I think I'll get some black leather pants. I've never owned (or been owned by) a car that just seems to need its driver occasionally in serious leather. Well it's a good excuse to shop for them...

 

JJ —Tell Merlin that Minx is still gaga for him too! There's a similar MINI in town, but he ain't no Merlin. Will take some pics next time she's careening through the spring budding, yellow mustard laden vineyards and post them.

 

Anyone else seen these in the flesh?




I just about fell out of my tree laughing today. I was at my not-local-but-favorite Mini dealer, and they had one on the wall and in operation. Hysterical!

I was there to try and order up some Mini Challenge shirts; I see that they're not a Mini USA option.



And for me,



I was a bit saddened that the dealership didn't have tickets of specials for the races; the dealership can't be more than 15 miles from the Hockenheim Ring, where the first race of the series is being held. Oh well.

 

Had a great, great drive today with another NAM'er, 07PepperS. Amazing weather, great driving conditions, and a fantastic route.



I mean -- does it get any better than that?

Wish you all could have been there. Especially when I was doing 120 mph on the drive back.

 

Twisties Rock.
So does speed. Though of course I would NEVER exceed the posted speeds here in NannyLand. With my V1. No. Never.

I was on vacation in FL last week with the minivan - went into a bit of Blimey withdrawal... Blimey sat at home in the garage covered with pollen and bug guts from my Dragon run the week before... spent 3 hours cleaning him up yesterday... may have to take the long way home tonight...

 

I'm finally making my first true, not-just-cosmetic mod. So far I've just done the easy stuff - stripes, badges.

I bought new wheels last night. I can't wait to get them. I'll be "upgrading" to 17-inch horseshoes/flame spokes. Definitely summer wheels all the way.

 

I have rim envy. Big time.

Photos?

 

OMG. My windshield -- it was destroyed when I got back. Nothing but bugs!

Of course, I had to temp Mother Nature by going and washing and waxing the car before the run....

I'll never learn....

(and you should see the bugs splat at 120! Silver dollar sized! )

 

Can I totally geek out for a second?

Go and check out this posting I did that TTSM. I uploaded the .tcx file that is produced by my Garmin GPS. The site then plotted the map. I then uploaded raw JPG files, which the site resized. The site then took the time stamp from the photo file, and matched it to the .tcx file, and plotted the photo on the run.

The end product is a Google map / Google earth display of the drive, with the photos embedded in the right place.

Sooooooo cool.

 

 

Oh, that'll do.

That'll do, indeed.

 

Abuvasi

Being a total Garmin GPS groupie (in Merlin and on foot in the wilds of Colorado) and a big fan of Google Earth you have blown me away. I can cruise the German country side at blinding speed and even stop off at Speyerbach for a swim.
Way to much fun. Our US tax dollars at work.

 

abuzavi's GPS follies do indeed rock

And now for something completely different...

After seeing how HOT MINI's get... at least compared to, say, Hondas... I've gotten a bit paranoid about spontaneous Blimey combustion. So I broke down and bought a 2.5 pound Safecraft Halon extinguisher. Then after experimenting for a while and determining that there just plain isn't a good place in the cockpit to put this thing otherwise, I broke down and ordered the Brey-Krause seat mount to put it on the front of the passenger seat. And because the standard wire-and-strap mount for the thing just seems flimsy, I ordered the Safecraft billet mount. So I'll have fun and games getting this thing installed before the Dragon...

Holy Crap this is an expensive hobby...

 

not that I don't believe you (because I'm a total mechanical dork and the extinguisher looks way cool), but just curious... what makes them get so hot?

I just drove from SF to Memphis and kept my eye on the temp gauge... especially when going up steep grades, etc. (even though I sometimes cut the A/C for these). I was impressed that the needle stayed right in the middle, even in 93 degree weather in the Mojave.

paul - i'll be at the dragon selling t-shirts... say hello if you find my booth. would be cool to meet and see Blimey all tricked out.

 

The deal is (IMO)) that "hotter" is "normal" for the MINI. Try this sometime. Drive for a while. Then park. Then leave the car alone in the shade (like a garage) for 3 hours. Then come back and put your hand on the middle of the bonnet. It will STILL be VERY warm. If you pop the bonnet and put your hand on the engine, I'll bet you find places you don't want to leave your hand for long... I haven't put temperature probes on it or seen hard numbers, but I'm pretty darn sure it's HOT.

Heck, I've heard some guys say that their MINI's exhaust headers GLOWED red hot after a hard run... Now racing engines do that... but the cars I've owned never have...

So, yeah, the needle stays right where it's supposed to. And the water and oil temps stay within spec. But that little engine is making some serious BTUs. I'm not quite sure why - I suspect some combination of cramped quarters limiting underhood airflow, the fact that I run it at higher RPMs than any other car I've ever owned, the Eaton supercharger making heat by beating the air to a bloody pulp, etc. And probably because everything is packed in there so tight, it takes a LONG time to radiate off all that heat once you park it.

So my concern is that if something begins to NOT do what it's supposed to (say, a cable drooping onto a hot spot, or a little leak somewhere, or some other OEM or mod part coming in contact with something it shouldn't, or some bearing giving out) that Lucas Prince of Darkness may return with his magic smoke wand in very short order... and I've seen too many cars burned into little piles of slag...

Oh yeah - and I'll probably be buying a cool twisties shirt from you at your booth!

 

I noticed this past winter that after a short bit of driving in fridiged weather, Merlin would be plenty warm up to five hours. I have yet to experence an overheating problem. Do you think that maybe our little German hybrid English vehicle may have a little Latin octane under the hood? A little motoring flaminco, a bit of tango torque maybe some calypso magic. Ah yes, those old cast iron engines were born in Brazil. What did you expect?
Aye yi, yi, yi, muy MINI is caliente. Mucho caliente.

 

yikes!

makes sense... I'll have to try the hot test. I thought I touched the bonnet after driving home the other night after a 13-hour day and it felt okay, but I could have been hallucinating after so many hours on the road.

of course, I also tend to keep it below 4k RPMs... yes, I know, I know, but I don't need much more than that. but oh can Grover go when I needed to get by those 18-wheelers. I just stepped on the gas and he was off. I think people were a little surprised at how fast I sometimes disappeared in front of them.

and the cruise control works great on the MINI on long trips!

cool! i have a feeling they will be popular at the Dragon. people liked them at AMVIV

 

Of course they only disappear behind us due to the great low end torque because good little MINI drivers never exceed the speed limit. I love dancing with the Audi's on the open road, I generally give it up to them because, good little MINI drivers never exceed the speed limit except for Minx and she got caught.
Abuvazi doesn't count because he lives in Germania and motors the infamous Autobahn .

 

Ole'

You nailed it, JJ.

 

Got my 1st service yesterday at 13ish-000 miles. Everything checked out fine and the service guy told me Clara looks "extremely well kept"

 

hey ML... did you have the oil changed before the clock told you to? just curious. I had mine changed at 3,000 and have since put on another 4,500 with my cross-country roadtrip. so it is due again, although the MINI counter says i'll get a free one in about 4,000.

i know this is a touchy topic.

 

You are racking up some miles there. I'm only at about 9200 so far...

 

Jeez. I just hit 4k. I feel so inferior.

Maybe non-autobahn miles are like dog years -- they equal seven autobahn miles or something....

 

Dang, I'm only at 7500 miles.

 

I like this.