front 
Camber: -2.25; Caster: ~3 (not adjustable); Toe 0.13
Rear
Camber: -1.35; Toe .06

Power
Stock

Other
9 pound battery
Evo IX Recaro Seats
Sparco 4-point harness (driver side only)
Lower motor mount poly insert (so I can shift)

The car weighs in at 2240 pounds without a driver and around 1/4 tank of gas.  With the seats, battery, wheels and suspension we lost a total of  80 pounds from the stock weight.  MINI lists the stock weight around 2500 but that is for a fully loaded model (including sunroof and auto). Since mine really is pretty base it weighed in surprisingly light.

Suspension and brake install

New motor mount

At Laguna Seca!

September 2013 Dyno Day: Because there is very little aftermarket support for the base model as far as power modifications go we thought we should set a base line and document our modifications and the improvements as we go. We went to Drift Office in Auburn to set our base line. of 110 hp and 111 ft/lb of torque to the wheels. I'm pretty pleased with these numbers as the factory lists the power at 121 and 118 to the flywheels.  This leaves me to believe we have a strong motor to being our build off of.  We installed a quick/make-shift CAI for another 2 hp and 3 ft/lb. Once we develop that a little more we will hopefully pick up another HP or two.  It's really odd to be happy with these small gains after driving a turbo car for the last year.

Here is a little video of the dyno pull with the "CAI".  You can actually hear a little bit of the motor and not just the dyno.

Next up: Exhaust, finalizing the CAI, header, tune, and more suspension. Stay tuned!