Posted by It’s been a couple of months since I got the car back after the engine rebuild at 1320Mini and I’ve finally managed to get the car back on track. After the engine rebuild there was the small issue of 500 “gentle” miles on mineral oil to bed the engine in and a number of small tweaks in a few areas of weakness identified by the guys at 1320. The car now has a brand new Mishimoto radiator after the original sprang a barely detectable leak (replaced under Mishimoto’s lifetime warranty within 24 hours, awesome service!), a JCW Works GP intercooler and a home made “hybrid” airbox with an ITG JCW air filter. I’ve not yet had the car back on the dyno with the new set of mods but in it’s previous state post the rebuild it generated a very health 206whp and 165 lb/ft of torque.
I finally managed to fit the Bimarco Futura seats I brought in March along with a set of Schroth harnesses and a Weichers club sport cage. Before taking the car back on track I adjusted the rear anti roll bar to it’s softest setting (still 200% stiffer than the stock ARB) hoping this would give a slightly more neutral balance.
For my first track outing of 2013 I decided to head to my local circuit, Brands Hatch in Kent. I chose a MSV Trackdays road car only day hoping this would mean a quieter day without the usual aggravation of dodging race cars on slicks. With only 22 cars on the day even the 1.2 mile Indy circuit wasn’t busy. The first track day I did in the car was on the Brands Hatch GP circuit and the difference between then and now was night and day, not only does the car have much more power the handling is totally transformed. The icing on the cake is having proper seats and harnesses I feel much more comfortable in the car even through the quickest of corners. Over the course of the day I managed over 100 laps and the only issue I had was a slightly long brake pedal by the end of the afternoon, this has hopefully been rectified by bleeding the system and replacing the brake fluid with high temperature racing fluid.
A couple of videos from the day:
The car feels very well balanced on track, the brakes are strong and progressive, steering is accurate with good feedback and the addition of the Quaife ATB differential allows the throttle to be picked up much earlier in the turn. It goes without saying that the extra horsepower helps too!
Having completed my first track day after the engine rebuild I’m now ready for my next challenge, the small matter of a day and a half at the legendary Nordschleife…