2002 Mini Cooper S Sprint/Hill/Track car

[Horney]

You think? I’d have struggled to get above 6th in the Mazda in my opinion. It can carry a bit more speed through the bends but the lack of power would have seen me destroyed on the straights.

[Horney]

MrsHorney grabbed a video of me leaving the line.

[sandys]

Oct 13, 2017 7:59:42 GMT Horney said:

You think? I’d have struggled to get above 6th in the Mazda in my opinion. It can carry a bit more speed through the bends but the lack of power would have seen me destroyed on the straights.

I've been quite a few seconds ahead of Marie in the Abarth at any event with my 5, so just using that as a reference, you are only 0.5s ahead in the Mini.

I only know this as I take particular interest in how quick Abarths are being an Abarth owner

Of course the Mini can be made bloody quick, anyone who has tried to catch Richard Trevail can attest to that but anything can be made quick with enough time and money 

[Horney]

Interesting. To be fair your MK3 is much better than mine for sprinting. Mines standard apart from lowering springs and an induction kit. I’m sure I could have gone quicker but as a first event in the car I’m happy, it’s quite a different driving style to the Mazda and with a few more runs I reckon I could have shaved another second off.

The mini is a decent set of tyres and some suspension bits away from being considerably faster. It really struggled for tracktion and the front end was pretty terrible. He suspension parts are about £400 and probably the same again for tyres. Facelift gearbox with shorter ratios and factory LSD will also help hugely.

The Mazda will be getting Bc Coilovers and Racing Beat manifold over winter. I have them, just need to fit them and get nick to map it.

[sandys]

I beat her time at Blyton in a stock mk3 on re002s by 2-3s

Yes all those things will make the mini faster but it'll never feel as good, sort your 5 out

[Horney]

Took the Mini to the PistonHeads sunday service at Silverstone on Sunday and did a short track session. Was good fun but even with the mintex 1144 pads and fresh fluids the brakes are terrible. Sourced a JCW set up that I’m picking up Sunday.

Pics:









The pics show it also badly needs camber plates for the front, soooo much positive camber under load.

Video of a couple of laps:

[Horney]

Done a bit of shopping. Arrived so far is the following:

2 x driveshafts
1 x set of R56 front brakes with GTT grooved discs and pads
1 x full set of braided hoses
1 x front bush tool
1 x black series front arm bushes
1 x pair of adjustable front camber plates
1 x pair of front out arm ball joints

Hopefully that little lot will get it turning and stopping like it should and get rid of the increasingly bad vibration it has at anything over 70.

It’s also booked into 1320 on 5th Jan for a tomcat and remap. Annoyingly the last owner lost the cable or whatever has the licence in it for the Bitetronic map it has now so I’m going to have to pay for another one which isn’t an inconsiderable amount. Curses!

[Horney]

Much has gone on since that last update. In some kind of order:

Fitted all new bushes and ball joints on the front end
Fitted 2 new wheel bearings on the front
Fitted new driveshafts
New driveshafts kept falling out
Damaged gearbox seal
Replaced gearbox seal and fitted good used OEM driveshafts.
Driveshafts now stay in the gearbox
Fitted Gen2 front brakes and braided lines all round
1320 fabricated a standard mini cat into the decat pipe
It’s now much quieter
It made 207 at the wheels in their dyno
Picked up a cheap facelift gearbox with LSD
While fitting above found the radiator was near dead so replaced
Clutch slave failed during gearbox seal, so replaced
Coilovers raised to a sensible height
Replaced a rear wheel bearing.
Won some Cobra Mini specific seat mounts and sliders on eBay
Won a cheap but perfect condition 18 month old Cobra seat for above on eBay
Fitted frame and seat
AD08Rs fitted all round
Wheel alignment done

I think that’s it but probably missed something out.

So yeah. Been a bit busy since Christmas and now rather skint. It’s all worth it though. The car drives perfectly and puts a real grin on my face.

Here’s a video of the 9am track session at Castle Combe Spring Action Day last weekend:



Next up it’s due an MOT in a couple of weeks and then the first sprint of the year with Farnborough District Motor Club.

