man, you guys are harsh.
reminds me of why i started my own forum.
The guy's having fun which is what owning a MINI is all about. How soon we forget.

 

good job man, I dig it. I too started working with graphite and have been able to duplicate a couple of things using TAP plastic's materials.
Good stuff

 

Not that i think being harsh is a good idea...but chris has come on this board and been negative in a lot of posts...from my experience on boards and in life...what goes around comes around...

 

ukbyoung - the boot cover is there solely to block the view of outsiders looking in your car. Unless you've got limo tint on the back windows a thief can see if you're carrying anything back there worth stealing.

maxmini - wrong part. He's done the boot cover, not the inner hatch liner.:smile: By the way, good call on the handling problem if he does have the setup you mentioned.

d6-mcs - Though the whole C-F thing does nothing for me personally, I'll applaude the effort to add individuality to your car.

 

Ahhhh..... true dat.

 

Ummm...because it looks kool? So I guess since my bonnet stripes didnt add any horsepower, I should rip them off. And THANK GOD I didnt get a sun roof...what a waste of money THAT would have been. Those dont yield any horsepower. And now that Im thinking about it, Im not gonna let my girlfriend ride in my car anymore...shes just added weight. I totally agree with you...every red cent I spend on MY car should be purely for performance...I wouldnt want to improve the looks in any way, shape, or form.

 

Bigpmj-
The examples you used are a little different than CF. In terms of your girlfriend and sunroof...they are technically there for performance and not just looks. The sunroof lets in sun and air, so its performance is being used. Your girlfriend cares about you and makes you happy, so her "performance"(wrong word perhaps, but it works with the example ) is useful too.

You are right in saying that stripes are just for look. But that differs from CF, because CF is just trying to say "look, this piece is CF to make it lighter. I need it to be lighter because i race" Atleast thats what it used to mean before it became a huge fashion thing. So for a lot of people, it still screams "This is super lightweight, it must be a race car" when it is now only being used because its "pretty". There is nothing wrong if you want to make your car look nice. I personally have a few aesthetic mods on my car even though most of my mods are performance oriented. But there is also nothing wrong with anyone wanting to focus on making their cars fun to drive. Everyone makes their own decisions, focuses on their own car aspects. Thats what makes this world great, we are all different

 

Very true. You make a good point RallyMINI. I happen to view CF as purely an aesthetic mod. Especially on something as small and trivial as the trunk deck lid...or perhaps the JCW CF dash. Now, if he was putting a CF sticker over his whole hood...I could see where youd rip him for that.

Plus, my girlfriend just had a good laugh when you made a reference to her "performance".

 

Glad my point was comprehendable. I knew what i wanted to say, but didnt know how to put it into words. Glad she got what i meant

 

well the wheels are what are killing me on the handling but its worst it...to me.

i thank everyone that has replyed to this. i can now see that there are a lot more people out there that applause people trying to do things like working with raw carbon fiber. that deck lid took about 4 to 6 hours to do and that is over 3 days of trying to get time to do it. its not a easy process to get the resin and carbon fiber to stick together. Rallymini, to ask your queston if i did pull off the fuzzy stuff, no i didnt. the only thing that we had a problem with was it isnt a totally flat piece. which makes it really hard and that the resin like to get into the fuzzy fabric. as for that website thanks but if you look they didnt use the stock panel to mold they just used a flat piece of carbon fiber. thanks though. and for all those that think this a stupid thing to do, keep it to yourself, my car, my way.

chris

 

On a car such as the Mini, alot of CF does actual differ track times. Saving minimal weight such as...20-30 pounds in panles does equate to a second or so on those short courses.
I personally believe that weight loss will help the Mini as it is an already light car.
I myself have taken the lightweight approach to the Mini and actually do feel a difference on track with CF panels and lightweight fittings.
But, I do not live in the US so cant prove to you guys that it is a major factor in cutting lap times.
Everyone else, CF is still the hottest bloody looking car material ever, if you dont understand the attraction....dont bag it!! everyone has their own opinion, regardless of what you over-dominant posters think.

