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Another MCS. The track day toy.

40K views 192 replies 40 participants last post by  Lersy 
#1 ·
This project was actually started in March 2008 (by richcoopS), but as he moved to Dubai recently, i thought id better take it off his hands :lol: So off i went on Sunday to Cardiff on the Megabus. It cost £10.50 from London Victoria, but smelled very much of wee, so next time ill get the train.

Rich's thread on here was pretty detailed, & covered all of the work done, so here it is: http://www.minitorque.com/forum/f273/project-rory-*picture-heavy*-7172/

From his thread, the current spec is as follows:

1320 Mynes Tune, Newman Cam, 450 injectors, 15% Pulley, Dave.F, GRS 'Motorsport' intercooler, Milltek cat-back.
R56S front Calipers, Nitrac 294mm 12 groove discs, MintexM1144's, GoodridgeSS hoses, Castrol Response Super Dot 4.
MeisterR Coilovers, V-Maxx F.droplinks, OMP lower brace, rear bench brace, Powerflex bushes.
17" TD Pro Race 1.2 with Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas 215/40/17s
Black beltline, 17" TD Pro Race 1.2 with Vredesteins & 16"s with T1R's for track, HALOs, aero grill, stubby aerial.
Scanguage 2, CG Locks.
As such, ill be mostly fine tuning the suspension, changing some interior parts (chrome be gone) and fitting the works kit.

Ok, enough bullsh1t, ive been stockpiling parts for months :blushing:

Facelift front xenons, Facelift rear lights, Facelift front grille (to go with the GP front bumper), Black mirror covers, Orranje rear de-wiper delete
GP front bumper (although might still change to aero), Aero front bumper, Aero side skirts, 17" anthracite turinis (off the GP)
Facelift doorcards (anthracite trim), Anthracite dashboard & trims, Anthracite cupholders/gear surround, De-chrome switch panel, 3 Spoke facelift steering wheel (to be retrimmed JCW leather/alcantara), Whiteline rear ARB, Hardrace RCA's & OMP upper strut brace


As per usual, ill keep this thread updated with bits & bobs, but pics as it stands now :thumbup1:














Naturally, compared to the M135i it feels slow at first (tbf, most things do lol), but once its on the boil, it goes like a scolded cat, brakes on a sixpence and turns into corners like a go-kart. Very accomplished car that Richard has done brilliantly to build over the years.

ALOT of blood, sweats, tears & money have gone into this thing already, so hopefully i can build on that in my tenure :thumbup:
 
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#123 ·
So yesterday, the Mini got a new friend.

Out with the old:


Bye :crying:


And in with the new :thumbup1:



It makes a nice noise :drool:

Have bought some new rear brake pads for the mini, & the spark plug issue was deffo fuel related (Bedford have given me a free trackday, so admission of guilt, obvs), so need to get that back on the road. Hopefully my cage will turn up at some point !!
 
#127 ·
Nah, i simply prefer the rarity of the saloon, the coupes are everywhere and have a tendency to be a little badmanz, but the 4 door is more civilised/stealthy imho. The arches also have more obvious width i think, giving a look of "this car isnt big enough for the hardware in it", i also love that its a 3 series saloon, with the M3 coupe front end, gives a look that is 100% different to any other saloon.

Those arches :blushing:



Nice! How do the 2 compare?
Compared to the e46 its simply a newer/more modern, perhaps not as ultimately involving at the limit, but the noise is epic in a different way, its quite clearly quicker as well, especially when in daily use. The mpg is terrible, but its a 4.0 V8 with ITB's, so fully expected lol.

Got a new plate as well, so now matches the mini:


Which brings me onto the old shed. It hasn't really moved since the Bedford track day at the end of Feb due to this:


The outer CV boot had torn completely on the drivers side, dumping grease quite literally everywhere, over the wheel, brakes, etc. Such a flipping mess!! I had been in two minds what to do for a while, hence the delays, seems that in order to replace the outer boot, you need to remove the driveshaft and split it down, meaning that id have to buy a new outer boot/grease, new inner boot/grease and get mess everywhere. With both sides having done 100k miles and quite a few track days now, imho it made more sense to get new ones ... Mini wanted £770 after discount, so i went with GKN from ECP instead (£300 for both). After all, they are more than likely the OEM supplier anyways!



