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Gearhead60

Club Member
  • Posts

    228
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About Gearhead60

  • Rank
    First Gear
    Third Gear

Club Position

  • Title
    First Gear

Personal Information

  • First Name
    Mark
  • Spouse/Significant Other First Name - if none, please enter "n/a"
    Pam
  • Biography
    I'm been a gearhead as long as I can remember. Always loved Minis and finally bought one!
  • Location
    Manassas, VA
  • Interests
    Cars, IPAs (the hoppier the better), Photography, Firearms, Ebay, Estate Sales, Airplanes.
  • Occupation
    Project Manager

My MINI

  • My MINIs Year
    2017
  • My MINIs Type
    Cooper S Clubman
  • My MINIs Body Color
    Digital Blue
  • My MINIs Roof Color
    Body Color
  • My MINIs Name
    Lilli

Recent Profile Visitors

2,981 profile views
  1. Had Lilli at GT Peace the last couple of days for tires and a noise. Turned out to be right front motor mount. Completely broken, causing a vibration and noise. I was told the discount was 5% on labor but when I asked again, they allow me 10%. MM was $800 installed. I guess they felt sorry for me.....
  2. @1975_mini Did you get an answer from GT Peace about the current discount? %5 or 10%?
  3. I've not used them personally, C&C Auto Performance in Manassas has been around for a long time. They have always had a great reputation.
  4. On my calendar! Went to RSVP page, but doesn't allow sign-up.....
  5. I plan to bring my ancient canopy for shade and a jobsite battery powered fan (go red).
  6. @STXMINI Thanks for the clarification....BTW, I have a plus 1. Got the cups covered.....
  7. So maybe I'm missing something in the "Car Corral Event" page or this signup for the Picnic. Nowhere does it ask about bringing a guest or significant other, so how do we really know how many people are going to be there? I'm bringing a guest and imagine, I'm not the only one. I've been accused of "man looking", so perhaps there's another sign-up to reflect a total number attending?
  8. We can bring cups. Suggestion for size and number?
  9. Hi SusieQ! Welcome to the club. I have a 2017 Clubman and I've always been annoyed by the same issue. I guess not enough as I haven't done anything about it as it is only noticeable at certain times. I always thought a vinyl wrap might help. I can't remember who, but someone in the club does vinyl stickers and wrapping. Hopefully, they might respond.....
  10. Holy F**k! This car now flys! JCW has got nothing on this tune. The more I drive it the more I like it. For $499, well worth the Max gains of 87 WHP / 109 lb-ft of torque. Instant power anywhere.....
  11. Got the ECM back yesterday. Was able to put it back in car last night but only got a short test drive in. Only took about an hour to put it all back together. No check engine lights or any issues on first start up. Initial test drive was very short, but impressions are favorable. Pulls hard all the way to redline. Easy to bounce it off the rev limiter. Have to get used to that again. My old Honda Civic Si was easy to hit rev limiter at 8500 rpm. Had to learn when to shift.... Stock tune on Mini ran out of breath before even coming close. Had to return loaner car today to work, so didn't drive it. Tomorrow will be first chance to spend decent time gaining impressions.
  12. Yes, I'm hoping it is a significant difference. The Dinantronix tunebox I had before that failed was a very noticable difference just with 30-40+- HP. I decided years ago that mods stop when they aren't usable on a street car without making it into a track car. I used to have a Toyota Corolla back in the day that was used as a track car and a street car. Ran it with the Corvette club at Summit Point. While it didn't have the HP to keep up with the Corvettes, they couldn't get around me unless we were on the long straight. RX-7s, MR2s and any small German or Asian car couldn't catch me. To boot, it was in a SW body. Drove a few people crazy until they saw I had a JDM engine in it. Of course this was long before anyone knew what JDM meant. The car was a no compromises for ride, noise or handling. It rode hard, handled like a go-cart and probably cost me a few decibels in hearing. My aim one day is to build a track car, but I have so many project cars in my head right now, not sure which one gets done 1st.....
  13. I've tried to do mods as $$$ and budget (what budget says the wife) become available. While I can justify spending money at will on the car, the boss won't and is unsympathetic to my gearhead desires....LOL. What does fund the mods are unspent weekly spending money and gift money. I usually let it accumulate until it reaches a level high enough for the next planned purchase. I started with the cheaper and easier ones, then moved on to the ones I thought would be worth more for the utility, like the Cravenspeed short shifter and the NM RSB. The Dinan tune came about because of a recent bonus from work. While most of the bonus was going into the joint finances, the boss asked what I wanted to spend some of it on and told her the Dinan tune. While she pretended to understand, she couldn't say no. Next mod? Probably better coil packs. Dinan makes some that are reasonably priced and give a much better spark. Of course, this will probably have to wait a little bit, as the next item to be financed from the slush fund is firearms related....bang bang, shoot shoot....
  14. My car is 5 years old, but only has 36,500 miles on it. I'm not worried about the clutch. Cars are a money hole. The only reason you do the mods is for the love of it. You will never see a return on it. Last car I had (1999 Honda Civic Si) was 17 years old when I sold it with 90,000 miles on it. This one will likely be around for at least another 5-10 years. I figure, might as well make it drive how I want it to and not worry about the expense.
  15. David, The piggyback from Dinan is still available but only at a lower power option. I lieu of the what used be called the Dinan Elite piggyback unit is a benchflash of the ECU. I used a piggyback from Dinan for awhile, but after 3 years it failed. I liked the addtional power and since my car is now out of warranty, the Stage 1 flash is reasonable @ $499.95 with stated increases to 309 HP and 357 LB-FT Tq on 93 Octane. See the Dinan site here for more information. I will say that the r&r of the ECU was somewhat of a pain and I had some trepidation about doing it. But here I am, dead car in the driveway and an ECU 500 miles away on someone's workbench.....LOL. Garrett, Bootmod3 looks to be interesting, but for $100 less the Dinan seems to offer a lot more HP/Tq gain for the 93 Octane level. I do understand the attraction to a mod without ECU removal and shipping. I did talk to the Dinan people and they claim it to be a comprehensive remapping of the ECU that is a vast improvement over stock mapping. Other owners I've corresponded with say it makes the car an absolute kick in the ass to drive and runs a whole lot better than stock. Dinan does thoroughly test your ECU before sending it back. Good luck if you try the Bootmod3 option.
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