MDifficult’s E82 1M Coupe & Ariel Atom 3
Discussion
C70R said:
MDifficult said:
iacabu said:
Yeah mine's an R53 in hyper blue. Fair point about the driveability, mine is the perfect compromise between a daily and fun car
My favourite colour! If it's mainly a road car don't go anywhere near cams, clutch and flywheel. But everything else is fair game. I love the Coolerworx shifter in particular - every gear-change feels like an event!The Coolerworx shifters look ace and drastically change the interior in my eyes. Bit unnecessary and expensive for me though.
Certainly agree with the other comments, it's so fun and full of character without being ridiculous. Although it's pretty eager to get to naughty speeds
Congrats on the R53 purchase, great little cars once they're sorted.
You couldn't have picked a better place than 1320, as you say they involve you which is a good thing.
I used to have GP1511 that ended up becoming a bit of a mad thing. 1320 did 99% of the work on it and gave some useful advice on what and what not to do. Their dedication to customer service ended up with Scott working until 2am when a R56 exhaust was being fitted.
You couldn't have picked a better place than 1320, as you say they involve you which is a good thing.
I used to have GP1511 that ended up becoming a bit of a mad thing. 1320 did 99% of the work on it and gave some useful advice on what and what not to do. Their dedication to customer service ended up with Scott working until 2am when a R56 exhaust was being fitted.
iacabu said:
C70R said:
MDifficult said:
iacabu said:
Yeah mine's an R53 in hyper blue. Fair point about the driveability, mine is the perfect compromise between a daily and fun car
My favourite colour! If it's mainly a road car don't go anywhere near cams, clutch and flywheel. But everything else is fair game. I love the Coolerworx shifter in particular - every gear-change feels like an event!The Coolerworx shifters look ace and drastically change the interior in my eyes. Bit unnecessary and expensive for me though.
Certainly agree with the other comments, it's so fun and full of character without being ridiculous. Although it's pretty eager to get to naughty speeds
I concede that it looks a bit bling, and is probably fitted on lots of cars with their own Instagram accounts, but it's a great tool on track.
moktabe said:
Congrats on the R53 purchase, great little cars once they're sorted.
You couldn't have picked a better place than 1320, as you say they involve you which is a good thing.
I used to have GP1511 that ended up becoming a bit of a mad thing. 1320 did 99% of the work on it and gave some useful advice on what and what not to do. Their dedication to customer service ended up with Scott working until 2am when a R56 exhaust was being fitted.
Cheers - thank you! The guys were working on a GP1 while I was there and I started to have some envy pangs. Had to keep reminding myself that I'd been down that road before and the whole point of this car is cheap fun You couldn't have picked a better place than 1320, as you say they involve you which is a good thing.
I used to have GP1511 that ended up becoming a bit of a mad thing. 1320 did 99% of the work on it and gave some useful advice on what and what not to do. Their dedication to customer service ended up with Scott working until 2am when a R56 exhaust was being fitted.
I was genuinely a bit taken aback by the 1320 experience for the first hour or so because my natural scepticism was looking everywhere for the catch. It wasn't just the 'spannering' either - everything from the booking process, to the informal reminder text messages. They even provided hourly cups of tea, friendly dogs popping in for a visit, and a tour of the car park by Scott pointing out the little mods on other cars I might want to make on mine. I really couldn't fault any of it and all the other customers there were raving about it too. I was there from 9am to about 2:30 and it honestly flew by.
Another busy couple of days of changes,
First up was to move the Ultra Gauge from over by the glovebox (where I'll never see it) to the dash where I've got at least half a chance of noticing something bad happening:
However, the blue is pretty bloody jarring so £1.69 worth of orange acetate switched it up to a nice orange/red. Top tip stolen with pride from Tweedbean on YouTube. Absolute genius!
Next job was to replace a couple of missing clips from a couple of the wheel arches mouldings. I bought a job-lot of the various plastic clips and rivets as I'm bound to find other areas of trim over time where a new clip is required.