Only fitted the drivers side so far, along with a new ARB drop link as the passenger side is still mostly in one piece, but will get that done as well after the car is MOT'd on Saturday.



My Safety Devices rollcage has also been delivered to Millsy's Autos now, so i need to get up there at some point & get it all installed. Have also decided that i need to get some more cold air to my front brakes, so will be removing the fog lights and hacking away at the wheel arch liners at some point :thumbup1:
 
#130 ·
As always the mini is looking good, a track abused mini is becoming s rarety on MT these days!
Thanks!! I do need to get myself onto a Mini track day though i think, i only ever see Clios & Meganes lol ...

So after my pondering re: blue smoke on startup here: http://www.cliosport.net/threads/decisions-re-track-car-the-mini.793728/

I bought a solution the other day from bidsy26 on here:



The head needed to come off to change the valve stem seals, so it made perfect sense to upgrade everything at the same time.
Man Maths :lol:

Its a Lohen Ported Head with enlarged Schrick inlet & exhaust valves. Got some ARP head head studs as well.

The questions now are:

1. Do i need to fit a Janspeed/TomCat to make the most of the head or will it be ok as is, ie standard
2. Are my 450 injectors going to be pushed a little now, i am tempted to get some 550's purely as they seem to be what everyone else uses!!
3. Is it worthwhile adding a Catcam whilst the head is off, im not chasing max horsepower, just reliable power really, i fear the extra revs of the Cat will put additional strain on everything else?

Even just boshed on with the Newman would i be right in thinking that if i have circa 200ATW now, i would have 220ATW with the BVH?
 
#132 ·
If it was me I would probably go newman stage 2 or 3 and map your current injectors. the standard exhaust manifold is very restrictive so now youve got the ports you've got the bigger valves but your bottlenecked by the exhaust manifold. so that would be allowing everything to breathe and work together properly.

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk
 
#140 ·
So with a deposit now placed on the R56, i swopped the Turinis/AD08R's back onto the R53 yesterday afternoon.
With it being nice & sunny, i also decided to fit the Aero front bumper that's also been clogging up the shed for aaaaaages ....

Before:


After:


Now, here is the slightly off-kilter part, with me being an utter gypsy when it comes to paying others to do things, i think i'm going to leave it as it is and not bother painting it. As it happens, i also have a set of aero side skirts (as below) in the same colour, so im thinking about going for an Indi Blue up top/Astro Black down below theme - just need to get hold of some 3M gloss black wrap to get rid of the hideous white roof then.


Have a track day at Goodwood on the 1st May, so think i have my hands full getting it running ok before then :blink:
 
#142 ·
Not much really, fit the side skirts, bleed the brakes, check the spark plugs, perhaps a new offside drive shaft (think i remember the CV boot being a bit worse for wear), but mostly just needs taxing and taking on a good run to charge the battery properly/free everything off. Will fit my harnesses as well if i get the time, but that's not essential, the buckets hold me pretty well as it is really, especially as ive got a little more "muscular" (re: fat) as of late :blush:
 
#152 ·
This project was actually started in March 2008 (by richcoopS), but as he moved to Dubai recently, i thought id better take it off his hands :lol: So off i went on Sunday to Cardiff on the Megabus. It cost £10.50 from London Victoria, but smelled very much of wee, so next time ill get the train.

Rich's thread on here was pretty detailed, & covered all of the work done, so here it is: http://www.minitorque.com/forum/f273/project-rory-*picture-heavy*-7172/

From his thread, the current spec is as follows:



As such, ill be mostly fine tuning the suspension, changing some interior parts (chrome be gone) and fitting the works kit.

