Not a MINI

DNA was the wrong term... design cues would have been better to point out the coincidental things I saw in the pic. Wasn’t sure if I would be posting a spoiler so I didn’t name the car, but the original post and pic also feels like a challenge or puzzle which makes me think guesses or the answer would be ok. Have you ever seen Penn & Teller Fool Us?

 

Yes great show!
I‘ll wait on the name, though....

 

Just lost an hour of my day scrolling through this thread again. Was looking for info on the rear end clunk that I thought you had with your RSB. Decided it was the rear strut top issue, but then got sidetracked by wanting to find out if your Wilwoods were the 11.75 kit or the 12.2 kit. Ended up finding the bit about the end link bolts loosening up in the Milltek chapter.

My Milltek non-resonated exhaust was ordered earlier this week.

My Wilwood 12.2 kit (black, because I may have already reached peak redness on my car) went on weekend before last, along with my RSB.

My car doesn't have a name yet, but it could easily be earning the name Desiring to be Desire.

Seriously, this thread has been a huge help in sorting out what I want on my MINI. I really need the Coolerworx to go on 50% off though...

 

It has been fun to keep you guys in suspense. I didn't want to show the car until I am 100% sure it is mine, even though at the time it literally has my name on it. I think I dived over the deep end this time around and did not realize how deep until I went to try pick up the car. I expected challenges and went prepared, at least mentally.

RB-MINI got very close, intentional or not. He said the interior is rad.

 

Intentional

The Penn & Teller Fool Us mention in my follow up post was hinting to the cryptic explanations they give to the performer while trying not to reveal the secret to the audience.

 

Blue Oval?

 

You are the man!

 

While building one with the kit is within the realm of my capabilities, I have to pick the battles. So much interesting things to do in life, but so little time. I would like to design and build my own house but I realized the man-hours I have to invest into. Similarly with cars. We have a member with a 818 and he races with it. The car is down more than up, and judging from the stuff on it I know it have tons of money into it.

 

I didn't want to show what Radical car it is until it is safely transported to me. I'd like to think I found my dream track car. It is a bit of an unlikely long story but I am very glad that I pursuited this remote prospect.



as the car was set up for road use by the previous owner they have the corner balanced as well as aligned the car for track use for me







One of the owners of the dealer who is an accomplished race car driver spent generous amount of time with me to go over all the technicals of the car



I went there with my trailer psychologically prepared not being able to bring the car back due to it being a full on race car; it took 4 guys 4 ramps, 2x lumbers, a winch, and 2 floor jacks to get the car onto the trailer deck; and I concluded that I could not tie it down securely for the trip back from the Bay Area to Oregon



I was most lucky that this carrier was in the area and he has shipped cars for the Radical dealer and out of the two bays he has one for my RXC







the LMP inspired appearance of this car looks better in person than in most photos




Rest assured, with the ownership of this batmobile Desire would not be left out of track actions nor diminishing love from me. Mini's are just very special car for me, especially for being a FWD. Diversity is the spice of live, and I will continue to enjoy tracking Desire, the Porsche, the Lotus, and this bad boy. This car obviously is way over my head and I have to remember to give it plenty of respect so not to get into troubles.

 

Congrats!

The website was pretty scarce, so we expect full details/specs!

 

Congratulations!!

It would have been awesome to do a few shakedown laps around Sears before bringing it back home.

I've thought about getting an early Hayabusa powered SR3. Although far from the best looking in ALMS/Camel GT history, I always liked its mini World Sports Car look.

 

Thanks.

Wikipedia has a running history of the RXC development, although I found there are discrepancies that led me to infer my 2015 car is quite inferior than the current year model. Fortunately I call the dealer and found out it actually is very close to the current car with a few expected lower spec items like brake rotor diameters, and of course do not have the facelifted EcoBoost V6 which added multiport injection in conjunction with direct injection.

Radical is a company that does not employ marketing fluffs. It specs the cars like they are. Here is their current product brochure.

Mine is a 2015 RXC 500 that has been updated to the current turbo intercoolers and engine ECU tunes. It is virtually new with only 1000 miles and never been tracked. It is supposed to be road legal in the US. It was built as a show car for an auto show in UK so it has a lot of options. It has no ABS as with most race cars. The Bosch motorsport ABS option costs $20k if you must have one.

We were trying to schedule a day that the owner can have the car set up for me at the track and ride with me. Unfortunately the day would be too close to the upcoming labor day weekend club days that I really want to drive this car. Also I didn't just want to pay for the car in full without seeing it in person which would mean two trips in the span of two weeks. Before I wired them the deposit someone in Taiwan also enquired about the car and prepare to offer more than the price we agreed upon.

SR3 is Radical's most sold car. It is an awesome car and can be faster in a small track like ORP. Their entire range are great cars for someone want to take racing serious and can start from SR1 and step up all the way to the RXC GT3. Powerwise the GT3 is actually detuned for balance power of the racing class.

 

Totally fooled me. Also, I did not know that Radical made a car with a top. Hahaha! You learn something new all the time. The photo that showed the front fender and the R in the steering wheel had me thinking Radical but I had not known that they made them with tops.

 

I didn't know they make a coupe either until Radical cars I saw at the track piqued my interest. I started researching and soon I came upon the dealer at Sonoma Raceway and saw they have this one for sale. I was immediately seduced by the LMP inspired styling. It appeared to be rather outdated compared to the current equivalent. I would wasted a day but the next day I decided to call and find out more. I decided in the call that I would buy it as I was quite impressed that the owner seemed to be forthcoming with all my questions. The rest are history.

