GeorgeCo.org

GeorgeCo MINI turns 6, Becomes Barn Owl

I’ve had my MINI for 6 years as of last week. About the time it passed it’s six birthday in September, I started hearing this sound. Sort of part barn owl, part Stanley Steamer. It took a while to figure out where it was coming from. After initially thinking it was a faulty PCV valve, I was able to isolate the sound to the power steering fan.

The MINI has an electric power steering pump that is not cooled by the air flowing under the car. To keep it cool, MINI added a small fan. The bearings on mine must have been about worn out. It kicks on once the car has warmed up sufficiently. That’s why I was only hearing it after 10-15 minutes of driving. The original fans also did not have any sort of cover, exposing the fan blades to road debris and causing it to fail for many owners of 2003-2004 model-year cars.

Replacement is a 15 minute job. The replacement part is Part # : 32 41 6 781 742 and costs about $150. Put the front of your MINI up on ramps/jackstands to easily get to it from below. In the photo above, the front of the car is to the right. That large bolt is the oil drain plug. To the left in the photo, remove the two nuts that hold the fan to the sub frame, lower the old fan and disconnect the electrical connection. Installation is the reverse of removal. (I love saying that.)

End of Autocross Season

The autocross season drew to a close on October 24th with the final event for the NCC at Baysox stadium. I had one chance to win my class for the season: I had to beat my closest rival in the championship by two places. It was close, but in the end, the weather voted against me. The other two ran in the dry and my heat ran in a monsoon.
In the end the GeorgeCo BMW powered by Beano finished the season in a solid second place in the Modified 3 class. We had 4 wins; 1 second place; and one third — the most wins in the class. But by running only 6 of 8 event in a best of 7 series we still lost on total points.

Time to start planning for next season. Next year this will be the only series we’ll run so we won’t come up short on total points again. The car needs a few repairs: new clutch slave cylinder and a new final drive. It’s also time to start working on more power with new injectors, a header, free flow exhaust and a custom ECU tune. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. It’s also time to bite the bullet and buy some Hoosier A6 tires.

Fall Drivers’ School

The GeorgeCo BMW powered by Beano put in a strong performance among higher horsepower cars this past weekend at Summit Point. The three-day school on the Jefferson Circuit was the last track weekend of the year for the National Capital Chapter.

We’re finally figuring out the skidpad and sustained oversteer. The key is to stay in second gear, dial in some mild understeer, as the front hooks up, wait, then blip the throttle. As the rear comes around, countersteer and hold the throttle steady.

Temperatures on the car were good all weekend. Tirewear has been fairly even. We’re getting some rubbing in the front on the new swaybar but that may be only an issue at full lock on the skidpad.

The biggest issue of the weekend is the ugly song the differential began singing on Saturday. We checked the fluid level and color and both were good. Temp was fine. It may just be in the last throws of death. Time to start checking craigslist.

Final Session, Part 1.

Final Session, Part 2.

Things to remember about this car on the Jeff counter-clockwise:

• Turn 1: max entry speed; stay on the crown; trailbrake; put in lots of steering input; carry speed up the hill; don’t worry so much about track position for turn 2, just be back on-line for turn 3.
• Turn 4: brake mid track; wait for the front to hook up; long apex; unwind the wheel on exit
• Turn 5: stay mid track to avoid dip on entry; trailbrake slightly; head for accessroad; lots of steering input at the apex; avoid the patch; full gas well before apex
• Turn 7: double apex. Brake late to carry speed up the hill, but don’t go deep; trailbrake; get on the throttle early; late second apex

Chapterfest 2009 & SCCA Event #6

Chapterfest marked the end of the Summer for the GeorgeCo BMW Powered by Beano. The annual event sponsored by the National Capital Chapter of the BMW Car Club of America brings together the diverse sub-groups of 6,000+ member chapter into one event. It features a swapmeet, shine & show, good food, and of course autocross.

There were some beautiful old cars in the show as well as quite a bit of questionable carbon fiber bits on newer cars. And this:

Not exactly my thing, but to each his own I suppose. I think that audio system costs more than my car. And it probably has more power too… There were some interesting non-BMWs too. I always like to find dubious aero bits:

No video from the autocross. Another autocross season down, another dead video camera I’m afraid. I’m going to have to invest in a solid-state recorder of some sort. The course was more challenging than it appeared during the course walk. The course designers decided to use the lower lot at Baysox Stadium this time. To get there and back, the course has to pass through a couple of islands in the parking lot. That risk means designing very slow sections before the entry to the pass through. This caught out a lot of people, but since going fast by going slow is what the GeorgeCo BMW Powered by Beano does best, it was no problem for us. Rain spoiled the times for the fourth heat runners, but running in the second heat, we managed to take first in class, solidifying our position going into the season finale next month.

Sunday brought the sixth championship event for the Washington DC Region of the SCCA at FEDEX Field. In this series, we’re running the GeorgeCo Gas-X MINI in the Street Mod class.

