I am glad to be driving it as well
It handles a tad better then my Touareg, and probably stops a hair better as well.
Would be happy to meet up anytime before the 7th...I actually had lunch today with BrewSwapGuy
Just let me know, Im free the next several day.

special touch auto detailing, Al is his name and he is over on Raintree and 83rd

 

Thanks, it was good meeting you today Matt.
I look forward to taking the car out on the back roads with some fellow Mini's.
See ya soon.

 

As I mentioned before when I got my OZ Center Caps back from the shop they made a mistake and painted the whole cap solid Chili Red vs just painting the letters in the "OZ Racing" logo. So I thought hell I may as well try to do the reverse of what I originally wanted and do a Chili Red background with OZ Racing logo in black. As soon as I saw this I took it to the shop that did my stripes and asked if you could print out a small enough OZ logo to put on the center cap..long story short they made them up and put clear bra over it to give it more protection. I actually think it turned out pretty well, and you will have to take my word that it looks much better then just the red center cap.
I have ordered the original center caps and I am going to try one more time to get it right. Then again, I may just keep them the way they are.
In the end, I am very happy with the way the car turned out, and I have been enjoying putting some miles on her.



The only thing that bothers me is the brake color red is different then the Chili Red color.

 

Cory, they look great! The average "Joe" isn't going to notice the colors between the caliper and center caps....... The rims are styling, I for one don't dig black rims!

 

Thanks Greg. I hear you on the color differences...maybe I will get over it
The more I live with the car the more I like the wheel color. I think if I didn't have the stripes I would be tempted to go with the black wheels a little more. IMO I think collectively it all works well together to give it a nice sporty look.

 

Which means I need to either get creative or find some dough to take those black wheels off your hands.

 

i say you have the wheel centers outside the same gray as the rims and then the oz in red. but thats just my opinion. but everything else looks awesome

 

You know where the wheels are ...they have your name on them

 

Funny you mention that. I actually emailed several OZ supplies and they don't make/wont make that color combination...so it looks like I will have to try and find someone to give it a try...and thanks for the compliment Achilles honor.

 

Loving your car. Looks great. I was just posting on your other tread about your spacers about adding more pics lol. Your car looks really mean.

 

I just posted over there for you too...Thanks for the comments.

 

Nice!

 

Awesome look! I really love the color you went with, the new + red themes really do look sweet!

 

Lol I was reading that post. I figured I just respond here.

Keep the mods coming lol

 

Phx JCW - I love those caps! I wouldn't change them. It was a fortunate mistake that carries the red/grey look uniformly throughout the car roof down to the mirrors right to the wheels. Perfect!

 

Thanks chaswyck...Everything happens for a reason
and you are spot on with what I was trying to do with the red...thanks for noticing

 

I bought a full set of JCW floor mats a few days before Christmas from Sewell. I recieved them a few days ago, but I have been too busy to post anything so here you go. Not much of a mod, but I really like the way they look. IMO they should have come with these

 

The JCW mats look great but they get dirty easily and when the do they look like crap. They are very hard to clean. I have thrown the front set in the washing machine a few times and have even used carpet cleaner on them.

 

Well, I managed to put 1,040 miles on her in the last month. So I figured she could use a new filter and oil change before I start getting into the throttle a little more. I replaced the transmission fluid as well. I ended up going with Motul 300V (5w35) and Motul 300 LS (75w90). I know some may say "why so early", but it gives me piece of mind. I was also happy to see zero metal particles in the old filter. (thanks jerry for the time this morning )

 

You replaced the tranny fluid at 1000 miles? I understand doing the oil that early, but the tranny fluid???

 

I was thinking the same thing... the manual trans oil in the R56 is lifetime. Normally there should be no reason to replace it. Seems like a waste of $$. I know early/break-in oil changes is a controversial subject but this is why I haven't bothered doing an oil change yet after 4,000+km. Seems to me newer engines just don't have as much break-in, especially a relatively modern engine like the N14/N18. Mind you an oil analysis is probably a more accurate method as opposed to a visual check of the filter (my Blackstone Lab sample jar just arrived in the mail yesterday in case I decide to take this route later ).

 

Motul 300 series = Peace of mind

Well done my friend. Just don't baby the engine to achieve a successful breaking-in procedure. Give it variable load inputs in order to have a perfect cylinder-piston ring seal.

 

Withe the spacing of the rings... there will never be a perfect seal . If you have seen a build worksheet on an n14 or made one you would take that back, so much space in these things that... you could cook a grilled cheese sandwich for the crankshaft on the head and then use the ring gap to pass it over to the crank

 

Know exactly what your point is.
In that perspective I take the "perfect seal" back and add to that sentence "better seal".
Is that good enough for all of us?

Have you done a compression test lately? What your numbers are?

 

Havent needed to, running as strong as a bull, im just referring to the factory spec of the ring gap is pretty large in comparison to other engines i have built(havent built an n14 but my best buddy is a mini tech I def got my sneak peek for later use). Maybe its to keep the ends from slapping but IMO its one of the reasons for so much blowby.