In the meantime, here’s Blimey’s latest mod - GP Rear Trim, and matching exhaust tips:

The GP trim is a subtle change, but it really transforms the rear of the car. I like it MUCH better than the rear aero bumper. It installs as three pieces - the rear pieces of the arches which hold the reflectors/sidelights are replaced also. Quick install - a few screws and snaps. Done. Thanks to Joaquin for turning me on to this mod.

Only issue was that once I put it on, the larger exhaust cutout made my blacked-out beer cans look even more anemic. Needed something bigger to fill the void. And wanted to stick with my one-ball exhaust. And wanted to stick with black-out.

The tips are the 1st gen “Sport” OEM accessory tips. I’m not a big fan of those tips when they’re shiny (sorry, Rudy), but with some textured powder coat to match the trim, they rock. Thanks to Tom Davis at Carolina Custom Powder Coat in Cary for doing a fantastic job on them.

It’s the job of the intercooler to remove as much of this heat as possible before the air enters the intake manifold, is mixed with fuel, and enters the engine. Unfortunately, space and engineering limitations resulted in a fairly small intercooler perched right on top of the supercharger and intake manifold… where it’s subjected to radiant heat every time the car stops moving and air stops flowing in through the grille and hood scoop. This results in “heat soak” - where the intercooler is effectively saturated with heat and unable to cool the supercharged air flowing through it. Much testing of top-mount MINI intercoolers has been done by others and, while aftermarket ICs are available, the stock IC is a pretty good compromise of cooling efficiency and rapid recovery from heat soak once you start moving again.

Once in the engine, cool air has a significant impact on performance. Cooler air is more dense, meaning more oxygen will fit in an engine cylinder when the air is cooler, which means it can be used to burn more fuel, which makes more POWER. You can easily feel the difference in how much torque the car generates on a cold day, compared to a hot summer day. On the first cold day of the fall, I’m always giddy about how much faster the car runs. This isn’t imaginary. The car gains about 1% power for every 10 degrees F of heat removed from the air - so on a 40 degree day, the car has about 6% more power (depending on mods, perhaps 10-15 more hp or ftlb) than on a 100 degree day.

When running wide open, under full boost, air temperatures entering the engine can easily approach 200 degrees F - or even higher. Anything you can do to cool this “charge” has a direct, immediate, positive impact on power.

One way to do this is to add an external sprayer to the intercooler. This can help quickly recover from heat soak, and improve the efficiency of heat transfer to make the intercooler cool the air better. But there are limits to how effective this can be, and at high boost levels, you can still quickly exceed the IC’s ability to cool the air.

Another approach that has been used in racing for many years is spraying water INSIDE the air intake stream - effectively mixing water with the air before fuel is added and burned. At first, this concept is pretty counter intuitive… we are taught early in our studies of internal combustion engines that water in an engine is a BAD thing… see “hydrolock“… but when sprayed in a very fine mist in proper amounts, water’s high heat of vaporization enables it to absorb significant amounts of heat as it becomes water vapor, and this yields denser air in the cylinders. Methanol can be used instead of (or mixed with) water. Methanol adds some combustable fuel to the mix, and methanol has a higher octane than gasoline, further reducing detonation (knock/ping), and enabling the engine to further advance timing, making more power. Methanol also assists with the rapid vaporization of the water.

Quite a few folks have installed various water/methanol injection systems on the MINI over the past couple of years. The typical approach is to use a “universal progressive” kit which includes a reservoir, a pump, a spray nozzle, tubing to connect these components, and an electronic controller which reads supercharger boost levels and controls pump flow to spray more as boost increases. There are some limitations to this approach given the non-linear relationship between boost and fuel/power on the MINI, and the “ideal” setup needs to be a bit more sophisticated to deal with this for highly tuned track cars. But for many street cars, the boost-controlled progressive approach can yield good results compared to no system at all, and can be much less expensive.

There are a number of suppliers of water/methanol injection kits on the market. I was intrigued by a kit offered by Devil’s Own. This kit is relatively inexpensive, in part because it reads boost using the OEM TMAP sensor instead of requiring an additional sensor to be added. It also doesn’t include a reservoir in the standard package, assuming that you may want to use an existing windshield washer reservoir (windshield washer fluid is typically just water and methanol, with some color added).  If you like, you can add a different or larger reservoir.

