Edge

Very sorry to hear this news, Ricky - that really sucks, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone... but I have to ask... don't you think you might have taken the lowering process a bit too far? Perhaps it's time to raise the car back up a bit?

Hi Jonnie and welcome to the DCMM Forums! I hope to meet you (and MINIMO) at an event soon. Hopefully you'll enjoy yourself enough to consider joining as a member, too!

Absolutely a Countryman - 100%, no doubt about it... hence my higher center of gravity remark.

Higher center of gravity + fast, tight turn = FAIL

Yeah, had I owned an R57 (and not owned the deflector already), I'd have JUMPED on this deal.

There are three things to be concerned with in changing the tire size like that: 1) Fitment onto the wheels - are the wheels themselves wide enough to mount that size tire? 2) Clearance in the tire wells - especially when the car is loaded down, you go over heavy bumps, or when you have the steering wheel at full lock. I recently discovered that only a 5mm wheel spacer on the rear wheels caused tire rubbing in the rear wheel wells on my car... and that was with the stock 205 size! 3) Speedo/odometer differences - different tire sizes cause a different wheel diameter (and therefore circumference), changing your speedometer and odometer values slightly. I can't personally speak to the first 2 concerns - that depends largely on your exact setup. I have seen many people move up to 215s but not many that went to 225s. Others can probably speak to this better. As for concern 3 - I highly recommend plugging in your stock tire size and proposed tire size(s) into the Miata.net Tire Size Calculator. Fantastic tool! In the case you gave, it shows that the 225/45R17 size will cause your speedo to run 2.9% slower, so when it says you are doing 60mph, you're actually doing 61.8mph. Now, BMWs & MINIs intentionally inflate the reported speed anyway, so this would probably make your speedo more accurate. However, the odometer is accurately calibrated, so this would cause your odometer readings to go off (2.9 miles every 100 miles!) For this reason, if you really want a 225 tire width, I recommend checking to see if 225/40R17 is available instead of 225/45R17. The % differential between that size and your stock size is only 0.7%. Just food for thought. I'm sure there will be much more info coming from others.

Here's their menu. It's very slow to open in Acrobat, especially the second page, but it does work. Just trying to be helpful! menu_tarathaifallschurch.pdf menu_tarathaifallschurch.pdf

Celia - have you ever had Panang Curry Chicken? Mmmmm... SO good. If you like chicken and you like peanuts, you'll like Panang Curry Chicken. Delicious! And no, it's not very spicy. The thought has my mouth watering and considering getting a mani/pedi just to eat Thai! (kidding, of course... but the thought entered my mind! :angel:)

Phil, a big THANK YOU to you and the other organizers for hosting another successful event, even in spite of some technical difficulties! I had a really great time. My apologies for sounding grouchy after my runs were complete, but Ron's time calling on the PA left much to be desired. I realize it's a tough job requiring a lot of focus though, especially with such short runs - I'm sure that having to call them more frequently than usual is even harder work. Looking forward to the remaining 3 events - you guys do an awesome job at a tough task. :congrats:

Well, the DCMM Forums, anyway. Welcome! We hope you join the club, too!

Yes, only club members can directly attach files to posts (including pictures). I do believe that if you have a picture hosted on another site (such as Picasa, Flickr or Photobucket), you can link the image into your post as a non-member though. Nope, see above!

LOL - that redefines the meaning of the word "Zipcar" :laugh: ...where is this MINI stored again? I might need to know for next year's Scavenger Hunt. I can never seem to find a darn "Zipcar MINI" for it!

I (and Beau!) might be wrong about the "3 weeks" thing too. It's happened before... at least on my part.

Yep, it's the catch-22. You want to protect your new paint work ASAP... but in order to properly protect it, you need to wait 3 weeks or more for it to cure. So what do you do in the meantime? Risk driving around and getting new chips/dents on the fresh new paintwork while waiting? Or, park the car and drive something else while you wait? It's a really unfortunate choice. Of course it's not an issue when you just bought the car brand new because it's been a while since the car was painted at the factory.

Typo? What you just said doesn't really make sense...

You're welcome to take mine for a spin sometime! It will feel especially different to yours though, since there's also the other gen-related differences to contend with.

