Part two of the suspension upgrade brought new springs and adjustable camber plates in the front. This proved too much of a challenge for me to attempt at home so I went to Frederick Motorsports. I hadn’t visited Scott since I had my Alfa four years ago. It was a challenge to wrestle the plates …
Notwithstanding the six inches of snow and ice in my backyard, it’s almost track season again. My first test & tune autocross is less than two weeks away and on March 17th I head off to the main circuit at Summit Point for the first HPDE of the year. My current project is to improve …
Original Post: January 16, 2007. In what’s becoming an annual act of meteorological defiance, I’ve washed and waxed my MINI. In January. What price will I pay? Check back on Groundhog day. For those of you keeping track, yes that’s the fifth set of wheels you’ve seen on my car. Mark your scorecards: R85 “S-Lites”, …
Got a stock supercharger pulley laying around as a paperweight? Tired of having your iPod flop around in search of a good resting place? For about $10, you too can make one of these. The pulley phone holder fits perfectly in the cup-holder. All you need to do is buy one of those cheap phone …
The carpet replacement project proved a bit more complicated than I had anticipated. Once I got the seats out and pulled out the various console pieces, I pulled up the old carpet and found that the rear passenger-side footwell had started to rust. Thank goodness for POR and fiberglass repair kits. I was also amazed …
It has been a while since I’ve posted about progress being made to the BMW. I finally managed to repaint the right rear bumper cover that I repaired some weeks ago. (I still think the guy who did my MD state inspection scraped the right side of the car against a wall…) I managed to …
For me, this brings to a close my motorsports activities for 2006. On the weekend of November 11th, I attended my fourth BMW driver’s school. This school was on the Jefferson Circuit at Summit Point, the same place as my first event of the year. Saturday was a beautiful Fall day, but Sunday was just …
I spent the weekend of September 23-24 on the Main Circuit at Summit Point, WV. This was the third class I’ve done with the National Capital Chapter BMW CCA and I highly recommend attending one if you have never been on the track before. This was also my first session on my new shaved competition …
I finished the ignition upgrade last night. The latest performance project for the MINI was to improve the ignition system to match the improvements in airflow in and out of the engine. Because the smaller pulley produces more boost, the induction air is a bit hotter than stock. Since the air is hotter, the spark …
This past long weekend I picked up a new Alta Performance Exhaust. The cat-back exhaust is a relatively simple DIY project if you don’t mind getting under the car. If you have a lift or a pit, I’d say it could easily be done in a couple of hours. The exhaust ships in two boxes. …