It seems that there may be a dip stick option discussed in this thread for the F56 ...
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ge-18-jcw.html

 

I was observing some purpose built track cars and what I like best with some is they owner has a bamboo stick to check the fuel tank level. I like that. Even better is just give me the fool proof sight glass. BTW, there is not such thing as fool proof design. They can always make new and improved fools to defeat your best of engineering solutions.

 

“Make it sailor proof” is the phrase I have heard.

I hate the electronic oil measurement. It won’t work until you have driven the car and brought the oil up to temp, and then it takes literally several minutes of the engine running, while standing still, to get a real reading. The worst idea for this car.

 

So if we rely on the electronic oil level meter and the engine blows up due to not enough oil, will MINI step up and replace the engine? They won't even tell you how much oil it takes.

 

Yes, really, I checked the oil on a regular basis.

MINI - prove it...

 

US regulators just cleared the path for automakers to replace those antiquated side mirrors that few of us use with video cameras. Another notch of dumbdown engineering to encourage the lowest driving discipline. Soon you can just look at the infotainment display instead of straining your neck to check the sides.

As for me I would take mirror over any smart camera. I know mirrors never lie, and will never freeze (not that freeze) or crash.

 

Aaaaha - they’ll just stream that side video to the phone or pad that the driver is already looking at while they are texting...

I have a friend who once said that the most dangerous part of driving on the track was driving from home to the track and back... :

 

Smokey is back in the shop. This time for a flex pipe that is coming apart. It is interesting that they said that it is a separate part part and that isn’t the case on all MINIs.

For my part in keeping the dealership financially in the black, they gave a loaner car. This time it is a 2019 Countryman All4 automatic (but not an S). It drives nicely and doesn’t feel big other than its weight. It moves along in traffic pretty well but it will never win a stop light race. The 3 cylinder has good power, but no punch in this car like it did in the previous loader, a base 4 door. It is also has a noticeable interval between cylinders firing which makes it feel rougher than the turbine-like smoothness of the JCW’s 4 banger. It also runs very low in the RPM range (~1500 at 50-ish), but it downshifts without any hesitation and with in-noticeable smoothness. I didn’t try sports mode. That may have helped with Oooompha... Seats are good, but with flat bottoms. I sit up higher, more chair-like, than the JCW. Nowhere near the lateral support that the JCW seats have. The layout of the interior is MINI, but with a bit more space between things; a little more elbow room if you will. Ride and handling is what you would expect from MINI, although I noticed a bit of wondering and tippyness, reminiscent of the Jeep Grand Cherokee we had. It is quiet with good sound isolation from road noise. Much better than the JCW which could do better from the rear tires. A surprise was the about of road dirt on top of the engine. Clearly the seal on the bonnet isn’t doing its thing. Would I buy this car - not with the base engine. Maybe in the S or JCW form. I would take the base 4 door over this one if I wanted that room; but not sure if it comes in an All4.

A complaint I have had about the JCW is how it’s interior seems to have been designed around it being an automatic. The armrest, E-brake, tach, etc. Well, this Countryman really makes that assumption clearly true. The tach is a waste of time with the AT; it is only there for the thought of having one. The armrest isn’t in the way and the E-brake is a button. The speedometer, that now dominates, is actually useable. The JCW with a stick is a dying breed, sad to say.

One further note - I assumed that it has the 3 cylinder in it but it is hard to tell. It seems small enough to be the 3, but nowhere does it say. The tag on the underside of the bonnet doesn’t say, as I expected it to. Just one more thing that BMW is taking away from the owner of the car - just drive it, fool. You don’t need to be looking under the hood.

While I was at the dealer I asked about the GP and MINI SE (electric). Not until the middle of next year. They also have deposits for the GP3s. Good for them.

 

The two biggest negatives about my 2019 MCS design is that the steering wheel places the volume/radio controls on the right of the wheel and the central storage panel is effectively up all the time. Neither seem designed for the car being manual transmission. If I'm going to take my right hand off the shifter, I might as well reach up to the radio controls anyway. The only reason I'd use the steering wheel controls is to keep the power symbol aligned. And you already spoke about the central arm rest/storage. I only store my work ID in it since it's always vertical.

It makes me sad at the state of manual transmissions, but you'd think they'd do some designing with a manual in mind (since they still sell them)!

 

Interesting that you bring up the radio controls on the steering wheel, as I was coming up with the same issue for the window up and down stitches. They moved them to the door. Well everyone else has them on the door, so why not MINI? I am sure that was BMW’s thinking. That works for cars with AT; not a manual. For a manual car, that makes no sense. I found that to be a particular issue at toll booths. I take off after getting the toll ticket, have to shift and put the window up and have to switch hands off the steering wheel to do that. In my older MINIs the window switches are on the center console, that everyone thinks is weird, but it works for driving a stick. I shift gears, flip the window switch and go back to shifting the car, all without switching hands...