Yes, it was a lot of work, and took a very long time. One thing I should have clarified better though... I didn't need to load all 1,200 CDs twice. I loaded them only once, for the Lossless library, and then I used that library to do the conversion to 320 AAC... which went much faster as it was reading from the hard drive and didn't need to wait for me to insert the next CD. I can appreciate that some songs are always better than others, but I am a bit of a "completist" so I don't like to be missing anything. Besides, if I'm sharing the experience when listening to my collection with someone else, I'd hate for one of their favorite songs to be missing from an album just because I decided I didn't like it as much. In any case, I agree with you completely on the "low rent" quality of the typical 128 kbit MP3 out there, but should you ever find that you have a space issue with Lossless, give 320 kbit AAC a chance. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Actually, Apple Lossless saves you about 50% over the original source CD size. I'm a stickler for quality too. The problem is, I own over 1,200 CDs, and I like to carry my entire collection with me, but there's no iPod (or iPhone) that exists that will fit them all in Lossless format. So... my compromise is this: I converted every CD to Apple Lossless first, to retain full quality for home use... and from that I then re-converted the whole collection to 320kbps AAC. It's the next best thing, the quality is almost as good as Lossless for way less space consumption. That way, I can fit it all on my 160GB iPod. Of course I used to, but it's now full... so I bought an iPod 5.5G and one of the compatible 256GB hard drives so I can continue to grow my collection without having to choose what I carry. I keep both libraries (Lossless and 320kbps AAC) carefully separated, so I keep my options open.

Well, yeah... that's what it's from!

Good question. I'm not sure if the 1st Gen head units can play AAC files. That would be worth a test. Maybe "sacrifice" a blank CD, put some AAC files on it, and see if it works? BTW, if your music is already in MP3 format, there is no benefit to then converting it directly to AAC. In fact, it will make things worse. Why? Both of these formats use "lossy compression", which means that actual music data/information is thrown out when creating the file from the source material, in order to save space. Now, the amount of data that gets thrown out depends on the "bit rate" you choose, but data is always thrown out. So converting directly from one "lossy compression" format (e.g. MP3) to another "lossy compression" format (e.g. AAC) will only make things worse, because even more of the music data will be thrown out in the process. The best results are to always convert directly from the original high quality source material (e.g. CD). So yes, if you've already "ripped" your entire collection to MP3, to go to AAC with the best results means starting over and re-ripping the entire collection again, directly to AAC. The higher the bit rate the better the quality... and the larger the resulting file(s) - the highest bit rate available is 320 kbps.

Changing the lug bolts to the other size is indeed a bigger task. But there is no need to change the lug bolts, your existing ones should work fine. I haven't heard of a problem doing this, and I'll be very surprised if you do. Heck, you can always jack up the car and test-fit one of them at Sevan's house! I suggest testing on the front due to the bigger caliper.

Actually, the manager is misinformed. All 1st Gen and 2nd Gen OEM wheels will fit all MINIs*, provided the brake calipers aren't too big for them. The hole pattern is the same, and yes, although the bolt sizes changed slightly between generations, the holes in the wheels are still big enough to fit either. So yes, these wheels can be put on a 2nd Gen MINI. I also use 2nd Gen wheels on my 1st Gen MINI in the winter. It's really not a big deal. * Except for the Countryman / R60. That's a totally different ball of wax (different bolt pattern) Yep - RAD lug bolts and wheel locks are the top of the line, and that's why I used them in my brake upgrade project. It's just a shame they aren't black... but I still think they look good.

Done. $50/$50/$200/$100, right? No price suggested on the front bumper, though. Let me know if any of that is incorrect.

LOL... if Sevan/that7guy doesn't object, I'll edit his original post to properly substitute in the zeros... Just say the word!

Yep, you nailed it. BBK = Big Brake Kit. The stock brakes on the R56 are not considered a BBK, although the same brakes on an R50/R53 would be considered a BBK because of how much smaller the stock 1st Gen brakes were. Besides, the 1st Gen JCW BBK is effectively the same brake kit as the stock 2nd Gen S brakes. Of course, it's possible to go nuts like I did and put the 2nd Gen/R56 BBK on an R53. :laugh: (sorry if that was confusing at all)