Someone posted a couple of pix on NAM of some donks…
So I was thinking - Blimey needs 30 inch rims!!!
That may be my look for MOTD6 next year.
Think of the BRAKES you could have with 30s. I’d have six of you Dragon tailgaters stuck under my car when I go from 70 to 0 in like 4 feet on a corner. That would be awesome.
And nobody would make jokes about my “cute little car” anymore.
And the size of the freakin Union Jacks you could get painted on a 30″ wheel…
So COOPERation (the god of MINI toons) mocked up an image for me. I LOVE it…
MMMMMMMM……
I’m reclining in my “deluxe” room in the Robbinsville Microtel, basking in the afterglow of my first Dragon slaying. Ahhhhh.
I had a meeting in Asheville this afternoon. The weather was perfect. I had time. So I scooted over here for a quickie… Wow, what a road… it’s everything your buddy (or older brother) described it to be… and more… DOING it is way, way better than hearing about it - or looking at pictures of other people doing it… though I’m not quite sure I did it the right way, because I’m a little sore…by the time I was halfway back down, I was getting a little queezy… kinda like realizing during the second round that, even though your best friend’s mom is hot and cooperative, your buddy is BOUND to find out, sooner or later…
And boy, does my right elbow hurt… us old guys should do special exercises before and take some dramamine before submitting to the Dragon… or risk Dragon elbow and motion sickness… Getting old bites the big one…
I actually feel like I kinda “sowed my wild oats” so to speak, and got it out of my system. I pushed it - pretty hard - on the way up. I’m glad I didn’t do that with my family in the car… I think I can drive it much easier, more calmly, more smoothly and a little more slowly now that my masculinity doesn’t have to be proven… thank goodness for DSC… I don’t want to make a habit of relying on it to save my butt… but I’m glad it was there today…
The obligatory “been there, done that” photo:
And, just in case you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about… here’s what 11 miles and 318 curves of bliss looks like from space…
So I now have my USS and H-Sport rear swaybar installed, and have gotten used to what this lets me do…. A few days ago I met my wife and kids for dinner, then drove the kids home. It was dark, and we were heading home up a cool dragonesque uphill stretch with 4 or 5 nice twists - I always ask the boys (7 and 10) if they want to go fast on this stretch, and they always scream YESSSS!!!!!!
This time, thanks to my new mods, we went CONSIDERABLY faster than usual. The boys were hootin’ and hollerin’ all the way up (e.g. “AWESSSSOMMMME!!!”)…
As we near the top, my 10 year old yells from the back seat, “THAT WAS AWESOME!!! THANKS FOR PIMPIN’ YOUR RIDE, DAD!!!”…
I almost laughed myself off the road… That phrase had never been used in my household before… ah, television…
I installed my H-Sport 19mm rear sway bar today. Details on how are below. But now, between that and the USS, Blimey is BEGGING for more throttle in the twisties. The more throttle I give him, the better he carves his way around the corners (oh yeah, and he goes faster, too…). It’s a little creepy, like the car has developed a mind of his own. But I LIKE it. “Yeah, baby!” 
I ALMOST held off on this. I ordered the H-Sport bar the same time I ordered the USS - about a month ago. But the bar was on backorder and I just received it this week. After reading a LOT of posts about how hard the sway install is on a cabrio, I came really close to just holding the bar until I took the car in for pulley and one-ball and letting Dan the Man do it. But I re-read all the cabrio-specific instructions I could find and decided that you only live once and I needed to sprout a pair and tear my car apart in the garage and hope for the best…
It really wasn’t that hard. I used Randy Webb’s How-to along with the H-Sport provided instructions (which are almost identical). Then I used tips from a number of different sources on the cabrio-specific issues, and improvised a bit on my own. Here are the keys that I think helped make it easy and uneventful:
* I unbolted the rear end of both gas tank straps. This allows the bar to slide a bit up between the tanks and the chassis - which helped a lot.
* I removed the two bolts and two washer-nuts (four different points) holding the middle-rear exhaust heat shield (the one that runs from the middle of the car back to where the exhaust turns toward the resonator/muffler). Then I did some creative heat shield origami to get that shield out from under the shield on the forward end - which let me slide the shield far enough forward to free the edge of the rear shield (the one over the mufflers). Then I could bend that part down and access the cabrio-specific center bolt of the subframe. I did this BEFORE removing the other subframe bolts - so once this step was done, everything else works just like the hardtop install. Using the heatshield origami approach not only provided a relaxing creative exercise, but also prevented any cutting or destruction of the heatshields, which some folks have resorted to on the cabrio. I was able to completely reverse the moving and folding of the heatshields when complete.
* I removed both rear struts completely. This was easy, and the extra clearance makes fishing the bars in and out much easier.
* Whenever I needed to lift the subframe, I used my race jack to do it. Made things go much easier than trying to fight it by hand.
