Hi from Lanarkshire

[Dobboy]

6547

Hello all. Bought the above (my first mini) a few weeks ago, and really love it.

It's an R53 JCW.

I've had the outside detailed, changed the timing chain tensioner, fitted GP suspension, new drop links and top mounts, and fitted racing pads all round on it. Also changed all the fluids on it.

Also treated it to 4 new Yoko AD08R's and a private plate.

Just need to get the geometry done and I'll get it up to Knockhill and see what it can do.

Hopefully go on some meets/runs.

Dobboy

6548



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jonnie]

Welcome to NMS. Looks good.

[Craig]

Welcome - good plans for the car [emoji2]. Nice motor


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[badwolf340]

:welcome:nice looking car and a nice spec :thumbs up:

[Dobboy]

Thanks all for the welcome.

Car could do with the bonnet painted and front bumper, but looks guid from a few yards away!

Here's another couple of pics of it [emoji3]


6550

6551

6552

6554





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MINI William]

Nice looking car and great spec. Welcome to NMS

[EcosseGP]

Welcome along fellow R53 owner. Looks very tidy and hopefully see it in the flesh at some point [emoji106]

[wsmdesign]

Hello and welcome from another Lanarkshire member (Motherwell). Nice car and hope to see you at Tartan Tarmac this Sunday - always a great morning with lots of interesting cars.

I'll look you and would be good to see another mini !

Walter

[N16SHP]

Nice we buggy you got there. As others have said, good choice of mods so far.

Loving the GTi btw!

[Crombers]

Welcome to NMSLAND :saltireflag:

[Dobboy]

Nice we buggy you got there. As others have said, good choice of mods so far.

Loving the GTi btw!

Thanks!

My GTI is in top condition, but will be getting sold next year, to make way for my GP1 [emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dobboy]

Hello and welcome from another Lanarkshire member (Motherwell). Nice car and hope to see you at Tartan Tarmac this Sunday - always a great morning with lots of interesting cars.

I'll look you and would be good to see another mini !

Walter

Nice to meet you at Tartan Tarmac.... I want one of those GP's!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[N16SHP]

Thanks!

My GTI is in top condition, but will be getting sold next year, to make way for my GP1 [emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I certainly won't stop you there :thumbs up: Couldn't think of anything better, an unmolested GP1!

[wsmdesign]

Nice to meet you at Tartan Tarmac.... I want one of those GP's!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Good to meet you too and glad you popped along - nice car ! I know you've a few more things you want to do to it but as it stands it looks good. The GP is tucked up under its cover in the garage �� Hope to see you again and I'll send a PM with part no's we spoke about

[Dobboy]

Good to meet you too and glad you popped along - nice car ! I know you've a few more things you want to do to it but as it stands it looks good. The GP is tucked up under its cover in the garage �� Hope to see you again and I'll send a PM with part no's we spoke about

Aye if you wouldn't mind PM'ing me the part numbers ASAP.

I've booked a Hothatch day this Sunday at KH, just need to get alignment done when I get back on Fri as I'm working away this week, wish I had the mini with me as I'm up around Loch Ness and some of the roads are great, and there's only supposed to be two coppers cars up here covering a very big area.....I've not seen any. [emoji3] There's not many BP garages either mind for fueling up [emoji57].


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dobboy]

So I've been doing some work on my car and have had a couple of trackdays at Knockhill.

What I've done so far:
BremboMax discs all round
Mintex 1144 on the rear
Mintex F4R on the front
Racing fluid
Fitted the two little inner wing support bars from the cabrio cars
Renewed a couple of relays
Fitted a Whiteline adjustable rear ARB
Yoko ADo8R's all round
Fitted an Airtec intercooler
Changed engine and Gbox oil
Changed timing belt tensioner valve thingwybob
GP suspension all round
Upper front strut brace
Geometry set up to spec
MOT passed yesterday

This weekend i'm gonna fit a -17% pulley and belt.

I've noticed my engine moving about a bit too much for comfort so have ordered VibraTechnics mounts (competition versions) which should come middle of next week and i'll fit them at the weekend.

Had a bit of an OFF at KH when I lost the back end!

http://i67.tinypic.com/16kco46.jpg

Second hand matts I bought that were filthy, cleaned with a power washer and carpet cleaner.

http://i63.tinypic.com/r88oj7.jpg

The £5 Bluetooth OBD dongle rigged up to Torque Lite, (after seeing someone on here using it I thought I'd give it a go)

http://i63.tinypic.com/2hmn2w6.jpg

The rARB, set at 20mm at the moment but will probably change the setting to 21mm equivalent next time at track.
http://i68.tinypic.com/r29oo7.jpg


Car is behaving well, and i'm well please with the suspension now. It was very very understeery on it's first outing at KH, hence why I bought the rARB. I can tell just now that it's made a difference. The brakes are brilliant, and i'm pretty sure the bigger IC gives it a little more oomph further down the rev range.

When my planned work is done , I'll add some negative camer to the front. I'm also thinking about a plated diff for it as I was still lighting up the inside wheel on track with Yoko A48's on 15's and standard mini slip diff in the dry. Big expenditure but I know how my last track car behaved with a plated diff...... will see how it's next outing goes and take it from there.