While a few folks have installed Devil’s Own systems on MINIs, there was no formally documented guide for such an install. When Dustin Etheredge at AutoXCooper decided to resell the Devil’s Own kits, I arranged to work with him to get a kit, work through the MINI-specific installation issues, and writeup my findings. I’m a glutton for punishment. So here goes!

First, the disclaimer: These instructions are designed to augment - NOT replace - the Devil’s Own Universal Stage 2 Kit Installation Instructions. Please read those instructions thoroughly and ensure you understand them before undertaking this project. While I believe this installation can be accomplished by anyone with moderate mechanical skills, it DOES require removing and replacing several vital parts of the car, and if you get over your head, you could end up in a state where your car is undriveable until reassembled by a capable person. This installation was completed on 1st generation MINI Cooper S Convertible  with Xenon headlights - installation may vary slightly for other models. These instructions are NOT for 2nd gen turbocharged MINIs - while the kit may work on those models, I have not tested it!

Here’s the kit:

From the top, it includes a pump, plastic split cable looms, hose, the controller, zip ties, electrical and fluid fittings, nozzles and a checkvalve.

Standard installation instructtions are included with the kit, and can also be found here.

Before you begin, read ALL instructions, and think through how the installation will go - where you’re going to put the pump and controller, how you’re going to route the wires and hoses, where the reservoir will be, what tools and supplies you’ll need to get it done. Plan it all out, and mentally work through the entire process in your head. If something doesn’t make sense, don’t start taking your car apart until it does… believe me, I’ve learned this the HARD way.

Here are the things I ended up using, and what you’ll need to for a similar install:

• Devil’s Own Stage 2 Progressive Kit, with 2 gph nozzle and 2.5bar controller
• Devil’s Own Self-Sealing Tank Tap (”Bulk Head”)
• Circuit Tap for adding a circuit to your fusebox (like this, available from any auto parts store)
• 7″ long, 1″wide 12 gauge galvanized steel strap
• Two 1-1/4″ long, #10 stainless pan head screws, with washers and nylock nuts
• Optional but recommended: Hose clamps for air intake hose (approx 3″)  and bypass valve hose (approx 2″)

Tools:

• 1/8NPT tap (works best with a tap handle)
• 11/32″ drill bit
• 1/4″ dill bit
• 3/16″ drill bit
• Electric Drill
• Work light
• T30 Torx Driver
• 8, 10, 11mm sockets
• Ratchet and extensions
• 11mm wrench
• Various pliers and screwdrivers
• Wire stripper / crimper tool
• Magnetic pick-up tool
• Recommended: magnetic parts tray

Let’s get started!

The Reservoir

My car has xenon headlights, with built in washers. While the washers are cool, I HATE the idea of these things spraying fluid on the front of my car every third time I use the windshield washers when the lights are on… if that ever actually happens… I don’t know if I’ve EVER used my windshield washers with the headlights on… I keep my car and headlights clean… and I don’t need the washers… so I decided to use the Xenon washer tank as my reservoir for this system. It’s located behind the left (driver’s side) A-panel, just to the rear of the front wheel. It holds about 2/3 of a gallon - sufficient for my needs - should last for a couple of tanks of gas for normal driving, and for at least one track session.

To access the tank, first remove the front left wheel:

There are several (I think 8 or so) plastic expanding clips and two screws attaching the plastic wheelwell liner to the chassis. One of the clips is under the sill to the right. The clips remove by unscrewing the center screw about 1/2 inch, then pulling the whole clip out. Remove all of these, and the liner should pull out easily - if it doesn’t, stop and look for more screws or clips. When done, you’ll see the tank:

With my kit, I also got a “Self Sealing” tank fitting - I hear this will come standard with kits in the near future, but be sure to ask, because it’s a key part to make the install easier. With this fitting, you WILL NOT need to remove the tank! If you don’t have the Xenon headlights, I THINK you can buy this tank and install it if you like - though I haven’t tried that. If you need to remove the tank, you can do so easily by removing one bolt and nut shown in the photo above, plus one bolt hidden behind the side vent (below). Remove the vent by prying out the front end with a plastic tool until it snaps out, then slide forward.

