Be Excellent To Each Other

2 people I knew have died in original mini crashes. More or less if you crash a mini, you ded.

My car sounds amazing without the silencer. I might keep it like this.

Yeah I mean don't do that

I know one, too.

Yeah cars have come along way since it was considered fine for the engine to end up in your lap in a fairly minor crash.

I think roadside memorials should be banned. They're a bloody eyesore, and a distraction to other drivers. #grumpy

There were always rumours that some councils laid those, and I did not believe that until the boyfriend, now husband, of my friend got a job in road management/planning and when he was a junior he once was sent out to set up some of these memorials in accident hotspots. We drove past a few and, true enough, they all had the same selection of artificial flowers and matching zip-tag thingies (where you thread one end through the other and tighten them and they can’t undo them. I think police use them as cuffs now).

So it's cool to take them then?

I don’t think they’re the best choice for Mother’s day. For one, you’d have to cross the road to an accident hot spot to get them.

Which is another thing... the leaving of roadside memorials for people that have crossed the road at notoriously dangerous points just seems sadly ironic.

I'd wager my grandfather would have done. Then sold them at his florists shop.

Sometimes they're not in accident hot spots, they're in places they want people to slow down.

A mate of mine had an old style Mini and he got what was essentially the biggest engine you could physically fit put into it. Allegedly they also had to reinforce the subframe because otherwise the front of the car would've just ripped off as soon as he first put his foot down. I never had a go in it but apparently it was a fucking terrifying experience with just ridiculous levels of acceleration--and he was a pretty dodgy driver at times into the bargain--so fuck knows how he survived.

Isn't there a motorbike engine mod for the mini?

that would make more sense, as space is at a premium under the hood of an original mini. I seem to recall that you could shoehorn an 1850 Austin Morris engine into it.
I think there are people who’ve put type-r engines in them

Fair point. But I assume they generally want them to slow down because they can be dangerous spots?

http://www.lynxae.co.uk/Products-MiniR1.htm

Yep

There is sweet fuck-all room under the hood of even 1.0 Mini. Source: owned one, did work on it.

I didn't see another car as bad as that for limited underbonnet space until The Egg owned his V10 Audi, which was so crammed I think changing the two rearmost sparkplugs required removing the engine as they were hopelessly fouled by a bulkhead otherwise.

A lot of modern cars are pretty slammed full in the engine bay.

Title

Also have a cover over the entire thing so you can’t even get to the dipstick.

Unless it’s Gaz’s car and then it’s usually behind the wheel.

trololololololol

I was going to do a 'one week update' rather than wibble on every day, but I'd say I've driven the car enough already to do a decent early review.

In essence it's exactly what I wanted, which is to say a better version of the ST, as I loved the ST and thought it was a fantastic car.

Things about the N that are a definite step up.

1) The brakes. These were the weakest thing on the ST by far, the N has substantially better brakes that can take much more of a pounding and not fade.

2) The handling and the LSD. In N mode it's very close to what the Type-R was in 'R' mode, but not quite as unremitting. I've not had it at the limits yet but there are several corners over the mountain I've already found I can take faster and with more composure than in the ST, which started to turn into a bit of an understeering mess at similar or even lower speeds. The LSD almost feels like cheating on the way out of a fast corner, TBH.

3) The infotainment, it's a nice swishy style iPad experience as opposed to the single finger 'prodding at things' that the ST's screen utilised.

4) The lights. Superbright LED headlights that light the way much better than the standard lights the ST had.

5) The exhaust. In N mode it's a riot, with pops and crackles ahoy. I do not have car in N mode in an urban setting.

6) The different drive modes. NORMAL and N get it done most of the time, I'm still tweaking my perfect N CUSTOM mode. I'm not finding much use for ECO and SPORT. (Apparently ECO mode is great for long motorway drives, which isn't a thing over here, of course.)

So yes, overall, very happy with it.

TWO YEARS MINIMUM.

Also, TRUE STORY, I put petrol in* when I got back to Ramsey this evening, and when I came out from paying there was a visiting biker looking admiringly at the car's arse.

'Is this your car?'
'Yes it is'
'It's really nice, I haven't seen one before'

And then we had a little chat about it.

* The car said I had 10 miles worth of fuel left when I was in Douglas, so I decided to have a GAMBLE and see if it would get me home over the mountain. About 2/3 of the way over the mountain it decided I had no fuel left and the 'miles left' number changed to a --- and it flashed up LOW FUEL again. A few miles later I was in Ramsey, absolutely brimmed the tank and got just shy of 45 litres into a 50 litre tank. So on what planet did I have ZERO MILES REMAINING? What is even the point of a range indicator if it's going to be so far out?

To stop you gambling and actually running out of fuel 2/3rds of the way over a mountain?

Yeah most cars stop telling you how many miles once you get down to a set amount of fuel left to stop you running out of fuel like an idiot.

That was what I was betting on, and it paid off.

Just like the TPMS thing did.

Anyway, you have no room to talk Mimi, whenever you post a screenshot from your phone it's got like 3% charge or something, which sets my teeth on edge

Obviously running out of petrol on an unrestricted mountain road is far less worrisome than one's phone needing charging....

It's just that there was no petrol station between me and the mountain road, so I'd have had to double back on myself to get to one, and I've seen cars pull this sort of shenanigans with 'MILES LEFT' before.

I've seen at least one with a Rover V8 in there.
http://www.spagweb.com/v8mini/v8mini_info/

I’ll have you know I have a full 9% on my phone right now and I am about to plug it in!

< shudders >

Should have taken the chaps number so you can sell it in 6 months.

For £20k

That's all the good stuff, what's the bad stuff? As that is what will have you selling it in a couple of months/weeks/days...

Wonder how much it would have been for a stage 1 (or 2) upgrade and LSD on your ST?

LSD https://www.mountunestore.com/products/ ... fferential - £774 inc vat supplied unfitted

Stage 2 upgrades http://www.pumaspeed.co.uk/product-Ford ... _16805.jsp - Fully Fitted: £1094.00 (inc. VAT)

£2k - £2240

I'm glad you're enjoying your new car btw, don't mean to be mean really.

It's just baffling how much you fling on swapping your cars to scratch relatively small itches (to me).

Don’t forget to upgrade the brakes!

Hmm.

2019/05/13 Re: Hyundai i30
https://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/ ... g#p1020715




2018/06/13 Re: Focus
https://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/ ... 72#p992872



2018/05/01 re: Leon


2017/11/20 Re: Leon
https://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/ ... 75#p973375



2017/08/07 Re: Civic
https://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/ ... 43#p960443

Good point, depending on brand that's another £2k-£2.5k for dogs bollocks big brakes all round.

So £5k for Stage 2 upgrade on an already sweet car.

Hypothetically.

After that, more power!

You waiting on a build to finish, I assume

More or less -- for a benchmark run of some database backends using different file formats

And then £5k per year to insure it

Still saving him £10k then.

Hypothetically.

Stage 1 with LSD and brakes would be cheaper, obv.

Maybe. I mean, the boost kit you chose was for a Fiesta, but sure

Not if you go with a specialist who deals with modded cars.

Yeah, it's almost as though I was talking about upgrading a Fiesta ST. Sorry I linked to Fiesta ST parts.

But...he had a Focus ST.

This is practically like a marriage in terms of a long term car commitment.

TWO YEARS.

Dude, he’s had all the cars