MINI Club Racer Shakedown May 28, 2008
We took our 2005 MINI Cooper S to the track yesterday to start its shakedown process. The car was originally built for the MINI Challenge, but that series never really got off the ground. Instead of letting the car rot away, we begged MINI for the chance to campaign at NASA, SCCA and BMW CCA events.
The car has a full complement of safety gear and suspension work, but it has never really been raced. Our job will be to make sure that it's well sorted and that everything is up to snuff.
Eagles Nest Aug 8, 2008
After the initial shakedown test of our 2005 MINI Cooper S revealed a deranged rear lower control arm, we replaced them with Helix adjustable pieces from MINSpeed.net for $220. The new arms allowed us to dial in about 1.5 degrees of negative camber in the rear, as well as about 1/8-inch toe in. The front already had camber plates installed, so the alignment settings of 2.5 degrees of negative camber and zero toe were a snap to get to. Then, we decided to up the ante from test laps to timed competition. We don't have the cage or the seat up to road-racing snuff quite yet, but the car is a bit over-prepared for the average autocross. When good friend and Central Carolina Region SCCA event chair Tony Wentworth reminded us about the Eagles Nest Hillclimb, we knew we had a match.
Last year, we had a blast at the same region's Wolf Ridge Hillclimb in our Project 2002 Honda Civic Si, and at first glance we could tell that the MINI would be even better suited to such an event. SCCA's Time Trial rules don't require a full race seat or even a full roll cage as long as you've got a roof, so the MINI was legal as it sat. Plus, the supercharger would help compensate for the loss of power at altitude, and the sticky BFGoodrich g-Force R1 tires were perfectly heat cycled and ready to go.
Eagles Nest, located near Banner Elk, N.C., was simply stunning. The mountain resort/spa has beautiful views and great facilities everywhere, from outdoor jacuzzis and massage tents to a big pavilion with delicious Carolina BBQ.
We signed up for the Street Modified class, but it turns out that SM in a CCR-SCCA Hillclimb isn't quite the same as Street Mod at a regular Solo event. Instead, it's kind of a catchall class for cars that don't belong elsewhere. As a result, our competition was a Caterham 7 driven by John and Jonathon Cort, a Datsun 280Z with a hopped-up 350 V8 in the nose piloted by Shep Cordray, and Steve Rankins's wicked Subaru Impreza WRX STI, a car that finished quite well at our 2007 Hankook Ultimate Track Car Challenge.
We felt a bit underdoggish, but the MINI Cooper S wasn't without its share of competition advantages. It's a lot heavier than the Caterham and gave up power and traction to the Datsun and the Subaru, but on R-compounds it has plenty of handling capability and the lack of a limited-slip differential wasn't too much of a problem. Also, having ABS enabled us to be a bit more brave diving into the tighter corners. Even though this was driver Scott R. Lear's first time in the car, MINIs are very easy to drive at the limit, and after a few reconnaissance runs the car and driver were up to speed and the pushing could begin.
An optimistic target was anything faster than a 1:40. The Corts put down very solid times on their first runs, but unfortunately an off on Jonathan's second run put the Caterham out of contention. Rankins demonstrated from the word go that his Subaru would be untouchable in class, as he was several seconds ahead of the rest of us. Rain botched a pair of our runs early on, but we were still learning the course, so it wasn't that heartbreaking. Plus, the MINI was running flawlessly, so we weren't worried about a mechanical taking us out.
Still, we were dead last at the end of Saturday's runs, but Cordray's Datsun and some of the Caterham's times were within reach. We knew where we could pick up speed, and as we became familiar with the course, simple reaction took a back seat to thinking ahead and driving a more proper line.
By our fourth run on day two we were down to a 1:42 flat, enough to bump us ahead of John Cort's first-run time in the Caterham. The last runs of the day were a seesaw battle between the MINI and Cordray's beautiful V8-powered Datsun; we pushed harder and harder until the second-to-last run of the day, which put us at 1:40.374, just 65 thousandths of a second ahead of Cordray. With a MINI that was still whole and capable of driving itself on the trailer, we decided to call it a day, forgoing our last run opportunity. Cordray didn't find any more time on the mountain, so we had nabbed third place in class. Better still, we were 13th overall in a field of 44 cars.
John Finger added to his hillclimbing legend by taking the overall win in a Riley Protofab Super Vee with a 1:28.368. Just as impressive was Gary Ramsey in second overall with his radical Southern Auto Classics Cobra Replica; this NASCAR-engined beast was in serious contention for king of the hill honors despite having fenders and a lot more mass than the formula cars it was running with and often beating.
Be sure to check out the in-car video of our fastest run from our GoPro Motorsports Hero camera; it's linked at right. Results from the event can be found at The CCR-SCCA Web site
Early Checklist and Doughnut Support Jan 29, 2009
Our new-to-us 2005 MINI Cooper S has nearly completed its transformation into a proper wheel-to-wheel race car. Before we hit the track for real competition, we're taking a look at our goals and figuring out where we want to make improvements. Since we're going to be competing in NASA's Performance Touring category, we have to select our modifications carefully, as each one will add points to our up-classing tally.
