Before replacing the radiator I spent a few days reading the Haynes manual and a number of articles from the excellent Pelican Parts Tech Library. I decided to follow a combination of the two approaches. Because of the modular nature of the MINI’s front end there is a fair bit
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Ideal Preparation?
With my final track day of 2012 coming up just over a month away (Saturday 17th November at Donington with the lovely folk from BookATrack.com) I was hoping all I’d need to do in way of preparation was check fluid levels and pack stuff into the car. Unfortunately when I
Continue readingMilltek Cat-Back Exhaust
After waiting an age (it’s actually been a month) my new exhaust system from Milltek finally arrived, via the nice folks at Lohen. It certainly looks a quality bit of kit in all of it’s stainless steel glory. It’s only got a single very deep slip joint which is a
Continue readingCat Fabrication (Part One)
As part of the new exhaust system I need a solution for the catalytic convertor, when the car is running on track I can use the de-cat pipe. Obviously when the car is being driven on the Queen’s highway it needs the emissions kept under control. Rather than fit a
Continue readingJanspeed Manifold
A couple of boxes of parts turned up yesterday, a Janspeed Manifold and de-cat pipe from Lohen and some exhaust wrap and other bits and bobs from Demon Tweeks. There is a major difference between the stock manifold and the Janspeed one, the picture below shows them side by side.
Continue readingHow Fast?
On Friday 24th August I headed off to Motorsport Vision’s Bedford Autodrome for a track day and a How Fast? session. In contrast to a normal track day where timing is forbidden How Fast? is run with the aim of getting the fastest time on the leader board. The day
Continue readingSuccess At Last
Working on an old car can often be a very frustrating experience, jobs that you assume will be easy turn out to be a nightmare but the flip side of that is jobs you thought would be horrible are done in minutes. I did think the front suspension would be
Continue readingRear Suspension
One of the main weakness exposed by the cars first session on track was the stock suspension and road geometry, the tyres took a real pasting after only a few laps! Rather than opt for an out and out track setup that would make the car a pain to drive
Continue readingBling Bling
The car came through it’s first track day on the iconic Brands Hatch GP circuit in one piece, the main weak point (apart from the driver) was the stock suspension. Through some of the more challenging corners the car just didn’t feel planted, looking at the more positive aspects the
Continue readingPhase One Complete
After another couple of days in the garage I’ve finally completed the first phase of the conversion from road car to something more track focused. The first job on Saturday morning was to bed the brake pads in, not really an idea job for the public highway but unfortunately there
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