[badwolf340]

Coming along nicely :thumbs up:

[chillax]

Nice Mini and nice spec! I've drove a single seat race car round KH, and can tell you it ain't an easy circuit to get round in one piece! Had a driving experience bought for me by my late wife (hence the single seat race car) and was bricking it as even on the old playstation KH was the only circuit I just couldn't do! Did well that day, and managed to get 2nd fastest lap out of 18 drivers! Not sure I'd have the guts to take my wee Cooper on there though so hats off to you bud!

[Dobboy]

Cheers ^.

That's me got my -17% pulley on, but it was a major feck about doing it. My pulley remover tool was for stock and my pulley turned out to be -11%.

Over 2hrs carefully with a selection of grinders it was off and replaced.

Me and a pal done our two cars together at his place, and he also has a 205GTI.

My Engine mounts arrived earlier in the week so I swapped them over too.

On the short blast I've had it feels rapid, but the cabin noise has increased substantially with the mounts.

The mounts are the competition versions from Vibratech, I'll give the upper one a few hundred miles and see if it settles down a bit, but if it doesn't I'll buy the fast road insert for it to soften it a bit.

Car feels very tight with the mounts as is, great in fact, but the noise/vibration will be too much long term for me.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160820/7b0bc2cd853864324f1f1b8cb85381cd.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[stoney]

Looking good mate

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

[Dobboy]

Well as the dark nights are here I thought i'd get myself a little project, I've did a couple over the last few winters (205GTI restoration, and a Saxo VTS track car build).

So picked up a non runner R53 on Gumtree. Very nice condition, but lots of crisps, hair, paper, crap, grush (money!), coffee powder?! inside of it..... a bit neglected.

Car came with a full Miltek on it which was a bonus, and also a golf ball dent on the bonnet for free!

It was supposed to have a dodgy HG but when I went to see it, it wouldn't start at all. So I thought there's more to this, and thought it might have jumped the timing.

So fully prepared to do an engine swap, I worked my way through fault finding it first as the engines are £500ish and I might only be buying what I have or worse.

Long story short, a few tests/codes/head scratching etc etc and messing about, it was a combination of things.

Duff coil pack, off fuel (piss coloured), spark plugs that had seen too many mis-starts, but the main culprit a stretched timing chain.

My garage has my 205 in it and too much other stuff to get the mini in, so as i'm very impatient, over the last two weekends I've got the long johns on and set about it under a gazebo. New timing chain etc, and i'm waiting on Cam cover bolts coming, then I can get a swift blast round the backroads, and see what it might or might not need for an MOT. I really can't see it needing anything.

A little bit of attention and some time spent on it and it lives to fight another day.

http://i63.tinypic.com/255opq1.jpg

These are the tools required for doing the chain, and removing the bottom pulley.

http://i64.tinypic.com/o6m9w8.jpg

The old fuel (water/dirt was inside the bottle I used).

http://i68.tinypic.com/2ihpilh.jpg

Timing chain stretched by about half a link, meant the compression was way down and through the Cam sensor out.

http://i68.tinypic.com/14jqc9h.jpg

I've got the interior all cleaned and most of it dressed, and i'll make a start on the exterior when it's road legal and I've got a replacement bonnet for it (local PDR man has stopped doing it).

If the GF doesn't want it i'll probably be putting it up for sale, she likes the looks of them but doesn't like driving my R53 cos the stiff bits on it.
If she likes it, i'll get the back windows blackened and get the outside fully detailed as mine.

These pics don't really do it justice, it's VGC and very straight in the flesh, just needs a wee bit of love!

http://i68.tinypic.com/dzxa8m.jpg

http://i67.tinypic.com/140glzk.jpg

http://i67.tinypic.com/15373gp.jpg

[a11y]

Lovely 205!

Looks very original. Almost thought it was a friend’s old car which he sold a few years ago after doing some mild restoration work on it – had to check but his was a 1990. Identical down to the same original orange front indicators. He’s an idiot for selling his as it was 55k miles and 2 previous owners and it was mint.

[Dobboy]

cheers ally, here's a better picture of it. It turns some amount of heads when it's out, and gives a lot of new hot hatches a fright with what I done with it.

http://i65.tinypic.com/k0hdup.jpg

[EcosseGP]

Ah the old 205 I've had 14 of them so far and can't think that I've ever done the same thing twice. Xantia turbo in my last 205 project ... took me ages to get an engine mount and a relay for it and once I did I sold it.

[a11y]

That's lovely Dobboy. Not sure I want to ask what you've done to it! But, rightly IMO, it looks standard from the outside to me.

Sorry, OT, but EccoseGP you didn't have a red turbo'd 205? Bumped into (not literally) someone at Knockhill before - possibly on a TrackScotland session - and sure they were from Falkirk too.

[Dobboy]

Did the red turbo start as a 1.6?, if so I think the guy is from livingstone, he found it in a shed when he was removing asbestos and bought it off an old dear. The conversion was done at west Calder. We were parked together at a French show.