In my case, since I’m disabling the Xenon washers, I removed the washer pump. Just unplug it:

And pull up to remove pump and clip. Slide the clip that locks the hose onto the pump and remove the pump from the hose. This will leave a rubber grommet in the plastic tank. Remove the grommet. The resulting hole is just large enough to snap in the self-sealing tap - you’ll have to tilt the tap and snap the edge of the base of the tap through the hole - you can’t push it straight through. Once in place, tighten the fitting until snug (but don’t overtighten).

The silver tape is from an experiment that didn’t work out. I also purchased a float-based fluid level sensor, to detect when the reservoir is low on fluid. Unfortunately, there’s no good place to put it in this reservoir that is (a) low enough, (b) wide enough to accommodate the length of the sensor, and (c) with enough outside clearance for the external part of the sensor and wiring. So I’ll just check the fluid every time I fill up with gas.

Attach one end of the tubing, and feed the tubing up through the top of the opening, in front of the bonnet hinge. Ensure that the hinge doesn’t snag or crush the tubing when the bonnet closes and opens. Feed the tubing through the rubber wiring grommet under the weatherstrip, into the cowl area (you may need to enlarge the hole in the grommet).

Replace the wheelwell liner and wheel, and you’re done with the reservoir!

The Pump

I chose to install the pump in the right side cowl, beside the ABS/DSC unit. I experimented with various ways to mount it in there, and eventually settled on a simple bracket to enable it to mount to an existing stud.

This is just a simple 7″ long piece of 1″ 12 gauge galvanized steel strap, with three holes - the 1/4″ hole you see above, plus two 3/16″ holes to which the upper pump mounts are attached with stainless screws and nylock nuts. The heads of the screws are on the back of the strap, to allow it to lie flush against the black plastic panel behind the ABS unit. It’s held in place by an existing nut and stud which holds one corner of the black plastic cowl panel.

Attach the ground wire to this same stud, or extend it and attach it to the existing ground stud in the outside end of this cowl space, near the bonnet hinge (as shown).

The Nozzle

This is the most technical part of the installation. If you’re not comfortable with this part, you might opt to have a tuner/mechanic install this part, and you can do the rest!

The nozzle is installed in the intercooler outlet horn. To do this properly, this horn must be removed from the car, to prevent getting any metal shavings inside the engine!

This was easier for me because I recently replaced my Bypass Valve with the Detroit Tuned BPV, and the procedure to remove the intercooler outlet horn is the same. Helix has an excellent writeup on the BPV install that you may wish to reference!

FIRST - use a Sharpie to mark the location for the nozzle - find a spot where the nozzle and checkvalve will not interfere with the intercooler or any hoses. See below:

Remove the four torx bolts holding the plastic intercooler cover in place, then remove this cover. Remove the two black brackets holding the front of the intercooler by removing two bolts from each - CAREFUL - don’t drop these bolts!  Loosen (but do not remove) the eight Torx bolts on the intercooler boot clamps. Slide the intercooler to one side to remove it from one of the boots. Then tilt it up and pull it out of the other boot. Remove the boots with clamps intact. Set all these pieces aside.

Remove the clamps that attach the air intake hose to the airbox and the throttle body. Also remove the small breather hose that plugs into the intake hose. If you are still using the OEM clamps, you may wish to purchase some “normal” hose clamps for reassembly later - it will make things MUCH easier. Remove the intake hose.

Remove the clamp that attaches the main part of the plastic snorkel to the rubber segment, then just snapping the scoop portion of the snorkel out of the radiator surround.

Now it should look kind of like this:

Snap the snorkel out of the airbox by pulling it forward, and set it aside.

Unplug the throttle body. Remove four bolts holding the throttle body in place. Lift the throttle body up and set it out of the way on top of the engine.

Note the hose connected to the bypass valve, under the intercooler horn.

It’s where you see a hose clamp in the lower left of the photo above. This will probably be an OEM-style clamp - this is another place where you’ll want to substitute a normal hose clamp as shown for ease of reassembly - it’s about a 2″ clamp. You need to release this clamp.

Now remove the three nuts holding the intercooler horn onto the studs on the intake manifold. Be VERY careful as you remove these… if you drop one into the engine bay, it may be quite an expedition to find it… I find it’s best to use a magnetic wand to hold the nuts as you unscrew them, to prevent dropping them.

