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Cold Winter Days

January is a great time to turn up the space heater and hunker-down in the garage, dreaming of warmer weather and open track ahead of you. We took advantage of the warmer than usual weather in December to complete most of the prep work on the Red MINI for the upcoming autocross season, so it’s time to turn our attention to back the Blue MINI.

Blue MINI is either going to be sold or it will become the GeorgeCo daily driver. (Meaning if GeorgeCo can’t get the desired asking price, we’re not letting it go cheaply.) To that end, the goals of the refresh are fairly straight forward: reduce harshness of the ride; reduce cabin noise; and install a more traffic friendly clutch. The suspension has been returned to stock; the stock flywheel has been resurfaced and is ready to go back in as soon as the clutch kit arrives; so this past weekend we turned to the issue of cabin noise.

Interior cabin noise in the Blue MINI exceeded 110db on the highway. Though not quite painful, it tended to drone and cause ringing in the ears after long drives. Not a problem with the windows down and helmet on at the track, but not conducive to conversation on the highway. The noise was a combination of factors: large tread-blocks on the max performance summer tires; the cold air intake transmitting intake noise; the single-mass flywheel rattling at idle; and the exhaust being much louder than stock. A change of tires took care of the first issue. Switching back to the stock intake cured the second. When the new clutch is installed we will switch back to the stock flywheel eliminating the rattle. That just leaves the exhaust noise.

We have a couple of solutions to try before purchasing a new exhaust. The first is to try to increase sound deadening in the boot. We put five sheets of Hushmat under the carpet in the boot to provide a little additional sound deadening from the rear mounted muffler. (Sure it adds weight to the car, but it ads it low and in the back where it’s needed.) As soon as the ice clears from the local interstate, we’ll get up to speed and see if overall cabin noise is down significantly. If that doesn’t work, we can swap the stock exhaust out from the Red MINI. It will require some slight modifications due to the differences between model years, but that shouldn’t be too complicated. Putting a new exhaust on the car when you don’t have a lift in your garage is a literal pain in the back, one we’re hoping to avoid with the Hushmat.

Found at the Mall

I stopped by Tysons Galleria for lunch expecting to see the usual Ferrari, Maserati, and Lambos on display (not your ordinary mall…) and much to my surprise they had a Fisker Karma there too.

I’m not sure what to make of the design. It seems well built, even if the panel gaps are a bit large. I wasn’t expecting it to be this big. The proportions are just slightly wrong. I’m not sure if it’s because of the huge wheels or the fact that the wheels are pushed out to the ends of the body, but something isn’t right. It reminds me of a cross between a BMW Z4 (not a pretty parent) and a C6 Corvette. For $112K you can have a ‘lectric super-car with a 32 mile range too. I wonder if this is Colin Powell’s car…

GeorgeCo Convertible Follow-up

Longtime readers will recall we sold the GeorgeCo convertible last Spring as pictured above. We hoped to find someone who would take the time to restore it. This week we got an update: Not yet complete, but so far, nicely done. About the only bits we recognize are the seat covers.

Last Motoring Event of 2011

Saturday brought the last motoring event of the year for GeorgeCo. It was a very nice late Autumn day of sliding and sloshing on the skidpad at Summit Point with the other instructors from the local BMW club. GeorgeCo got a chance to test out the Red MINI’s new suspension and even got to drive a friend’s 911.

I’ve instructed in a Porsche a couple of times and really enjoyed the opportunity to drive it on the skidpad. I’d like to say I instantly mastered oversteer, but that would be not true. It’s a very different experience to feel the car rotating around you at a point somewhere in the middle of the rear seats. Most of my MINI tricks didn’t work (ie more power in oversteer) and the balance just feels wrong. It wasn’t until later in the session that I finally figured out to ease up on the wheel, let the wheels straighten and keep steady power and it sorts itself out. You can’t lift suddenly and more power just speeds up the spin, but steady power seems to do the trick. That was fun.

