A new game... Post pics from your cel phone V.1.0

[MiniDave]

Hang on, when did you get that one? (the car I mean!)

[Brit_in_TX]

I bought it in late 2021.  I still have the blue one.

[MiniDave]

NIce! Looks fantastic! The little one is cute too!

[Brit_in_TX]

It is a 1964 Austin Mini Countryman. I bought it from someone in South Texas and it was a none runner, the engine started but the brakes and clutch did not work.  So spent a bit of money to get it running.

I keep toying with the idea of selling it, but every time I take it out it gets such a great reaction. 

[94touring]

I've been in Okinawa a lot this month.  I have to say it's one of my favorite places  to visit.  Even though this is "work" it's been more like a vacation.  Not that I'm a cheap bastard but the prices on things are very affordable here.  8 bucks an hour to drink and a 3 course meal consisting of steak, king crab, and a daiquiri was $48.  I don't want to go home to work 

Not pictured, saw a couple classic minis and a vw bus. According to the other guys wrist machines that calculate mileage, we hiked around 22 miles. P.S the snake drink taste like spiced apples.

[MPlayle]

What was with the go-cart groups?

[94touring]

What was with the go-cart groups?

You could rent them.  It looked like a lot of fun.

[cstudep]

Pretty sure I would have had to been all in on the go-cart's, that would be a blast I think.

Looks like you got the obligatory karaoke in as well, well done!

Japan is one place I would absolutely love to go to some day.

[BruceK]

It's a MG Jim, but not as we know it.

It's a Mexican-registered, Chinese-built vehicle with a venerable historically-British nameplate.

I spotted this generic-looking MG SUV in a local parking lot today. The front sort of looks like a Mazda CX5 and the back sort of looks like a Toyota RAV4.  And I'm sure that was the general idea. It's about as far away as it can be from a MGB.

[94touring]

Ha, interesting find!  I've never seen one of those.

[Brit_in_TX]

The sell them in the UK, and they are total junk. 

[MiniDave]

Don and I went to look at some big shiny silver dumpsters after breakfast this morning! As big as they are, they're not as big as the Dodge Ram 1500 that went cruising past us as we were looking at them. It was interesting to see them at all different suspension heights too.....One of them had the roll top partly open so you could see into the bed. I can think of a lot of things I can buy with the $100K plus it takes to buy one.

One other interesting thing - if you've been following the news about these online, there are a lot of complaints about the sharp edges on the panels - and boy howdy are they ever. I can see how easy it would be to slice open your hand or wrist putting something in or out of the frunk especially.

[MPlayle]

"big shiny silver dumpsters" sounds like a good description for them.   

[Jims5543]

Dipping my toe back in after a self imposed ban for the last 3 years.

Lots of car changes, business changes life changes in the last 3 years for sure.

18 months ago I pickup up a F10 M5 with only 34K miles on it.  I was only going to drive it 3 years then sell it for a F90 M5 except something unintended happened, I fell in love with this stupid car. We took our E30 BMW on a road trip to Charleston, while on the trip we spoke aobut getting a "Das Uber Autobahn Cruiser" and give the old E30 a break.  We looked at E63s AMG's, E60 M5's (with the V10) and believe it or not, Dodge Chargers, that only lasted a minute.  LOL!

I eventually had it down to a F10 M5 or the E63 AMG, then found out the E63's were having rear main seal failures. So we shopped for and found a M5.

After driving the i3 for 5 years and putting over 60K miles on it, we no longer needed it, I was able to sell it to Carmax for 10K after paying 16K for it 5 years prior.  We put the 10K towards the M5 and also purchased a 5 year 60K mile bumper to bumper warranty for the M5.

I was not sure I would like the Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) on this car, I did know we wanted an Automatic since it is a road trip car, I would prefer a manual, except, I just did not want to deal with a manual in traffic on road trips. The DCT is a freaking riot in this car! That is a huge part of why I do not want to get rid of it, they stopped offering it with the next model iteration.