Once the nuts/washers are removed, you need to GENTLY work the intercooler horn out. The trick to this is that you have to unplug the bypass valve (on the bottom of the horn) from the hose, while simultaneously pulling the horn off the studs. The problem is, the bottom end of the bypass valve hose is connected to a plastic manifold that connects the throttle body and the supercharger. It’s pretty easy to break this plastic manifold if you force it or move it too much in any direction. You can wiggle it back and forth gently with your right hand while wiggling and pulling up on the intercooler horn to work the bypass valve out of the hose - but do NOT let the plastic manifold move too much… take your time.

Whew! Once this horn has been removed, you’re ready to drill and tap it.

Use a 1/8NPT tap, and the drill size specified for your tap (probably 11/32″). Use some cutting oil to make drilling easier and to save your drill bit. It’s important to drill perpendicular to the spot on the horn where you’re drilling to enable the best seal for the nozzle. Once the hole is drilled, tap it, again using cutting oil. Clean out ALL metal filings that may have gone inside the horn or bypass valve area. Inspect this carefully. Thread the nozzle into the hole to test fit. Then attach the 90 degree fitting and checkvalve to the nozzle to protect the filter.

Reverse the procedure to reassemble everything. Be sure to affix all hose clamps, and be sure to plug the throttle body back in! Ask me how I know!

Route the tubing through the cowl area, to the inlet side of the pump, and from the outlet of the pump, back through the cowl, through the driver’s side cowl wall into the engine bay, and past the airbox and hoses to the nozzle. Attach the hose to the checkvalve.

The Controller

The controller unit is small and can be placed anywhere convenient to the driver for monitoring and adjustments. I chose to install mine in left end of my euro parcel shelf.

I removed the shelf and drilled a hole for the controller cable, then threaded the cable through and slid the controller into place. I’ve seen others install the controller below the center stack, velcroed to the bottom of the toggle switch panel. You could also install it on the steering column.

The green and blue wires must be run into the engine bay. You can thread them through a large grommet in the firewall, up behind the dash. These come out above and behind the brake booster in the driver’s side cowl.

Route the green wire along with the tubing into the engine bay toward the nozzle. Here it helps to remove the rubber seal along the top of the radiator surround. It just slips off and back on. This provides easier access to the TMAP sensor. Use the red Posilock tap to tap the Yellow/Purple wire (passenger side) of the TMAP sensor on the front of the intake manifold. Cover the wire with a protective split loom.

Route the blue wire through the cowl to the pump, and attach to the red pump wire. Again, cover the wire with a protective split loom. While under the hood, check ALL the wiring and tubing one more time - make sure all wiring is protected with split loom covers, and make sure neither the wiring nor the tubing passes too close to a hot heat shield nor near any mechanical parts where they may get pinched! Use zip ties as necessary to tie your routed wiring and tubing in place. Leave sufficient slack to allow for movement of the engine - it moves around quite a bit in the engine bay when under load!

Back inside the car, attach the black wire to a good ground point - I found a suitable screw into the metal dash frame. Attach the pink wire to a switched power source using a 10amp fuse. I chose to use a circuit tap from the auto parts store, and plugged it into a switched fuse slot in the footwell fusebox as shown. This is easy to disconnect for testing or maintenance.

Setup

Fill the reservoir with water/methanol solution. I use -20F windshield washer fluid, which is about 35%methanol/65%water. Set the knobs on the controller so that the “turn on” knob on the left is at about 25% of your maximum boost (I set mine to 5) and the “max” knob on the right is at about 75% of your maximum boos (I set mine to 12). Turn on the ignition - the red light should come on, and the yellow light should give two long blinks then flash quickly a few times. If you get no lights or different lights, something is wired incorrectly.

Take the car for a drive! The green light should come on, dim at first, when you reach the “turn on” boost level, and should be brighter as boost increases. When you hit the “max” level you’ve set, the yellow light will come on steady and the green light will be at full brightness. I bet you’ll feel a difference at wide open throttle and full boost!

Keep your reservoir topped off, and every few months remove your nozzle for inspection and cleaning of the filter.

Enjoy! I’m liking mine so far. Hopefully I’ll get some dyno time in the next several weeks and can test with and without. But the ultimate test will be this summer when it heats up outside - if I’ll be able to get something closer to “cold weather” performance… based on the results others have had, I think I will!

