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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …