So they cannot be too sure I really know how to drive.

 

Also the theory requires lots of memorization. The road signs are very different fr the US. Also they can get really petty about fines, penalty points, different signs for very similar things etc. And speed cameras, red light cameras, yellow boxes etc. You get my drift.

They say it is a fine city, you pay fines for everything.

 

 

Found out I have a detuned X1. The normal ones in the US has the 2.0 l jcw 238 HP engine. I have the b48 2.0 l 192 HP engine fr th cooper s. They have the 1.5 l Mini Cooper engine with 136 HP on th X1 too. Car feels big on the small roads.

 

So in perspective the MINI is a "large" car there?

So how's the X1 otherwise?

 

I think the regular Mini Cooper 3 dr is considered a small to mid sized car. Generally the cars are pretty small here. Cannot believe the number of Porsches, mclarens, lambos, Ferraris, bentleys, rolls driving around here. The best selling brand in the country is MB closely followed by BMW.

X1 is pretty good. Am a little worried about the B48 MCS engine and drivetrain they put into this thing with a much higher curb weight. Much smaller than the cayenne I was used to and does drive different as it is a fwd, not awd here. Let's hope there is better quality than the r56 drivetrain etc.

All in all, so far quite happy with the purchase. Seemed to have gotten away buying it slightly cheaper than normal due to COE price fluctuations. Hard to explain but it is an entitlement for you to buy a car, nothing to do with the car yet. That said it costs about a eye popping USD$135,000.

 

Holy crap! How much for a scooter?

 

So, 3 times the price and 1/4th less power as compared to here. Not much of a bargain.

You can do what I did to find 20hp - lighter wheels with a smaller overall diameter. Woo hoo!

 

2 weeks to go for my first track of the season.
Saturday at LRP with Patroons. Should be a good time. I am really looking to trying out the new shock, wheels and tires. It all feels really good on the road. Hopefully that translates well to the track.

Anyone up for a little road trip that day should put LRP in their itinerary. It would be great to see any of you.

Zre - you think you'll have the coilovers and camber plates in by then? Looking forward to seeing that setup.

I am tentatively looking to do the GVC event in June at WGI. Let's get a group of MINIs up there.

 

The subway is $150-$2.00 or so one way, depending on distance. That was how I got around until last week.

Not sure how much scooters and motorcycles costs here. Never looked into them before. But I bet they are similarly priced to the cars in terms of proportionately higher.

 

I am not sure about the economics of mods to a family suv used for grocery shopping. Gas is only $6.5 per gallon. Not bad.

 

So - do what I did back in '09! Lol..

 

I hope I don't do what I did in 2009 when I spent about 50% of the cost of the car of misc mods. All under the guise of track safety, of course.

 

[QUOTE=Eddie07S;4205355]
2 weeks to go for my first track of the season.
Anyone up for a little road trip that day should put LRP in their itinerary. It would be great to see any of you.

I haven't even looked at the schedules yet. I put on the new brakes and something with the rears still isn't right.

 

Uh Oh, that's not good.

What's it not doing right that you don't like?

 

The caliper is not parallel to the rotor. The TCE rear kit requires some grinding of the trailing arm. I may have missed a spot. Not sure yet. Unfortunately, right now I can only catch an hour here and there to work on it. Nice fronts though!

 

Oh boy. Hope you can get it fixed.

 

Everything is fixable given sufficient time and money.

 

Did you contact Todd or are you going after this yourself?

 

we've been back and forth a few times. it will work itself out, I'm sure.

 

I humbly apologize for the difficulties. It's not intentional at all of course.

Been a long time since I'v packaged up and shipped a rear rotor kit, but the parts list and work has not changed on these since I first did them in 2004. The later R56 with its aluminum arms have always been a bit more of a pain than the stamped steel due to the 'fat' nature of the material around the holes etc. I know it can be a bit frustrating but it'll get there. I wish I had some images of the fit from years ago but much of that was dumped with my old photobucket page I abandoned.

 

I'm hoping to find time this weekend to take another run at it. I have a second garage project in progress right beside the MINI (my daughter-in-law's car) and my RX7 will be coming back from the paint shop in a week or two. It's a busy garage these days.

 

Well, after having install my Bilstein B8 Sports shocks I had a wheel alignment done. To my surprise the the front camber went from about -1.8 to -1.5 deg. I am figuring that there was about a half a degree of slop in the old shocks...

FWIW - The -1.5 deg is where it is supposed to be with the IE fixed camber plates.

This should be interesting at LRP next weekend, a week from now. The car feels a lot tighter. Now the rear is at about -1.8 deg, which is close to last year's setting of -2.1 deg. Not sure how I lost 0.3 deg in the mix for the rear. But, all in all I liked the extra camber in the rear. Now, what I don't know is if the slop in the old shock translated into really having -1.8 deg in the front when in the corners or did the corner loads push that to something less that -1.5 deg.... I guess I will find out.

I am also looking at trying out my new wheels and tires and going with the "5 wheel route". That is, track the car on the tires/wheels I drive down in and carry a spare. This will save me from having to change wheels at the track...

Now here's a question...I have extra camber in the rear, could going to a stiffer rear sway bar setting be worth while without getting that snap oversteer? Hmmmmm, something to ponder.

 

Hey,
Anyone interested in doing the Pirelli World Challenge races on Saturday of Memorial day weekend?

 

I'll be there.....free tickets curtesy of PWC! But I'd get in free anyway since its Memorial Day weekend.