I got Smokey back from the dealer who put a new flex pipe on it. Not a cheap job. But I do enjoy driving that little bugger.

In doing so, I returned the Clubman and took the opportunity to play with it in sport mode for the AT. Not a fan at all of it... The shift from 1 to 2 put the “slush” back into slush box. With a heavy foot and with higher RPMs it oozes from one gear to the next. Anything but crisp. And downshifting is equally not fun. Push on the throttle and nothing happens; you have to squeeze it a lot, load the engine up and, bang, it drops a gear. Not what I expected. This AT actually performs better in normal mode in this car. If this is what they are going to in all of the MINIs, including the up coming GP, I want nothing to do with it!

Another thing I found was, at first, I liked the idea of the switch for the E-brake. Well, not so much after I found out that it can’t be turned off without the car running. Give me that big, old fashion, clunky handle. What happens if you are in a small fender bender and it triggers the automatic crash stuff and that is engaged? How do you disengage it if you can’t start the car? Do they have to drag the car onto a flatbed with all 4 wheels locked? What a great way to really wreck a possibly fixable car.

 

While at the dealer, I ordered the first of the JCW Pro parts I plan to get for Albert. These are some “go faster and handle better” parts... The winglets for the rear spoiler... I’ll let you know how they do in the “go faster and handle better” department. I have a feeling these are going to be more for looks. Ya think?



Pictures to come...

 

With MINI Coopers, how could this not happen?

So yesterday I picked up the JCW Pro rear spoiler extension from the dealer. Didn’t get the installation instructions, so I went on a Google hunt and found this great post here on NAM (got to love NAM ):
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...xtensions.html

There was another post that I found that suggested using the 3M mounting tape, which I have used before I and think I will try instead of that fancy glue that BMW/MINI uses.

More to come...

While I was at the dealer, I saw that they had another black JCW in the showroom. What? I thought as I was told that there were only 2 - 2019 JCWs in the area. It turned out that it was a 2020 JCW Clubman All4. Yes, a 302 Hp Clubman! They said that it is crazy fast. I sat in it and, ya know what? It didn’t feel any different than my JCW. And, it only comes with an AT. So I refrained from saying that I was interested in it and asking to go for a test drive...

 

It is not often that I get the chance to squeeze the throttle in 1st gear. There is almost no need, it is so short, and without a decent tech, it is hard to know when the engine is approaching redline. Well, my last adventure into the higher end of the tach produced some interesting sounds...

I had Albert in Sport mode and was enjoying the exhaust note as the revs increased. What a wonder job they did on the exhaust system for this car! What I wasn’t paying attention to was how quickly the engine was approaching that upper limit. I should have been clued-in when the car lost power, but I was too intent on the sudden change to the exhaust note to realize that I had hit the rev limit and that something catastrophic hadn’t happened. That wonderful exhaust tone changed to bleating of an angry goat that you just took its food from... It took a second to put it all together to realize just how quickly this car reaches redline in 1st.

It was so quick that I had to try it a few more times just to practice not hitting the redline... and to listen to that wonderful exhaust note...

 

Just finish with 4 hours of driving in Albert to visit with family. With highway driving there isn’t much in the way of distractions (like fun twisties, hard braking, etc), especially yesterday with a crystal clear blue sky and almost no one on the road. So it is easy to notice little things like whether or not one’s leg is going numb from sitting for a long time. Oh, this was a wonderful trip. So comfortable. All of those pressure points were gone. Success!

It is time to get a sharp blade and trim the fleece to fit the seat. Originally I had thought that I would trim it to just fit the seat bottom and leave the bolstering uncovered. However after riding with it quite a bit on short trips and now this long trip, I find I like having the bolstering covered and will leave that. Most of what I will do will be to trim the length to remove the excess overhang at the front of the seat. It isn’t bad now; only a few inches need to be removed.

An interesting note - the fleece stays put with no straps or attachments of any kind. It doesn’t slide around when you get in or out of the car, or while sitting in it and driving. Not having straps or attachments makes it easy to fit in and remove, if needed. The best of all worlds.

I highly recommend it if anyone finds they need a bit more seat comfort in their life...

