cmcveay

Sherm - I didn't realize you were also approaching 30!

Just in case anyone missed this new section of the forums, the board members discussed this and we voted on creating a new section in the market place and this is it. "Crafty Members"! Many of us have skills that lead to us making things or offering things for sale. For example, Ali and I recently completed a very successful "MINI Glamour Shots" event at MINIs on The Dragon. We are going to be posting an announcment here in the near future to announce a standing "Glamour Shots" opportunity and we also team up from time to time for other photo shoots. So, if you have a service or product to offer other club members, here's the place to do it.

It's "Meet & Greet" time! This month, it will be held at MINI of Montgomery County from 9:30am to noon. The address is: 1190 Rockville Pike, Rockville MD 20852 Please come join us for a casual get together with new and old members. Non-members and soon-to-be members are also welcome! This time, Passport MINI of Montgomery County is putting on a special event - they selected the date of our Meet and Greet just to make sure we can be there to take part. The event is a combination service and new car clinic aimed at bringing existing Mini/MINI enthusiasts into the dealership and service center for an educational experience as well as bringing in future enthusiasts into the dealership to meet us and get great deals on cars! Here's what's being offered: All attendees · Food and beverages · Information displays and sections · TV raffle · Giveaways and specials for purchases of vehicles DCMM and C3M club members: · 25% off savings card (MINI of Montgomery County only) · Door prizes · Shop viewing with technician interaction · Tech sessions subject (11:00am and 1:00pm) · Suspension · Brakes · DTC · Tires/wheels · We would like to get as many classic Minis as possible. We will design our layout based on how many we have. The cars (classic Minis) will have to be here by 8am or the night before.

It's not the speedbumps that Ricky is worried about - ask him about the manhole cover (or water valve cover or something)... Just be sitting down when you hear about it, it'll break your heart...

That really is just too damn funny!

+1 on the Clubman being fun and still being practical.

Unfortunately, Chris is driving a 1st Gen. That's a nice set up though!

I have a pair of Thule bike mounts so there's 1/2 of what you are looking for!

Will, I use Castrol full synthetic and I but my filters online. I'm not a big fan of the drain valve thing because the bottom of that oilpan isn't protected and the valve extends farther down. Knock it off and you have a disabling incident. I don't think there's enough room for a filter wrench of any kind, I'll show you what the OEM wrench looks like on Saturday and it's not that expensive so I'd highly suggest that.

Catalina has the factory NAV and her GPS antenna is in the OEM antenna base. With that, it means figuring out a way to stuff that gear inside the shark fin. Do you mean run the antenna wires outside the enclosure and down into the hatch? If so, I've gotta say that would be butt-ugly. They should go through the factory opening. I think this could be a fun project but it ain't gonna be easy!

That's why I go to Tire Rack and get their numbers - your math example gives me a headache....

If it'll help you feel better, the rubbing at the locks was only with the Star Specs. If you take a look at the dimensions provided by the manufacturers on Tire Racks website, you'll see that the Star Specs are a bit wider at the tread and sidewall than other tires of the same size. Oh, I shold also mention that all of those tires were mounted on 17.7's but I don't remember the off-set on the wheels. If you give Dan a call or google the Rota wheels, you can find out what their offset is just to compare. I'm not a fan of using the wheel spacers if it's not needed though. My .02 on that is you are putting the load a little farther out on the axle/spindle/bearing so it increases the load on the bearings. Also, the spacer requires longer bolts so the leverage applied when starting/stopping is increased. The only reason to use spacers is to clear the brakes so I just shopped around until I found wheels that cleared the Wilwood brake kit and I didn't have to use spacers. In the case of Haemish, that wasn't an option because he has a set of wheels that he wants to use and spacers were the only way to clear the brakes. The tire size calculator that Haemish (Edge) mentioned really is an awesome tool to use. When I was trying to figure out what size tire I wanted to run, I first selected the brand and models that I was going to choose from and I then put all of the dimensions (including the OEM tire/dimensions) into an excel spreadsheet. Then, I ran them through the Miata calculator so I could get the changes that would happen and with that data, I was able to sort through the choices with very little confusion. Using the OEM as my baseline, I could easily see which tires would be the closest fit to OEM and my ultimate goal was to keep the tire "height" as close as possible while getting a wider tire under the car and my other big concern was weight. A tire that's too tall will hurt the acceleration of the car as it effectively increases the final drive ratio and a heavier tire takes more energy to start/keep rolling and with more unsprung weight, they change the handling/ride dynamics. The impact upon the speedo and other data displays had no impact on my decision because I can check the indicated vs. actual with mile markers or a GPS and it's really not that hard to remember that if the speedo says I'm doing 65 mph, I know it's off by 4 so I'm actually doing 61 mph. I've also heard the argument that if you get a speeding ticket and you have the calibration/accuracy of your speedo checked and it's off, the ticket will probably be thrown out. Your mileage may vary on that tactic but I've had people tell me that story.

