Most liked posts in thread: Rally Mini Cooper

I forgot to mention I got the suspension aligned. Now the Mini drives straight! Also I have some nice decals from MA and ProDrive to fit to the Mini when I return. Saving the best to last......(MA stickers are good) We have a sponsor to cover the rally costs! for the rest of 2013 and hopefully 2014. Sept 28th is a go!

 

They make a good Stout.

I find speed a strange thing. I'm always thinking I'm not going fast enough. Take the drive to work. A little country road with plenty of curves and bumps. I'm now close to the limit of the Mini hitting nearly 100mph on the short straight and 70 to 90 on the bends. So I was thinking the speedo is way off until I do the same speeds on the freeway.....all the cars are being passed! Mmmmmmmm for R50 this is a pretty quick car.....the S must be mind blowing.

 

So there went another 3 weeks. I did lots of driving in the Mini finding a few issues that would have put me out of a rally. The fan, a leaking oil filter housing and the gearbox. So far the Mini performs great. A little bouncy on the handling but with 1 1/2" more ride height it's to be expected but saying that I'm hitting corners at 70mph plus and getting a little sideways!

I'm still fighting with Mini USA to get a new PSP for free, latest news is the Costa Rica Mini dealer confirmed to Mini USA the pump is bad so I'll pull off the pump and bring it back in the hope I get a new one.

So as of today there is less than a month before the first rally for this project. I'm getting nervous but over the years experience has taught to take it easy and feel the car on the stages. The rally will be based around a beach town of Jaco. Around 11 stages of 5.5 and 9.5 Km . all tight and twisty which should suit the 5:1 final drive.

Jobs to do, Fit front skid plate, fit PSP (finger crossed) , Homologation papers, Rally tech test, Rally license, recce and rally! I'll be back in CR on Oct 27th.

 

bags packed with PSP, control arams, axles,chocolate and beers for a 2:40am start tomorrow morning. Lucky this flight gets me in a mid day CR time so I have the afternoon to fit the parts.....hopefully it won't be pissing it down. .going to be a busy 2 weeks up to Nov 9th. rally on

 

Drum rooooooooooooooll! I have power steering! I got it fitted yesterday....funny thing is after 3 months of driving with no PS I nearly drove of the road this monring. I put too much effort into the turn and oooooooops. Anyway I think the PS is going to be a good thing for the rally. Thanks again eminiparts!

 

We do a tech check at the beginning of the season then not much after that but for sure all the other competitors will be looking for any changes. I was thinking I can slot the bolt holes, get the camber where I want it then fit a new strut brace top to hide the holes..hahaha

 

The dates are in! May 17th is the first rally which just happens to be a round of the NACAM championship. RPM TV/Media have taken over the rallies so we hope for some good medai coverage. 5 rallies in total which I can do 4 of which is within my budget. I'll have to fly in just for the rally in May as my works schedule puts me in the US.

Meanwhile a box of gears showed up from Mini Gearboxes UK so a very big thanks to them. TSA once again stopped my rear suspension from my checked in bags. Strange they let the front struts go???? anyway I have contacts a AA so the rear sturts now await my return.

Last weekend I replaced the rod ends on the Helix lateral arms and this weekend out comes the gearbox for a check over.

Weather wise it's around 88F so just nice for some work on the Mini and a few beers

 

This visit saw me blessed with a long weekend of 4 days so after the Technical check I was able to fix some of the observations which were minor seeing as the Mini is one of the best presented cars in the rally. Not just a boast but after looking at all the other cars I’m amazed the teams bring the cars in such a state. Basically as they were from the last rally in November still covered in mud!

Anyway I have my standards so that’s what counts. The long weekend I fitted another set of 2013 STI suspension so I have now a spare set. The bottom bolt hole bush mount looks way to weedy for my liking so I had the Muffler guys knock up a brace which should stop the weld breaking. I’m still thinking what to do with the big bolt , some sort of support frame is on the cards for the future. The center exhaust mounting bracket I removed and fitted a rubber suspender type mount as the original bracket got wacked on the last rally with the exhaust vibrating on it. I totally went through the car to see of any potential problems.

The drive to work highlighted a much better handling over the bumpy roads and no vibrating exhaust!

 

I have the protection there already so I'll figure it out once I have the dampers off. At least I'll be doing some fabrication work again...I like that.

 

I'm with the Mini so the weeked I got stuck in to fix the rear suspension bolts and the exhaust. The exhaust was driving me nuts, the internals of the center muffler (ex Suzuki) had come lose so rattled more than a womens coffee morning!

Saturday I visited the welding sponsor who cut out and welded in a straight tube which did not make the exhaust note any louder. Also you can see the deleted center bracket.

That was it for Saturday due to the CR/NL game.

Sunday I pulled out the old bolts, then bored out the threads and fitted the longer bolts. The most time consuming part was grinding the nut to fit the contour of the R56 arm. I didn't want to remove to much metal off the arm so shaped the nut to fit. Grind, engineering blue, fit, take off check , repeat. The left side was contour was a little different to the right but after a days work and with no rain I finished both sides and fitted a spherical joint on the lateral arms that had some play.

You can see I fitted a lock nut which comes pretty close to the wheel rim. I have 8mm wheel spacers so the nut is not as close as it looks.

 

To pass the RTV (state tech test) you need a reverse light. I don't have one since way back so I had to do some checking. Bulb, reverse switch and wiring were good, the black control box seemed to be the problem. Lucky my wiring loom is easy to get at, once I found the blue/yellow wire I cut the wire and ran it to a switch. Now I have a manual switch and a new 2015 sticker! I did have to ram a bag of fiberglass insulation in the mufflers secured by some mesh to quieten it some. The Mini passed for another year and I had great fun blowing out the fiberglass when I got home.

 

Hey thanks Mr Cone! hahaha.

Well folks tomorrow I'm off to CR, then the next rally is on the following Sunday. I'm jumping with energy to have the Mini ready and I hope we win. Stay tuned!