Couldn't be simpler - pull back the moulding, pull out the broken clip, wang in a new one and give it a good thump to click into place. Job jobbed.
Next up, something more exciting! Got a great deal on a brand-new TRC front splitter. I know they've been done a million times before but they really are the best looking for the non-aero front bumper. I thought about trying to fit while on the car but seemed so much easier to do a quality job by pulling the bumper off and fitting it upside down with gravity on my side. So, off the front bumper came again (third time so far - I can do it in under 5 mins now):
It was looking a bit worse for wear so I gave it a thorough clean inside and out, and then fitted up the TRC splitter. Really easy to fit as the splitter only really fits in one place. Glad I did it this way as it would have been fiddly as f*ck with gravity against me. All fitted up with the stainless fittings supplied and flipped the right way up again:
Took the opportunity to treat all the black parts, and the new splitter with Gtechniq C4 - makes everything deep black and stays that way for months:
Pretty bloody pleased with how it looks on the table at least!...
Another 5 minutes with the spanners and.... I like it!
I'm glad I took these pictures as I'll inevitably forget I've got it on and end up hammering it off a speedbump
Other than that, I removed both the internal side-trim/kickplates and re-taped and cable-tied the loom on both sides in order to pull them up and under the trim so that they're not visible despite the lack of carpet. Just neatened everything up really - nothing worthy of a photograph.
What else? Well I've started ordering up the 'just in case' spares recommended by 1320. A supercharger belt has already arrived and a TMAP sensor should arrive next week. Just need to whip out and identify one of the plugs and order a spare set of those. That should cover me for the basics.
I REALLY need the 17th to hurry up as I'm fast running out of little jobs to do!
First up was to move the Ultra Gauge from over by the glovebox (where I'll never see it) to the dash where I've got at least half a chance of noticing something bad happening:
However, the blue is pretty bloody jarring so £1.69 worth of orange acetate switched it up to a nice orange/red. Top tip stolen with pride from Tweedbean on YouTube. Absolute genius!
Next job was to replace a couple of missing clips from a couple of the wheel arches mouldings. I bought a job-lot of the various plastic clips and rivets as I'm bound to find other areas of trim over time where a new clip is required.
Couldn't be simpler - pull back the moulding, pull out the broken clip, wang in a new one and give it a good thump to click into place. Job jobbed.
Next up, something more exciting! Got a great deal on a brand-new TRC front splitter. I know they've been done a million times before but they really are the best looking for the non-aero front bumper. I thought about trying to fit while on the car but seemed so much easier to do a quality job by pulling the bumper off and fitting it upside down with gravity on my side. So, off the front bumper came again (third time so far - I can do it in under 5 mins now):
It was looking a bit worse for wear so I gave it a thorough clean inside and out, and then fitted up the TRC splitter. Really easy to fit as the splitter only really fits in one place. Glad I did it this way as it would have been fiddly as f*ck with gravity against me. All fitted up with the stainless fittings supplied and flipped the right way up again:
Took the opportunity to treat all the black parts, and the new splitter with Gtechniq C4 - makes everything deep black and stays that way for months:
Pretty bloody pleased with how it looks on the table at least!...
Another 5 minutes with the spanners and.... I like it!
I'm glad I took these pictures as I'll inevitably forget I've got it on and end up hammering it off a speedbump
Other than that, I removed both the internal side-trim/kickplates and re-taped and cable-tied the loom on both sides in order to pull them up and under the trim so that they're not visible despite the lack of carpet. Just neatened everything up really - nothing worthy of a photograph.
What else? Well I've started ordering up the 'just in case' spares recommended by 1320. A supercharger belt has already arrived and a TMAP sensor should arrive next week. Just need to whip out and identify one of the plugs and order a spare set of those. That should cover me for the basics.
I REALLY need the 17th to hurry up as I'm fast running out of little jobs to do!