The new suspension on Red MINI proved to be a good choice. The middle setting on the Alta rear swaybar took out most of the understeer, but didn’t make the car tail happy so as to induce oversteer on sudden throttle lift. It’s very neutral with a slight bias to understeer which is the way I like it. We set up some cones and got a chance to practice a little scandinavian flick action. The IE fixed camber plates provide a much less harsh ride than the adjustable plates in the Blue MINI. I think I’m going to like this set-up.

The track was quiet all day. I don’t think I’ve been here before when there wasn’t some sort of event going on. The run-off area in turn one had a certain zen garden quality to it. Be the curve.

The Low Down

We’ve been busy here at GeorgeCo during the last few weeks of Autumn, taking advantage of the warmer than expected weather to get some projects done before the cold and snow of Winter sets in. Even as we prepare to sell the GeorgeCo Blue MINI, work continues on the Red MINI. In addition to getting the FES-Auto shift light to work in the new car, we finally made some suspension modifications. Here’s a brief recap:

We picked up a set of 17 inch R90 wheels couple of months ago and they were a little worse for wear under the previous owner. Nothing structural, but better to be straightened than to worry. A quick trip to the Rim Doctor and they look great, but they also really highlighted the fact that the car rides too high in stock configuration. (You can thank taller springs from the factory due to our crappy roads in the US for that.) Keeping in mind the performance goals of this car — faster, quieter, and smoother than the Blue MINI — we set to work on the suspension.

The stock Cooper S suspension is very competent from the factory. Optimized for occasional spirited driving, it starts to show its weaknesses when you get it on the track and really push it. The front wheels have little to no camber. The 17mm rear swaybar is undersized. The result is a serious tendency to understeer and excessive tire wear on the outer edges. The taller springs increase body roll and exaggerate the understeer.

We solved the camber problem in the Blue MINI with adjustable camber plates, but they proved too harsh for daily driving and were a major source of the uncomfortable ride. We liked the performance of the Bavarian Autosport lowering springs on the Blue MINI, but the Koni shocks just added to the harshness. To build on what we learned from the Blue MINI, we started with the parts we liked (BavAuto springs, stock shocks) and built from there.

BavAuto springs lowered the car and eliminated the raked stance that comes from the factory. We installed them over stock MINI shocks. Since the rear end picks up camber with the lowering springs, we added Hsport adjustable control arms to reset camber to negative 1.5 degrees. (Toe is set to 1/8 inch Toe-In for the rear to provide high speed stability.) We added a 22mm adjustable Alta rear swaybar to dial-out the inherent understeer. By sitting lower on the springs we also needed to reset the swaybar back to a right angle relative to the droplink, so we added adjustable drop links, also from Alta. (While we had the wheels off, we also added brass bushings to the rear brake calipers.)

Having finished the rear end, we switched our attention to the front where we installed Ireland Engineering fixed camber plates over the BavAuto springs on stock MINI struts. If you remove the wheel liners, you can actually install the springs and camber plates without removing the strut from the hub. Just disconnect the strut from the front sway bar, compress the springs, disconnect the strut tower plate from the car and you can remove the springs and reinstall the new camber plates. The IE fixed plates are supposed to provide 1.25 degrees of negative camber on stock springs. Unlike the adjustable camber plates where the bearing is set in a thin setting of urethane, the fixed plates are set in a rubber bushing. You end up trading adjust-ability for ride comfort. When we got the car back from the alignment, we were happy to see they provide 2.5 degrees of negative camber on the BavAuto springs. (Toe is set to zero in the front.)

The net result of all of these changes is pretty dramatic. The car has a nice stance; is tall enough to get out of the driveway and over speed bumps; and is firm but not harsh. We’re heading out to the skidpad on Saturday to dial-in the swaybar. For now, it’s set in the middle setting which proved the best setting on the Blue MINI in the past. The photo below shows the previous ride height superimposed on the new stance.

MINI Cooper Coupe First Impressions

I found myself getting off of the local interstate highway last Friday to avoid traffic only to discover two things: (1) The road I chose (MD 355) was also blocked in both directions because of an accident, and (2) Passport MINI of Alexandria now has a showroom in Rockville. Since I wasn’t going anywhere anyway, I decided to stop by and check out the new MINI Cooper Coupe.

