We just got back from our annual trip to California. This year it was all about good food, beaches, historic automobile racing, and deck building. This year Cooper race cars were the featured marque along with a tribute to Jack Brabham. Once again we enjoyed the hospitality of the Golden Gate and Central California Chapters …
It’s been a busy couple of weeks. The E30 convertible is pretty well sorted out now. I think I have one, maybe two more projects to do on it this summer but as a daily driver it’s all set. Work to date: New Windshield New Tires (Yokohama AVID H4S) and alignment MD State Inspection and …
We took the afternoon off and drove the new convertible up to see the North American MINI Cooper Challenge at Summit Point, West Virginia. Randy Webb won the first race and Steve Diniz won the second in a day of very exciting MINI racing at Summit Point. Run in conjunction with the Phil Wicks Driving …
My wife would always joke about wanting a convertible when she turned 40. The challenge was to find one that would carry all three of us and enough gear to actually go on a trip with it. As a kid, I used to ride around on the parcel shelf of my parent’s Alfa, which probably …
Rust… Rust Never Sleeps. Deep breath. Flashbacks to Alfas of the past… Don’t panic. If you’ve been following the threads on the message boards lately, MINI owners are in a tizzy because of a little rust under the door seal. It’s amazing how far automobile manufacturing has come that a little rust now causes a …
There’s an old saying in Motorsports that if you want to go faster, you should start by tightening the nut behind the wheel. It’s easy to blow a big chunk of cash on go-fast goodies for your car, but if you can’t find the line through a curve or you just aren’t smooth, you’ll never …
Remember that an internal combustion engine is really just an air pump. In the Spring 2006 issue of MC2 Magazine Matt Richter explains the Ideal Gas Law in simple terms. Now you’re thinking Zzzzzzzzz, but it’s really very interesting. The stock Cooper S is able to get a 50 hp boost over the Cooper by …
I recently made a couple of mods that have really changed the character of the MINI. The latest mod you can barely see lurking behind the rotor in the picture below. I took out the stock sway bar and replaced it with an Alta adjustable 22mm. Even on the softest of the three settings I …
Winter is slowly losing its grip on the Mid-Atlantic region. That means it is time to start thinking of getting out the summer tires, firing up the MINI and heading to the track. Track days and hot laps are still weeks away, but I couldn’t resist testing out the new track day wheels. In a …
Original Post: January 21, 2006. Given the unseasonably warm temperatures of the last few days, I thought I would try a little weather control experiment. I got out the hose and Mr. Clean Auto Dry kit and decided to wash the MINI. Imagine that: the 21st of January in Maryland and I’m outside in a …