 

Of Radios...
Yes I am old school and still call it a radio, although I suppose that it might be more appropriate to call it a sound system. But I digress.... I don’t often listen to the radio in Albert given its own wonderful sounds. But for my 4 hr trip, on a boring highway, I did run with some tunes playing on Pandora. It is nice having the Bluetooth connection and the sound quality is, overall, quite good. Having dropped the larger from the rear that was in the Gen I and II MINIs is a bit disappointing but still the bass was still adequate. The Gen I Base Cooper has a very mediocre system with muddy mid and high range. My 2012 is surprisingly good with quite clear tones and much better than the system in the 2007 I had. I would say that the system in Albert is at least as good as that in my 2012 and likely it is better. So, that was a pleasant experience.

Of Tires...
I could spend a long time on tires. But, another NAM’er has been exploring the optimal tire size for our Gen III JCW and I am willing to roll () on his experience. It appears that there is a lot more room in the Gen III wheel wells than in the previous generations. He has put 245/45 tires on his. A bit too tall for autocross but if you are going for looks, they would probably do the car proud... But going for performance, the sweet spot seems to be the 225/45x17s. This works for me. Still reasonably light weight and even lighter with the NM wheels, it seems that it will work well for me. Yes, I know, this is what Charlie Thomson is running on his JCW, but it is fun see an exploration into the depths of what may or may not be good. Try this thread for some good tire reading...
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...45-40-17s.html

 

I have the Harmon package and I find it's fine. My previous car (2005 RX-8) had a Bose package, so I guess I'm just used to upgraded audio. The USB input is nice since the sound is very clear, even at high volumes. Again, my previous car being a 2005 meant that I was still using a FM adapter to play music from an iPod Classic (not even an iPhone or newer iPod). With those, they'd get much more static and distortion. So I'm happy with my sound setup even though MINI doesn't seem to support Android phones; a USB stick is working very well.

I have an 2019 MCS with 17" stock all-season RF tires right now. I want to move to having two sets: one performance and one winter. For me, the biggest cost is the extra set of wheels. I saw a set of 18" wheel, but people tend to say 18" wheels ride harder. Maybe I'll still pull the trigger, what experience do you have on different tire sizes?

 

I guess I should have included that the sound system in all of our MINIs is the basic system. I have heard that the Harmon package is quite good. It is the basic system in Albert that I find to be quite good for my tastes.

I have run 15”, 16”, and 17” wheels on our MINIs. I have never run 18” wheels. With the MINI spec tire sizes the ride quality diminishes with each inch increase in tire size. And there is an increased consideration for wheel damage from poor roads with increased wheel size as the side wall height goes down. Weight is another issue and it tends to go up with increased wheel size and the weight is in the worst location; farthest from the wheel center. This will tend to slow the car’s acceleration. On Smokey (the 2012 Cooper S) I run 16” wheels on the street and use 15” or 17” wheels on the track, depending on the length of the track. I don’t use 16”on the track as there is less tire selection for those than the other two sizes. Where I live, I would not consider an 18” wheel give the poor roads we have.

For the F56 JCW the 17” wheel is the smallest that will cover the brakes. And those seem to be the sweet spot for performance. 18” will ride worse, tires will cost more, wheels and tires will be more prone to damage and, typically, there is no performance gain over a 17”. For your S model, I believe the brake calipers are more “wheel friendly” than the JCW’s. There should be a lot of aftermarket wheels in the 17” size or even 16” size that will be lighter than what you have now and likely for the same or lower price than a MINI wheel.

Look around and look at Tire Rack for ideas. Look here on NAM for tire picture posts. I like the looks of the Enkei Racing wheels, if that helps.

 

Another thing that MINI corrected in Albert over the previous Gen MINIs is the microphone location for the phone connection. It appears to work quite well now.

Albert took us for a wonderful ride along our favorite route through the southeast corner of the Adirondacks. Hi 60s to 70s for temperature and crystal clear blue sky. The sun was at a perfect angle to highlight the just changing fall foliage colors. At the higher elevations, I would say the leaves are 30-50% changed and there were beautiful colors to to see. My favorite twisty road was pretty much empty of cars and motorcycles; the Harley’s tend to be the slowest thing on the road, especially in the twisties. Should I say it...? Hogs don’t handle well in the corners? Nah, I shouldn’t say that, should I.... At any rate, Albert did quite nicely, shall I say...

I did, however, push the limits of the tires, unexpectedly, at one point. I was on an unfamiliar twisty road and came to a slow left hander that I trailbraked into. The road dropped away in the middle after the blind apex. Still braking, but not hard at that point, I felt the ABS kick in. Now, I was a long ways from pealing rubber off the tires and I was likely only a few MPH above the caution speed for the corner. There was no tire noise; no tire squeal. No warning. Got to say, handling wise, these are not the best. Ride and rolling resistance - they are quite good. Braking - no - and standing water - no.