Ok, enough bullsh1t, ive been stockpiling parts for months :blushing:

Facelift front xenons, Facelift rear lights, Facelift front grille (to go with the GP front bumper), Black mirror covers, Orranje rear de-wiper delete
GP front bumper (although might still change to aero), Aero front bumper, Aero side skirts, 17" anthracite turinis (off the GP)
Facelift doorcards (anthracite trim), Anthracite dashboard & trims, Anthracite cupholders/gear surround, De-chrome switch panel, 3 Spoke facelift steering wheel (to be retrimmed JCW leather/alcantara), Whiteline rear ARB, Hardrace RCA's & OMP upper strut brace


As per usual, ill keep this thread updated with bits & bobs, but pics as it stands now :thumbup1:














Naturally, compared to the M135i it feels slow at first (tbf, most things do lol), but once its on the boil, it goes like a scolded cat, brakes on a sixpence and turns into corners like a go-kart. Very accomplished car that Richard has done brilliantly to build over the years.

ALOT of blood, sweats, tears & money have gone into this thing already, so hopefully i can build on that in my tenure :thumbup:
Haha, ye I came from a 335i, FBO, mapped with an LSD. My R53 is no match on speed but loads of fun to drive.

Good luck with it dude.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#156 · (Edited)
So Monday saw the R53's first trackday since Feb 16, bit random, but as Sarah's dad has an XKR, it was at Goodwood, with the Jag E-Type owners club. Which naturally, as you can imagine, saw an excellent selection of machinery!

The XKR, a last of the line Dynamique with a fresh set of PS4S':

Other finery:






First few laps went ok, having never driven Goodwood, i was taking it a little easy, but well, still seemed rather a lot quicker than most other things there lol.

A friend then turned up hoping to get some passenger laps, which i would have happily obliged to, if the mini hadnt then decided to sh1t itself :cursing: He said it sounded like a tractor, so i checked the oil & it was a bit low. Which in turn meant that the cam chain tensioner (which is operated by oil pressure) hadnt extended, so the cam chain was rattling around. Being that the Mini always has a habit of breaking down on trackdays, i rather embarrassingly lost the plot, slammed the boot shut and kicked the rear bumper so hard that i broke a mount and well, i think a part of my foot :blushing: Friend then legged it, probably thinking that i was a mentalist ...

Cue 1.5 hours of pondering, followed by me removing the tensioner, pulling it apart with mole grips, wiggling it around in some oil and putting it back in again. Hey presto, fixed, so i could get back out on track in the afternoon :thumbup1:


Unfortunately, being that i am slightly tech useless, ive deleted the Harry's Laptimer info for the afternoon, so just videos on now on.
First few laps out where wet and a GTR had appeared for some trackday fun. It had 600bhp, but i did have a slight inkling that having experienced such cars on track before, it might be a case of blooming fast in a straight line, not quite so much talent in the corners, they do appear to be a great car for wealthier chaps that want a "beginners" trackday car ....


After that, he simply asked WTF i had done to it and whether i was related to Nick Swift, ie the epic Mini racing hero chap :blushing:
Some more dryish laps in the afternoon.

Naturally i wasnt timing anything, but Harry's suggested a 1:39 in the afternoons semi-damp with a passenger. I was also using Lavant straight as a cool down, so i reckon a 1:37 is easily achievable. Not bad for a half-f*cked R53.

Unfortunately, with it being the R53 of doom, i got a PO301 Cylinder 1 misfire 30 mins or so before the end of the day, so went back to the pits, assuming it had probably done its usual trick of melting a spark plug. Unfortunately, having replaced all 4, the misfire stayed, so i had to drive the 45 miles home to Weybridge on 3.5 cylinders. It sounds very much like a lawnmower. Hopefully its nothing terminal (maybe coil pack), but ill comp test it over the weekend to find out. The valve stem seals still need doing anyway, so it is definitely due some love!!! Considering it literally sat at 7k rpm all day, hadnt moved for 12 months and has only really been used for trackday for the past 3 years, i think its done ok :lol:
 
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