 

i agree with you on the CF part. i have seen people on a drag track that take out 20 to 30 pounds a pulled .5 of a sec faster then they did before, you might think .5 of a sec is nothing but on a drag track it is totally different. i dont know either what the attraction is about CF, maybe the way it looks and how it shines, i can see that you a brit by the way you type things, so am i, europe is the awesome. thanks for the reply

chris

 

Personally, if I were to use CF, I would want all body panels to be CF. I would not leave it exposed. All panels would be painted....except maybe the hood stripes would remain exposed. And if the OE parts don't have a performance function...out they come. I don't want the car to say "hey look at me! I'm carbon fiber!" I would rather answer the poor soul who says "Hey, I just got my **** wiped by your plain Jane looking MINI.....what gives?"


Some people want their cars to be all show and no go. Fine. I want mine to go...make people want to know...then I'll show.


As far as the folks with concerns about people "bashing" d6-mcs...I invite you to research all of his prior postings, as many of the "regulars" see on a nearly daily basis. You may then agree that he has been a bit abrasive in his postings. I am not saying that the "bashing" justified, but, you might have a better understanding as to why it occurs. I believe that he is a good kid , with creative thinking, and very individual tastes....he may have some difficulty with effective communication.

 

Ah true, i forgot to mention the sleeper mentality. This would be the path i would take if i could afford a full CF Mini, it would be completely re-painted. A big surprise to anyone who thinks they are just toying with a "normal" Mini

 

Those of you with an appreciation for Carbon Fiber should take a look at the MINIUSA Drag Car

 

CF is of course a personal taste item and yes it has been used to an extreme recently in all types of automotive styles . Hell i race on a 52 ft sailboat with a CF toilet so its not just the automotive communty that is full of the stuff. I just swapped out my chipped and scratched center console down tubes for some CF pieces. Do they make the car go faster , NO do they look better than what was there before , In my opinion yes and that is the real key. If it works for you and it is YOUR car then so be it.

Randy
Team M7

www.M7tuning.com

 

THANKS YOU!!! I love those dash posts, i really want to do those in CF

chris

 

yes i agree with you on some of that, i am a kid that is turning 20 and pays for my own mini cooper s, tell me how many 19 yrs olds do that detailing cars. i am used forums that are for the younger side, vwvortex.com where you pretty much have to get your point across...FAST...and be a a$$ hole at the same time. i like being on here, but i am not going to cry over some bashing on me about things that someone else doesnt like. there is a lot more age verity on this forum and i have been warned about by the moderator. yes i sent you a nasty instant message and i can give a rats a$$ about it, i though it was kind of funny that you sent it to the moderator.

you might not have the skills and the time to have fun and work with different materials on your mini such as CF, but i do, its my mini, i pay for it, and i can do want ever i want to do with it. CF is think has a very different look to it, just because it is light and strong doesnt mean that you cant cover something to give it that different look. i wouldnt be surpised if you were one of those guys that takes his car to mini and has everything installed, including an oil change and intake, which are the easy to do, CF is a difficult material to work with, is a art, yes i am not that good with it, yet but i am trying, all i wanted was some postive reply but no. if anyone else has something to say please make it a postive one. thanks for the replies..

chris

 

the cover is so you can not see what is down inside there. you can store stuff without people seeing what you have to try to brake into you car. and it works too! all my years in detroit i have never been broken into (knock on wood) because i leave nothing in sight to steal. but all my friends have been broken into to. they also have a lot of junk in there cars.

i think it was a good project. good work. but does the garage floor have pink carpet?

 

Actually, young man, I have been turning wrenches on cars, tearing down motors, building up motors, glassing boats (including CF work) and many, many other projects longer than you have been alive. Thanks anyway. If you need any advice, I'll be happy to help...seriously.

For the record, I did compliment you on your polished intake snoots. I hope you were able to restore the IC fins to their upright position. Any luck with that?

 

Chris, please dont use age as an excuse...i'm younger than you and have done ALL of the work on my car by myself, and have yet to react in any uncalled-for fashion. Just keep it real and positive and more people will react to you in the same way. You get what you give. Good luck with your future mods

 

alright sorry. i had just got out of college classes when i wrote that. as for the IC pipes the straigher didnt work, to big, but i dont know, i used a screw driver and stragithened them out a little bit, looks a lot better. thanks again


chris

 

Cool, what college you go to? I was actually in class when i wrote mine .

What do you think your next CF parts will be? Any plans?

 

excuse me while I go clean up....thanks for posting that....

 

Nice job. It is fun project to do on your MINI. Another place I think may be good is the dashboard. May be that could be your next project.

UltraMINI