I have looked on TR for a replacement RFT for these and it appears that none are very good. I can deal with a stiffer ride, but the complaints for some of the tires are are about the sidewalls blowing out. That, I can’t deal with. I have a while before I replace these and next year a set of 225/45 RE71Rs are likely to go on Albert for the summer and the current crap will be relegated to winter duty or should I say - cold weather duty.

 

I'd love to know exactly how they determine the threshold for the ABS and the Stability Control. It seems like way too often before I feel I'm at the limits, I feel the ABS and/or stability control actuator. I bugs the heck out of me. I've come to a conclusion of my opinion on the handling of the car. Anywhere below the threshold limits of driving (oversteer, understeer etc) this is car is a blast and I really enjoy it all the time. But at the limits, it's not naturally well balanced and doesn't handle all that well. (there..I said it officially) Throw in the ABS actuators kicking in randomly too early and it gets scary. But since I enjoy zipping around town mostly below the limits, there's nothing I would exchange it for.

On a random note, I have super-high praise for the automatic transmission. I nearly always paddle shift, but it is engineered great. Shifts are perfectly firm and fast without being harsh. I recently drove two different makes with tiptronics, and neither was comparable. And the MINI normal drive mode without paddle shifting, it's shift points are really good. That's a whole-nother discussion about modern cars hunting for the lowest gear for mileage , and then they lug-lug away.

 

Tires will make a huge difference as to when the abs and traction control will kick in (or they should). I know that, on the track, with my track tires on my 2012 Cooper S, I very rarely hit the ABS and the traction control rarely interferes when I am driving well. I am hoping for the same with the JCW, but that will be next year to find out. If you find you are having interference from the traction control that you don’t want, what you can do is a quick flip of the traction control switch. This will put the traction control into the “traction” mode, which is actually raise the point at which it will interfere. I use this on the track as I still want some amount of a safety net, but not the interference of the “street” mode

That is interesting about the automatic and good to hear as the MT is pretty much gone now. I know what you mean about lug-lug away. That is one reason I won’t buy a small Ford. As I noted in a post above, the auto in the Cooper 4 Door I drove was really nice; not such a good experience with the Countryman I drove.

 

Some peoples just love their MINIs sooooo much.

Take a look at this pumpkin carving:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4497207

 

I know that Albert’s life has been quiet as of late. Yes, maybe a little. I have yet to put the rear spoiler winglets on him (that is bad of me). He has been relegated to short trips and not much exciting. Even so, he is about ready to turn another 1000 miles and will shortly have 3000 on his clock.

Albert is becoming the car of choice to take anywhere. My wife loves the ride and secure feeling it has, especially in the twisties. She loves the seats. I am coming to realize that this car has evolved into a more refined GT car in the classic sense. GT as in Grand Touring, vs the brash and edgy car it used to be. It is comfortable on long and short trips. Gas mileage is the best of the 3 MINIs we own (very close to 30 mpg since new). The seat “pad” has resolve my seat/leg issues. And I am settling into its quarks, although the arm rest will have to go. And I which that someone would come up with a way to exchange the tach with the speedometer.

And there is something to be said for Albert’s willingness to rev to redline, the urgency with which he gets to redline, noticeable push of the seat against my back and the exhaust note, when in Sport mode, that goes along with all of that. That is a song and dance I will never tire of.

Now I just need to find a big witch’s hat to put on Albert for the season...

 

There are some nice wheel options out there for the F56 JCW according to this thread....
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...nt-thread.html

I have been partial to the Enkei race wheels and it appears these will (may?) fit.

 

I used to hate the armrest too. But I learned that you can lower it more when the parking brake is down. When the parking brake is fully down, you can press that latch on the front of the armrest and it lowers to a height that isn't bad. You just have to lower it every time, but it's actually a functional arm rest with the manual transmission.

Maybe that'll help?

 

Hi Scypio! Welcome to Albert’s adventures.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have tried that; several times now just to make sure I am not being too fussy. I last tried it on the ride through some of my favorite twisties that I posted about up above. It didn’t last long being down. I just don’t seem to fit the arrangement. My elbow still hits the rest, and my shoulder is pushed up as a result. My hand doesn’t rest naturally on the shifter. I have the seat set a bit low, but it would have to be a lot higher for me to fit it... Interestingly - I had the same issue driving my cousin’s M2, and yet, he seems to do fine in it. Maybe it is me....

I have found a NAM thread about how to delete the arm rest. MINI has the console piece without the hole to replace the one with the hole that is currently there. But like a lot of things with MINIs, it looks to be a bit of a PIA to make the change.