Here’s a photo of the heatshield origami. This photo is hear the middle of the straight exhaust pipe, where the two heat shields overlap. The bottom of the photo is toward the rear of the car. The upper (forward) heatshield is originally “on top” of the other one (it’s actually under it, but when you’re laying on your back, everything is kinda reversed) - preventing it from sliding forward. I carefully folded the edge of the forward shield down and forward, and slid the rear shield back as far as I could - this allowed me to get the rear (bottom) shield out from under the forward one and then slide it forward far enough to free the edge of the rearmost (muffler) heatshield. Note the stud on the right side of the photo - this and it’s twin on the other side (obscured in the photo) are what the nut-washers thread onto to hold the heatshields in place.
Below is the view of the rear heatshield, as seen from the driver’s side of the car. The corner that is bent down is actually the forward edge of this heatshield, which was trapped behind the rear-middle shield before it was moved forward. The hole is where one of the bolts that secures this heatshield goes.
The cabrio-specific 5th subframe bolt is up under there, you bend the heatshield away to access it. You’ll need a 16mm socket and a universal joint and an extension - or you can fight it without the universal if you misplaced yours (like I did).
The new bar in place, before reassembly. The H-Sport stickers are good for at least 5 hp.
I did the entire install in about 3 hours including cleanup. Completely solo. I never felt like I needed another set of hands to pry or pull or lift - I was easily able to do it all with just the jack. And since no local MINI owners volunteered to come supervise and help, it was MORE BEER FOR ME…
My other project for this weekend, while I had the wheels off, was to install my Texas Speedwerks M14-M12 stud conversion. I really like how studs ease wheel changes. I don’t plan to use non-stock wheels anytime soon, so I don’t need the other benefits of studs (fit wheels and aftermarket brake hats with smaller bolt holes, longer length to support spacers for aftermarket wheels with different offsets).
So I did a test fit without LocTite on one wheel. The Muteki nuts don’t seem to contact the entire seat of the stock 5 spoke bullet wheels - they seem like they ALMOST go through the holes (though I’m sure this is just me being paranoid).
But the biggest issues I have is the length - the studs protrude almost an inch beyond the nuts - and well beyond the face of the wheel. Here’s the length compared with the stock lugnuts.
So I’m checking to see if I can get M14 studs that are both fatter and shorter. Otherwise I guess I’m sticking with the lug bolts (argh).
Update: Jeff at Texas Speedwerks says the M14 studs are the same length, but the nuts are much larger and longer. So I’ll still have some stud exposed, but maybe it won’t look as “odd” to me… I ordered one stud and nut to test it. Stay tuned…
Update to the update: I got the M14 test stud and nut - it’s still a bit longer than I need / want, but it doesn’t look as “freaky” to me - because it’s fatter and the nut is larger/longer, it doesn’t *look* as long and “spikey”… and the larger nuts seem to completely fill the 60 degree taper like they should… so I shipped back the M12s and Jeff is cross-shipping replacement M14s to me. He says he’ll be recommending the M14s for stock wheels from now on. He’s been great to work with through this - very good customer service. I’ll post pics when I get them installed next week.
I’ve been wanting to paint my calipers for a while. For my driving needs, I’m pretty happy with the stock brakes (with Hawk Ceramic Pads). I may do the bronze bushing upgrade and maybe SS lines - but I don’t need a Big Brake Kit - at least no time soon. But I DO like the bling factor of painted calipers. And I thought red calipers would make some of my Union Jack wheel accessories “pop”.
Here are the “before” pix…
So a while back I bought a G2 Red Caliper Paint Kit. I’ve been waiting for a weekend where I had enough time, and the right temperature range, to do this (G2 recommends 56F-70F for proper paint curing speed). Yesterday all the planets aligned.
The G2 kit includes paint, stir stick, brush, brake cleaner and paint hardener. It’s important to get the brakes VERY clean, so you’ll also want a wire or stiff nylon brush. You need to get everything clean and masked before mixing the hardener with the paint, because you only have 2-4 hours of working time once these are mixed. I chose the G2 kit because the reviews I’ve read suggest that the colors stay bright and last a long time. Folks have reported that other paint kits required periodic re-painting…
First you need to get the car up on stands and all four wheels off. A lot of folks have posted questions about how to get on four jackstands. I use a race jack with a 3′ long piece of 2×4, and lift under the sill, between the two jack points, then insert stands on that side. Then I repeat on the other side. Takes 2 minutes and is VERY easy… Here are the results - shine courtesy of Prima Epic…
Cleaning is important. I just changed my pads a couple thousand miles ago and cleaned the calipers pretty well then. Look how much gunk came out with the brake cleaner!!! You definitely want to put down some paper to catch this stuff… because you’ll end up with a small lake of brake cleaner fluid and brake dust (oh yeah, and you want good ventilation, and no flames or sparks…). I removed the pad retainer springs because I didn’t want those painted (or glued on by the paint).
