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March 1,
2003---already a thousand miles. Debbie finds herself going out to find places to drive; that's how much fun it is. Nobody who drives this car can resist its charms.
April, 2003----2500 miles now and we have a few interesting things to talk
about:
Duncan has installed a BMP Design Cold Air Intake on our car which sounds great, but I can't tell any power difference. It's really a simple installation, though----here're some pictures.
The "Service Engine Soon" light came on last week. We connected our MoDic BMW Computer to the car and instantly read out that the gas cap was loose!! We tightened the cap and reset the fault codes and were back on the road just that fast.
We've changed the oil and filter for the first time---and we've written a little do-it-yourself article about it.
Go
See It!
Our coolant got ugly!! With 2500 miles on the brand new car, and the coolant got ugly. What the heck was up with that? We flushed it out and replaced it with new, pressure tested the system, and there we go again.
Wind noise---lots of wind noise!! The moulding at the top of the windshield came loose and started making lots of noise. A bit of glue and it snapped right back in place.
Finally, Debbie's
driver seat recline adjustment mechanism has stopped working
and we haven't had time to fix it yet. We've noticed that
John Trevey's Mini has the same problem.
May
2003----4000
miles now
The moulding at the top of the windshield has come off a
couple more times---we're probably going to have to do something
about that.
Debbie has installed her own factory seat covers----they're
kind of ugly, but they have to incorporate provision for
the in-seat air bags, so they are pretty special.
Mini Rally for the opening of The Italian Job movie!!
What fun---about 50 Mini's from around Texas: a rally Friday evening before the movie and then the movie together. Sunday another rally for a couple hours around the lake, including some aggressive driving. What a blast! We handed out brochures and business cards to everybody there and everybody had a great enthusiastic time.
June 7, 2003
This past week we sent the car with David Russell to Rhine West in San Antonio for dyno testing to get baseline data before modifying the engine. No surprises---top horsepower was just almost the advertised 163, torque was nearly none at idle [as we've observed] and very flat across the usual driving range.
Saturday, I installed the BMP Promini smaller diameter supercharger pulley. Kind of a tough job---count on spending 5-6 hours---but it's well worth it. Now even I want to drive the car all the time---power!! The other thing I learned is that those run-flat tires and factory wheels weigh 49 pounds each! Wow, too much.
June 14, 2003
This week we had more dyno runs at Rhine West---with great results: the torque curve is completely parallel and moved up 25-30 ft lbs!! Horsepower no longer peaks below redline but increases steadily up to 7000. Uncorrected readings as high as 190-195!! David Greenwood experimented with software changes next, but didn't find much improvement at the wide open throttle settings used during the dyno runs. A few more horses. Subjective part throttle improvements seem worthwhile, but not worth much expense. Thanks, Dave. Driving this car is a constant joy with 200 hp.
BRAKE DUST: the factory pads make more dust than any car we've seen without a three-pointed star. This week we installed some EBC Green Stuff pads, which are supposed to be low or no dust. We'll find out soon. The rear pads are tricky to install because the caliper pistons have to be screwed back into place so the new pads will fit.
TIRE WEAR: with 5000 miles, the front tires are half worn out. The rears look new, so I rotated them to the front. Without rotating, they'd be worn out at 10,000. By rotating occasionally, we should be able to get maybe 20,000 out of the set.
June 22, 2003---Sunday morning
Up at 5.30AM to drive to San Antonio for a 300-mile spirited rally around the hill country. Seven cars and about a dozen people having a great time.
Stay tuned----we'll be adding to this as we learn the car.
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