First… what I just finished… well, almost finished… still gotta wetsand and polish after the paint cures a bit more…

Dale at Voltage Products is making a fantastic big bonnet scoop. I like the lines of it much better than the other big scoops on the market - M7 and Uber. It really flows into the lines of the bonnet, no hard transitions like with the other scoops.

Here it is in “raw” primed form.

I have lots of spray equipment and airbrushes in my sculpture studio - so I decided to use this as an excuse to work on my “professional” auto paint skillz…

I got a pint of Dupont ChromaBase paint in Cool Blue - geesh, it’s unreal how much pearl is in this stuff - tons - in three different colors. It’s actually not “metallic” at all… just has about a pound of pearl powder in it… I’m not 100% sure on the match yet… gotta let if cure and get it sanded and polished… the problem with the Cool Blue is that the match may look perfect in some light, and look awful in other light, because of how radical the pearl effect is. If the color doesn’t turn out right, I’ll try a different brand/mix of paint and shoot it again… I’m getting the hang of prepping and painting now, after prepping and painting the scoop FIVE times (so far) to get it right… geesh…

While I was at it, I got a new set of headlight rings, sanded them, primed them, and painted them, too. Here’s the results (again, not yet wetsanded and polished… so they’ll look better next weekend…)

Daddy LIKE.

Here’s the result…

To match the GT Tuning Strut Brace, I painted the cabrio diagonal braces, the engine mount, the transmission mount… and added a VIP engine damper, which I also painted… so all the “structural” stuff is red. Originally, I had planned to powder coat all of these to match the strut brace… but the engine damper has rubber bushings, and instead of dealing with having those pressed out and back in, I went hunting for a painting option. I settled on Duplicolor caliper paint - which is a good color match to the brace, is easy to work with, is durable, is easy to touch up as needed, and flows out to make a finish that looks very much like powder coat. I painted the brackets for the VIP damper black, because the yellow zinc plating was UGLY.

When reinstalling the strut brace, I found that the mounting plate for the VIP damper is just a LITTLE too tall and hit the bottom of the strutbrace - so I had to grind it down about 3/16″ and touch it up.

Here are some close-ups…

The color isn’t nearly as “orange” as it appears in the photos… sunlight plays tricks that way… just a nice, bright red.

Really starting to look more like an Autobot now…

I still have a few things I want to do, but it’s getting close to being complete… at least for now…

• Blimey’s Tour of Terror II
• RMW Tune
• Schroth Harnesses
• Carbotech AX-6 pads
• GT Tuning Strut Brace
• Engine Bay makeover
• Body-color roll hoops
• Nitto Neo Gen tires
• RMW Cam
• RMW Header

Not that you really care about this list… but without it, I’d forget what  I need to post about. Stay tuned… more to come….

1) I like to go FAST.

2) I like to mod my car.

There. I said it. I feel so much better now that you all know my secret shame.

Even though I told my Motoring Advisor, on the day that I picked up my car, that I planned to leave it “pretty much stock”… well, I had no idea what the next couple of years behind the wheel of my MINI were going to do to me… I NEEEEEED more power. NEEEEEEED it. Bad. Always. This is a story of how I got some.

After reading a lot about the Revolution MINI Works (RMW) camshaft, I decided that it matched my objectives for the car - specifically, it adds more mid-range torque, right where you need it for spirited street and twisty driving. If you don’t know what a camshaft is or what it does, read this. And don’t feel bad… several months ago, I was pretty clueless about this particular engine component. In short, the camshaft controls the opening and closing of intake and exhaust valves in the engine’s cylinders. This controls when mixed fuel/air can be pulled into the engine, and when  burned exhaust gasses can be pushed out. While this is a simple concept, fluid dynamics are quite complex when the cylinders are filling and exhausting thousands of times per minute, and fairly subtle changes in when the valves open and close, and how far they open, can have a significant impact on the flow of fuel/air and exhaust. And what is optimal at one RPM ends up being less than ideal at other RPMs. Every camshaft is a compromise between smoothness at idle and low RPMS, versus ultimate flow at high RPMs. The RMW cam is focused on mid-range performance improvement, with only slight reduction of smoothness at idle.

