Blue MINI Cooper

Category: Performance

Performance upgrades and thoughts

  • Koni shocks for my R52

    Finally! So after many years of my tires rubbing over the slightest bumps due to being lowered, I am having Detroit Tuned put a set of Koni Yellow shocks on the car before this years dragon. Not sure why we waited so long for this one, its one of the very few stock parts that remained on the car, and one that actually needed upgrading. Looking forward to seeing how it handles at the Dragon this year. See you there!

  • Rocket: M7 grills and halo lights

    Updated Rocket with M7 (Grillecraft) grills and wired up the halo’s in my aftermarket xenon lights.
    Very happy with how it all turned out. Got the front side markers replaced with smoked ones, need to do the back.

    My fingers are raw from the work, but it really is one of my favorite times. Chad is very nice to just chill with while working, and he has great punk rock tunes.

    rocket_chad_approved

  • Joey Mod MINI Headlight Blackout

    Well I finally did it, been wanting to ‘Joey Mod’ the headlights for years, and now was the time. I just happened to have my brothers heat gun (thanks Greg!) so today was the day to tackle this last exterior chrome.

    It took a while to heat the lenses up enough for the black ‘goo’ to give up its grip. Once I got an edge up it came up pretty easy tho. Finding the clips from inside the upper bulb housing was a bit tricky at first, but they popped right off (be careful to hold your lights over a towel or something as when the second clip disconnect they fly off with decent velocity).
    I could not reach the torx head bolts that hold the mid-housing in place, so I ended up taping off the rest of the light (including the inner reflector, to maintain brightness). A bit of the chrome ended up flaking off where I had cut the painters tape, which I touched up with some chrome paint I had, but you can still see them. So not perfect, but they look really good.
    Reassembly was a snap, a brief heat with the gun before squishing the lenses back on and BOOM. No more exterior chrome!

  • MINIs on the Dragon Prep

    Another year has almost rolled by, and its time to start thinking about the Dragon! Mini’s on the Dragon 10 takes place this year on May 2 – May 6.
    My last visit to Chad at Detroit Tuned discovered that Chakik is in need of a few replacement parts. Most notably new front control arm bushings. Powerflex MINI bushings were recommended.

    Now I just need to stop buying steampunk stuff so I can afford them.

    Detroit Tuned Powerflex Control Arm Bushing
    Powerflex Front Control Arm Bushings for Gen 1 Mini Cooper

  • Detroit Tuned / Mynes Dyno Results

    Results of yesterdays Dyno Tune Party at Detroit Tuned. The Mynes guys were awesome!
    I went in from Jan’s tune 2 years ago with : 207.5 / 170.1
    Ended up with 208.3whp and 191.9 ft/lb of torque.
    Its noticeably smoother across all RPMs I’m very happy with the results. And Chad fixed a rattle in my SC belt tensioner.



  • New Shoes

    Finally replaced my cracked and bent wheels. Seems strange to see the car with different wheels on it, as I had the last ones before the car was even in Michigan.

    Konig Feather Rims
    Konig Feather Rims

  • Dead Battery?

    Dead battery? Bad alternator? Frozen door? Squeaky exhaust. 🙁 Off to Detroit Tuned tomorrow!

    Cala and my battery jumper.
    Cala and my battery jumper.

  • Jan Tune Results and Disney ‘Cars’ window shade

    Jan from Revolution Motor Works was in town this weekend doing Dyno tunes at Monkey Wrench Racing, so you know I got one. With all my mods, before he started it ran just over 200 HP on the Dyno. Final results from some Fuel/Air ratio and other tweaks:
    208.5 Whp and
    170.1 FtLb of torque on a nice fat curve. They weren’t able to give me the digital graphs, so here is a scan of the print out. I had to enhance the lines to make them visible:

    Also picked up a State Farm Disney ‘Cars’ Sunshade. It came with red eyes (as Lightning McQueen). I trimmed it down and painted it black (like everything else 🙂 )

    And for those that want to know, here’s the paints I used: Pactra Lexan RC Car body paint, and basic Rustoleum Plastic paint:

    I ran out of the Pactra paint so I finished it off with the other. Once it dries, I’m going to go over the creases with a fresh black Sharpie marker to get rid of all the red peeks.
    Here it is in Chakik: A bit too tall still, need to trim it.