The had all three flavors on the lot — Cooper, Cooper S, and JCW. I’m not sure what to make of this car. On paper it’s very interesting: Lightest, most powerful JCW car to date. Coupe hardtop means it should be a screamer on the track. The windshield is considerably more raked than the standard Hardtop, but it did not seem as claustrophobic as say an Audi TT feels. I adjusted the seat for my long upper torso and had plenty of room for a helmet. Visibility wasn’t bad. Trunk room is expansive and I like the pass-through slot. Sort of reminds me of the ski pass-through on the old E30s.

I initially hated the interior when the first R56 MINIs came out, but they have really improved the quality of materials as well as the overall feel of the interior. That quality comes at a price, however. This JCW car without all of the optional packages, came in over $32K. A well built JCW can now run north of $50K which is nuts.

And then there’s that roof. MINI describes it as a baseball cap worn backwards. I was thinking “goofy” or “incomplete” would be more descriptive. The car reminds me of the lovechild of a second generation new MINI and a Mazda MX5 cup racer with a hard top. Compare the real car, to the GeorgeCo Photoshop hack job:

Next up in the spring is a roadster. Now that will be a car to take a second look at. From behind, the goofy roof just makes the butt look huge.

So what’s the take-away? I like that MINI is making specialty cars just like the old days. I think the roadster has potential. But the Coupe? It’s a swing and a miss. Maybe I’ll think differently if I ever drive one.

All Autumn in a Day

Somebody must have hit the fast forward button on Autumn. We had our first winter snow storm yesterday — much too early in the season. It was a great day to get caught up on watching movies, sorting photos, and editing videos. Much has been happening at GeorgeCo in the last three months. Let’s get caught up.

Labor Day weekend brought the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix to the Inner Harbor of Baltimore. (Click the photo above for the complete set.) The three days of racing got off to a slow start as the track was about half a day late opening up to practice, but once it did open, Balmer put on an excellent show. Crowds were strong all three days and the racing was solid. The local BMW club had a hospitality tent and a car corral which proved great fun and also gave GeorgeCo an audience to advertise the GeorgeCo E30 powered by Beano for sale. GeorgeCo got to meet Bobby Rahal (he signed my hat.)

At the end of the day, we even got to drive the track. (GeorgeCo thought he was in a traffic jam to leave. Much to his surprise, traffic turned left instead of right, and we found ourselves on the track.) Pratt Street was bumpy at parade-lap speed, I couldn’t imagine what it was like at 185 MPH.

The beginning of October brought the final NCC BMW CCA Drivers’ School of the year. This time we were on the Jefferson Circuit. Rain turned most of the driving into one big skidpad exercise. But even at super low speeds with no grip, the Jefferson is tons of fun. Mid-day on the last day, the sun came out for a while and we got to take the new GeorgeCo MINI out for a spin. The video below shows the GeorgeCo MINI wearing regular old street tires, chasing down a certain Red M36. I still haven’t mastered getting the helmet-cam on straight, but this video is better than most.

The big news of the month, however, has to be that the GeorgeCo E30 Powered by Beano has been sold. The buyer is an enthusiastic autocrosser who will give it a good home and the attention it deserves. Scuderia GeorgeCo has now gone from a high of five cars, down to a more reasonable three.

August 2011 Drivers’ School

After a bit of a summer break, GeorgeCo was back at the track with the National Capital Chapter of BMW Car Club of America to instruct for 3 days at the Summit Point Main Circuit August 5-7, 2011. We ran the GeorgeCo E30 Powered by Beano on Friday and the GeorgeCo Blue MINI on Saturday and Sunday. I had two students this time out. My A Group Student was in an E36 M3 and my B Group Student was in an E30 much like mine. I think both accomplished GeorgeCo’s Objectives for any Drivers’ School: 1–Have fun. 2–Learn Something. 3–Return home with your ego and your car undamaged.