I had hoped to have my cam installed prior to my dyno tune - but RMW had stock problems…. so I couldn’t get the cam in time. Jan tuned my car a little rich to allow for the cam… and then I waited for the cams to be available again….

While I was waiting, I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet, and add the RMW “Shorty” Header. Others have found that the combo of the cam+header is really a fantastic addition for street cars. I’ll talk more about the Header later… but these were also on backorder…

Finally Dan at Grassroots Garage got my cam in, and we scheduled an installation date. While I could have probably figured out the cam install, I feel safer letting Dan do anything that involves cracking open the engine… I’m glad I did, because I would have been pretty lost and terrified if I had done this job myself.

Here’s Dan, with the valve cover removed:

The lifters and the OEM cam on Dan’s clean bench:

The two camshafts compared - the RMW cam is on the right. You can visibly see that the lobes are a bit taller - meaning that the valves will open a bit wider.

Dan fitting the new camshaft in place. Note the zip-tie that holds the timing chain onto the gear - a nice trick.

The difference with the camshaft installed is IMMEDIATELY recognizable. The car has a very slight “lope” at idle, with revs fluctuating up and down just a bit between about 600 and 800 RPM. On the street, the car has noticeably more “umph” between about 3500 and 5000 RPM - it pulls significantly harder - probably 5-10ftlb of torque here. Very nice. Engine sound under load is perhaps just a little louder or more aggressive, but not much.

I drove the car like this for about a month before my header arrived. Not a night and day transformation compared to how the car was before the cam, but a very nice and noticeable improvement.

Then the header arrived. And my life changed forever.

It’s almost to beautiful to hide under the car.

The MINI’s OEM exhaust manifold/header/cat is the most restrictive part of the exhaust system. Take a look at the OEM header beside the RMW Shorty - they’re very different animals:

Above are the exhaust manifolds from each header - where the exhaust gasses leave the engine and enter the exhaust system. Look at how much smaller the OEM ports are on the right.

You can visibly see how much smaller the OEM “primaries” (the individual pipes coming out from each cylinder) are compared to the RMW header. You can also see the severe bends that these pipes make. These bends restrict exhaust flow, and also muffle sound.

Above, pay close attention to the length and arrangement of the primaries, and how they come together at the “collector”. The RMW header has equal-length primaries - this is a key feature of this header, that makes it quite different than others on the market. By making the primaries the same length, individual exhaust pulses from each cylinder flow smoothly through the collector and into the main exhaust, without “colliding” on the pulses from other cylinders in the collector. The RMW collector at the bottom right is a radically different design than the OEM one, providing an unrestricted flow of exhaust pulses into the main exahaust.

Here’s Dan doing his magic.

The view of the header installed, from the top. So pretty, it’s a shame you have to cover it with a heat shield to keep from cooking your coolant and power steering fluid reservoirs…

On the street, the addition of the header to the cam TRANSFORMS the car. Really. It is a different beast than it was before. Ask RudyT… he rode with me and invoked the name of the hallowed excrement. The car is MUUUUUCH louder with the header. My one-ball exhaust ROARS at wide-open-throttle. At high RPMs, it SCREAMS. And the change in torque is almost unbelievable - the combination of the cam and header probably adds about as much as the 15% supercharger pulley - probably 15-20ftlbs. I didn’t think you could get this kind of performance out of a MINI without a reworked cylinder head. While adding a head would add even more top-end performance, the cam and header really change the car between 3000 and 6000 RPMs, right in the sweet spot for performance street driving. And the car is no slouch on the track - at the Phil Wicks VIR event in November, my car and another with the RMW cam and header were as fast as any MINI, other than a couple of full-track-prepped cars with big valve heads.

I’d do these mods again in a heartbeat. But be prepared for the change they will make to your car. My wife will still drive it, and it doesn’t scare her, but it’s as loud as she would be willing to endure. When I back into the garage, the entire house vibrates at the frequency of the exhaust pulses. I’m not kidding.

Thanks to Joe for arranging a tuning party at Speedwerks in Thomasville (right around the corner from Grassroots Garage). Several folks from THMMC, along with others from between DC and Charleston and Atlanta and Tennessee, showed up over a Friday and Saturday for their hour or so of magic on the dyno.

