You guys are great!

 

I just have time to check what I did. It turned out we all install new bushings unless you install them wrong as they come with the Koni Yellow. Further contrary to what was discussed in the other thread regarding shock knock, you cannot over tighten the nut and hence compressed the bushings too much. I tighten it per the torque spec given. There is a steel collar and the last thing you want to do is to loosen the nut to lower the shaft.

Fortunately I don't generally take what people say for granted without processing in my brain, and I often have been accused as being disagreeable .

You can see the photos I took back in 2007 in the post here.


5 and 7 are the new bushings came with the damper



the stock damper did not have the said bushings

Correction: The two top bushings evidently were OE contrary they are absent in the MINI parts diagram (second figure above). They are marked as "original" in Koni's assembly diagram.

 

I am an architecture and industrial design buff. I am so frilled to come across this rare documentary on architectures of the Motor City - "Detroit Designs The World". There are a long list of significant early modern architects in the documentary. One is Eero Saarinen who designed GM's Technical Center, that is now Advanced Technical Center, and of course theTWA Flight Center, and the Gateway Arch.

Here is the trailer:

The full program can be watched here before the shelf life expires.

 

I have heard about the Internet Brands before. Out of curiosity I did a bit of Binging. Just for our interests here, it owns countless auto forums, of course including NAM. It was once listed on NASDAQ but it is now privately owned. Here is the link to their auto site which lists all their auto forums include some motorcycle forum as well.


this is just a small incomplete list of forums it owns

No wonder it can afford to host all my photos .




these stats are most interesting in their customer facing automotive site

 

That is quit a list. But if you think about it, it makes sense that they have what seems to be popular ones.

 

Desire is bored out of her boney skull in the dog days of August heat. She has been dreaming for the arrival of the cooler weather. Alas their arrival means only one thing, the track season will soon be a distant fond memory. There are only three months left counting the current one. Thankfully our track team avoided the social functions during the peak of ambient heat the last two weeks.

Desire is looking forward to some action in the next all she can eat club day at ORP and reacquaint with old friends and meet new ones. How time flies, she said profoundly.

Here a few of her favorite photos of fond memories of this season:

 

Be still, my little beating heart, I told Desire when she grew restless in the dog days of summer wanting some track action. Would you want to be a central Oregon trailer home white trash or a privileged Tokyo shopping queen? I showed her the photo of this unfortunate 911 in the high end department store in Tokyo doing her duty and that settled that.





She would rather be nobody here at the home track that we all think is a bit boring but better than waiting to be loaded with luxury goods at the valet parking in Tokyo.

 

These things have quite a lead time. Being a small outfit the vendor apparently builds to order, which is fine with Desire. Its going to be uncharted territories for us so we cannot hurry and just throw them on expecting all smooth sailing. I know they won't be shipshape from the get go. There would be other parts to be procured to make all fit. These just have to wait after the approaching track events. At the mean time we get to admire those beautiful Swift springs on them before they are covered by spider webs.

 

If you are horny in the mid of August heat what do you do? Desire in in heat, just not the kind that your evil mind thinks. She needs a quick fix or else she goes postal (postal is so 80s). Fortunately for her our track team manager is up to the task, and she found a quick fix to tide her over until the next ORP club days. She managed to secured a quickie for Desire at PIR during the dog days of summer.

Desire is all psych'ed to get off the driveway and confront the PIR burly bullies with her wits and agilities, rather than mighty muscles and brute force.


Desire at her home track running with the big bad wolves



78F ambient is not bad for a dog day in August; worst if NOAA screws up (which has been all to common of late) no big loss, as it is just an afternoon quickie like a quick Fentanyl fix for the low cost - with a discount our team manager found online

 

NOAA office here has been so grossly wrong lately and today is one prime example. Apparently someone there just look out of the window and realize they fokked up. There were no mention of thunderstorm until the update on the web site only moments ago - when the thunders and lightning outside the windows are too hard to ignore. Here at my house are thunderclaps and lightnings. How hard can it be? Obviously they don't give a sh1+. The local TV has been talking about T-stroms last night but not these inapt "civil servants". I signed up today's track day with calculated apprehensions that they would screw up and they have.

 

If you go to the NOAA site directly for your region, and want to nerd out a little, there is a "forecast discussion" link near the bottom.

Here is Portland:

https://forecast.weather.gov/product...n=1&glossary=1

Newest updates are at top. So you could have seen a "chance" being discussed at 9:45 AM today.

 

Trust me, not all civil servants are inept... just sayin’...
Maybe frustrating, but remember in the Major Leagues a 300+ batter is considered to be doing fantastically.