BTW, I came upon this Fiat 124 which is based and shares the platform and drivetrain with your MX5. It is the first time I saw one in person. It does have many design cues from the classic 124 Spider.

 

As only the Italians can massage an already good looking car into a better looking car.
I had a ‘72 124 Spyder. Wonderful car.

 

It does. I feel that they did a very good job with the updated more modern look of the original, though most would probably disagree. It is a good looking car.

Several things moved me away from the 124 Abarth to the MX-5. The biggest thing was the motor. The 1.4l turbo, though a very good motor, is turbocharged and I don't like turbos. The next biggest thing was that it had no hard top option. There are removable hard tops that FIAT makes but they are for motorsports and to my understanding, next to impossible to buy. The ones from the aftermarket, like the ones for the Miata, after you buy the top, you need to send the car and the top to a body shop that can work with fiberglass to have it actually seal to the car. Massive gaps all over the place. One web site says that you shouldn't buy one for the road as you will not be happy and they are intended for wet race days. There are no plans on adding the RF roof to the FIAT and with the changes to the Mitata's motor, that really sealed the deal for me. I'll make a little video of the my ND2's motor revving and post a link to it on my Youtube channel. It is a rev monster. Little blips of the throttle and the needle JUMPS up. It will be nothing like the Radical or the Lotus, but it is noticeably faster to rev then the R50 and R53 and by a fairly large margin for the latter.

I have thought about going to the FIAT dealer and seeing how much the spings, dampers and sway bars cost for the Abarth as the Abrath has less body roll right off the factory floor, though the Miata still handles ever so slightly better in real world situations.

 

Again, surly not like your Radical or the Lotus. The motor was cold as seen in the temp gauge, so, no real high revs. The motor is very responsive.

 

This was the auto transport the dealer connected me with. I was most fortunately from the moment I decided it was unsafe for me to bring the car back from the Bay Area to Oregon on my trailer, to he showing up was a mere 3 hours. Out of the two bays he has one left for me. When he arrived I was greeted with this front end of his truck.



would you let this guy haul your high end car across stateline?


some valuable cargos in there

It turned out he was most unfortunate while hauling vehicles a couple of months ago. In the middle of the night sleeping in a tractor trailer area of an Interstate rest stop they woke up to a big jolt. Scrambling to put a pair of pants on, he rushed outside to investigate. A semi failed to see his rig in darkness and round the corner clipping his bumper and did the extensive damage. The professionals.

He is a nicest guy and so is his wife. He has a Volkswagen restoration business and he would go out of state to pick up and return clients' cars. I will continue to use him in the future.

 

I've been wondering: if you can't haul the new car on your existing trailer, and your existing trailer was maxing out your tow rig, when will we be seeing your new RV and trailer?

Probably need a two-place, trailer, plus shop space/tire and fuel storage... Best to just go with a stackable trailer, and the converted semi RV tow, rig. 😁

 

I was really stressed to realize the greatest challenge of hauling this car is loading it. It requires approach angle no more than around 5 degree. The worst part is when the car reaches the top of the ramp as the center going over the apex of the ramp and trailer deck. It will high center and ground there. I had no idea how large this car is until after I negotiated the deal. The trailer deck is 80 1/4" wide, and the track width of the car is 78 1/2". Also forget trying to drive it onto the trailer. It has grabby racing clutch and next to no flywheel mass. Starting on level ground from stop is a chore not stalling the car. Going up any incline you either stall the car, or have the car lunge forward violently. Loading and unloading requires using a winch.

It is much wider than Z28 Camaro, but featherweight light. It barely fit the trailer deck.

Changing the motorhome is out of the question as this is the only one I care to own. Hence the solution space is to figure out a suitable trailer. Due to the 5000 lb and 500 lb max two and tongue weight the choices is very limited. No enclosed trailer. Besides the Trailex I have there is only one other which has a motorized deck from Australia called Futura. I have seen the first one in action by the dealer at PIR. It is however very pricey. Also the bare trailer weights in at 1500 lb while my fully configured Trailex is just barely 1000 lb. And the enclosed two car trailer that brought the car home's width between the wheel arches is 80", so we have to load the Radical into the front bay so when it slides sideway a bit during the trip will not damage the body work.


the larger of the two model is the possible candidate for the Radical



shown with tire rack and front shield

Once I have the car safely delivered I immediately begun brainstorming how to make the trailer work. I would only consider the Futura trailer if I fail to find a solution with my Trailex. Right now I have the bits and pieces ordered that I expect I can make my trailer and motorhome work. I plan to do a dry run on the upcoming club days to test loading it. It would be a spectacle.

 

You're dreaming too small....

https://www.stackertrailersales.com/...e#.X0mdtn6SmUk

Desire won't be happy being left at home all the time...

 

Trust me. When I realize the gravities of the challenge down at Sonoma's crazy hot sun, I thought to myself this will turn out to be the story of the man given a pile of free firewood, except my pile is far from free.

If I were to go over the deep end with a double decker the rig to get is a used semi tractor to tow it. It will limit a lot places one can go with a rig that size.

 

I wasn't going to find you a new rig until I had guilted you into the new stacker trailer first.

I wouldn't mind having your car problems.

 

Here here. I went and found a photo I took last season with this semi I have in mind. I didn't pay attention that day what car it hauled. What do you know? It's a baby Radical.




A Radical requires a radical solution to haul it

 

Destiny!!!