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tcbw's British Racing Brown

55K views 518 replies 45 participants last post by  tcbw 
#1 · (Edited)
I've basically been too lazy to create a project thread, mostly because the car's always dirty and not that photogenic, but also because it's taken forever to get where we are today.

Anyway, here's one half* of the MT Finland Chapter at the Bimmer Tuning Club Finland** Trackday at Ahvenisto Race Track on Sunday 25 May 2014:

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Regularity rally Mini


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Mini Mini cooper


T-shirt Red Font Sleeve Active shirt


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Mini Mini cooper










* The owner of the other half of the Chapter is the one sporting the MT t-shirt and running the Drunken Master (Red/White R53 JCW) (JKo)

** I thought it was BMW Touring Club originally, but no matter, membership is open to BMW MINI owners.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Mod list

The obligatory list of mods (updated):

BMW MINI Cooper S 2006 ("facelift" built March 2006) ‘British Racing Brown’
Dark Silver/Black

Tyres, Rims and Brakes

• Summer: 16x7 ET37 OZ Racing Ultraleggera (crystal titanium) & Bridgestone Potenza RE002 205/50-16
• Winter: 16x7 ET45* Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 (satin black) & Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8 195/55-16 (with 11mmF/13mmR KAVS spacers)
• Track: 17x7 Enkei SC15s (silver) with 215/45-17 Nitto NT01s
• Front: K Sport BBK with 304x28mm grooved discs, six piston yellow calipers, EBC Bluestuff pads (no likey), steel braided lines and Motul RBF600
• Rear: Brembo discs, Tarox Strada pads and Goodridge steel braided lines
• stud conversion

Chassis

• Öhlins DFV R&T coilovers (-30mm ride height)
• Whiteline front wishbone rear metal case/poly bushes with +0.5º caster added
• Whiteline rear anti-roll bar with poly bushes (middle hole) and Alta drop links
• KAVS lightweight adjustable rear control arms with 1.5 degrees negative camber
• M7 upper strut brace
• OMP under strut brace
• Cobalt 7mm aluminium skid plate
• stock rear top mounts with Powerflex poly bush
• stock trailing arms with Powerflex poly bush
• Vorshlag camber plates

Under the bonnet

• dave.f hybrid Cold Air Intake with K&N cone filter
• Alta v2 17% reduction supercharger pulley with Alta protector and Gates auxiliary belt
• NGK7 spark plugs
• John Cooper Motorsport 4-2-1 Challenge manifold, sports cat and extended O2 sensor leads (cheers Keano!)
• JCW exhaust from the cat back
• GRS Motorsport Edition TMIC
• Newman fast road cam
• 550cc Bosch fuel injectors
• custom remap by Aleksi Ahlqvist at ChipTuning Riihimäki Finland
• 1320 bypass valve
• yellow & black under bonnet eyes

Outside
• US spec JCW Aero grille
• AtomSpeed bonnet scoop (black)
• Cooper Aero spoiler
• new black boot handle
• Alta stubby aerial
• enamelled Union flag on the boot

Inside
• Sparco Evo II driver’s seat (on Sparco side mounts and Sparco R53 subframe)
• JCW alcantara/leather steering wheel (with rkde alcantara side spokes and JCW carbon fibre lower spoke, cheers Keano)
• rkde alcantara gaiters with red and grey stitching
• Doug Whalen custom steel knob with NickyJ knob warmer
• Scanguage II
• Fire extinguisher – cable tied in the boot
• MINI Pirate checked door panel vinyl
• OEM coke-bottle rubber mats
• Union flag rear view mirror
• OEM side nets in the boot
• interior chrome pack and black leather/red cloth seats
 
#4 ·
I like the new Whiteline bushes; feels like the front end is a lot tighter, even though the old stock bushes were (apparently) still fine (at 88,000km).

Having said that, the mechanic wasn't too pleased about dropping the subframe for the bushes and manifold. I quote: " I hope the f-ing engineer who designed the f-ing upside down subframe is already f-ing dead so that I don't have to go and f-ing kill him" and "I f-ing hate MINIs". Although, after a test drive, he had moderated a bit...
 