I hope you're sitting down for this one
So yesterday I was taking a look at some of Luke's (the MINIs previous owner's) YouTube videos of the car on track - all good fun.
However, in the last 10 seconds of one of the videos at Silverstone I spot a white Clio 200, right before the video fades out and ends.
"Hang on a minute - I recognise that bloody Clio..."
Yup! Luke had been tooling around behind MrTouring and I at the exact same track day back in November 2019 - mentioned on page 17 of this thread.
If that's not an insane coincidence I don't know what is.
So yesterday I was taking a look at some of Luke's (the MINIs previous owner's) YouTube videos of the car on track - all good fun.
However, in the last 10 seconds of one of the videos at Silverstone I spot a white Clio 200, right before the video fades out and ends.
"Hang on a minute - I recognise that bloody Clio..."
Yup! Luke had been tooling around behind MrTouring and I at the exact same track day back in November 2019 - mentioned on page 17 of this thread.
If that's not an insane coincidence I don't know what is.
With Boris finally giving the thumbs up, I took the MINI out for a proper dawn raid yesterday morning - the first chance I've had to really stretch its legs, doing about 80 miles on my favourite Oxfordshire b-roads.
As I've already experienced, it's hopeless and frustrating at anything slow or around town, but 'get up it' on a tight, dry road out in the countryside and it's absolutely ridiculous
I can't tell whether it's really quick, or whether it just feels really quick thanks to the seats, harnesses, shifter and lack of any rubber at all in the suspension. But does it really matter? On those kinds of roads it's just superb and now the exhaust is quietened down and I've sorted the worst of the rattles, you can focus on that screaming supercharger and the 'intimate' connection with the tyres and the road.
It's an angry, noisy, grippy little f*cker. Incredibly planted but with a lively back end, and the brakes are magnificent. Can't imagine what it'll be like with a smooth circuit to play with!
Couldn't resit stopping for a few snaps either. Not looking too shabby for a 16 year old track car!...
I've said it already, but if your even half considering fitting a shifter to your fast road car, whether CAI, Coolerworx or whatever, I can't recommend it enough. Combined with the very short gearing of the MINI, its fantastic.
As I've already experienced, it's hopeless and frustrating at anything slow or around town, but 'get up it' on a tight, dry road out in the countryside and it's absolutely ridiculous
I can't tell whether it's really quick, or whether it just feels really quick thanks to the seats, harnesses, shifter and lack of any rubber at all in the suspension. But does it really matter? On those kinds of roads it's just superb and now the exhaust is quietened down and I've sorted the worst of the rattles, you can focus on that screaming supercharger and the 'intimate' connection with the tyres and the road.
It's an angry, noisy, grippy little f*cker. Incredibly planted but with a lively back end, and the brakes are magnificent. Can't imagine what it'll be like with a smooth circuit to play with!
Couldn't resit stopping for a few snaps either. Not looking too shabby for a 16 year old track car!...
I've said it already, but if your even half considering fitting a shifter to your fast road car, whether CAI, Coolerworx or whatever, I can't recommend it enough. Combined with the very short gearing of the MINI, its fantastic.
MDifficult said:
With Boris finally giving the thumbs up, I took the MINI out for a proper dawn raid yesterday morning - the first chance I've had to really stretch its legs, doing about 80 miles on my favourite Oxfordshire b-roads.
I'm sure you were rigidly sticking to Oxfords
te's blanket 50 limit, especially on Chain Hill 
There's no stopping me now! Another morning run, this time with MrTouring. After months of being deprived of 'just going for a drive' I'm making up for it.
Picture in black & white in order to reflect the stark bitterness of the weather on the south coast yesterday. Our standard bacon/sausage bap and cup of tea had to be smashed in record time, despite ski jackets and woolly hats!
Picture in black & white in order to reflect the stark bitterness of the weather on the south coast yesterday. Our standard bacon/sausage bap and cup of tea had to be smashed in record time, despite ski jackets and woolly hats!