It's not too mental a11y, and it's all done to look OE, and undetectable from the outside.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[a11y]

The username Jockstar came to mind - googled and yes it was a guy from Falkirk with a red 205 turbo I was thinking of, so different guy.

Sorry, totally focussing on the French metal when I should be complementing the MINIs :yes nod:

[EcosseGP]

Mine was red too believe it or not and started out life as a 1.9. Like I said I've had my fill of them in all different disguises from standard ones to a wide bodied full blown rear engined rear wheel drive V8. There was a fair few 205s kicking about Falkirk for a wee while maybe given the fact that Peugeot Ecosse were just down the road. Probably the best Peugeot I owned in standard form was the 405 mi16 ... the engine which laterally ended up in ... you guessed it another 205 !


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dobboy]

Rear wheel drive V8??!!! mad.

I thought about the Mi engine but opted for the later similar GTI6, same as Xsara VTS, which gives a few more horses but more importantly easier to come by and spares more readily available. I then converted an Xsara VTS box which is only 5 speed and much better ratios, and put on a lightened flywheel and Quaife diff for good measure, it goes well, if anything it could do with thicker torsion bars on the back. I've got a 309GTI beam for it but decided not to fit it.

My mate's got the same set up as me on his 205 with a Rotrex on it and there's not much goes by him at KH. It goes by some £50k+ modern sports cars with ease! On the road it's scary, and i'm always glad to get out it!

[ELFMAN]

Lots of interesting stuff here! Well done on the Minis and nice to see a subtly modded 205 too. Took me back to my good old Peugeot years, though mine were all 106's as opposed to 205's (I'm just a wee chap!). Good luck with all the motors and keep up the good work.

[Ivano]

Mine was red too believe it or not and started out life as a 1.9. Like I said I've had my fill of them in all different disguises from standard ones to a wide bodied full blown rear engined rear wheel drive V8. There was a fair few 205s kicking about Falkirk for a wee while maybe given the fact that Peugeot Ecosse were just down the road. Probably the best Peugeot I owned in standard form was the 405 mi16 ... the engine which laterally ended up in ... you guessed it another 205 !


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Ahh Peugeot Ecosse, the memories!!! visited there many a time when i was playing about with Pugs.

Always loved Matt's green 309 Sedan/Coupe conversion. Such an unique car and won so many awards here and abroad. Think its owned by someone in Northern Ireland now if i am correct.

Diane's mint coloured 306 Cabriolet wasn't bad either.

[Dobboy]

Lots of interesting stuff here! Well done on the Minis and nice to see a subtly modded 205 too. Took me back to my good old Peugeot years, though mine were all 106's as opposed to 205's (I'm just a wee chap!). Good luck with all the motors and keep up the good work.

Ah, I bought an S1 106 Rallye (Homologation car) at the beginning of the year to renovate, but a few came on the market as the prices hiked, so I punted it the way I got it as I wanted to do it right, which would have meant I would want to keep it! So I let it go.

Smart looking little car.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ELFMAN]

:off topic:Memories indeed. I had a great wee standard (non cat 100bhp) 106 XSi and arranged a test drive in the new 106 Rallye when they came out, I'm sure it was at Arnold Clarke in Mount Vernon but I could be wrong (long time ago). They forgot I was coming, the car wasn't ready, had no fuel and ran like a pig on stilts after they put about half a pint of low octane in it. Needless to say I left Rallye-less, went to a local dealer and bought another XSi, which got modded with Hartwell parts and was great fun, it was traded after a few years for a 106 GTi, which ended up with L.A.D. tuning (around 170bhp) and suspension etc, with intake and custom exhaust from Ecosse. Fab car, it went after about five years as a trade in 2001 for my first MINI. The rest is history! Minis ever since, but I loved my 106's, they were so agile (you had to watch the back end though, which is why my second two were lowered) and weighed the same as a packet of crisps so you didn't need a ton of power to get them to shift. Always had a slight regret on missing the Revvy Rallye experience though...

[Dobboy]

So the non runner I bought a few weeks ago is now two tyres away from an MOT, and it's now back on it's feet after a fair bit of work.

Here it is with the new ride height and a bit of a wash.

http://i63.tinypic.com/2q1t4ec.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/33naj5c.jpg

Since the pics I've had a local guy to come and take it away with trade plates to get the back windows tinted, nice job and he was only away an hours or so with it.

I've had it a few little blasts in in it and i'm quite happy with it, and the window tint'r also said it drove good..... so all is well.

Still got a couple of little jobs to do cosmetically, but it's not far away.

[badwolf340]

Nice wee car

[Dobboy]

Winter project completed and road legal.

Runs like a wee sweety.

http://i63.tinypic.com/raumuw.jpg

[badwolf340]

Very nice ...any plans ?

[Dobboy]

Cheers. Maybe a reduced pulley but that's about it.

I sold the family car last week so the GF will use this for a bit then it will probably go [emoji50]

Might need to swap the wheels over to mine though as I really like its looks.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MINI William]

Really nice