2015 Update!

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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!