OT: Going Racing.. (2015-10-15) - Season Over - 7th :(
Turbo Mini Forums

April 27th is the first race weekend, come back then!

Might see you out on track of you enter any of the project 8 saloons races

I won't be in P8 but they are organised by the same people and we share the paddock I think! :) Come and say Hi!

Yeah I know, just I knew at least 50% of the bmw boys go out with p8 too

Took a quick snap earlier after fixing the headlamps

This evening I decided I needed to get away from work for a few hours, and decided to fit the new front valance (which is the right colour), a front splitter (which I had to cable-tie together..) and the red bonnet. The old bonnet was fun, but I wanted to make the car my own.

Took a few hours and I'm not too happy with the way the bonnet lines up at the front, but the car has been through so many bumps in it's racing career that it needs more than a little fettling anyway. It'll do for now. I used the old bonnet as a template for the holes, and I guess it must be more bent than I thought! Ha ha.

Also, I need to stick some MSA stickers on the bonnet for the cut off and fire pulls.

Few snaps in the dark:







a

Looks sweeeet

Ta mate.

Just been told I can't race with that splitter so I'll find a regular 320i one.

Looks good mate, always been a big fan of these.

998 t2 ongoing project.

I swapped the throttle cable today, and ran the car up to temp to see if everything is running and working OK.

The throttle cable made a huge difference. Before changing it I greased up the old one to see if that would improve it - no. The new one is lovely and light - great!

The car seems to run a bit funky - it hunts all over the place and eventually stalled. I'll have to work that out.

I took a few snaps afterwards too to see it in the daylight. I really need to adjust that bonnet a bit - not happy with it!

Front brakes today - new discs and pads, and a quick checkover.
I went with EBC Bluestuff in the end after a couple of recommendations. If they don't feel right I'll chuck something else in as I've also been told Carbone Lorraine are supposed to be good.

Around the car I noticed a couple of things I want to replace, but nothing serious.

The pads I took out were the worst I have ever seen on a car. They had already crumbled away a lot, and they are made of dust, mostly. Amazing.

Anyway, obligitory pics.







What came out...






Oh, and I forgot to put this up the other day - replaced the front splitter, re-fitted the bonnet and fitted the proper towing thingy.

Edited by AlexB on 11th Jan, 2014.

I've taken pads like that out of my track car a few times, simply it is down to excess heat input, not much you can do other than inspect and change pads as required. I had a crap experience with EBC pads some years ago so vowed never to buy any more, but let us know how you go on. If you haven't done so yet it would also be worth replacing brake fluid.

Yeah I didn't like EBC on VWs or minis either - but a couple of guys in the series swear by them. I figured they were easy to change and EBC are cheap, so if they are crap its not a big deal to swap them for something 'better'.

yes tom you are a spirited driver to say the least ......

if the engines hunting a cutting out, could be the MAF sensor. My golf used to do it until I replaced it

Just dropped it off for MOT attempt 1. I know it'll fail, but hopefully the list of failures will be simple things.

MOT passed

It needed a rear wheel cylinder, so I had the garage do both sides. They said the rust was bad, but not a fail - but it would be next year. Obviously I am going to get it sorted ASAP anyway, as it looks manky.

Anyway, it's now got T&T so I can sort out the rest of the issues, and get some track time booked!

:)







-a.

Did some of the smaller jobs on the todo list today.

Replace brake fluid and bleed brakes
Checked oil and water
Set the seat height and position to how I like it
Added the wiring for the mandatory video camera
Fitted a battery to the lap timer
Added new roll cage covering
Checked the inlet and pipework for air leaks (none found)
Check what's making the rubbing noise at the rear - tyres on arch!

All went pretty well, except I still have a spongy brake pedal after bleeding. One of the front calipers' bleed screw has been rounded int he past and is totally round, so that caused a problem - I'll replace it out at some point but I ran out of time today.
Is there a knack to getting a hard pedal? I followed the wiki.

Few pics

Wiring ready for the series guys to add their gubbins to the end


Interior - still rough but you can see some of the new rollcage padding


Car as it is now


-a

Spongey pedal could be down to stiff or seized sliders on the calipers, easy way to diagnos this is to clamp off each corner one at a time and see if the pedal goes hard.

Also worth trying to see if the pedal goes hard when the handbrake is pulled on, this will show if the rear brakes (drums I'm assuming) need adjusting

Trying to discover what my rubbing/scraping noise was, I decided to fit my trackday wheels and tyres, as they're slightly smaller in the hope that if it was a tyre rubbing it'd stop and I could just replace my road tyres for some smaller ones.

It wasn't, it's a rear wheel bearing, but it was still fun to take the car for a blast with some sticky rubber fitted
The car drives pretty well - feels pretty fast considering how low powered it is. Suspension is firm but not too harsh, and the brakes seem OK, despite the long pedal. I can't seem to get the sweet spot for my seat position, but I guess it's just something I need to get used to as it's so vastly different to my other cars.

Also added a few more things to my to-do list which is less exciting.

Few pics from today - first non-manky-driveway photos I think?

















(this one really shows how bad the rear quarter has been hit.. ouch!)

Urgh.

Ever started a job and wish you hadn't?

I thought I could weld good enough to sort out the rusty 'not jacking points' on the front floorpans.. wish I had just paid someone to do it.

I painted some zinc anti rust primer paint stuff on both sides, then painted the outside with anti stonechip paint stuff, and the inside got a coat of hammerite which I'll then paint-over with the proper paint for the car at some point. The driver's side floor inside was scuffed and down to the primer (and metal in places) from feet, so I wanted to give it a hard base before painting it.

It's another one of those times where I've made the car worse than it was rather than better. Bugger. I'll crack on to the plan for now, but may book it in somewhere for new floor pans at some point as I'm not happy with them and I've noticed some more rust starting around the cage mounts, too.

Few pics:

Edited by AlexB on 30th Jan, 2014.

looking a bit better now; I'm surprised that passed the mot though

Me too! Was not expecting to have to do such a huge hole on that side.

The driver's one had a pinhole size rust hole but looked manky - not so bad.

I think, perhaps, he wanted nothing to do with the car.. ha ha.

I wouldn't worry too much about the seating position until you take it to a track. the position that works on the road is never the same as the track.

In the mini it feels awful moving around the paddock, but once on the move it's perfect.

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

www.twin-turbo.co.uk

Small update - put the car back on it's wheels and fitted the bungs and cable-tied the wiring back in the foot-wells. Tomorrow should be front wheel bearings and maybe the rear screen demister fix, and then I will find a local garage to do the rear bearings (as they don't sound fun).

Also fitted a new rear view mirror, and realised the mounts I bought were way too long, so I'll be changing those. Ha ha.

Pics of the car as it is now: