Added a little accent to the solid Astro black

I was wanting a stripe but was not sure which color to use. Then it came to me. White. Not a normal choice for an all Astro black MINI but who likes normal anyways? I had a white stripe installed and ordered a set of white mirror covers from an user on NAM. I like it. It looks different to have white on a car that does not have a white top. I also fixed up a hood scoop grill and painted it to match the stripes.  Also, for autocross, I had some meatballs made up while getting the stripe.  I don’t recommend running magnets all the time.  It’s not good for the paint.

I also added a M7 strut bar. Mainly because of the rough roads around here and I’m running 17’s. I was a little worried about all the mushrooming I have heard come up lately in discussions. I haven’t had the opportunity to fully see how the bar works but I like how it makes the car a little more firm feeling in the front when I hit a bump. Maybe my imagination but I like it none the less. Plus, I added the stripe from the hood to the M7 bar.

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Go in for service. Purchase a new MINI?

Back in October 05 I ordered an 06 MCS to replace my 03 MCS. Identical in options so the reason for going to an 06 was to have the last year of the R53’s. I really like the styling and fun factor of the R50 and R53’s. Anyways, I go in for service and while hanging out in the MINI showroom I spot an Astro Black/Astro Black MCS. I check it out and it is nice. Options include Piano dash, sport package(ugh…s-heavies), English leather(sweet) and the JCW package. Ooh, very nice options. Not many options like I like a car to be. Though the JCW option is a little high, it is an option I can feel everyday that it is worth the price.

So I mess with my MA, he knows I’m cheap, and we haggle for an hour or two then finally settle on trading in my 06 MCS. No need to go into resale on the MINI as everyone knows it. But I was very suprised at the offer I was given for my 06 MCS. Did I mention I’m cheap?

I take my 06 MCS home and pull off my mods then return a few days later to pick up the JCW. It feels great except for those s-heavies. I get home and immediately switch wheels. I must say, these wheels work better on Astro Black than they did BRG. BTW, I refer to Astro Black as British Racing Black. It’s not a true black. More of a very dark blue. Plus it is my way of remembering BRG as it was my original car color of choice.

The following weekend I add my Miltek exhaust and H-sport competition bar. At a mod party hosted by my MA, he helps me install the JCW spoiler ordered for my JCW the day of purchase.

If you are ever looking for a MINI and have Nashville in your mind. Aks for John Monk at MINI of Nashville. He’s a great guy and him and his wife both own MINIs.

I’ll soon post some other mods I have done.

Another great MINIs on the Dragon. MOTD4

We, Rocket City MINI, had several members make the event this year. It was a nice event even though the rain kept the roads wet for the most part. It seemed almost every MINI vendor came to this event this year. Which is a good thing for those in my area of the US. Huntsville, Alabama. There aren’t any MINI vendors around here so I took the opportunity to have Detroit Tuned installe a 15% and 2% pulley on my 06 MCS that I sold my 03 MCS for in October 05. Chad did a wonderful job and quick as well.

While there I picked up some cool eyes for myMINI from Stoopidgirl of Rogue MINIs. All in all it was a great event though I would like to see a little seperation of the personal and the business side next year. It was nice to get what I went for but at the same time it was a little conjested in some areas where businesses were placed.

Here are some shots from MOTD4. I can hardly wait until MOTD5. We already have our cabin booked at Fontana.

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Let’s try autocross this year….

A local club, Twickenham Auto Club, holds an autocross school once a year so I thought I would check it out. It was a two day event. The first being a full day of car contol and becoming familiar with different types a autocross sections. The second day was an actual, non championship, event to give us an idea of what autocross is like and to see if we learned anything from the previous day.

It was a blast. I arrived early to take a quite walk around the coures several times to familiarize myself with it. After two hours of working the course then lunch it was our groups turn to drive. We had three runs and of course my first time I dnf’d. I have to admit. It’s a lot different driving the course than it is walking. My times increased from there to a point where I placed 22nd out of 88car in the PAX results. Third in my STX class. Those Subarus combined with my first year trying is rough but I like it because it makes you try harder if you have competition or just someone that is a lot better driver than you.

Here are the PAX and Final results from the school.

I then ran another autocross event in July. This one being a points event. Though you can still run even if you aren’t there for points. I’m just trying to get some runs in this year to see if I want to do this full time next year. This was a totally different layout from the school event. It was a shorter course with sharp turns. Very little time for a novice to think. Except once when I missed a downshift and almost went on the outside of a cone. Knowing that would dnf me for that run, I turned the wheel and plowed over a cone to only get a 2 second penalty instead of a dnf. All in all it was a fun day with the Subarus making me push myself harder each time. The time with the cone, that was the last run of 4 and I figured I had nothing to loose as I was still not up to their times.

I ended up 18th out of 73 cars in PAX results. And, 3rd in my class. I messed up and lost a trophy on this one. I forgot to add myself as novice and they gave out a trophy to the quickest novice. Like I said. This year is a learning event.
Here are the PAX and Final results for this event.

I’m signed up for an event this weekend, 11-18-06, so I’ll post the results if I can make the event.

MOTD3. An awesome time in the mountains

MOTD3 in 2005 was a great event. Hundreds of MINI roaming the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. There was plenty of stuff to do at this event and the largest turnout I have seen for the parade run. Great food was brought in by Smokeys bbq and the Thursday night rain made for a nice relaxing foggy Friday morning. It doesn’t get much better than this.

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What drivers ed doesn’t teach you

October ‘04 I signed up for a Phil Wicks event at Nashville Superspeedway. Oh my. Talk about a rush. My first session out I was without instructor so I was a sweating wreck behind the wheel trying to keep up. My next session was the instructors time to ride with me. The instructors at Phil Wich Academy are great. I learned a lot.

It was said that you will not push yourself more than 80% of your capability. It’s true. At the end of the day I was able to smoothly and more consistently run quicker than I ever thought I could earlier in the day.

Link to 22mb video.

Finally made the Dragon in ‘04

In 2004 I was determined to make the Dragon, MOTD2, and slacked up a little but was able to find a room in Robbinsonville. It was a great time. Seeing all the MINI’s, including the yet to be released Convertible brought down by MINIUSA. The parade run was great though I did learn at that time I wanted better tires than the stock runflats. But I still had some learning to do. Later on that. I was only able to stay for Thursday and Friday but that was a good thing considering the brake alert light came on during the trip to the dragon. It was only a sensor failed but all was good as we ran by MINI of Nashville on the way home and they fixed it.

My favorite part of the MOTD event was being out early and hearing the due drip from the trees and hearing the whine of superchargers in the background. And I can’t forget about being on top of the dam early in the morning. A very peaceful place.

Here are some pics of MOTD2.

It all started………..

…. sometime early 2002. I heard about the MINI Cooper in Automobile magazine and right then called the nearest dealership. It was MINI of Nashville but the building was not yet complete. Eventually in September I took a trip up there and decided I had to have one. A BRG/B MCS even though that color was not on the lot. I came home and searched the web for information and ran across MINI Cooper Online, now known as North American Motoring or NAM for short and joined the online MINI community.

I finally ordered in January 03, after they decided to sell at MSRP and it arrived in May. Unfortunately two weeks after the first official MINI’s on the Dragon(MOTD). At the time there was only one MINI around my area and we eventually hooked up later that year. And thus started a MINI addiction.

My specs were BRG/B, sunroof, anthracite dash, cloth seats and driving lights.