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Click here for a 3 minute video of the entire build.
Well it’s been awhile since I’ve posted here so I figure an
update is due. I have been enjoying the
mini with the VTEC installed and humming along.
I drove it with a friend half way across the state and over a few
mountain passes in September of 2014, other than that I’ve been just buzzing
around locally. I have been getting
35-40 miles per gallon and those are some hard pushed miles too. I figure if I’m easy on the loud peddle it
would be around 45 mpg.
Every year several hundred classic minis from all over the
country will gather and have a week of fun at “
Mini Meet West”
.
I’m
looking forward to the autocross as you can imagine and this year the meet is
up in Canada.
Fortunately for me, I live
near Seattle so the trip will be only a few hours.
I’d rather be lucky than good!
I wonder how many Honda Civic powered minis there will be this year.
As for the car, I have a few things I want to do
to it. The drive belt which powers the
alternator is rubbing ever so slightly on a bracket and is wearing out. I’ll try to clearance the bracket just a
touch. I just pumped up the hydro
suspension about half an inch to gain some clearance in the front. I was rubbing tires a little when turning
sharply. I used the same water in a tube
method to pump up the car that I did before.
You can see the pump I made out of pipe on the blog page titled “Hydrolastic
Suspension Pump” (December 2012). I plan on installing a stereo and maybe take
it to a dyno (or rolling road as you English call it).
I took the mini last summer to a 1/8 mile drag strip with
some friends in their cars. We were
quite the crew going down the road with an old Chevy Nova on drag slicks, a
rat-rod pickup and my Italian Mini. We
had a blast racing, learning the starting lights and watching some 1000 hp V8
powered cars thunder down the track. The
amount of $$ some of these people have stuck under their hood is just staggering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfbKcQRjkPA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RenZ-SK7KQ
On a side note, I was able to enjoy a 2013 Lamborghini
Gallardo for a day and of course I needed to get a few pictures of that in the
garage next to my mini.
The Lambo was
crazy quick with a 0-60 mph time of just over 3 seconds.
That is the only car I’ve driven that can out
accelerate my VTEC mini.
What a
ride!