 

A very good turnout last night at TNiA. We signed up only two days in advance for this quickie fix for Desire to tide her over to the next all we can eat club days. We started 40 minutes late due to massive oil spill from the event before ours. We drove our last session in darkness which was quite fun - gave us some idea what is like in endurance races. We were also greeted with drizzles during this last session.


Desire flanked by her friends in the grid

 

I’d love to do a track “day” in the dark...
Wife and I are currently watching 24 hr of Le Mans and have passed into hr 10. The lights on those cars are amazing. The in-car video from the winning Toyotas shows how good they are and how much the can see at almost 200 mph. So good that they only dropped 3 or so seconds a lap in the dark.

 

Other than the approaching T-storm as forecasted by the good cilvil servants , Desire and our driving talent were both looking forward to the driving in the dark and not so much of driving blind session. Half of the advanced drivers bailed but not our team. We were thrilled to step up to the new challenges and so was my good neighbor driving his NA MX5. The biggest challenge with driving in the dark track is the loss of references. Because we tried err on the safe side - not to mention when Desire begins to lose composure in turns in the dark it is that much more difficult to catch her before she crashes and burns. The thought of Le Mans and 24 Hours Nürburgring came to mind in our Walter Mitty.

At least our Walter Mitty managed to stay on the track for Desire's sake.

I should have some Going Pro video so stay tuned. Back to doing post track day maintenance...

 

In the past I sometime regret of not taking more photos of the cars at these events. Sometimes was because the phone was tied up for Harry's Laptimer which can be a PITA to go back and forth. Soon that would not be once the Solo 2 DL is wired up. Here are some photos from the event.


Desire was one of the earliest to arrive



my good neighbor with his black NA MX5



a GTR driven by a lady in the novice group






there were many Subarus including a Forester with a whole WRX drivetrain



this VR6 Golf has a dual clutch paddle shift gearbox



the event before ours was test and tune and this was the spec Miata session









GT350



the dual clutch VR6 Golf







pretty soon the dreaded feeling of we being outgun set in



Audi S3 with dual clutch paddle shift also



this is the first time I see a Challenger at the track









still more Corvette


Desire is beginning to get some recognition as being that fast Mini







this Alfa C4 ran in our group



wonder of wonders, these two 1/2 drag cars also ran in our group



one in the group remarked that this car makes 900 HP and he is detuning for the track that day








there were tons of vettes as well as new Camaro's



this is the first time I saw a Fiat 500 Abath on track; it ran in intermediate group with his Cayman friend



there were about 24 cars in our advanced group



I didn't know they finally importing this Hyundai



there were quite a few of these Celica's



a Carrara T with bright yellow gauges also ran in our group






it turned out a lot of the high power late model cars ran in novice and intermediate groups



I remarked that it must take a lot of work to make this Camaro handle well; it ran in our group but not for long






the driver failed to latch the hood and it came open and folded all the way back in the back straight

 

This is the last session that we didn't start until near 9:00 pm. It started off dry but soon there were drizzles. Oh, and the guy with more horsepower than brain passed us in the end of the cool down lap @11:37. How he managed to not see the brightly flashing checker sign is beyond anyone's comprehension.

The difficult thing driving on a dark track is you lose a lot of visual references especially at heavy braking zones.

 

Desire was a bit pushy yesterday at PIR. It was something I noticed almost from the start rounding out and accelerating out of turn 12. Unlike being quite neutral there was the slight but quite noticeable increase in understeer. Now as I recall the driving that night there were more understeer and less desire to rotate. Only today while performing the post track inspections that I made the connection.

As I was taking a photo of the front rotor condition, I noticed the red front lower brace was in the photo frame and decided to include it. This reminded me that this track day is the first after the addition of the OMP cross brace. I have read that a few people experience increase of understeer tendency after they installed the brace. I was unconvinced and dismissed it as placebo effect. However the whole time driving at PIR there were no thought of the lower brace on my mind, and yet this noticeable increase of understeer tendency.


only today when that I was reminded of the newly installed lower brace

Realized the cause and effect I decided to increase the stiffness of the rear sway bar from full soft to middle setting. This would transfer more load to the rear outer tire and hence reduce the rear tires' overall traction.


