Most liked posts in thread: What did you do with your MINI today?

Since Lady Babs hauled my butt down to the eye sturgeon in the rain on Wednesday I felt I owned her a warsh job for Skooby. Squeaky clean once again.

 

Went out for a country drive today in the 16 Countryman, it needed to be out after 3 weeks of garage time (self isolation) also needed gas as it was down to 3 clicks. Not many folks out in Boulder Country, Colorado, government mandates etc. Lots of folks out self isolating on their road bikes as Boulder is a 2 wheel mecca for pedal pushers, as usual they were all wearing bright lycra to be seen. Not many folks out competing for road space, but those guys were hogging the road in some places as snow melt was heavy in our hilly spots, they are not into mud on themselves or the 10K race bikes.

Lots of sunshine today, but I will say I got premium for $1.55 today with my grocery store discount build-up (Soopers, Kroger store out east). I did use hand sanatizer after filling the tank.

Stay safe and healthy, get out as you can with safe distance in mind. Wash your damn hands!

Don

 

Walked the dog at the parks today...we were the only ones there. Gassed up the R50 and am going to air up the R53 and gas it up later this week. The snows on my R53 will be coming off soon, but those on my wife's will stay on a bit longer as April almost always pushes some snow our way.

 

Took off the winter tires/wheels and
put on the summer ones (Michelin
P S 4S) on my JCW R55 and my wife’s
M240i ‘vert. Love those tires.

 

I've been doing an engine bay refresh... lots of new bits going in:



But today, I'm in the middle of a very small detail mod... One of the things that folks on this board would notice, but few others would.

 

I'm at home, retired and bored to death since the tv shows over and over...suck.

I drive my MINIs to local parks so I can take my dog for a walk and I steer clear of other people and their pets while I'm there. I always take about a 45 minute drive home The only other places I go to are for gas, to the grocery, or for occasional carry out.

I'm looking forward to some days that I can take 2 of the MINIs out to get the snows off and the summer tires back on, but then, I'll probably get a coronary or a stroke, hauling the tires out of storage and lugging them to the cars for the change over. I am not looking forward to lugging the snows back to the storage rack and going through the whole thing again in late Fall. Thank God my R50 has all seasons and I only drive it in the wintertime when the weather and roads are dry.

 

Before you put that block in, you need to pull the rest of the bits and respray the engine bay in CR. I f-ing HATE seeing everywhere that the paint has worn off in my engine bay because they couldn't be bothered to clear-coat it at the factory. I look in my engine bay and know that it's as good as I'm ever going to get it without pulling the engine...

I keep thinking "maybe if I remove this bit and mask this off..." and then I realize that I'll just make it worse unless the whole engine comes out.

 

Good news about your niece Don. Stay hunkered down & safe.

 

I got a Ford SHO to detail. At least I have something to die during “lock down”.

Yes, it is a custom lowered suspension. with 370 WHP AWD.

 

Yeah, but if you remember the license plate on my R50, it says Welsh MINI. My roots are Welsh/German. The R50 was the first "new" MINI I bought and since it is part German but was being assembled in England at the time, it was only fitting that the car was named after the heritage of its owner, since Wales is a part of Britain, too. Besides that, I had a 1959 Morris Mini Minor [the first of the Minis], back when I was in high school in the early '60s.

 

Took off the snows and put on the summer tires on my S. Man, I had almost forgotten how responsive the summers are!
Wife's car goes in next week for the changeover, I hope.

 

Donated to the Graham County [NC] Food Bank and to MOTD today. I also bought a t-shirt, so I never forget this year.

 

That tire guy's store is closed for at least 2 weeks. Fortunately, I called a full service store in town and he is open, because he supplies for the County Sheriff as well as the State Patrol. He's on the other side of town [about 5 miles away] and I used to go to him a lot til the new store and friend opened up about 1.5 miles from our house

 

The motor was started today. Whoo hoo

bye bye crappy OEM water pump robbing power from the supercharger. Electric water pump installed.

 

So a test run of this old girl was reported today. Something about 18 pounds of boost, pulling very hard at 6300 rpm in forth at 110 mph. Now waiting to install the 1000 cc injectors and custom tune for this bigger motor when it hits the Dyno for final fine tuning with Summer wheels on it, not the crappy A/S winter beaters.

 

Well, today the RaceR50 gets tamed down a bit. Removing Mini Sleeping Pod, harness bar and harnesses. Installing stock passenger seat back in. My wife is joining me on a little trip to Pittsburgh to help a dear MINI friend who is recovering from achilles tendon surgery. I am taking off her Blizzaks off and putting her summer wheel/tires on. She can’t drive yet, but very soon! Unless we take my wife’s Classic Mini? Lol

 

Walked the dog...twice to 2 different parks and put about 40 miles on my S...great day for a drive and the dog seemed happy, too, after marking his territory during his time at the parks.

 

Not going to Fontana for a while.

The 1000 cc injectors are scaled, but I have kind of a mild tune on it right now. The car is just mean and angry with lots of power and huge Tq gains. The boost jumps to a little over 18 PSI and it pulls strong but I have not went over 5500 RPM’s. When you coast and then hammer down it pushes you into the seat nicely.

I just picked up two or three hours ago and it still has A/S ‘winter’ tires on. Tomorrow will be wash it down and swap on my Lighter & Grippy Summer wheels.

Oh one thing I did add to this build was a craven speed shifter clip pro. Yes it says only for 2nd gens an above, but it fits perfectly. This gets rid of the loose shifter side to side movement when you are in gear. It tightens everything up like a real old school shifter locked into gear. It you like Honda, Porsche, Viper, Ferrari tight shifters you must get this mod. This is how every MINI should come standard.

https://www.cravenspeed.com/shifter-retaining-clip-pro-for-mini/