Oh, one more thing. Buy a set of Schroth Quick Fit Pro harnesses for the R56, which they are certified to work with the air bag system and the anti-submarine system of the car’s seat belts. Then install them in the F56. Better yet, buy a set for each car. Also, the Pro version is compatible with your HANS device (I assume you have one)

 

Thanks for the tips Eddie, will keep an eye on that oil for sure!

I’ve heard good things about that harness, will look into it for sure.

I’ve been working my way through Charlie’s thread too, picking up what tips I can.

I have a set of RE71RS that only have 2 track days on them, will burn those off and go from there. Might try the new Nankang CRS next (but heard the Falken are good too). For ultimate time, once I get the car sorted, may have to throw a set of Goodyear Supercar 3R on there and see that the car can do. They seem to be the best ‘street’ tire out here and almost keep up with Hoosiers, if you can get them.

Going to be a long winter!!!

 

I'm still around, but "Eddie" is to be relied on. Gollum IV and I have pretty much retired (he at 126k and i at 69). The disease is perennial though....


Cheers,

Charlie

 

Both of you have a great wealth of info posted on the forums. Always good to learn from others experiences! I'm working my way though each of your monster build threads, and taking notes! haha

Thanks for sharing all your experiences!

 

Hey, great post! I have an “Albert” also. Mine is a 2016 JCW Countryman 6M. I almost traded him in for a 19 JCW Countryman. I couldn’t give my guy away though. I ended up getting a tune from Mario instead. Woah, baby!! Albert is rocking!! $800 saved me $30K!
But wow if I started at your HP and NM….
check him out (MatioKart)

 

First post, and on my tread. Welcome to NAM and the wonderful world of MINI.
Another Albert, too - Nice

Yes, it is easy to grow an attachment to these cars, which is why there are 3 of them currently in my garage!

I’ve read a lot of good things about the Mario tunes and have often thought of getting a tune for my Albert. The Dinan Elite (or its updated replacement) is plug-and-play which makes it really attractive and it adds a worthwhile amount of power. But then I am mindful of what this would mean out on the track. More HP means going faster and quicker lap times. But more speed also means that the brakes will be taxed more than they already are. At Watkins Glen, my feeling is that the brakes are about at their limit. More power would then necessitate some sort of brake upgrade, cooling likely. That is a project beyond what I plan to do with the car. And, as I posted above, I have found a new source to faster lap times…. Learn to drive it better. Go figure. So no tune for now. Maybe in the future.

Enjoy your Albert. He looks great! Think about starting your own “adventure” thread and feel free to post a link to it here. It would be great to read about what you and your Albert are up to.

 

I find that you approach to power is narrow-mindedly hampered by concern for traction and braking. Surely you must free yourself from this obsession and sink into the quicksand of bigger turbo's and terrifying BMEP values.

Why constrain your experience?

;-)

Cheers,

Charlie

PS: I need front brakes$ dammit! ;-)

 

^^^^^
So cavalier with my car… What’s the title of your current thread? Something about power corrupts?

I go through a set every few days when driving on the track. I can feel your pain.

That is an easy DIY job, even to take the caliper off the car, which is needed because someone at BMW/MINI thought that it was a great idea to glue nipples to the back of the pads requiring the whole caliper to be removed to replace pads instead of being able to just remove 2 pins as Brembo intended…. Those nipple are not necessary…

 

In December Albert gained a new stable mate; a 2021 Jeep Wrangler



2021 Wrangler

This replaces the old and tired 2001 Wrangler that I have had for a number of years for winter time duties so the MINIs can rest for the winter and not be exposed to the NE salted conditions. This one came with a lot of the bells and whistles that one would want on a car for the winter in this area of the country. Things like heated seats and steering wheel.

The engine options are a turbo 2.0L 4 banger and a 3.6L 6 cylinder. This one has the 4 cylinder, and the 8 sp automatic; I would have preferred a stick but at the price I paid that is easily overlooked. Interestingly, this turbo 4 makes more torque than the optional 6 and it makes about 35 more HP than the 2.0L engine in Albert (maybe I should get that tune… ). And this engine is tuned to make a huge amount of torque at about 1500 RPM, which is where it runs a lot of the time.