#6 ·
About time you did a project thread... shame you didn't start earlier as the journey is part of the fun and on your car would help a lot of newbs on how to think things through and do it right first time...


I had forgotten about the JCW wheel and inserts - loved them when they were on my car. All those sets of wheels :lol:

:thumbup1:
 
#7 ·
Thanks buddy - the JCW wheel is still a daily delight. Maybe I should do a post on what went well, what didn't and what I would do differently (apart from spend more money).

And the exhaust combination is just great, at idle, it's a low burbling about an octave/half an octave lower than stock, and it's not at all loud under a steady throttle, but if I'm on the throttle, firstly it responds so quickly and secondly, from 2750-3000 and upwards it just emits a fruity rasping angry old man bellowing crescendo of noisy goodness.

The mechanic was worried that it would be too race car, too angry, but it's spot on. It took a 50mm->60mm conversion pipe to install by the way. And there's no droning at all at motorway/A road speeds.
 
#9 ·
And the exhaust combination is just great, at idle, it's a low burbling about an octave/half an octave lower than stock, and it's not at all loud under a steady throttle, but if I'm on the throttle, firstly it responds so quickly and secondly, from 2750-3000 and upwards it just emits a fruity rasping angry old man bellowing crescendo of noisy goodness.
Sounds like it is spot on -

 
#8 ·
As Dave says - about bloody time mate. Really good to see all the well thought out mods in one list (for you as well I expect) as you lose track of whats gone on.

Personally would get rid of some chrome, but I know how you love to polish :tongue_smilie:
 
#10 · (Edited)
I think we're some of the worst at cleaning our cars. My excuse is that it's almost always winter, or if it's summer, it's 6.5c and raining. ie today. I don't know how JKo does it, but his car is always sparkling.
l
As to 'dechrome', I have been running a red vinyl belt line (as a form of dechroming) but it started to break up so I removed it. And since the car's hardly clean, I haven't got round to fitting the new red one. Although now I might go black. Still, despite the various vinyl disasters over the years, I haven't really concentrated on cosmetics, it's all been about the wheels/tyres and suspension.

For example, I'm about to migrate to my third set of winter rims ... I had some 16x7 Dezent Fs but I got bored of them and sold them on; I've still got the sweet little 5.45kg 15x5.5 OEM Imolas but I'm trying to sell them, as I found some super funky old school Ruote OZ rally rims. I just need to remove and sell the gravel-rally spec tyres and get the rims sandblasted and repainted. I've even found fresh decals to apply. The decals will be yellow over black painted rims. That's a side project for the summer.

In the meantime, I need to get a realignment and I want to adjust the suspension for more negative camber at the front, and less at the rear: I found out the hard way on Sunday that the car tends to rotate a bit quickly. I hit standing water/lifted on a high speed corner and lost it. And as JKo says, I got lucky not to wipe out on the armco. And I think he means "blessed by the sacred holy virgin of idiot British drivers trying to keep up with flying Finns".
 
#15 ·
Not much to update but tomorrow I should get my K Sport BBK from Orranje (I missed the UPS van today). Now I need to find the time to get it installed, along with a bit of other fettling (small sump leak, fresh alignment etc.), but it's a bit too busy at work, and I'll be travelling on business next week.
 
#17 ·
Maybe that picture post was overkill; in any event for the sharp-eyed, I've now removed the 13mm KAVS spacer.

And sadly my 15x6 Ruote OZ rally rims just don't quite fit over the calipers. So I need to rethink my winter wheel strategy: I may just have to run winter tyres on the 16s, unless I can find a nice cheap 15 with enough space. The template was a bit too optimistic apparently.

What a pain in the arse...
 
#19 · (Edited)
It's not much of an update but after a couple of trips and 1000km in a few days (taking in Bob Dylan at Pori Jazz 2014) the car got a necessary clean/insect removal. There was a lot of brake dust from the Ferodo DS2500s. Other than that, the new brakes feel nice and easy to modulate, and (unlike the XP8s) don't squeak at all.

The new Whiteline bushes (with "caster correction") do make the car very pointy, almost nervous over Finnish cambered roads, and when my buddy drove for a bit, I could see he was struggling with the responsiveness - all wriggly under power and over the cambers as we switched lanes for the overtakes: he's not got used to the hyper reactive steering.