[batou]

I haven't yet been through this full thread so excuse me if I step on something you've already done. Having previously been through the pain of running a reasonably powered one of these (240whp) for a number of years I'm not quite sure why you would put yourself through this painfully expensive but occasionally rewarding experience but who am I to question ones sanity

If I was to go through the process again this would be the order of business, ordered by what made the biggest difference in fun or what I wish I'd add but didn't and more importantly what would have saved me the most money in the long run...

1. Suspension* - KW Clubsport or similar, don't buy anything without adjustable camber plates unless you like wrecking drive shafts ALOT , I found with lots of -ve front camber driveshafts stopped breaking. (I have a pic of a driveshaft bin somewhere, not pretty)
2. Brakes - what ever you can afford from R56 fronts upwards, braided lines & better fluid (SRF was my fav). I ran R56 disks & calipers with Carbotech pads with hel and SRF.
3. Interior - Bucket Seats - Whatever floats your boat, or you can fit into. I did 1800mile road trip in Sparco evos without any gip.
4. Wheels and tyres - Personally for me, the car drove best on 16s. I ran 16x8.0J with 205/50R16s AD08s
5. Drivetrain - LSD - if you don't have one already fit one,
6. Suspension*/Weight reduction - Stiffest rear adjustable ARB you can buy and run it medium or hard depending on how you like the rear end to behave. R53 GP/R56 rear aluminium trailing arms
7. Suspension* - Rear camber adjustable control arms, adjustable drop links and get it booked into a centre to get it aligned and corner weighted to preference.
8. Engine - Compression/leakdown test before you do anything.
9. Engine - Uprated intercooler (GP or similar, nothing too big), Oil cooler, Uprated injectors (JCW 380cc max without a tune) and 11% to 15% reduced pulley.
10. Engine - Exhaust and Intake - No matter what aftermarket exhaust you get if you fit a decat and/or headers it will be loud, don't be a pussy about it, just live with it or put the stock one/cat back on. They don't release much if any power, put they make it feel/sound faster.

* Whenever upgrading/changing anythign suspension, engine or gearbox wise that has a bush use a poly one in its place.

If you don't have a huge budget for engine mods stop at point 10 unless you can afford a standalone ECU with anything else you add. Now if you want "big" power do it all at once, either go turbo and build an engine for it if you don't want to keep the supercharger whine, if you do want to keep the blower then expect 230-240whp and be happy with it, if you want more go turbo otherwise the gain to reliability becomes a bit blurred. Build an engine from the ground up and don't go crazy with the boost (I ran a 13%) and you will have a happy life, anything more and you'll find intake air temp will just annoy the canoe out of you 80% of the time. I'd rather focus on my lines on track then whether the IAT is too high....

In regards to mapping, unless your getting a standalone ECU then DON'T EVEN BOTHER mapping the standard ECU, it will always re-adapt and adjust the mappers parameters to what it considers a safe place that is not desirable for power and may not be safe if you are running different cams/injectors etc. Take this from someone who has had a car remapped due to adjustment more times than I care to remember and has previously read parts of the siemens ecu technical manual lolol.

In terms of where to take the car for work, if nothings changed 1320MINI were the best of the bunch for me, and avoid anything with GTT written on it, especially if it's something that will save your ass!

If your wondering why I've written this, its because I wish someone had done this when I started or got even half way through my MINI journey. Seriously though, if you ever have any queries feel free to ask as I have probably gone through most of the decisions you'll go though.

Heres my old build thread, I kept the front page relatively upto date but somethings might not be 100% to what I ended up with:

www.minitorque.com/forum/f273/batous-vagina-11127/

(The thread title got edited by a mod because I sold it for a house and mx5 LOL)

[Horney]

Now that is a comprehensive reply! I shall address your points!

1. Suspension* - KW Clubsport or similar, don't buy anything without adjustable camber plates unless you like wrecking drive shafts ALOT , I found with lots of -ve front camber driveshafts stopped breaking. (I have a pic of a driveshaft bin somewhere, not pretty)

It came on APs. I’ve fitted adjustable top mounts having already killed a driveshaft or two. It will get KWs eventually.

