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 …
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 …