Welcome to FrankenMini Racing

The following is a blog by Paul Monaghan aka paulmon to highlight work in preparing a 1967 tube frame Mini Countryman (aka Estate) for SOLO2 competition in Ontario, Canada. Look here for more information on the car, you can check out my upcoming event list and don't forget the Photo Gallery. For additional information contact me.

Another trip out to Stoney Creek to see the progress on the car. Paul of Breadbox Racing continues to think of little "finishing touches" to add to the car. He added a small metal wire to hold the flip front when the hood is open. The rear polycarbonate windows are done (picture on right), he even sealed up the hole that would normally be for the door handle. What was a nice surprise was the opening that was in the hood to make room for the master cylinder reservoirs, in their previous location, has been completely sealed up. Nicely fiberglassed Looks FANTASTIC! You can see the before and after below.

As always you can see more pictures of this week's update in the Week 10 photo gallery

Before: After:

Obviously I've covered the wheels and tires. What else is left? For starters I need to get some harnesses. I'm going Camlock 5 point belts from G-Force ($129US*2). The camlock are more expensive but much easier to fasten up. Add to this some gauges, I'm hoping to snag a Longacre gauge panel off Ebay ($100), similar to the picture at right. We'll put that in a nice box in the middle of the dash slightly angled in towards the driver. I believe I mentioned the rack was ordered ($485+). Going to order some mirrors, and one of those hooks for the steering wheel. I hope that's about it.

That's about it for things I need at this point. I'm sure I'm missing something, but most of the large ticket items are taken care of.

Expensive hobby.

Time to start thinking about wheels and tires. I've discussed this in the past, the original idea was to run a set of Superlite wheels (at right), with a 215/50-13 tire. I still plan on running a 215/50-13 tire, but I think the wheel type might have to change. Considering the 13x7 Superlite wheel is $150us/wheel (which is VERY cheap on wheel terms), I just don't think I can afford that hit to the budget. Upon some deep thought on the issue I'm thinking I want to have 2 sets of tires, one hard compound for some lapping and one soft for Autocross. This now translates into two sets of those Superlite wheels, too much money. I'm thinking I'll go with a couple of sets of steel 13x7 spun wheels from Diamond Racing Wheels, at $59US/wheel I can get two sets for much less than one set of the Superlite wheels. Granted the Superlite wheels are MUCH nicer, at the end of the day nice looking wheels don't make the car any faster.

As for tires I'm pretty sure I know what I want to go with. First is a set of Kumho Ecsta v710 for Autocross, the other set would be the hard compound Yokohama A032R. As I'm not going to be doing any racing on tracks this season and any lapping will be purely entertainment the Yokohama hard compound should last much longer than the soft.

I'm going to go ahead in a few weeks and order the wheels. The tires have me worried, as neither Yokohama or Kumho bring many of these tires into Canada, particularly in 215/50-13 sizes. I'll most likely email both companies to find out the best way to secure a set of tires. Heck, if anyone from Kumho or Yokohama is reading this how would you like to sponsor one of the most unique cars in Canada?

Update (5 hours later): Went and saw the car and wouldn't you know the Superlite wheels that Mr Mini has in stock were on the car. Damn they look SWEET. It's just such a large sum of money in the grand scheme of things. Argh. I've sent Don an email at Mr Mini to see what he wants for those wheels, I just like them too much!

Time for fluids. Going to go with Amsoil 5w30 synthetic for the engine as well as Amsoil Severe Gear 75w-90 for the differential. As well we'll get the brakes and clutch all done with some brake fluid. I don't use anything fancy for brake fluid. Canadian Tire sells this heavy duty Ford fluid that has as high dry boiling point as any Motul/Super Blue racing fluid. The wet boiling temp isn't as high for this Ford fluid, but I'll be changing it regularly so I'm not too concerned. Difference is price, the Ford fluid is cheap.

This will allow for the distributor to be installed and the engine to be primed. Getting close! Oh, and the rear windows have now been converted to the polycarbonate. Yeehaw!

Update 01/19/07: Stopped off at the Amsoil warehouse and picked up 2 gallons of 0W30 2000 and 2 quarts of gear oil for the differential. Still need to pick up some oil for the transmission.

I was looking through some old pictures and comparing that to some of the newer pictures of the progress made in the last few weeks. Thought I'd post a few here for comparison sake. WOW!

Engine:

Before: After:

Driver's Comparment:

Before: After:

Rear Windows:

Before: After:

Fender Flares:

Before: After:

Another trip out to Stoney Creek and Mr Mini where Paul of Breadbox Racing is working on the car. The week to week differences are not getting a noticeable as the work is almost finished. Things accomplished in the last two weeks include:

• Passenger Door bar
• Braided Hoses for the vent lines
• The dash is looking nice
• The passenger side rear side windows has now been finished with the polycarbonate
• Drive shaft hoops installed

The following things are going to be done over the next few weeks:

• The small square windows on the back doors are also going to be converted to polycarbonate
• The brakes have been pulled off and will be cleaned up and remounted
• The dash panel around the engine is going to be sealed up.
• Door window nets are going to be installed
• Steering Rack (more on that below).

The steering rack needs to be ordered. Will be going with the 25" Woodward K-Type with a 2.88" per turn ratio. Only problem is the 4 weeks time it will take to get that rack. Oh well.

As always, pictures can be found in the Photo Gallery