GBMINI#2

I spent a very entertaining few hours this morning at HMS Motorsport, learning about what happens at Boston Chapter BMW CCA Driver’s School events.
Central to the entertainment was Steve Fitzgerald – his knowledge, tales and personality were well worth the cost of entry (which, by the way, was zero)!

Steves track rules for cars are: “Make It Stop, Make It Turn, Make It Go – in that order!”; making track time fun was emphasized, with Steve explaining that if the car does not stop well, it won’t be fun and you won’t go so fast (because you are wary of not stopping).
Another serious tip was to upgrade your seat belts – the tighter you are in the car, the better you can experience and respond to the behaviour of the car. HMS carries and recommends SCHROTH’s Rallye 4 harnessbelt and has pictures showing them installed in a MINI with Lapis Blue interior 🙂

Also mentioned as almost essential was replacing the brake oil with a higher temperature spec oil, and considering replacing the rubber brake lines with stainless steel (to eliminate pipe expansion during hard braking).

I plan to attend an Advanced Driving Skills School, probably in early May; but I don’t know if I will ever do a driving school event (I don’t like the claustrophobic idea of a full face helmet wrapped round my head).

Steve (“Cape Cod Mini”) was at MINI Peabody when I visited today; his car “GOMINI” (on the left in this picture from last year) was having an oil leak fixed:

GOMINI and GBMINI

Steve was also having new brake pads & rotors put on the car – now that he has the pulley, intake and nitrous system, I guess he needs to stop quicker too!

There was a surprising number of MINIs with personalised / vanity plates today – as well as Steves GOMINI and my GBMINI, there was CAMCOOP, PKTROKT, MINIAC and DRMWEVR. There were only two other MINIs with generic plates – suggesting that MINI owners are somewhat fanatical! Surprise?