The Cooper S has a base class of PTE*, where the asterisk means plus seven points. We're pretty sure we can get the car where we want it and still be in the PTC class, although PTB is a possibility. It's trickier for NASA to classify forced-induction cars, so either way we're going to dyno the MINI before our final class is determined.
One of the big items on our to-do list is a fully welded cage. Bethania Garage (also known as Hard Dog Fabrication) will be performing the cage installation fairly soon. We've got to wait for this job to be done before we can mount our Recaro racing seat in the MINI.
We've already got a few items from M7 Tuning waiting on our parts shelf, including their killer Strut Tower Brace ($199) and a foam-filter M7 MINI Cooper S Cold Air Intake ($249). We're going to dyno test the intake versus the existing setup when we perform the baseline dyno test.
Though it wasn't on the track, our MINI pulled its weight this past weekend during the Rolex 24 At Daytona by helping to promote the GRM Experience in the infield. The MINI was on display at the Krispy Kreme Doughnut shop just down the road from the track courtesy of longtime GRM friends Jim Anderson and SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup racer Todd Buras. The store had GRM banners around the entire perimeter, the staff wore GRM T-shirts, and they gave out tons of old copies of magazines to customers. Our huge thanks go out to the Daytona Beach Krispy Kreme staff.
Cage Creation Apr 6, 2009
Our MINI Cooper S was originally set up to promote the MINI Cup racing series, so it came to us with a simple, six-point bolt-in cage. Before we put the car in a wheel-to-wheel racing situation in the NASA Performance Touring category, we wanted to make sure that we'd have superior protection. That meant installing a fully welded cage.
Bethania Garage in North Carolina was eager to take the job, as it would allow Tom Beroth and his team to build a jig and add the MINI Cooper to their list of Hard Dog Fabrication roll cages. The shop currently sells prefab cages for the Mazda Miata, Honda S2000, BMW Z3 and Toyota MR2 Spyder, but they also do custom work for cars like our MINI.
Before we sent the car to Bethania Garage, we wanted to test fit and temporarily mount our Recaro Profi XL seat. This step ensured that the harness bar and side impact bars would be situated relative to our driver's seating position.
It would have been nice if the Recaro seat's simple side brackets bolted up to the MINI's OEM seat mounting holes but, as is often the case when installing seats, this was wishful thinking. We had to settle for a match of two out of four; we used the two inboard mounting holes to position the seat.
Since the outboard side rail was about an inch clear of the MINI's outboard mounting holes, we needed to figure out a way to clamp it down. Some big washers helped us stabilize the left side of the Recaro using the stock mounting holes. While this setup would work for placement purposes, we still need to do some work to properly secure the seat’s left rail.
Since we'll be racing in the 2501- to 3000-pound range, Bethania Garage is fabricating our cage out of 1.5x0.120-inch seamless mild steel (DOM) to meet the rules set forth by the NASA CCR. The cage is coming along nicely, and we hope to have the car back in a couple of weeks so we can paint it, dyno it, sort out the details of our Performance Touring class, and make our road racing debut with the car. The anticipation is building rapidly.
Shields at Maximum May 19, 2009
Bethania Garage finished installing one of their Hard Dog roll cages in our MINI Cooper S, and recently we drove up to meet company owner Tom Beroth and pick up the car. Our timing was good, as we had to head north anyway for an April SVRA event at Roebling Road in Georgia--the midway point saved us both gas and time.
At a glance, we could tell that the newly installed Hard Dog cage was a serious piece of work. Tom and his crew had tied the cage into the MINI at several clever points, including the upper sill over the doors and rear seat posts that were just jutting out following the removal of the interior.
The majority of the tubing was powder coated, but the joints were welded in afterward--just before we were set to pick up the car. That meant we needed a coat of satin black to match the powder coating, and with so many small sections, the process of masking off the car was going to be a bear.
Armed with several old newspapers, a couple of cheap plastic drop sheets, and a fat roll of blue painters tape, we set to work protecting anything that we didn’t want covered in primer and paint. Some of the nooks and crannies around the dashboard and toward the roof of the car required delicate application of masking tape, while other areas could be covered in coarse swaths with newspaper and a quick strip of the sticky stuff.
Since we were dealing with fairly fresh bare metal, we opted to prime the paint with Rust-Oleum Clean Metal Primer. In addition to being the proper primer for the conditions, it had the added benefit of high contrast; the white paint would make it pretty obvious where we needed more black topcoat when the time came.
Our first coat of paint was black semi-gloss, and that turned out to be the wrong choice; there’s a big surface difference between semi-gloss and satin, and the powder coating was satin black. Realizing our error, it was a simple matter to grab a can of satin black and use it for the second coat. We let the first coat dry overnight and then finished it off with the satin black.
Once the second coat had dried for a few hours, we removed the masking supplies and touched up any hard-to-get areas that still showed primer. Now we're ready to start tackling the rest of the safety gear. (Don't forget to click on the photos at right for the photo captions and larger versions.)