With my experience with the MINI turbo engines I am concerned with oil maintenance. In my mind that is the number one thing to consider with a turbo charged engine and keeping it healthy. With less than 11k miles on the clock for Wally (that’s his name ), I am not worried about an issues currently, I just want to ensure there are no issues in the future.

So I got looking into the oil requirements for Wally - 5W-30, synthetic. No surprise there. The surprise came with the formulation requirements…. SP - ILSAC 6A … What the heck is that?

It took some research and I came this post about ILSAC 6A and this post about the API Service Categories “SP”

It turns out that these requirements are likely something that every MINI Cooper owner should be looking for in their next oil change.

From those linked posts import part for these engines, especially the turbo engines, is the “SP” rating where the formulation is:And the “6A” appears to be for improved gas mileage.

The thing that really caught my eye for MINIs was the which the Gen 2 MINIs are noted for. Of course the rest of it is important to any turbocharged MINI, as well as to my Wrangler.

My favorite motor oil, Motul (used on Smokey), meets these requirements. Maybe the MINI oils meet too? I’ll have to check. Albert and Blue have been getting their oil changes at the dealer, so hopefully.

 

The other day we had a heavy, wet snow fall, which made for some spectacularly beautiful winter scenery in the city park near my house.



Straight out of Frozen

 

Hi Again Eddie, motoring season is rapidly approaching…. Just following up on this Harness you recommended. My seats do not have a pass through for a harness, there is a small hole blocked by a type of plastic honeycomb. Are your seats like that as well? If so, did you cut out the honeycomb, or do you pass the harness around the outside of the seat? Or perhaps an aftermarket seat?

Cheers, Rod

 

RodGP,

Here's how I put the Schroth into Gollum (F56 Works).

Dremel....

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Thanks! Great info, will pick one up.

Next step is working up the courage to tackle the LSD install!!!

Cheers, Rod

 

Charlie is quicker than I am… Maybe it’s the Dinan… Thanks for filling in.

I forgot that MINI put 2 different seats into these MINIs.

 

On Albert news - Last month I paid off his new car loan and this month I got the lien release. Albert is now mine free and clear.

With that, I can now pay for the Wrangler I bought It never ends.

 

OMG - The season is about ready to start and here I am with my skis still in hand waiting for some snow to fall…

As that goes, GVC is doing a gathering at WGI in early April that sounds like it will be fun, including parade laps. Visits to a winery. Food. Etc Yes, car fun.
Not sure if this link will work. If not, post here and I’ll forward the email I got.

 

The local Mini club is also doing a rally for opening weekend. Not sure I’ll be able to make it yet, as we are hosting some out-of-town guests for some eclipse thing on Monday. I might end up in a two car rally to the Glen with a buddy Saturday morning, if we go at all.

 

That’s right… You will be in the middle of it. Perfect. I’ll be south of the totality. It will still be fun to see. I’m sure roads up into the Adirondacks will be packed with people trying to view it, though. I’ll stay to home.

Enjoy

 

The Jeep is a foul weather vehicle so, maybe, it won’t see much sunshine. Also, not much of that this past winter… The MINIs get to go out on the good days.

It has, however, been tested in a 18+” snow storm and was very competent. Roads were sort-of cleared. It will be headed out again on Thursday in another storm… to take me skiing.

 

My Dad used to say that when you saw the forsythia bushes blossom you knew that spring has arrived. He loved those little yellow blossoms. That has happened this week here where I live in the NE. Spring! And as any car enthusiast knows, that is when it is time to bring the fun cars out to play.

Albert is no exception. He has been basically garaged for the whole winter except for an occasional and exceptionally good day when he got to get out and stretch his legs for a day. Now that spring is officially here it is time to switch the cars around. April is his “coming home” anniversary month, which also means it is his State inspection and annual oil change month. Yes, once a year, whether it needs it or not, the oil gets changed in Albert. The reality is that he doesn’t get driven enough miles to do it any more often than that. This even counts a few track days. And he was fine for his inspection. It was noted that he had a few small cracks in his front brake rotors. Hmmm, I wonder how those got there? Can anyone say “track day”?