The only car on street tires as well as the only true daily-driver in the mod-till-you-drop Street Mod Class, the GeorgeCo Gas-X MINI has a significant disadvantage to the stripped-out, higher horse power cars in the class running on competition tires. That is, until it rains. We almost achieved greatness yesterday. Almost. It rained heavily during the fifth heat. At the start of the sixth and final heat, the course was very damp and slick. At the start of the second of four runs, the GeorgeCo Gas-X MINI was in the lead. Unfortunately, the sun was still shining and the course was drying and we saw our advantage slip away. Nonetheless, the car ran well and the course was challenging. Perhaps just as interesting were some of the other cars that were at the event.

Colonial Challenge Cup

9/9/09 was a lucky day. I got to take the day off of work and spend it as an instructor at the Colonial Challenge Cup (CCC). The CCC is an annual charity event at Summit Point that benefits the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Boys & Girls Clubs. It includes track lapping, driver education, go-carting and charity rides. It’s a very low-key event with lots of track time if you want it. Instructors had two sessions to ourselves and could go out in any student session we wanted as well. I managed to instruct 5 sessions in an E36 M3 and run 5 sessions myself.

This wasn’t your usual BMW club HPDE. From the organizational structure (not) to the rules on the track (lax) to the overall schedule (relaxed), it was a good chance to get back to the main circuit and test out the changes to the car. There were some very good drivers in some very expensive cars and some rather scary drivers in some scary fast cars. Click here for some laps of the main circuit.

It was a good exercise in space management and situational awareness. That came in the form of both a Daytona Coupe spinning in front of me in Turn 1, as well as a Ford GT passing me on the front straight at 140+ MPH after the checkered flag. It’s not every event where I get to park near an Aston Martin Vantage.

The GeorgeCo BMW, powered by Beano, is really handling well. On Tuesday I added thicker front swaybar. The bar is only 10% thicker than the stock bar, but that difference virtually eliminated body-roll and still maintained neutral handling.

The non-adjustable bar from IE meets Spec E30 requirements, and included new reinforced mounting brackets and adjustable end links.

CDC Autocross at Harry Grove Stadium

It was a great day for the GeorgeCo BMW powered by Beano. The weather was perfect and the course challenging and fast. The CDC runs an index system based on weight, horsepower, and tire. We’re running a street tire to try to be competitive on index time. We’ll see if it works. The car is really running well and all traces of the drive-line shutter are gone.

NCC Autocross #6

Saturday was a good day for GeorgeCo Racing. The GeorgeCo BMW sponsored by Beano ran well all day. GeorgeCo narrowly missed the win in class by .06 seconds. On a typical autocross course, that’s less than 3 feet. But more importantly, we edged-out our chief rival (and friend) Greg who (was also driving the GeorgeCo BMW) to stay competitive for the season class title. With two events to go, it’s going to be close.

A World Without Whumps

Tim installed the new Bimmerworld driveline today. What a difference. Imagine having a driveline that actually flexes instead of just eating guibos and center bearings. Power comes on smoothly without the background fear that it’s all going to self destruct. It also helps that he cleaned out the throttle body. With that task, phase two of this project draws to a close. Phase one was just about getting it registered and titled. Phase two was getting it baselined and ready for the track. Phase three is about making it faster and improving handling. Phase four, if I ever get there, is about completing the build-out for Spec E-30. But for now, it’s about making a better STX autocrosser.

NCC Autocross and New Wheels

I made the big wheel and tire swap last week. Since the BMW is almost done, I’m returning the MINI to normal–well closer to normal. I swapped out the R-comps on the MINI race wheels for a street tire. I took out the rear strutbar and removed the splitter. I also sold the MINI 15 inch wheels and moved the RA1s on to a new set of 15×7 lightweight wheels for the BMW. I also picked up another set of 16 inch wheels to put on the BMW with my old Goodyear F1 Tires. The 15 inch wheels have already sold and a couple of people are interested in the Hankooks. I should be close to break-even when all the dust settles.

It was a beautiful day for an August autocross–not too hot and not too humid. The NCC course at the Maryland State Police Training Center was fairly simple. There was a slolom, Chicago box, a couple of sweepers, and a skidpad circle at the end. I haven’t swapped out the driveline yet so I still can’t hammer the throttle, but I managed to win my class (I’m not saying how big the field was….) I’ve been working on smoothness and steering as the rack in the BMW isn’t as fast as the MINI. I really enjoy driving it even if the power is at the wrong end.

August A for Autocross

Busy weekend for autocross. After a month off — back in with both feet. Yesterday it was a sweltering event with the CDC, and today it’s back to FEDEX Field for the SCCA event.

The GeorgeCo MINI powered by Beano ran well yesterday. All four runs were within .sec of each other. We had the fastest MINI at the time we left. Today the team is hoping for a solid mid-field placement in Street Mod. It looks like rain so perhaps we might do even better. Start your rain dance.

The rain dance almost worked. The event Sunday was delayed two hours. When it finally picked up again, we only got 3 runs each. I opted for the RA1s over the slicks today. It was almost the perfect choice. Almost, because by the time Street Mod ran, we had an almost dry course. Grip was good, but not great. I think I was mid pack again, but with a fast group so that’s OK.