Since I am planning on keeping this thing for at least 5 years, maybe more, I did some modding. I am slowly adding the entire Dinan power upgrade catalog to this car. Right now it has the axle back exhaust and Dinan tune in it.  I will be dyno'ing it this winter, I expect to see close to 700 hp.



I added some carbon fiber to it as well.

Rear splitter:


Side scuttle and mirror cover:


Front Kidneys, which turned into a project, this car is equipped with night vision, I had to create my own mount for the camera.





How does it drive?  It is very sublime when driving normal, pushing it hard blows your mind, something this big should not be this fast, it weights about 4300 lbs and probably has about 620-650hp right now as it sits, once I finish my power upgrades I should be seeing high 600's.

It handles quite good for a car its size, I got into a little twist road race with a C5 Vette and was amazed I was keeping him back through the twisties and just walking away from him on the straights.

I did some high speed empty interstate runs, it is extremely stable even well into the triple digits. She is very calm and comfortable cruising at 100, at 80MPH the engine is purring at 2K RPM and silent. I took her up to 160 for a short burst, I wondered if the speed limiter would kick in at 155, Car and Driver says they saw 163 before it hit. The car is completely mental, she pulled so hard all the way to 160 and wanted to keep going, I lifted as my self preservation started to kick in.  I am really enjoying the hell out of it. As I said, I was going to get rid of it in 3 years for a M5 Competition, I have decided to keep this for at least 5 years.

The size difference when compared to the E30 is remarkable.

[94touring]

Good to see you back Jim.

Here's a photo from a couple days ago in Dallas.  They were able to put it out before it burst into flames.

[MiniDave]

Welcome back, Jim. Looks like a MINI in the garage too?

I went this way......I do like the Autobahn cruisers.

[Willie_B]

Glad to have you back Jim. Always like your stories.

[Jims5543]

I forgot about the R53 Mini. In 2021 I was so busy I was working 100 hour weeks. I am now down to 60 hour weeks. LOL!

Anyway my wife and I decided to find another Mini to eventually replace the i3 with. I stumbled upon a 2005 MCS with 40K miles on it at an Indy lot 30 miles away in Jupiter Florida, Carfax showed me if lived in Honolulu and Jupiter its entire life. Best I can tell an old person owned it and it lived in a parking lot not protected from the elements.

This is a picture from the Stealership:


I did not have time to put eyes on it and really wanted a 2005 Mini with 40K miles, how bad could it be?  LOL!

This was the easiest car purchase ever, I wired the Stealership my money, I emailed all the paperwork, I purchased this car sight unseen. Crazy, I know.

We drove down on a Friday evening to pick up the car, I walked into the office, said my name, they handed me envelope and keys to the car and I was on my way to a dinner spot we found in Jupiter on the water.

As I walked up to the car I busted out laughing. They had cleverly photographed it to conceal the paint fade.  I refer you to the pic above.

Here is a pic in my office parking lot, it is three shades of blue!



I struck a deal with a body shop in the building my storage unit is in to respray the entire car. I also purchased a assload of new parts for it replacing everything that was sun damaged as well as go for a "look" on it, we decided to do an Electric Blue / Flat Black contrast on it and I think we pulled it off well. This was the end result:



He actually purchased a paint booth just to paint this car and then asked a favor from a friend to spray it because he was intimidated by the task at hand, which floored me because he is good.  The guy that painted it works in a high end restoration shop and said his paint booth was every bit as good as their 200K booth in their shop.



The paint really pops now.



I did some reading, since this is my first non-JCW Mini I decided to mod the hell out of it. I have a shelf of parts to this day 3 years later I need to install.

I did manage to install an oversize intercooler in anticipation of installing a 17% pulley on the supercharger. I also have cooler plugs, and also installed a hotter coil pack and nology wires. I also installed a DDM CAI in order to amplify that sweet supercharger whine.