I increased the stiffness of the rear sway bar to induce more rotation

 

That is an interesting video of driving in the dark. Are you running with your high beams on?
In watching it, I wonder how much of what I am not seeing is due to the aperture of the camera vs the actual darkness. In the video it is tough to even distinguish the edge of the track except for where the white stripes of the curbing show up. It is understandable that you had difficulty with seeing brake points. It makes one wonder how they managed at places like Le Mans in the ‘60 before they even had halogen headlights, let alone the wonderful LEDs we have now. Think about hitting your braking mark when doing 240ish, lights no better than yours and brakes not too different than yours. I can’t imagine

 

I thought of switching on the high beams but decided not to blind the guy in front. While the video is slightly darker than actual due to the iPhone screen it was quite dark on the track. The light drizzles onto the already dirty windscreen further reduced the visibility. Fortunately we all know the track well except the idiot that passed us at the end of the back straight during the cool down lap. I could not read the distance to turn braking signs at the heavy braking zones. I could not see the inner edges of track at turns most of the time as they are off axis too far from the coverage of the beam sweep until you start to turn which can be too late. It was very interesting and fun experience. Only half the cars drove the last session.

I can't comprehend why so many come to the track and expect as well as only want to drive on dry pavement and bright day light. Oh, and don't get me started on those have a preference with CW or CCW orientation at ORP on the day they want to drive. For me it all even out and I am grateful my track can do both and does so nicely. Driving in the rain was most instrumental in acquiring some skill to catch the car early and able to react to the car attitude changes through the turns when driving close to the limit. Of course there is also finding your own rain lines.

 

Our team mechanic performed the post track day inspection. Desire received a clean bill of health other than some aches from exertions.


as it was a quickie event he performed a fast track checklist; we only drove 67 miles - that is TNiA for you so not exactly a bargain it seems



he took these photos of the tires that one can readily see the corner they were on















no excessive wedging of the pads







no crazing developed yet on these $32 Wilwood rotors





As always with driving at PIR the left side brakes worked much harder so the pads are worn more on the left side, especially the front. I am very please with the ST-45. I have reasons to infer they must have kept the rotor temperature lower compared to ST-41. In retrospect the Wilwood BP-30 also caused the rotors to be extremely hot. One important variable though is since I installed the cheap Wilwood front rotors I have always take the cool down lap as intended. I believe that prevent the worst kind of rotor thermal stress of uneven cooling due to the portion sandwiched by the caliper and pads.

The ST-45 pads and the $32 front rotors are the combo that held up to track abuse so far of all that we tried. At least for R-compound street legal tires there is no shortage of bite and I have not experience boiling brake fluid with them, nor smelly pads. They have lasted about 7-8 track days since their installation in the end of May.


left to right - left front out/in, and right front in/out

The rear brakes are in good shape. Like the front pads the rear outer pads are also worn more than the inner pads. I would flip them in the next post track inspection as it is much more work due to the floating calipers with parking brakes.


left rear outer pad



left rear inner pad



right rear outer pad



right rear inner pad


to induce more rotation we move the rear sway bar to the middle setting from softest



here is a better view of all four Toyo R888R tires



we drove only 67 miles as on average the session were just under 15 minutes long

 

So, you have some NASCAR drivers at your events????

What’s your overall thoughts about the R888Rs? In particular how they compare to the RE71Rs...

 

I should mention that in this inspection both the value line Wilwood straight vane rotors developed noticeable concave surfaces on the outside as well as the inside faces. By noticeable I meant you can feel the slight concave surface by running your fingers from inside outwards. You can only see them if you put a straight edge to the surfaces. You can see the convex on the pads as well if you put a straight edge to them. They are not bad at all. I infer that is likely due to reduced material as the inner edge of friction material aligns with the inner most circumference of the rotor ring. I have not experience significant brake fade even driving them very hard at ORP or PIR.

 

The RE71Rs lasted only a few days (2 at ORP) and I corded the left rear. It could have been 3 ORP days had I not neglected to switch the front with the rear after one day. The R888R stands up much better and wear a lot more evenly. It could be other factors including my driving has improved a lot and scrub much less needlessly. There is also the increase camber at the rear also that favor the Toyo.

The Toyo's screams like hogs when push to the limit but never let go suddenly. For DD that track occasionally the RE71R may be a better choice as it should perform much better in the rain. The Toyo hums loudly on the road especially the side that developed feathering due to the asymmetrical and bidirectional design. I sure prefer asymmetrical tires for they ability to cross swap for cars that has square setup like the Mini.

For their small tread blocks I have a predisposed tendency to think RE71R is too compromised for dry track performance. I also dislike their price premium.

The other tire that I like is Nitto NT01. I might give them another try when my second set of R888R is done.

 

I’ve seen the R888Rs on a lot of cars; clearly becoming more popular. The RE71Rs do well for the first few laps and then they seem to fall off. And my latest set is wearing fast. When they are new, they are good in the rain, but I am not so sure how good they are once the wear. The Dunlop ZIIs I have do well in the wet right down to the wear bars, but not so much with standing water at that point. I think I may give the Toyos a try. Thanks for the info.