My Mini charged 5

[andrew]

I have been driving it with the new clutch for a few months now. I don't like it. In traffic its a bit of a pain and reverse always judders. It has got better with miles but I would take it out tomorrow if it was a easy job.

I also put in some carbon lorrraine pads in the front, bite is better than the EBC yellows on the road but there is not much difference on track. I also put in some new dot 5 fluid.

Tyres: I did about 4-5 trackdays on federal 595rs-r's. These are great value for money, they are grand on the road. I didn't notice any excess noise nor did I have problems driving in the wet. On track they work much better than road tyres. They have stiffer side walls and the car doesn't roll over on them. They are good at not overheating too.

The coolant reroute worked well. I only went over 100 deg C on one track day when the ambient was over 20 deg C.

The megasquirt is still being tuned. I usually bring the laptop to track days, log the first session to check everything and sometimes change the fuel table to make sure it was at 11.5 AFR in boost all the way to the redline. I recently figured out why autotune was sometimes adding or taking out fuel out of the map. The MAT curve (manifold air temp) was flat, so as the ambient changed the AFR also changed. I need to play with this more to make sure it compensates enough for varying air temps. There is always something to learn with the megasquirt.

[Steve]

Which clutch did you fit andrew? Too heavy now?

[rhysmate]

Is 11.5 not very rich?

[andrew]

Clutch is a stage 3 paddle clutch from Ebay in the states. It's a lot better than when it first went in. Pedal feels the same as stock, its just the judder. On track it's fine, no issues with slip and I can change gear quickly.

I had it mapped on the dyno for 11.5 and 12.5. There was very little difference in power between both so I left it at 11.5 for safety. Intake temp are never above 40 deg C and the timing is conservative but I want it track reliable, hence a slightly rich AFR. Picture of spark plug, Looks ok to me.

[rhysmate]

The reason i ask is are you not worried about washing the bores at that?

Plugs do look ok though! Good work hope to have a passenger seat spin some day

[andrew]

Hi, I was a bit worried allright. It was showing 10.5 to 11.5 on the track yesterday morning. I done a quick auto tune and pulled some fuel out and got it back to 11.5. It did feel faster.

Car went like stink yesterday, really impressed with the toyo tyres. I left the suspension on road settings all day as it was wet, damp and dry during the day. I had l lot of laps with a cayman S that had a very good driver and it didn't get away from me. Cracking day in a awesome car.

[andrew]

I got a bumper sticker made up for the silver bullet

[AndyJF]

Hi Andrew try
http://imageresizer.codeplex.com/
Took 2 minutes to load that last image on the phone.

[andrew]

Thanks Andy, thats done the job nicely

[andrew]

It's been a while since I last got the car on the dyno and I thought it was a bit slower on the last few trackdays. It is a different dyno from the last time but power is near enough the same.

[rhysmate]

I cant remember whether you said its 1.6 or 1.8? Keep the updates coming. Really hope to meet you on Mondello

[andrew]

Its a 1.6, latest update is I recovered the door cards with some fake (very good fake) suede in black. Easy job, just took off the door cards and stuck the suede on top and cut out the holes for the door handles and lock. Goes nicely with the wheel and removes a bit of the cheapness from the interior. Its very light too - very important that !!! I will get some pics when its bright.

[andrew]

Today's little project was to install COP's to replace the coil pack. These give a stronger spark for FI engines that under high boost blow out the spark. Mine is not high boost but smoother running and better mpg are also reported and i have never changed my plug leads.

I didn't have any problems with the coil pack apart from the odd misfire but these came up for sale ready made and are just a matter of taking off the plug leads and coil pack and disconnecting the ignitor. I just needed to adjust the dwell on the megasquirt to 3.5m/sec at cracking. I was told one of the coils may be faulty and a spare was included So with that all done I switched on the ignition to test. It fired up perfect on all cylinders so I went for a test drive with the old coil pack just in case. Did a lap of the wicklow mountains and all is still good.

Another thing a did recently was adjust the timing and disable 'fuel cut on over run' for some crackles and bangs from the exhaust. Pulling back the timing and adding fuel ignites in the exhaust for these effects. I didn't drive the car very hard so the exhaust was not very hot but there were a few pops to be heard. It wasn't group B rally type loud either but I have switched it back to normal untill the next track day. Might get a few exhaust flames too. I'm such a kid!

[leamyj]

Keep us posted as to when you're going on your next outing to Mondello..would love to see how the car is performing

john

[andrew]

Friday 7th March is the next track day, its a octane day too so even better. If your coming bring a helmet for a few laps if you want.