Jan uses DimSport tuning software and hardware to modify the MINI’s ECU maps, to optimize performance. This has an impact even on stock cars, but is especially impactful on cars that have aftermarket mods like pulleys, heads, headers, exhausts, intakes, camshafts, injectors……. you get the idea. The dyno applies a load to the front hubs of the car, and measures the torque and RPM generated, as well as analyzing exhaust gasses for air/fuel ratios.

Here’s Blimey on the SpeedWerks Dynapack chassis dyno:

Note that the front wheels are removed, and the car is hooked up to the Dynapack load units on each side. The big fans are used to provide radiator, engine and intercooler airflow to similar driving conditions on the street. In reality, you can’t move nearly as much air with a decent sized fan as you really get when driving, but every little bit helps. You also spray the intercooler with water between runs to reverse heat soak and create as much consistency across runs as possible.

Here’s Jan at work on his computer, tuning the ECU maps before uploading them to the car.

The automatic transmission is VERY challenging to dyno and tune. You can’t “bog” the auto… it will automatically downshift, even when in “manual” mode. Likewise, if you floor the accelerator past the “kickdown point”, it will downshift automatically. The dyno pull has to be done in third gear, so you have to set the dyno to start reading at about 3000 RPM, then very carefully modulate the throttle to get the RPMs just below 3000 in 2nd so you can upshift to 3rd, then floor it to (but not past) the kickdown point and hold until the car builds to max RPM and the run is over. It takes a LOT of trial and error to get this technique down.

Even when you’re done, the auto is harder for Jan to tune. The torque converter prevents clean transmission of power from the engine to the axles. So there’s a weird dip in the middle of the torque curve until the torque converter “locks” then torque jumps up suddenly.

Even with all these challenges, big gains are possible with work. Here’s my melted dyno sheet (the ink got wet on the way home… and Jan didn’t save the files so I couldn’t have a reprint done)…

You can’t assume much from the left end of the charts… but on the right end, note the blue line is higher than the red line… those are significant torque gains… that you can immediately feel on the street. Jan tuned the car a tad rich to allow for my cam install later, or gains would have been even greater.

Yesterday I tore down Blimey and installed a pair of Koni FSD struts and Ireland Engineering fixed camber plates. I’ve been eyeing the Koni’s for a while, hoping to get a deal. A used set recently came up for sale on NAM and I grabbed them. I figured, while I had the front struts out, it was the right time to add camber plates if I was ever going to do it. So I ordered a new pair of Ireland Engineering plates as well. All this stuff sat in my garage for a couple of weeks before I could get time to install them.

The Koni FSD struts have a special valve setup that makes them feel firm for cornering, but makes them absorb hard impacts like softer shocks. Many MINI owners swear by them for more comfortable street driving, while retaining good cornering performance.

The Ireland fixed camber plates add 1.25 degrees of negative camber up front. While the MINI has good adjustable rear negative camber - about 1.5-2.0 degrees, the stock front camber is only 0.5-0.75 degrees and non-adjustable. These cars corner better with a bit more camber in front than in the rear - many folks aim for street setups with 1.5-2.0 degrees of front negative camber, and 1.0 to 1.5 degrees of rear camber.

The install took most of the day, doing it solo, taking my time, breaking for lunch, and taking the time to make a special socket for the front struts. I used k-heuvo’s excellent how-to on NAM. While this writeup is for springs, swapping the struts is exactly the same procedure. The hardest part is removing and re-installing the front struts… it’s a bit of a bear getting the old ones out of and the new ones into the steering knuckle. But k-heuvo’s writeup provides some excellent tips for removal. For getting the new struts in, I had to reverse the procedure, using a stick and my jack to compress the spring/strut a bit and maneuver the bottom into the hole in the knuckle, then twist to get it aligned proper. CAREFUL! High risk of getting pinched here if you’re not attentive. I managed to keep all my digits intact. This would definitely be easier with two pairs of hands, though.

Here are the “after” shots.

Front:

Rear:

Top view of the camber plates. Note that the bearing dust cap in the middle is moved toward the right (toward the engine bay) by about an inch - this is what adds the additional camber. The Ireland plates also have longer studs than the OEM plates, which work better with the M7 strut tower plates! Sorry for the poor focus.

