Most liked posts in thread: Rally Mini Cooper

Off to CR on Sunday. The new sponsor wants British style launch so looks like I'll be 007 for a night! haha I'm sure I'll have plenty of video footage from this visit.

 

Got to do one of my life's goals....visit Prodrive and meet David Richards. Awesome visit.

 

I just read that any new mods needed to the car must be submitted by Feb 1st so I'll submit the cooling to the PSP to see what happens. So it looks like 2014 is a go for the rallying in CR!

 

What a weekend! I worked all last week in the evenings building the gearbox with new bearings etc. and setting up the LSD pre-load ready for an early start on Saturday, The pre-load is set to around 75LBS before the LSD clutch plates lose grip. The adjustment is done by adding different thickness plates, bolting up the LSD and doing the torque test. I do this with drive shafts attached to a front wheel with the LSD in the middle and a nut on the end of the drive shaft.

I was up at the crack of dawn jumping with an army of monkeys to have the Mini back on the road. One thing I did notice when I unpacked the crown wheel was a tiny dent in two places at the very bottom of the teeth. Looking at it I thought there should be no worries. Spinning the gears off the car I did not feel any issues …..so I thought

Within an hour the box was back on the engine and drive shafts in, I turned the brake disc's by hand and could hear a slight knock knock from the box. Now I'm so paranoid I pulled out the box again and stripped it down. I fitted only the pinion shaft and diff to ease the checking and found the knock to be the little dents hitting the pinion teeth. So I had no option but to Dremel the dents out until the knocking was gone. I refitted the gearbox finding the noise had gone. Hooooray! on went the drive shafts until a almighty storm rolled in stopping Saturdays work. The Monkeys and I retired for the day ready for an early start the next morning. Sunday was a beautiful day with huge red butterflies flying around in the early morning sun which was wonderful to see. First job was to fill the gearbox with oil then start the final fitment of the bumper, air box etc.

In went the oil and out it came from the bell housing! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I thought maybe the input shaft seal or not enough gasket seal around the bolts? I had no choice but to drop the box again and see where the oil is coming from…..Damn I’m becoming an expert at removing the box! It seems the gearbox welding guy missed a small hole in the bottom on the gearbox……once again I had to strip down the box and send it to be welded which takes me to Monday!

The weld




Black box?



No comment



LSD clutch plate internals



Pre-load test



The box in bits again!



The dent was tiny and removed

 

That's it for this year in CR. I leave tomorrow so I hope Santa brings a roof! LOL

 

did you see the size of his eyes just before impact! Oh duck this is going to hurt!

 

The screen tag got removed and painted over but fitting another is impossible as they filled the area with windscreen glue. Good news is the VIN is on a label on the drivers door B pillar so I think that will be good enough.

 

One choice for 2015 is to fir a close ratio gear set. The first thought was to fit the Quaife gear set but to do that I have to use their LSD which means bye bye Gripper LSD. The cost of the Quaife set is $6000 which is way off my budget even if I sell the Gripper LSD. I would figure about 2 years of selling stuff in CR to reach $6000. Also this gear set is dog engagement which is not exactly good for a daily driver.

Another option is a gear set from RSX race solutions. They do the set that would fit the Gripper LSD and final drive and still use the Mini Cooper synchro's so I'll be able to drive to work. Why straight cut? Straight cut gears vs helical | Automotive Thinker - Discussing the finer points of automobiles as you can see the straight cut set will be less loading on the MA box bearings and casing. Seeing as I replace the bearings around every 2 rallies I'm hoping the gear set should save me time and money. The RSX set is around 1295 euro so I'm working with them to get a good deal later this year.

Another chance is to have the Reiger suspension off the RMW R50 rally Mini. The owner is thinking to build a WRC type set up for his R50 leaving his current set up up for grabs. Again this might be later this year.

Once both of these projects are done I think the Mini will be super competitive.

 

Happy day today for me, maybe not the locals! The screaming Mini is back on the road! I was enjoying the 6500rpm gear changes this morning. All seems well and all those rattles eliminated due to loose moldings. The rear wing kicks in around 80mph LOL

 

I took a woman engineer a blast in the Rally Swift when she came to CR, she laughed all the way.... She told me she bought a 2012 Mini Coupe S in British racing green and she says I can go for a test drive this week. hooo wooooooo

 

I didn't get the test drive so that will wait until I return, Also bumped into the R+D VP who is a musle car dude. He as just bought a 2015 Camaro R/T . Actually looking our MA car park reveals a Polaris slingshot, some wicked tuned Audi's and BMW's MCS and a few STI's

Good news is the Reiger suspension is ready to ship, Gripper shipped the final drive and the STI strut gravel inserts will be done next week.....June is going to be busy!

 

The Struts were sitting in the shop as the dude did not read my email to know who sent them! Anyway I called them and they have them finished ready to ship. To re-valve the inserts to gravel spec cost $227.85 with the shipping which is a bargain. The Struts cost $60 each shipped off Ebay. so for around $350 I have the front sorted. Decals should be here today.

 

So the week continues with the state test passed...thanks to fiberglass packed in the muffler! While waiting for the test the electrics died and came back. A first , so after the test I drove home and while taking out the fiberglass the electrics cut again. My volt meter gauge read zero so I thought maybe the new battery fitting might have moved something? Checked that, nothing . then I thought I'd check the kill switch in the cabin. I touched the switch and the electrics came on!!! eeeeeeeeeeh! The nut holding the cable was loose, I tightened it and all was well. Imagine on the rally??

Today is suspension alignment.

 

Alignment found a worn inner RS steering arm joint, after some frantic calling around a new one was found, fitted and aligned by our sponsor Mulfas Sicar. We are good to go!