Most liked posts in thread: Rally Mini Cooper

Finally the Mini is legal and now sitting in the works car park. The drive to work was amazing, I just hope the Midland box holds up as now it's superb with the low final drive, 5th comes up very fast making use of the NA engine. Got a nice plate too!

 

Roof is on! woooooooooohooooooooooo Mini is being painted this week!

 

This visit has been a little frustrating with missing clips and parts but patience has paid off! Mini Costa Rica have been superb working with the body shop to supply all they need to finish the final installation of the trim and glass. Hopefully I will be driving away the Mini tomorrow (Tuesday) Thanks again for everyone’s help.

 

Well the good news is I have all the suspension at home...the bad news is Reiger sent a 10mm bolt hole bushing which we know should be a 14mm hole...so frustrating. The top mount are uni-ball and some nice remote reservoirs. Also I have the STI inserts. Now I'll have to wait for Reiger to fix it

 

correction...there will be no roll in 2016!

 

Seems I'm back on the road! fingers crossed this will continue!

 

So the starting problem seemed to have gone???

I shot a few oscar worthy vids!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWauCoHT1yQ]Another walk around with doors and bonnet open. - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Woj9ZiEgidg]Rally Mini walk around - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SHtx01Vhds]Rally Mini exhaust sound. - YouTube[/ame]

 

I had a pro photographer do a shoot before I left CR , here's one of the shots...looking forward to seeing the rest.

 

The rally season should begin sometime in May with 4 rallies planned. I really want to win this year and really don't see why not if lady luck is with us. The Mini beat all comers on the last rally so I'm going to pull the gearbox again to replace all the bearings and 1st and 2nd gears courtesy of Mini Geaboxes UK. Even though the box is working well that element of doubt will bug me.

I stripped down the 2013 STI struts I've just bought finding them to be as new. The damper settings are super stiff so I hope they'll see me through the season. I have a new radiator to fit too!

I've got more under body protection to add and a strut top plate to add. Hopefully when I do tech this year I will get the corners weights.




As Crashton knows we rally folks never stop building and rebuilding.

 

Fitting the STI strut tops did not stop the mushrooming hahaha

 

That was a long 3 weeks! Finally the box is back in and so far much better than the previous box builds..hahaha partly due to I was so paranoid about something breaking I pulled all the hubs/gears apart and selected the best used parts to go back in resulting in a better shifting box. Also I really don’t like those ‘C’ clips to hold in the left side drive shaft, after some thought I made a bracket to stop the drive shaft from popping out on jumps and bumps with the potential of losing oil which might have been the cause of the diff to blow on the last rally.
I’ve done a week’s driving to work etc. with no issues. I leave on Sunday and will return the weekend before the next rally of Sept 13/14 I’m bringing a 40,000 throttle body to swap over are I’m trying to swap out as many of the 130,000 mile parts as possible. I might swap the T-map too if funds allow.
Being the underdog gives our team some nice surprises with a local team shirt supplier making some very nice shirts for us. We got one each for free but we can get more at $40 each or if demand is high a little less cost. I’ve got 2 orders so far. Sizes are S,M,L,XL.
The bracket

Sexy shirt front

rear

My Mini collection….I prefer the large version!

 

I thought now the Mini was pretty much sorted with maybe better suspension and a gear set for 2015. I was looking forward to a stress free few months leading up to the new year………..WRONG! After the roll my head was spinning wondering how we were going to continue this year let alone 2015. Enter MA members, CR rally folks, Helix13 and Mini to help the battered Mini return as soon as possible. The response has been amazing! I have bought parts with MA donations, the hatch I bought with CR donations and the prize sticker "old farts motering club"came from Crashton is awesome!

Mini CR are helping with the quarter rear windows and some body trim, Emini parts are helping with the US end of the parts. Unfortunately being foreign person I suffer from skin tax! Which means the price for parts for me costs more than the locals! An example is a used roof was $300 but when they found out the roof was for me the price went up to $900! So from now on my co-driver handles the used part CR buying!

 

Thanks Jerry, I ask Nathan to stop the donations with the calender sales. The donations and support were a surprise and greatly appreciated but i felt there was a time limit. The funds allowed us to be back in the 2015 championship. Without the help I know the Mini would still be like it was. Once we get the roof I'm sure a couple of weeks will see the Mini back on the road. Then we plan to sell stuff in CR to buy the suspension. Merry Christmas to all!

 

Super busy weekend! I fixed all the body moldings that were lose, attached the rear mud flaps, tinted the rear windows and fitted the M7 roof spoiler. I had to bend the side plates then make a bracket to bolt to the hatch frame below the glass and cut about 4" off the aluminium wing. It was a tricky time consuming job but worked out pretty good. The worst part was wrapping the Mini roof spoiler in faux carbon fiber and M7 spoiler. The only issue is the side plates catch the C pillar where they joined the roof. Other than that the fit was good.

 

Note to self: don’t leave your decals in the humid shed for months. I’ve been putting off the decal fitting job for several months due to the very windy conditions down in CR but at some point I had to do the job.
This weekend proved ideal being a slight wind and very hot. I un-rolled the decals to find them wrinkled due to the time they had sat in the shed. Also the backing paper glue had become very tacky. So what should take a day took two! Now the Mini is starting to look like its old self.

 

Got to CR with the springs and Gripper LSD without any issues from customs due to another Lush bath bomb taking their attention..LOL The STI inserts and Reiger bodies are in San Jose clearing customs. I had to ship them because the airlines don't allow stuff under pressure....been warned once by the TSA.

The Peugeot synchro rings are in Madrid on their way to CR thanks to Mini Gearboxes. If all goes well I hope to start the gearbox build this weekend.

I was thinking the gearbox has held up well since the final drive exploded! Over a year of abuse and the box still shifts well. It will be interesting to see the bearings when I strip the box down.

Also I got the eMINIparts decals on the side glass.

 

The good thing is the Mini has done about 4 miles since July so for sure the bearing would have exploded on the rally resulting in a retirement and maybe gearbox/clutch damage. Ah yes I'm not bothered about replacing it as I can have the box off/on in half a day. They don't have the part here so I'm contacting trusty Eminiparts. I hope someone is coming down here next week.