2. Brakes - what ever you can afford from R56 fronts upwards, braided lines & better fluid (SRF was my fav). I ran R56 disks & calipers with Carbotech pads with hel and SRF.

It’s now on R56 calipers with decent discs, pads, hel lines and ATE blue fluid. Working with a friend on developing a better master cylinder kit to improve feel.

3. Interior - Bucket Seats - Whatever floats your boat, or you can fit into. I did 1800mile road trip in Sparco evos without any gip.

Got a cobra. It’s horribly uncomfortable but it will do for this season.

4. Wheels and tyres - Personally for me, the car drove best on 16s. I ran 16x8.0J with 205/50R16s AD08s

Already on 16s with 205 45 AD08Rs.

5. Drivetrain - LSD - if you don't have one already fit one,

Gearbox from a GP1 fitted a couple of weeks ago.

6. Suspension*/Weight reduction - Stiffest rear adjustable ARB you can buy and run it medium or hard depending on how you like the rear end to behave. R53 GP/R56 rear aluminium trailing arms

I actually quite like the balance with the standard ARBs but I’ll try a stiffer one at some point.

7. Suspension* - Rear camber adjustable control arms, adjustable drop links and get it booked into a centre to get it aligned and corner weighted to preference.

I’ve had it aligned after fitting the top mounts. I don’t run it very low so the rear doesn’t need the camber arms as it has the right amount already. It was set up by a chap I use for setting up various race cars of mine and those of friends. Always impressed with his work.

8. Engine - Compression/leakdown test before you do anything.

Engine already had cat camshaft, airtec intercooler, 550cc injectors, 17% pulley, Orranje intake, janspeed manifold etc fitted by 1320.

9. Engine - Uprated intercooler (GP or similar, nothing too big), Oil cooler, Uprated injectors (JCW 380cc max without a tune) and 11% to 15% reduced pulley.

As above. Came with Airtec, 550 Bosch injectors, cat cam and 17% with a Bytetronic map at 1320.

10. Engine - Exhaust and Intake - No matter what aftermarket exhaust you get if you fit a decat and/or headers it will be loud, don't be a pussy about it, just live with it or put the stock one/cat back on. They don't release much if any power, put they make it feel/sound faster.

It came on a horrid exhaust with a decat and the Janspeed manifold. It’s now got an OE JCW system and a Tomcat that 1320 did for me. Even with the Janspeed it’s now only a bit louder than stock.

[Horney]

As for why? Why not? Lol.

I’ve always liked the look of them and I fancied a change from an MX5 for trackdays, sprinting and hill climbing.

So far I’ve spent a bit of time and money on fixing things that should have been done by the previous owner but we’re just left. I’ve then started upgrading the stuff they hadn’t. It was mad that it was running 210 at the wheels and on standard brakes with budget pads for instance!

I love it and it’s such a different car to drive than my MX5. I drove them both on the same day recently and I was giggling like twit after bith but for different reasons.

Anyway. Welcome to the forum and also I very much approve of your username.

[dadbif]

Ever thought of a real Mini? Unbeatable handling, but not the raw power you currently have.

[Horney]

Apr 10, 2018 21:39:23 GMT dadbif said:

Ever thought of a real Mini? Unbeatable handling, but not the raw power you currently have.

Funny you should say that. I’ve had around 10 classic minis and had one of them featured in Mini Magazine back in the day. I actually met the long suffering Mrs Horne through a Mini forum and I proposed at a show. She still has one, a 1979 850cc City on 36,000 miles and pretty much like new still.

They’re crazy expensive these days though.

[dadbif]

1979, that’s pretty modern for me, had my first one in 1966, it was riddled with rust then, but still an amazing drive. Wish I had it now... the joys of corroding sub frame mounts

[NurseHolliday]

Rich (Batou) knows what he's talking about, search MT for his old Domo thread to see what's possibly one of the best Minis to come out of MT.