As to the mani/exhaust, it turns out that if you hook second instead of fourth from sixth, when going for an overtake from a gentle cruise, you make a lot of noise just instantly. Not sure what the electric powered groaner I was overtaking thought about it. But I nearly had my own 'squeaky bum time'.
 
#20 ·
That BBK is looking good! For the brake dust problem I've been using "ArmorAll Shield for wheels". Wheels still get dirty but they're a lot easier to wash. The Yellowstuffs don't dust much, but as you know my wheels are white and I like a clean car... Motonet sells the ArmorAll stuff. And there are other similar products too.

I actually found the car less nervous after the bushes were installed, and I also found that adding camber to the front made it more nervous (more tramlining)... how much front camber are you running?
 
#21 · (Edited)
I've been using Planet Polish Wheel Sealant so the dust comes off the wheels easily enough; it's not as sticky as the Carbotech stuff. But I think I should also seal the brake callipers too, to keep them looking sweet. It's hard to wash the calipers behind the SuperTurismos, there's more space between the spokes on the Ultraleggeras.

I've been wondering about the new bushes; I think the caster adds to the self-centring feel. I've got about 1.5 degrees of negative camber so no more than before, but apparently I need new steering arm bushes for a fully accurate realignment as the current ones have seized in our charming winters, so something may be a little off.
 
#22 ·
Sadly, my lovely but battered 15x6" Ruote OZ rally rims don't fit over the new callipers. The K Sport template wasn't accurate enough. Pretty pissed off about that. So I'm trying to find an alternative 15" rim, which do fit, and on which I can run my current Nokian winter tyres, but if I'm screwed, then I'll either need to source yet another set of used wheels/tyres, or I'll have to buy some fresh 195/55-16 Nokian HKPL8 winter tyres to mount on the OZ Ultraleggera's. I'd really like a set of 16" Leggendas though...
 
#24 ·
I'm hoping to be back at the Ahvenisto track with JKo and the BTCF next Sunday; it'll be the first time with the new brakes and realignment, so should be fun. I plan to stay firmly on the tarmac this time. The brakes feel a little soft (especially at the top of the pedal) but this is probably due to the master cylinder. I had a test drive in a Porsche Boxster S 3.2 (300ps) and it's stock brakes were really stiff, with very little pedal movement - I was surprised that it felt like standing on concrete. Apart from that, it was an easy drive… you only need the first three gears!
 
#25 ·
Maybe the adventure with the Ruote OZs wasn't so bad, bought them for €200, sold for €340 with some nice pretty red OZ Racing decals... that should help pay for the fuel I'll need on Sunday (ie the 300km round trip plus track time)
 
#26 ·
Plans?

Not so much, but basically, I'm swinging back round to the engine, and I'll be getting a Newman fast road cam, 380/550cc injectors, and custom tune done next year. I'll also add the 1320 BPV and replace the tensioner assembly at the same time. This year, I still need source the replacement winter rims, new Nokian winter tyres, and get a service/bit of fettling. I'd love to get some new seats at some point in the future but due to local rules, they'd need to be airbagged, as the car was first registered with side bags, so that's a bit of a constraint.

Anyway, I plan to retire the car as my daily from 100,000km-ish and run a more relaxed car for the commute/kiddie taxi driving. The R53 stays for weekends, and when I feel like it. I'm now thinking a nice 1er (five door hatch/three door coupe) with the 3.0 straight six engine before it's too late.
 
#27 · (Edited)
I've just arranged the courier for the 16x7 7.4kg satin black Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 rims, and they'll be wrapped in some nice new (very studded) Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8 tyres and fitted in about 7-8 weeks (usually third week in October for some reason). The tyres are still around 180eur each fitted but they are the very latest generation.

I hope that I get on with the black rims on a dirty grey car...
 
#29 ·
Ahvenistö II

We had another trip to Ahvenistö with the BMW Tuning Club. There were some nice old M3s, a 1M and a 135 coupe, as well as some serious racing machines including one wide tracked monster. And you should have seen what the proper driver could do with his 'daily' (he could keep up with the V8s in an old 318is with a bucket seat).

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