I've been tracking the car for a few years now and lately a bunch of parts have been finding their way onto the car. Here's a quick run down of the major parts/work going into the car:
-Autopower rollbar
-G-Force 6pt harnesses
-Sparco Sprint5 seats
-Removing interior & repainting behind front seats
-Flexalite shrouded fans w/ custom wire harness
-Carbon hood w/ radiator vent
-OEM hubs w/ ARP studs and wheel bearings
-Koni 8610 race inserts into OEM strut bodies w/ Eibach springs
-OEM water pump and timing belt w/ tensioner
-Ported intake manifold
-Hardrace front control arms
-Adjustable rear control arms
The seats have been mounted directly to the Sparco seat bases, lowering the overall seat height by 6". Its taken some adjusting to get used to not being able to see the front of the car anymore, the biggest hassle is getting in and out of the car when your tired
The front wheel bearings were terribly shot, causing not just a lot of noise but slop in the steering. The hubs were still in good shape, so the new hubs will go in next time. ARP studs are still in the works, they will be very helpful since I'll be able to add some wheel spacers up front.
The car looks sad as it sits in the shop over night.
With the new bearings and the Hardrace front arms, the car feels much better now.
I had a two events in September, one weekend was completely wet and I didn't snag any video. It was a fun weekend of slip sliding around. The dry line is terribly slick on one half of the track and you really had to drive along the outside edge of the track to get any grip. Lots of people were uncomfortable with this but myself and a few other track buddies really took to it.
Here's a video from a MS3 from the last session. I had passed him earlier in the session but as things dried out, he started moving back on line and found more grip. It was a fun session of him, myself and the Mini going back and forth as each of us found a bit more grip than the next:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7-XZ4ZcYU
The second event was spur of the moment to fill in for a friend who couldn't make it. That meant doing the event on my daily street tires and with dead front brake pads. Again, no in car video
Video from May:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyfRM5qO8Hs
Feb:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xGB5gsX2mM
Finally got around to cutting my hood up a bit. Needs to be opened up larger, but I wanted to make a small opening to see how things looked. Hopefully once I shroud the opening it will look less Evo-esque
Before:
After:
The rear Konis w/ a cut up housing. I may cut up a set of MSP struts I have instead of reinforcing the endlink brackets on these. The front inserts are being dyno'd to verify health.
-Autopower rollbar
-G-Force 6pt harnesses
-Sparco Sprint5 seats
-Removing interior & repainting behind front seats
-Flexalite shrouded fans w/ custom wire harness
-Carbon hood w/ radiator vent
-OEM hubs w/ ARP studs and wheel bearings
-Koni 8610 race inserts into OEM strut bodies w/ Eibach springs
-OEM water pump and timing belt w/ tensioner
-Ported intake manifold
-Hardrace front control arms
-Adjustable rear control arms
The seats have been mounted directly to the Sparco seat bases, lowering the overall seat height by 6". Its taken some adjusting to get used to not being able to see the front of the car anymore, the biggest hassle is getting in and out of the car when your tired


The front wheel bearings were terribly shot, causing not just a lot of noise but slop in the steering. The hubs were still in good shape, so the new hubs will go in next time. ARP studs are still in the works, they will be very helpful since I'll be able to add some wheel spacers up front.

The car looks sad as it sits in the shop over night.

With the new bearings and the Hardrace front arms, the car feels much better now.
I had a two events in September, one weekend was completely wet and I didn't snag any video. It was a fun weekend of slip sliding around. The dry line is terribly slick on one half of the track and you really had to drive along the outside edge of the track to get any grip. Lots of people were uncomfortable with this but myself and a few other track buddies really took to it.
Here's a video from a MS3 from the last session. I had passed him earlier in the session but as things dried out, he started moving back on line and found more grip. It was a fun session of him, myself and the Mini going back and forth as each of us found a bit more grip than the next:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7-XZ4ZcYU
The second event was spur of the moment to fill in for a friend who couldn't make it. That meant doing the event on my daily street tires and with dead front brake pads. Again, no in car video

Video from May:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyfRM5qO8Hs
Feb:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xGB5gsX2mM
Finally got around to cutting my hood up a bit. Needs to be opened up larger, but I wanted to make a small opening to see how things looked. Hopefully once I shroud the opening it will look less Evo-esque
Before:

After:

The rear Konis w/ a cut up housing. I may cut up a set of MSP struts I have instead of reinforcing the endlink brackets on these. The front inserts are being dyno'd to verify health.



Last edited: