GBMINI#3 Automatic Transmission

Posted on by Ian C.

Further to my comments recently about the automatic transmission, I recently posted the following on CooperSpeed:

Normal drive mode – OK.
Mostly like any other car (of course, the looks & handling are still a MINI, so that makes it more special!)
Normal drive is keen to keep the revs down around 2000, unless you go for lots of throttle. 6th gear is much lower than the stick shift (about 2300 at 70mph) and so it really is a cruising gear – you have to shift to get power to pass or climb hills, and that means pushing the gas more than you would expect to need to.

GBMINI#3 automatic transmission

On the negative – there are often times when the gear is too high and there is not enough engine power; you have to force a downshift to get what you want. And while shifting is quite smooth, it is also a bit sluggish and sometimes it seems unsure whether to shift down one or two gears, leaving you waiting (probably not long, but it is unexpected).

On the positive – it will automatically downshift if you start braking on a downhill, giving excellent engine braking (it does not do it unless you brake and it does not do it unless you are going downhill).
Also the steering wheel “temporary shifters” are nice – click once or twice to get some downshift avoids the need to floor the gas. However sometimes the transmission “brain” and I both decide to shift, and the result is two shifts.

 

Sports drive mode – Fabulous!
The negatives of normal drive mode are eliminated!
The transmission seems to always be in the correct gear and I basically never notice it shifting either.
It keeps the revs higher and avoids the sixth gear (at least at 70mph type speeds); everything is just perfect. There is of course more engine noise (sometimes a good thing) and no doubt worse fuel economy.

For now I normally use normal drive mode for everyday commuting and when my wife is in the car, and switch to sports drive mode when I am in a spirited mode or with other MINIs!

 

Manual mode – unnecessary! (for me, anyway)
Sports drive mode has been so good that taking full manual control just seems un-necessary … in fact I think sports drive is quicker than me at getting the shifts right, at least for now. Maybe more practise is needed but I don’t see much reason for it so far.

UPDATE: Answering a comment from Bill, I tested this morning that you cannot hold a gear at redline, even in full manual mode! The transmission insists on shifting – at a quite low 6200-6500rpm. Disappointing …

Advanced Driving Skills School

Posted on by Ian C.

Last year I took GBMINI#2 on an Advanced Driving Skills School hosted by the Boston Chapter of BMWCCA. Today I did another ADSS in GBMINI#3, hosted by the White Mountains chapter (see this thread on MINI2 for more info).

Saturday night I drove up to Concord and met Steve at the Days Inn; he was driving his wifes Mazda because his MINI is having some serious upgrades done to it; but GBMINI#3 and the Mazda seemed happy together …

Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC

In the morning we headed up to New Hampshire International Speedway and met more MINIs and other cars; MINI owners included Greg, Joe, Michelle, Diane & Pete (who was a volunteer rather than a participant); here are some of the MINIs:

Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC
Michelle
Michelle

 

The ADSS focuses on low-speed maneouvres to learn the handling and limits of your car, including braking in a straight line and while cornering, single and double lane changing, and skid-pad exercises including under- and over-steer; this last is much easier for the bigger rear-wheel-drive cars!

While GBMINI#3 did OK on the skid-pad, I was most impressed with some of the other MINIs, especially Greg & Joe:

GBMINI#3
Diane
Diane
Greg
Greg
Greg
Greg
Greg
Greg
Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC

 

I was much more at ease this year – probably because I already knew what to expect from last years ADSS; I had remembered some of last years teaching too, and did better on the braking & lane-changing maneouvres.
I did find that the aftermarket tires gripped much better, making understeer more tricky to achieve – from road driving I knew their wet weather performance was better than the stock runflats, but this was another confirmation.
Also on the skidpad, one instructor tried very hard to teach me how to correct from E-brake lock induced oversteer (hard to get it any other way in a front-wheel-drive car like the MINI); in the end I just about got the idea of accelerating instead of braking to recover …

On the auto-x “track” at the end of the day, I also felt more comfortable (thanks to Greg for persuading me to go & instructor Dave for helping me understand where to brake/steer/etc).

 

My first run on the auto-x in GBMINI#3 was with the transmission in normal Drive mode; there were a few noticeable times when jumping from braking to accelerating gave a lag while the transmission tried to “catch up”.
So for my second run I tried Sports Drive instead and I found the difference amazing – and excellent! The transmission just always seemed to be correct and I just just able to ignore revs/gears and concentrate on steering and braking/accelerating. Very impressed 🙂

Another thing I was very impressed with was when I went round the auto-x as a passenger in Pete’s MINI; he is an experienced driver and it was great fun!

At the end of the day I headed back home exhausted and battered (from being thrown about on the skid pad), but happy … I recommend an ADSS day to every MINI owner.

But I am still not ready to go on a real track!

How big is the fuel tank?

Posted on by Ian C.

Someone emailed me a while back, asking if I knew whether the ’05 MINIs had a bigger fuel tank … according to the manual, it is the same 13.2 (US) gallons as previous years.
But I have now filled GBMINI#3 five times, with four fill-ups being 12.6 or more gallons – and today I put 13.3 gallons in the tank! And the car was still running when I drove into the gas station.
I am definitely putting more gas in each tank than with GBMINI#2; I only put >12.6 gallons in that car 3 times in two years of fill-ups.

So maybe the low fuel warning & OBC run the tank much closer to empty than earlier models … but that does not explain how today I exceeded the fuel tank capacity.
Perhaps the tank capacity was increased – but then why are the specs wrong in the manual?