MINI Meets – Page 184

MINI Open Rally

Posted on November 14, 2004February 17, 2017 by Ian C.

I spent today at MINI Peabody, “slightly helping” with the running of the “MINI Open Rally”; Ivan & Richard planned a timed rally starting & finishing at the dealership, and heading north as far as Newburyport with three checkpoints. Ivan ran the route a number of times and computed a “roboMINI” perfect time – the goal for the rally was to match that perfect time.
I arrived at MINI Peabody early (but not as early as Ivan) and assisted with loading the customised MINI clipboards with directions, etc; also helped shift vehicles from the dealership lot to allow space for returning rally MINIs later in the day.
Between 9 and 10am about 50 MINIs arrived with drivers & navigators, warming up on coffee & donuts:

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After an introductory speech by Martin, the customary “driver ed” speech was given by Richard, then everyone prepared to head off; a time clock was used to mark the start time (and later the end time) of every MINI, and even in the cool weather it was great to see a couple of top-down convertibles on the rally.

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Once all the MINIs had headed off, we prepared for their return at the dealership; a few other MINIs turned up, and the caterers prepared lunch. The bouncy castle was inflated, and Martin relieved some stress by shifting snow. Also, a classic Mini Moke arrived from Burnetts Garage, to join the fun.
Eventually, cars started to arrive back from the rally, and the parking lot began to fill:

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Long queues for food – but worth the wait! The day ended with a thank-you speech from Martin and prize-giving to the best five finishers (except for all the moving back of cars which MINI Peabody had to do after everyone had left – well done Dan for staying around and helping, and bad me for heading off with the keys to one car!)

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Update: I created a video:

Pulley Party

Posted on November 6, 2004February 12, 2017 by Ian C.

Today I headed back down to YarrowSport to watch a Randy Webb Pulley Party and get another dyno run on GBMINI (to see if the recent JCW upgrade upgrade offers any measurable improvement).
Lee, a friend and one-time MINI Peabody tech, came with me – first we went to the local Krispy Kreme where MINIs-Making-A-Wish was helping to launch a toy collection, and Steve, MINIs-Making-A-Wish maestro, was interviewed by the local TV station:

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Steve had recently been at Randy Webbs Pulley Party, getting this air intake (and a pulley) fitted (he commented that it was now like driving a new car); so Lee & I headed over to YarrowSport to meet Randy. While we were there we watched a short-shift kit being installed on Marks Pepper White MCS – Mark already had a pulley, computer, exhaust and intake done by Randy at a previous event.
I met “Onasled” again – since the previous Dyno Day he has personally installed a pulley, air intake, computer, header, exhaust and intercooler! Wow! His first dyno run gave 197hp.
Once again Yarrow got creative, adding racing fuel to the car and then super-chilling the intercooler to get a highest reading of 214.6!

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Eventually GBMINI went back on the dyno; Yarrow told me that the rig corrects for ambient temperature & humidity differences so it is apparently fair to directly compare the September run with todays run (unfortunately Yarrows printer had no ink!):

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We can see on this plot that todays run shows an increase all the way up the rev curve showing a peak torque of about 186 compared with 177 – but the red line cuts in about 200rpm lower, so the peak hp shows only about a 4hp increase.
It looks like there should be about 6-8hp increase (maintained up the curve from about 3300rpm) and I don’t know if the red line is due to operation of the dyno, or a side-effect of the V39 engine update.

So we once again try to conclude some results:
The JCW upgrade upgrade seems to give about 10 lb-ft increase in torque, but the expected hp gain does not show on the above dyno run – apparently due to a lowered red line
A full aftermarket modded MINI can still beat the “210hp JCW”, by about 6hp.
Randy Webb is a great guy who can put together a very high performing package (all the top-performing MINIs at both Dyno Days were equipped with Randys Unichip/Pulley/etc packages.
That intercooler really does need to get cool to give good performance.
Yarrow needs to stock up on his printing supplies!

UPDATE: A close comparison of Onasleds and my plots shows that while his peak hp is better than the JCW, the JCW shows higher hp at lower “real world” revs:

rpm	JCW	aftermarket
2100	61	57
2700	86	80
3300	115	105
3900	137	132
4500	157	155
5100	171	171
5700	182	187
6300	185	194
Peak	193.7	197.0

UPDATE: here is a video of the TV coverage:

British Invasion 2004

Posted on September 19, 2004February 19, 2017 by Ian C.

Back from my third British Invasion (the first year I just visited, and last year I was there with Jason & Keith).
For this years visit a MINI2 thread got Jason (again) along with Gavin, Ricardo and Rich – and some MINI owners I have not met before including another Jason with an unusual VR MCS!
While it rained heavily in Massachusetts, we stayed dry – an overnight shower left us with clearing skies and eventual sun! This year the new MINIs were recognized as a separate class to the classics; we had 10 including a convertible and a late arrival from Hrach – the convertible drew the lions share of attention – most people have not seen one up close – and it also drew first place in the “peoples choice” awards!

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GBMINI came away with second place, and the “VR MCS” got third place – no doubt due to the sun reflecting on its roof. As well as the new MINIs, there were many classic Minis and other British cars.
After the MINI awards, Jason again led us on a local drive, including Smugglers Notch and a couple of photo-ops:

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Sunday morning is much less formal, with cars parked by color instead of class, and events including driving a figure 8 course with the driver blindfolded(!), and the tailgate picnic competition – my absolute favourite was Nightmare Before Christmas:

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If you love British cars, MINIs or otherwise, put next years British Invasion on your calendar!
Thanks again to Jason for leading us on the run, and to all my MINI owning friends for a great day 🙂