Miscellaneous Stuff

[SportWagon]

Just noticed Graham Hill on the driver's side door of that pickup.

And in the midst of the passenger side, there appears to be a picture of Stirling Moss--looking somewhat "prettified".

[XHawkeye]

Ferrari / 2CV smashup

[XHawkeye]

https://twitter.com/TruckDriversUSA/...95391311069192 <--- Open for trucker dash cam

[speedpimp]

Yup. Nope. Damn neat shit myself just watching that.

[XHawkeye]

[CudaMan]

For someone who is just looking at seat time and not necessarily trying to win anything, which TNiA/HPDE car would provide the greatest value in terms of learning car control and general on-track profeciency:

211hp/2535lbs with an e-diff.
174hp/2535lbs with a mechanical diff.
Both cars are FWD 6-speed manual turbos of the same model, just different trim.

Given the relatively low weight of the car I'm wondering if the 37hp is worth giving up the mechanical diff. I'm told the e-diff isn't great and the mechanical diff is a big improvement over cars that do not have one. Would get some low level auto-x use and the aforementioned occasional TNiA/HPDE/TTNT use.

If the e-diff is the type that operates the inboard brake to limit wheelspin, and not an "electrically smart/assisted mechanical LSD" for lack of a better term, you'll be better off with the lower HP car with the real diff. Particularly for autox.

[dodint]

Crazy. Just last night I took all of the Cooper S's off of my CG list and configured a JCW search . I might autocross with it to gain some experience in that discipline, but this car would see most competition use in Time Trials.

I'm wholly undecided and just window shopping, so accepting all feedback. Thanks!

[Leon]

Random comment ... how's the reliability of the MINI's?

I really love the Clubman S like circa 2010 where they pretend to be Mini Estate. But I've read such utter horror stories of massive engine failures on the turbo engines, that I ran screaming.

Pity it looks like they didn't do the Clubman S with the supercharged engine (which also sounds like a dog, but less spectacular a dog).

As an old school Mini geek (I've owned 5 of the little shitboxes), it still confuses me they went for the Clubman name. Because the Clubman was a square nose variant, and nothing to do with it being a van/estate. Sigh.

[Yw-slayer]

You're dead to me.

[dodint]

Our R56 MINI is NA, it's a strict commuter and I wanted the least amount of hassle. We've owned it for about 45k miles (from 50k to 95k) and the only failure it ever had was when it lost some injectors. Fixed those up and it has been fine ever since. There was certain years of the R56 where the turbo MINIs had issues, I think early in the run but I can't remember what the point of failure was. I've kind of moved on from the idea of buying a JCW because despite the fantastic feel of the car, it lags behind every other car on my list in power/weight ratio. Truthfully if I end up buying anything with a sub-1.0 pwr/wt it will be a Dodge SRT-4. *ducks, runs* Ford Focus ST is also in the hunt but having competed in one I have an appreciation for them but I'm not sure it's right for me.

I friend of mine races R53/R56 MINIs if you have specific questions I can pass long.