One annual event I really miss since we moved away from California nearly 6 years ago, is the annual “Monterey Weekend.” If you are a car nut, that can only mean the weekend of the Concorso Italiano and Historic Automobile races at Laguna Seca. (Oh, and there’s some sort of car show at a place …
Looking for a way to find BMW and MINI parts numbers? Check out RealOEM.com online. Search by body R Code and build date (R50 for Cooper, R53 for Cooper S, etc.) Build date is on the sticker on the Driver’s side door jam.
I’ve always been curious about when the super-charger actually kicks in. How do you know if some other modification is actually adding power? There’s always the “butt-dyno” but that isn’t very reliable. I thought it would be nice to see boost pressure and see what happens under various conditions. I started looking at what was …
I just passed the second year mark with my MINI and 45,500 miles later it is still a joy to Motor. I had a birthday as well and now I’m …. another year older. The cake was for me, not the car. Birthday resolution: improve the the nut behind the wheel.
I found that the intercooler hood scoop tended to scoop up leaves, bugs, and cigarette butts. Maybe it was just because I was doing a lot of driving in NJ (sorry). I saw a MINI catalog featuring a grille and thought I might try to make one myself. Putting a screen to keep the junk …
This summer is flying by. Just yesterday I was getting ready for annual training at Fort Dix and now we’ll be off to the Monterey Historics in a few short weeks. Along the way, I had a chance to make a couple of mods to the Mini: a rear strut bar and the fog/brakelight mod. …
Updated: January 2015: The mod comes courtesy of Richard Lin, aka OctaneGuy. He used to maintain a website called Littlemini.us and the instructions and photos below are from an archive of that site since it isn’t active anymore. Minis sold in Europe come equipped with rear fog lights. MINIUSA didn’t think the U.S. market would …
My previous solution (15 inch wheels) was a vast improvement over the stock 17 inch R85s with runflats, but they just didn’t look right. I wanted something with a low profile tire, but not too low. I wanted a larger wheel, but not the weight of the 17 inch S-Lites. In the end, my favorite …
So after a year and 23,750 miles, what advice can I offer someone in the market for a new MINI? Here are some observations in no particular order: Storage. You will need help to organize what little storage space is available inside of the car. Start with an organizer for the glove-box; add a cubby …
My old Alfa GTV was very free-reving. You press on the gas and let up and the response was immediate. With the MINI gas-by-wire system, it took much longer to wind down when you let off the gas. Under steady pressure, it responded fine, but with quick changes it seemed to lag. I had read …