Love it Dead Man's Curve... My new favorite song. The new rear sway bar gives me an insane advantage/over confidence against your average car in any corner, low or high speed. We started out towards that curve with him right on my rear bumper (I don't think he realized what I was setting up for.....). It's a long sweeping left with 2 harder lefts, one at the beginning and one at the end of it. After the second one I hit the straight, when I looked back he was a good 100+ yards behind. Straight up blew his doors off in that corner. (Google's road rage support groups in Atlanta)
I think its a nice patina... actually drive way isn't flat. Pushing out is easy... back in by without a few folks is challenging.
Drove the Mini for the first time since returning from MOTD. Got caught in a real toad-strangler on the way home. Hit a couple of spots where the water was over the front splitter. It was still nice after being stuck driving the Galactic Cruiser for the last couple weeks.
Ordered H-Sport Comp rear bar, BSH oil can and DBP plug, new ebrake handle, rear mud flaps, Craven dipstick, and a few other little things for the JCW R55. My old 2003 MINI Cooper was called BLIKSEM, and although I'm running the same plates on the new one, I think I'll call it DONDER (pronounced donner). Think more lightning/thunder reference rather than reindeer. My wife says donder and bliksem were strong words in Afrikaans when she was growing up, so she gets more a kick out of it than I do.
Detroit Tuned installed the same (25mm) bar this year at the Dragon for me, it's a game changer. The Craven dipstick is also nice, but it took me a while to get used to how flexible it is.
With the metal top, probably more like grabbing a snake out of the engine compartment by the head if the engine is hot!
This is actually a standard 3 spoke that has been padded and wrapped. Redlinegoods.com did the work. Was about $250 + cost of wheel to have it done. It came out really nice.
Started getting the MINI ready to drive in a small town Memorial Day parade with the MINI club. Started installing my carved emergency brake handle, but I am going to have a red boot made to match my interior. Oh, and I drove it to the Wed night poker game...
That is exactly what you do, send them your wheel and they can install your new wrap. You order the wrap you want from the website and add custom install. They send you the new wrap for you to approve, then you send it and your wheel to the installer here in the states (NC if I remember right). It took almost a week for the shipping from my side to the other side, but the install was done and shipped back in a couple of days.