ALLGBMINI – Page 468 – M&I / GBMINI

JCW upgrade upgraded

Posted on November 1, 2004February 10, 2017 by Ian C.

Today at MINI Peabody, GBMINIs JCW upgrade got upgraded to the ’05 spec – this consists of replacing the fuel injectors with ones that allow more fuel flow, and replacing the air filter with a sophisticated two intake version; the original front air intake remains but an extra valved intake is added at the back, with air being taken in through the duct at the base of the windshield, through a cutout in the cowl (this replacement part is included in the upgrade kit).
The valve is electronically controlled by the updated engine computer, and opens at 4500 rpm – when it opens, the noise level increases significantly!

Minolta DSC

This new air intake is available without the rest of the JCW kit and would be a great option for someone that wants a better performing air intake without the constant extra noise that many aftermarket ones give – by having the extra valve open only at high revs, there is no extra noise during “normal” driving below 4500 rpm …

UPDATE: This post on MINI2 makes the interesting comment that after installing the new JCW air intake, the flap appears to open even without update the engine computer! Very curious …

Driving Lights controlled from Toggle Switch Panel

Posted on October 27, 2004February 10, 2017 by Ian C.

Today, for Nathan, I customized a MINI circuit so that he can control his MINI driving lights from the (unused) rear fog toggle switch instead of the standard switch installed under the steering wheel:

modificationstocircuitwithdrivinglightconnection

Nathan bought a full toggle switch panel so that he had the extra unused switch; I cut two tracks on the back of the MINI circuit, to isolate the rear fog toggle signal and indicator LED, and then ran two wires from the MINI circuit to a small connector which plugs into the driving light harness, in place of the standard switch.
Now Nathan will be able to turn the driving lights on/off using the toggle switch, and the tip of the switch will indicate when the lights are “armed” (this modification does not change the functionality of the driving lights, which still only come on with high beam headlights).
UPDATE: Nathan did a write-up on NAM, complete with pics of his installation – nice & thanks!

MINI Circuits Everywhere!

Posted on October 24, 2004February 12, 2017 by Ian C.

Tomorrow I will be shipping my 400th auto up windows MINI circuit! I had this crazy idea to produce a USA map showing where they all have been shipped – so I gathered the ZIP code of every shipment into a spreadsheet, then tried to find a way to plot them on a map.
I was stumped, so called for help on MINI2 and quickly got a very useful reply from Jason (snid on MINI2). He directed me to TIGER Map and a couple of pages which gave enough hints to get the job done:

Producing this map is not difficult with TIGER Map – but that service is now gone …

Anyway the map unsurprisingly shows a concentration of MINI circuits to the east and west coast of USA, especially Boston, New York, Washington DC, Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles. But there is also a cluster around Atlanta and around Dallas – I presume there is a MINI dealership at each location.
The Boston area is also (negatively) skewed because of the MINI circuits I have personally installed or delivered; I don’t have a ZIP code for those people!
In addition to the US mainland, there are MINI circuits in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Canada, England, Germany, Switzerland and Austria!