I’ve been having some problems with the MINI’s suspension lately. First was a thumping sound in the right rear, and the left front seemed to bottom out on even the slightest bump in the road. That and the fact that my family won’t ride in the car anymore because of the harshness of the ride, …
The autocross season got off to a soggy start on the Triple Skid Pad at Summit Point. The NCC had their first points event of the season on Saturday. I’m running a street-tire class in the BMW this year. The rain meant I had a good chance of scoring well. I was fastest most of …
No, that’s not a vintage photo from 20 years ago. That’s from this past weekend at Summit Point. It was time for the annual Spring HPDE on the main circuit. It was a weekend of a number of firsts for me. First time out on R-comps; first time for this car; and first time on …
With more than 24 hours to spare, I finally finished the F-22 for the first track outing of the year. Since I was running out of time, I had Dan Martin’s shop finish the front suspension and fix the cam gear seal. I’m really impressed with the Bavauto springs. The ride height is aggressive but …
Thanks to the break in weather, I was able to start the suspension work this past weekend. The photo above shows the difference in size between the stock rear spring and the Bavauto spring. Shorter springs require shorter shocks. This photo shows a comparison of the Bilstein HD shock with the Sport Shock. This photo …
I had some time on my hands the other night, went out to the garage, and much to my surprise, there’s nothing left on my punch-list to do on the BMW. Sure there’s plenty left to do — just not much I can do myself. The new suspension components have started to arrive. Once the …
Well the February car washing weather control experiment was successful. Today school was canceled and E got her snow day. I decided to take the day off and go sledding as well.
Spring is in the air. With less than a month to go before the first track weekend, it’s time to stock up on parts and make repairs. Nothing says Spring like new tires. For SCCA autocross in the MINI, I’ll be running Hankook Ventus Z214 R-comp tires. This is the medium compound (C50) which should …
It’s hard to get motivated to do anything related to my cars when it’s 15 degrees outside. If I’m lucky, I can keep the garage about 30 degrees above the ambient temperature, but when the best you can get is in the low 40’s, you don’t want to stay there long. Fortunately, we had a …
The wait is finally over. The F-22 turned 20 this month and can be registered as a “historic vehicle”. Since I purchased the car out of state, I would have had to go through the Maryland’s bureaucratic inspection goat-rope, aka the mechanics & bureaucrats work protection act. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for safety, …