Time for a test drive. Yowee! The new setup has SIGNIFICANTLY better front-end cornering grip than before. I have to try much harder to make the car push in corners. The FSD’s do NOT deaden the road feel significantly. Still have plenty of feeling of being in contact with the pavement. They just take the “edge” off imperfections in the road. I’m looking forward to feeling this difference on some rough expansion-jointed interstate highway soon.

Update 7/1/2008: Had my alignment done today at Performance Chassis in Cary. Mark Cooper - great guy (with a great name!) does lots of work for guys in the Tar Heel Sports Car Club, so he understands performance suspension setups. I now have -1.8deg front camber (+/- .1 due to the fixed front camber), -1.5deg rear camber, and zero toe all around. Car handles GREAT and is stable. Love it.  Note that adding the camber plates had the effect of creating a TON of front toe-in… so I’m glad I got a quick alignment before I wore our my front tires… very reasonable prices, too. Highly recommended!

Here we are on Saturday, approaching the Lynn Cove Viaduct (see it on the side of Grandfather Mountain ahead).

Awesome view as we cross the viaduct…

Saturday we drove to the top of Mount Mitchell - highest peak east of the Mississippi…

I’ve been up there many times - but this was probably the most spectacular view I’ve ever seen up there.

On Sunday, we stopped at Devil’s Courthouse, near the highest point on the Parkway. We hiked to the Courthouse, a large rock outcropping with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, and of the MINIs below…

Our fearless leader Mark Vogler (Twister) made it up, even with a bad foot and a bad knee (it’s a helluva climb…)

What a great couple of days of driving and camaraderie… even Boddington had a great time!

And I plan to lead Blimey’s Tour of Terror II sometime in August!

• Spec’ed leather seats - because I like the way they feel.
• Ditched the rubber mats for coco mats - partially because of the feel of the rubber mats
• Replaced my OEM tach/speedo domes with Optium to reduce glare.
• Wrapped my steering wheel with a wheelskin for improved fattness and feel.
• Replaced the OEM Armrest with the Euro Armrest to match my elbow position.
• Modified my fire extinguisher mount to be exactly the right extension and height.
• Carefully positioned my GPS, phone, radar detector controls, G-Timer, ScanGauge, driving light switch, etc. for optimal usage.
• Replaced the OEM shift knob and e-brake handles with skull knob and aluminum UJ handles - for both feel and appearance.
• Wrapped the Chrono Pack face with black satin vinyl to reduce glare and improve eye-appeal of the gauge cluster.
• Added the Euro Parcel Shelf for easy-to-reach storage.
• Added the MCAW window circuit to make it easier and quicker to control my windows.

But there was still one major interface I hadn’t done anything about - the foot/pedal interface…

The OEM accelerator and dead pedal are a little slippery with some shoes… and the OEM brake pedal cover is rubber and is genuinely “squishy”…. which reduces brake feel and modulation. Especially given all the other things I’ve done to improve the performance and feel of my brakes (Carbotech pads, ATE rotors, stainless lines, bronze guide bushings, SuperBlue fluid…), I really want to get that last bit of “squish” out of the interface… and a little more bling is usually a good thing…

So last night, I installed a set of Outmotoring pedal covers. These come in sets for automatic and manual transmissions, and in a couple of different styles. The “classic” style has large round “cleats” on the brake, clutch (if you have one) and dead pedals for improved grip. The “race” style has more of a “waffle” pattern machined on the brake and clutch pedals, and the same round cleats on the dead pedal. Both styles have an enlarged, smooth accelerator pedal that helps with heel/toe shifting technique on manual transmission cars. They are machined from thick plate aluminum and have a satin bead blasted finish.

Installation isn’t trivial, but is straightforward. You remove the OEM brake (and clutch, if you have one) pedal covers - they just pop off. You drill holes and screw or bolt the new pedal covers in place. This is mostly easy, except for drilling the metal brake pedal, which is a serious PITA due to the curvature of the pedal and the location you’re working in. It’s very difficult to get the drill perpendicular to the face of the pedal near the top… so the bit tends to “skate” as you attempt to drill the first pilot hole… it’s do-able, but it took a lot of attempts for me to get it. A right-angle drill would come in handy here.

In lieu of a detailed installation write-up, I’ll point you to Russell Cory’s blog - he did a great write-up that helped me!

Here’s the end result - I love the improved feel of the brake pedal, especially. And I love the more aggressive look!