After what seemed like an interminable wait the day was finally here... first trackday for the MINI!
As mentioned earlier we'd booked Bedford on the basis of being a track that both MrTouring and I know pretty well, is nice and safe, and is huge so we were certain of getting as much track time as we wanted. It was also handy that 1320 MINI are just around the corner so if I DID manage to blow it to pieces we could just tow it there and leave the keys
Despite being very-much-less than a competent mechanic, I was determined that I wouldn't let a little breakdown ruin the day so I took 1320's advice and built myself a little pack of spares, including a spare supercharger belt, spark plugs and TMAP sensor. That's in addition to my usual duct-tape, cable ties, tyre-pressure monitor and multi-tool. Apart from that, I added a serpentine belt tool (£14 delivered on Amazon Prime), my torque wrench, a litre of oil and my trusty Halfords socket set. Thankfully, apart from the socket-set I didn't need any of it (but that's the point right?)
The only slight downside was that a set of R888Rs I'd ordered didn't arrive in time, so I'd be doing the whole day on a moderately-sh@gged set of Pilot Sport 4s. More on that later!
But, I certainly had (most) of the gear and (some) idea so there couldn't be any excuses...
The weather was absolutely perfect in the morning, with big blue skies and nice cold air...
Here's a few of the shots captured by the Javelin team. They do a great job considering Bedford is a great track but with very few features to make it photogenic...
Being held up by some old Clio
Quite clearly holding up some old Clio
A few more...
When you realise you've taken a spoon to a gunfight...
...and a few more shots from the paddock...
As a nice surprise, there was also a rather tasty BMW on the trackday that looked pretty familiar for some reason. Great effort from this guy, but glad I left mine at home
Now for some video. Firstly, I tried mounting the GoPro to the top of the cage to make for some slightly more interesting interior shots - with the two obvious downsides of some ungodly audio rattles (sorry, no idea what was causing it) and mounting it too high, so instead of seeing the straight ahead, all you can see is my dead, unblinking eyes
I'll do better next time I promise, but for now, here's a lap of so of me chasing down MrTouring in his Clio very early on in the day (you can tell because of the nearly-full fuel gauge)...
Worth noting that this was during our 'gentleman's agreement' that we wouldn't absolutely spank the cars on the back straight as we weren't chasing lap times. That agreement went in the bin about an hour later
With the 'in car' footage being pretty below average, I decided to swap to a windscreen mount, both to give a more unobstructed view, but also to improve the audio quality. Next time, I'm going for an external mic. But, at least you can hear that little supercharger whining its balls off
WeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE...WeeeeeeEEEEEEEEE...
All pretty amateur but bloody enjoyable stuff I'm sure you'll agree
So how was it?
Day itself? Brilliant. Well organised, loads of track time, no tts, only one red flag all day (for a brakedown) and great photos.
The car? Well, it's hilarious. All the 'track car' modifications of seats, harnesses, shifter, cage, clubsports etc are almost certainly wasted on a man of my limited talents, but it makes every drive on the track feel like a bloody EVENT. It's loud, the tiny steering wheel makes it hard work on the arms, getting in and belted-up takes a fortnight, but it certainly adds loads to the experience.
The additional gauges and dials are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's great to be able to take a peek on the straight and know that oil, water and intake temps are all okay, oil pressure is good etc, encouraging you to keep pressing on for another few laps rather than questioning yourself and coming in for a cool-down. On the other hand, I had to initially fight my instinct to be distracted by it all.
What WAS brilliant though is that I could see the oil and intake temps creeping up as the day got hotter, so about 11am I stopped, whipped off the bumper and removed the blanking plate from the oil cooler. I also switched on the meth injection to get a real back-to-back comparison. Firstly, with the oil cooler fully open the oil temp ran 90-100 the whole time, peaking at 103ish in traffic late on. The meth seemed to do a good job on the intake temps, bringing them down 5-10 degrees consistently vs without. That said, I had it set relatively conservatively because I wanted to make the tank last through the day.