The MINI is sporting a couple of new mods designed to improve brake cooling and reduce flex under braking. For the brake cooling we took a trip to the local Ace Hardware to get some ducting. Having previously removed the fog lights from the bumper cover and cut a hole in the wheel liners, we connected the two with some ducting to improve air-flow behind the wheels. At the Shenandoah in similar weather in June we saw brake caliper temps in excess of 650 degrees. This weekend, temps stayed below 600. Tough to say if it was from the improved ducting or just the differences in the two tracks, but $15 for a little insurance is well worth it. To firm up the chassis you will notice the red convertible chassis braces in the photo above. Not seen is the lower stress brace that reinforces the link between the sub-frame and frame. This was on sale a few months back at Mini-Madness so we snapped one up. Install is dead easy and can be done in about 10 minutes.

We got a break in the harsh summer weather we’ve been having here in the Mid-Atlantic and took full advantage of it with 3 glorious days at the track. We had a bit of rain on Saturday afternoon which spiced things up a bit as seen in this first video.

But once we came to grips with the lack of traction on the transitions to the patches, lap times dropped down to within a couple of seconds of our times in the dry. After the rain, the track never had the same level of grip as it did on Friday, but it did give us a chance to try out a new camera angle with the GeorgeCo RePlayXD camera.

We’re also still perfecting the Helmet-cam, but this video gives you bit of an idea of what is meant by keeping your eyes ahead of your hands. Watch for the head to turn before the turn-in point in the corners.

2006 MINI Owner’s Manual

Download the 2006 MINI Cooper, Cooper S, Hardtop and Convertible Owner’s Manual.

Capping Out & OBC

One of the great things about the MINI is the ability to customized your car so it is unlike any other on the road. Even if you didn’t get to make all of the choices you wanted in the online configurator before you made your purchase, you can still get many original parts from online sources such as Pensekeparts and install them yourself or have your local MINI tuner install them at a reasonable cost. Today we’ll look at two projects: Mirror Caps and the On-board Computer. The former just about anyone can do themselves; the latter will need a little help from the right computer.

Mirror Caps

Genuine MINI mirror caps (not covers) are held on to the mirror frame with five clips. The secret to replacing them is to release the tabs without breaking them or your mirror. Here’s how.

Lower your windows, fold in your mirrors, and open your doors. Place a large, thick blanket on the ground and over your door sill. This is so you don’t break your mirror if you accidentally drop it. Work your fingers gently behind the mirror and pull toward you. Try not to flex the mirror — pull straight out. The mirror is held to the frame with four clips. If you have the winter package, you have heated mirrors and they will be retained by the wires once free of the clips. If no mirror heaters, then the mirror will pull free.

Once the mirror is removed, the five tabs you have to free will be very obvious. Start at the bottom of the mirror, release each tab and use a plastic trim tool to start to pry the cap loose. Work your way around the mirror and remember to support the cap so you don’t send it flying. When removed, the mirror frame will look like the photo below.

Clean up any dirt or bugs living in your mirror frame and you’re ready to install your new caps. Press your caps into position and check that the tabs lock. Press your mirror back into place and you’re all set.

OBC

Have you ever seen a BMW or MINI parts listing that looks like this one for the On-board Computer Retrofit kit?

This drawing shows the three things you need to retrofit the On-board Computer. The tachometer (which you probably have); the turn signal stock with the OBC button (which you have if you have aMY 05-06 R53; and a box. What’s in the box, you ask? Nothing. It’s so the dealer can charge you for parts you already have and labor to install them. You just need the OBC activated in the body control module. Unfortunately it isn’t something you can activate with your generic scan tool. You need the specialized computer like the one you dealer used to configure your convenience items when your car was new. (The features like daytime running lights, auto door locks, chime when temp drops near freezing, etc.)

You have to navigate to the area where new modules are activated and find the On-board Computer module. Activate it and resent. Then navigate to the instrument control settings module and configure the OBC. For this work your unscrupulous dealer will charge you $214.93 in parts and two hours of labor. If you have a MY 02-04 R53, you actually do need the parts and have to replace the stock so the labor charge is probably legit. But if you have a later model, you already have the parts and you should be able to schmooze the person with the computer to do it for free. If you don’t have someone who will do it locally, talk to Way in Atlanta, Mynes in California, or Chad in Detroit. Getting something for free is a great reason to drive half-way across the country to find someone to do it for you.