It also means that the fantastically horrible OEM Hankook tires (that are really only good for flat spotting on the garage floor while the car sits there for the winter) have been switched out for the delightful Conti DWs on the light weight wheels.

Ah, spring! And the song of a wonderfully designed 2.0L BMW engine being wrung out to 6 and a half grand while rowing through the gears….

Oh, and the start of track season. With that, LocktonMotorSports (with whom I purchase my car’s track insurance) has published a list of track terms. In case you need to know what “understeer”, “oversteer”, “apex”, etc mean, just look here.

Take car, enjoy and motor on.

 

Sunoco 94 octane!


Sunoco Super Juice

This harkens back to the days of muscle cars and Sunoco 260 (whatever that was ). The smell of unburnt fuel coming from the exhaust of engines with an idle so loopy one would wonder if it was going to stall. Ah, those were the days.

Now we have little 4 bangers that are so smooth running and quiet that one might have to look at the tach to see if it is still running when at a stop light. But they have turbos that squeezes the air so hard it would make your head pop, making for 2 - 300+ real Hp. Those number are in the territory of those muscle cars. Yes, really. And like those cars, where the sticker in front of the passenger says…

Sit Down
Shut Up
And Hang On

… These little pocket rockets move. Even without a Dinan tune, mashing the throttle in second gear in Albert produces exciting, tire shredding results.

Will the 94 octane make a difference? Can an average Joe like me tell the difference between a $100 bottle of wine and $20 bottle of wine? Not sure. But trying it will be fun. Was there difference with that first sip, oops, I mean dip of the foot into the throttle the first chance I got?

Albert seemed to say - Yyyyeeeeesssss! I Like It!

Or was that just me getting back into the fun of driving Albert after his winter hibernation?

We shall see.

 

Last Saturday I made a trip down to Lime Rock Park to meet up with ZRE, who was doing a track event there. For sure Albert seemed more lively and a punch on the throttle got me up and around a car that I was passing with more gusto than I expected. So I am inclined to say, Albert definitely is noticing the difference with the higher octane. None the less, the trip to LRP and back was very enjoyable. Trees in Western Mass and CT were just starting to bud and flowering trees were in bloom. And the day was perfect weather. It was great to meet up with my friend and to watch some of the event.

Speaking going to the track, one thing I have been concerned about on Albert from being on the track is heat damage to rubber parts in the brake calipers. To date I have not found any rebuild kits for them. However, the other day I found kits for some other of BMW’s 4 piston calipers. This is one kit I found and have linked to just to keep for future reference in case I get ambitious and to look to rebuild the ones on Albert. I hope to never have to replace the front calipers. At over $800 a pop that would be a big crunch on the wallet.

 

My world has just become a touch more complicated. Motor Oil. It used to be simple. Find one of the right weight and pour it in. But, NOOOO, it has to be approved and that approval changes over time.

My R56S literally cooks the motor with temperature up in the 250 deg range when out on the track. That is close to frying potatoes range. After 3 days of that, most oils turn to a burnt chicken broth consistency but without the good smell. I have gone to one weight heavier (5W40), which helped, but still I have found only 2 brands of oils that seem to stand up well to that kind of beating… Red Line and Motul. Not Castrol, not Mobile 1, not whatever.

My favorite (because of price) is Motul 8100 E-Cess. So what happened? Now there is a type for.. extended life, clean (should that be cleaning?), old cars, new cars, repainted cars, old lady driven cars. Is the “Gen 2” my favorite now? What is going on there?

The Motul web page actually helped. “Gen 2” is actually the updated version of my favorite. The updates are to make it meet the specs of a variety of car manufacturers. And they say it is “backwards compatible”. What? I would not have even thought of that one. Glad it is as I would have no clue as to what to do if it wasn’t.

Phew!

I can now change the oil in my R56S.

The JCW seems to be much kinder to its oil, which is a good thing. I can have the dealer do the oil change with whatever their oil is. Much easier for me that way…

Good day and Motor on.

 

It's a nightmare, and complicated by the weird relationship between auto manufacturers and API, as filtered by product liability lawyers.

Bottom line: the consumer is going to be left holding the short end of the stick, or the long end of the invoice.

 

Bravo for a great story and it’s a awesome ride! Here is my new one below with tons of mods! And yes those are 18’s