Here’s what you want your calipers to look like before painting… nice and clean…
I chose to mask ONLY the small parts on the caliper that I didn’t want painted (brake bleed nipple, rubber guide pin cover, brake line, parking brake hardware on rear). The brush allows good control during application. So as long as you’re willing to go slow and careful, you can avoid a lot of masking of disks and pads.
Painting first coat took me about 10 minutes per caliper to make sure everything had a nice, thin, even coat with no accidents. By the time I finished the first coat, it was ready for second coat which only took a few minutes per caliper. Here are the results - pretty clean…
It’s VERY important (did I mention that it’s VERY important???) to let the paint cure for the full recommended time (or pretty darn close to it) before trying to reinstall the springs or wheels. The paint is VERY susceptible to marring with the springs before it fully hardens. So do NOT get impatient (like I did - twice) and try to put the springs back on the same day. Wait until tomorrow. Use great care and two pairs of pliers to get the springs back on without scratching your new paint job. I still ended up with a couple of little spots that I touched up with model paint…
But with the wheels back on, it looks GREAT, at least it does to me… The color looks less “orange” than the flash here makes it appear. It looks like the same red as the “S” logo on the side vents.
I’m VERY happy with the results. Adds just a little bit of bling and dresses up the wheels and the side view of the car in general. It was a “must” for my Union Jack scheme. Anyone can do this - just takes a little time and patience - and a jack, and stands, and lug wrench, and pliers, and a brush, and paper to catch the gunk, and masking tape, and lots of paper towels, and more patience.
Drops from #11 to #28 in expected reliability - or something like that…
Some people swear by Consumer Reports - but not me.
I mean, the majority of Consumer Reports writers, reviewers, analysts (and a heckuva lot of subscribers) still live at home with their mothers…. 
OK, that was uncalled for. They just all still have Sunday lunch with their mothers….
I lost all confidence in them 20 years ago while working in the bicycle business. Used to have customers walk in asking for the specific models CR rated highest in their latest issue. Then I had to explain to disbelieving CR subscribers that the particular model in the mag hasn’t been available for 2 years… which was true. Context-challenged CR reviewer got pegged as a sucker by a bike salesman and got sold an OLD model, tested it, wrote the review, and never bothered to check if it was currently in production… geesh.
OK as a source on which toaster to buy. And maybe on which minivan to buy - maybe….
But worthless for information on enthusiast products of any kind, IMHO. Even for the products that capture reliability/satisfaction data from their reader base, I find that their reader base isn’t a representative cross section of Americans or humans in general (you are likely to have some particular tendencies to subscribe to CR - not 100% of the time, but more often than not). And it certainly isn’t representative of “enthusiasts” or “early adopters”. I filled out my Strategic Vision survey for my new MCSC tonight. There are many questions on there where I said I was “Delighted” or “Very Satisfied” that would register a “Failure” from someone less “enthusiastic” about my car (ride comfort, NVH, etc). Context matters A LOT in these areas. Reasonable convertible owners expect their car to (a) cost more to purchase (b) have more mechanical issues (c) be noisier (d) eventually cost $$$ to replace a top out of warranty if they keep it long enough… so when all these things come true, will I pan the car for low reliability? No. Would someone with different expectations? Probably.
Any magazine that pans Corvettes for going “too fast” or a Lotus because the rear end comes around when you let off the gas in a corner, does NOT share MY context, or understand my priorities… and doesn’t get a vote in my buying behavior…
But for folks who find that CR’s outlook on the world is reasonably aligned with their own, I highly recommend you follow their advice.
I have friends and family who tend to be commerce robots - CR is a key tool in their very mechanical process of choosing to spend money. My household doesn’t work that way… and we have a LOT more fun…
Someone on NAM today posted that MINIs have crappy cupholders because they’re built to drive on the Autobahn, where rational drivers would never even consider eating/drinking while driving.
Another person posted that “real” driving enthusiasts would NEVER EVEN CONSIDER eating or drinking in their car and - I’m so impressed - THEY never have and never will.
I drive on the autobahn precisely - zero.
And when I’m driving “enthusiastically” I absolutely use both hands.
But when I’m forced by the US speed nannies to drive 70ish on a road that in Europe would have no speed limit, I think that - and 30 years of driving experience - leaves me enough margin of error to sip my Triple Venti Sugar Free Mocha Breve’ occasionally - or even eat a breakfast burrito. 
I have two MiniFini cupholders and love’m.
They actually get more use HAULING gigantic iced tea cups from my drive-thru du jour back to my office when I typically eat at my desk…
But frequent multi-hundred-mile business drives, two jobs, and a family sometimes force me to find ways to use my time most efficiently. And - gasp - I’ve found that I can drive and eat at the same time… hasn’t caused an accident in 30 years…
Oh yeah - having an AUTOMAGIC TRANSMISSION helps too.