Beau - what size are the Kumho's that you grabbed from here? Were they 40's or 45's? I ran 17" 225's on a lowered R56 with a set of Rota Torque wheels and no spacers (I was worried about the issue that Haemish pointed out). The only place I had a problem with contact was where the mud flaps attached. When I wore those out, I went with a set of Dunlop Star Specs and they were even wider but I also changed struts/springs to raise the car back up about .25" and I didn't have any problems with contact except at low speed when I turned the steering wheel all the way to the locks. I still have two of those Kumho's (Beau took the other two) so if you'd like to mount them on rims and give 'em a try, just let me know.

Just making sure that there wasn't an "IF" in there somewhere.

When, you mean WHEN. Right?

Current schedule: 10:00 2003 Audi RS6 10:40 11:20 12:00 12:40 2011 Subaru WRX 1:20 1970 Ford Torino Boss 429 2:00 2:40 3:20 4:00

Who: Mach V What: Mach V Dyno Day, June Bug Edition When: 6/23/12, 10am to 4pm Where: 45690 Elmwood Ct Suite 170 Sterling, VA 20166 Details: If you haven't seen us advertise this before, dyno day offers the chance to get a baseline or updated dyno numbers on your car for a smaller fee than on normal workdays. Cost is $75 for a slot, $25 additional for air/fuel analysis. (Normal price is $100 and $35 for a/f.) Slots are 40 minutes, which is usually enough for 3-4 pulls. (Actually more, if you want...) It's a great social/educational event, too, as lots of people come to watch and compare notes. Feel free to stop in and hang out even if you're not dyno-ing. If you're dyno-ing your car, you'll get a paper graph to take with you, and we can also email you your dyno data files, so you can store/analyze/post your results to your heart's content. Please call (571) 434-8333 with your credit card in hand to reserve a slot. We'll just keep the card number in case you don't show up. You can pay however you want on the day of. --Dan Mach V

Speaking in regards to 2nd Gen only: Yep, the "pops and burbles" are there with the sport button on. The sport button also changes the steering (just a little "heavier") and it changes the throttle mapping. Since the MINI has a "drive by wire" throttle and not a direct connection, the way it responds can be tweaked. I think it was 2011 that MINI brought back the "pops and burbles" for everyone and it was just JCW before that. You'll only hear it coming off throttle and it seems it's not there at higher RPM's/speeds as much as it is lower. With regards to the throttle mapping - The Alta Access Port (AP) offeres up several tunes that come with the device and in each "stage", there are maps that have a .tps in the file name. After some experimenting, I've found that the tps maps have the same power (HP/TQ) as the others but the throttle response is rather mushy/slow - much like the non-sport mode response and it's not linear (pedal movement doesn't equal response). The engine actually feels as though it "bogs down" as you are stepping on the pedal and then the response comes in pretty quick. There's nothing like stepping on it as you pull out into oncoming traffic and having the car feel like it's doing a NASA countdown to launch. 4, 3, 2, 1, Blastoff! When the non tps maps are installed, it's crisp and responsive and the more linear feel of the throttle is very comforting. Oh, with the non tps maps, the "pops and burbles" are always on.

Pressure washer!

Hey, can you check the link again? I'm getting an error message when I click on it. It was good to meet you today and we look forward to seeing you at future events!

+1 for the "Auto Sport +" from FES Auto. It allows you to program the Sport or DSC button for start up (Great for Autocross use so you don't forget to turn off the DSC). It also gives you two "Stealth" circuits that can be used to activate low power devices or to control relays for low power devices by performing a quick double tap on the button. My DSC button controls power to a device that I like to be able to turn off/on without having to reach to the device. With a relay, this could also power auxillary lights.

When I get home later today, I'll see what software I use to rip my music CD's as it does go out to recover all of the track data. I also have an add-on application for iTunes (did I ever tell the story about me NEVER using iTunes?) that helps keep my music library cleaned up. It's not the software sold by Biz Markie (sp?) with his stupid helmet on so I'll have to be in front of the computer for that. With nearly 20,000 MP3's, it was a tough chore to get it all organized but a couple of friendly applications running around the clock for a couple of days got it done.

Yep, you are welcome to take it and give a whirl to make sure it works for you as well.