I then added a Miltek Cat back. I have a Miltek header and high flow cat on the shelf that will be installed soon.





The stock exhaust just sucks, I am happy to get it off the car.


Oh and I purchased some Quick jacks and LOVE them.  Its my poor mans version of a lift.



In 2023 we attended, last minute, MOTD, we were not enrolled in any activities due to the last minute decision, a friend had somone cancel to share his cabin we took the room.

On the Blue Ridge Parkway, on the way up to MOTD we drove to the NC border on I40 then took the BRP all the way to Sylva.


Downtown Sylva, where we used to own a vacation home, it was a bittersweet visit back to our old vacation town. We hit up a Brewry for lunch then headed to Bryson City for groceries and gas before heading to Fontana.


The Minis crowding Fontana:

[94touring]

Very cool Jim 

[MiniDave]

How many MINIs were there this year? In the past they could have as many as 600 cars attend this event!

My first new MINI was an electric blue with matching top, just like this one. Mine was a 2003 JCW that they guy must have bought every factory accessory available at the time.....they said his car came to over $40K on the sticker!

Mine had the two tone blue leather interior, what does this  one have?

I'm amazed at the paint fade on the roof, I wonder if it was painted once before? What did it cost to get it painted?

[94touring]

That factory exhaust looks crazy restrictive

[94touring]

....

[94touring]

Just now walking to get coffee

[94touring]

The shop got a mailbox.  Pretty exciting stuff lol

[Jims5543]

Just a quick apology as I am setting up to work for the evening on this day off holiday.

I stopped using forums and Social Media 3 years ago as a result my productivity, has gone through the roof.

I am busy only because I could see a housing crisis coming, it is here now, the news will not tell you this, I pivoted to other clients 2-3 years ago, on purpose, in 2021 I could see we would be heading towards a downturn in the housing sector.  I pivoted to paver and pool companies in order to keep business going despite weak home sales. I purposefully turned away home builders these last 3 years because I knew this time was coming. It is very tricky juggling clients in a economic situation such as this, it smacks of 2008 all over again.

It has worked out well, a couple of the paver and pool companies I work for service the ultra wealthy. One community I work in is on another level.

Its called Sailfish Point in Stuart Florida, look for it on Zillow.

Home prices are from 3-10+ Million, in order to buy a house in here you need to deposit $125K into the HOA.

Then you need to pay 20K a year in Country Club fees, plus 5K a month in HOA fees. Additionally your property taxes are about 80K a year out there never mind insurance which is about 70K+ a year with a 100K deducible.

This is a perfect example of the keep up with the Joneses types. I did a survey for this home so they can replace their perfectly fine paver driveway with a Travertine one. As a result of this house doing this, I ended up surveying 5 more houses on this street alone because everyone wants Travertine. Which in my opinion, sucks, it is a natural stone, which will be susceptible to discoloring and stains.  I spoke with a guy who works with Travertine a lot on his Pool final, he had concrete pavers, he told me he works with Travertine a lot and the common complaint is the discoloration as they age.

Imagine ripping out this driveway:





Funny side story. I was surveying a house in here, the owners were home and spoke with me, I saw in the open garage a BMW with an open trunk and asked if it was a 1 series, he replied it was a M2. I got excited, which surprised him, I said I love the M cars, they are on another level. I told him I had a M5 at home which shocked him, he was actually stunned, how could the help have an M car? I went on about the M2's and how much I loved them, told him I have a E30 with an engine swap, then told him I was considering selling my E30 for an M2 but think my E30 is special and want to keep it.  He agreed, we are friends now, we exchanged numbers and will meet a at Cars and coffee this winter.  LOL!

I meet a lot of cool car guys every day. One had a Audi R8 V10 and a Porsche GT3-RS in his garage he was a Fedex pilot, he also exchanged number and will meet at a C&C this winter.

Another ordered a Porsche 911S with a manual and invited me to some PCA AX events.