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Thanking About Getting White Wheels?

Winter is slowly losing its grip on the Mid-Atlantic region.  That means it is time to start thinking of getting out the summer tires, firing up the MINI and heading to the track.  Track days and hot laps are still weeks away, but I couldn’t resist testing out the new track day wheels.  In a complex set of transactions involving some 30 year-old Alfa parts, a bunch of spare MINI parts, and some pieces of something I still can’t identify but someone wanted anyway (eBay is great), I got a spare set of wheels and tires that I can trash on the track at virtually no cost to me.  So of course when I headed off to the local MINI shop for my tech inspection, I had to put them on to try them out.  They look pretty cool — perhaps increasing the slot-car look — I’m not sure yet what I think.  Anyway the photo above shows what they looked like the first day, and here’s after the 3rd day….  That’s sort of the dirty little secret about white wheels I suppose.

koseis

Weather Control Experiment

Original Post: January 21, 2006. Given the unseasonably warm temperatures of the last few days, I thought I would try a little weather control experiment. I got out the hose and Mr. Clean Auto Dry kit and decided to wash the MINI. Imagine that: the 21st of January in Maryland and I’m outside in a T-shirt washing my car. If my calculations are correct, this should have a direct impact on the jet-stream and divert an unplanned Nor’easter our way within days. Stay posted for unusual weather patterns…

Update: January 26, 2006. Success. For the first time in several years, we had a brief period of snow-thunder this evening. Sort of an odd experience to see lightning and hear the thunder while it is snowing. I think that’s about proof positive of the effectiveness of my weather control experiment so I decided to cancel future cold weather tests. I put the wheels with the all-season tires back on the MINI and will attempt to reach temperatures into the ’60’s again in February.

snowmini2

thermoFebUpdate: February 15, 2006. Any wonder why we keep getting sick? On Sunday, we got almost 16 inches of snow. Three days later, it’s almost 60 degrees outside. Maybe if this were April, I’d understand, but the second week of February? That’s nuts.

FebSnowMini

2005 Historics (a little late)

The Corkscrew at Laguna SecaOne annual event I really miss since we moved away from California nearly 6 years ago, is the annual “Monterey Weekend.” If you are a car nut, that can only mean the weekend of the Concorso Italiano and Historic Automobile races at Laguna Seca. (Oh, and there’s some sort of car show at a place called Pebble Beach, too. But that’s a bit too high brow for me.) It’s always a weekend of good food, good company, and nothing but fast cars as far as the eye can see. This year we had a bit of fog too, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. The good news for 2006 is that Cooper will be the featured Marque. The Northern California BMW CCA chapter has a great deal with their Festorics event and trackside hospitality tent.

Parts Number Lookup

Looking for a way to find BMW and MINI parts numbers? Check out RealOEM.com online. Search by body R Code and build date (R50 for Cooper, R53 for Cooper S, etc.) Build date is on the sticker on the Driver’s side door jam.

Gauge Pod DIY

I’ve always been curious about when the super-charger actually kicks in. How do you know if some other modification is actually adding power? There’s always the “butt-dyno” but that isn’t very reliable. I thought it would be nice to see boost pressure and see what happens under various conditions. I started looking at what was on the market to add some gauges around the tachometer. I found many offerings online offering a gauge pod which sells for about $150 by itself, a couple of gauges, and the necessary wiring harness. Since I’m always mucking about with the electrical system of the car adding or changing one gizmo or another, I thought it would be nice to have a voltmeter as well. The complete kit was selling for about $380 and dealers are charging a couple of hours of labor to install it, so I set off to see what I could do for less.

I found was the Autometer Ultra-light series of gauges. They fit in nicely with the MINI gauge design. Autometer sells black mounting cups which are possible to attach directly to the back of the tachometer (with slight modification for the 2 1/16 inch size cup mounts) but I wanted something more secure. So I built my own mounting bracket.

cluster1

The tachometer has two screws in the mounting holes in the back that have to be replaced with longer ones to hold the mount. A word of caution here: the mounts are just plastic so don’t over tighten. I decided to angle the mounting cups to get them a bit below center axis when viewed from the front.

cluster2

I had to build my own wiring harness and route the vacuum hose through the firewall to pick up the vacuum/boost pressure at the pressure regulator under the intercooler. It pulls power and ground from the cigarette lighter plug. It is also hooked into the dimmer loop so the lights of the gauges light and dim just like the rest of the instruments. I picked up that line at the cigarette lighter plug as well.

cluster3

So what was the total cost? I was able to buy the gauges and gauge pods at Summit Racing. (They even gave me a free hat.) The pods were $13 each. The voltmeter was about $35. The boost/vacuum gauge was $52, but I got a $20 off coupon in my first order for the voltmeter, so effectively it was only $32. I spent about $4 at the hardware store buying aluminum stock and various fasteners. Excluding shipping costs, that makes my total $97.