What I really loved was knowing that the car was more than happy to take long stints. I was typically doing 7-10 laps in a stint towards the end of the day (GT Circuit is 3.8 miles, about 3 minutes), so 20-30 minute stints with one slower, cooling down lap in the middle to give the tyres a chance to come back. I was definitely tiring before the car, which is exactly how I wanted it.
In comparison to the Clio? Hmm. I think the best way to describe the difference is that the Clio is a class act, and the MINI is just brutally effective. The Clio sounds better, had much better tyres (Cup2s), used 30% less fuel and was a far more pleasant place to spend time. The MINI was quicker in a straight line, braked better, but the sh@gged PS4s needed a cool-down lap every 3 or 4 laps and it couldn't stay with the Clio in the tight stuff where ultimate grip mattered most. The net result was a very similar laptime but a totally different experience.
Summary. It's exactly what I wanted from a dedicated track car. With a set of R888Rs on, and with a bit more practice, I think it'd be an absolute weapon. All the track-day paraphernalia just makes it so exciting to drive and despite sounding like a bag of spanners next to the Clio's tuneful wail.. that supercharger is just so f*cking addictive
That's it... time to book the next one ASAP!
As mentioned earlier we'd booked Bedford on the basis of being a track that both MrTouring and I know pretty well, is nice and safe, and is huge so we were certain of getting as much track time as we wanted. It was also handy that 1320 MINI are just around the corner so if I DID manage to blow it to pieces we could just tow it there and leave the keys
Despite being very-much-less than a competent mechanic, I was determined that I wouldn't let a little breakdown ruin the day so I took 1320's advice and built myself a little pack of spares, including a spare supercharger belt, spark plugs and TMAP sensor. That's in addition to my usual duct-tape, cable ties, tyre-pressure monitor and multi-tool. Apart from that, I added a serpentine belt tool (£14 delivered on Amazon Prime), my torque wrench, a litre of oil and my trusty Halfords socket set. Thankfully, apart from the socket-set I didn't need any of it (but that's the point right?)
The only slight downside was that a set of R888Rs I'd ordered didn't arrive in time, so I'd be doing the whole day on a moderately-sh@gged set of Pilot Sport 4s. More on that later!
But, I certainly had (most) of the gear and (some) idea so there couldn't be any excuses...
The weather was absolutely perfect in the morning, with big blue skies and nice cold air...
Here's a few of the shots captured by the Javelin team. They do a great job considering Bedford is a great track but with very few features to make it photogenic...
Being held up by some old Clio
Quite clearly holding up some old Clio
A few more...
When you realise you've taken a spoon to a gunfight...
...and a few more shots from the paddock...
As a nice surprise, there was also a rather tasty BMW on the trackday that looked pretty familiar for some reason. Great effort from this guy, but glad I left mine at home
Now for some video. Firstly, I tried mounting the GoPro to the top of the cage to make for some slightly more interesting interior shots - with the two obvious downsides of some ungodly audio rattles (sorry, no idea what was causing it) and mounting it too high, so instead of seeing the straight ahead, all you can see is my dead, unblinking eyes
I'll do better next time I promise, but for now, here's a lap of so of me chasing down MrTouring in his Clio very early on in the day (you can tell because of the nearly-full fuel gauge)...
Worth noting that this was during our 'gentleman's agreement' that we wouldn't absolutely spank the cars on the back straight as we weren't chasing lap times. That agreement went in the bin about an hour later
With the 'in car' footage being pretty below average, I decided to swap to a windscreen mount, both to give a more unobstructed view, but also to improve the audio quality. Next time, I'm going for an external mic. But, at least you can hear that little supercharger whining its balls off
WeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE...WeeeeeeEEEEEEEEE...
All pretty amateur but bloody enjoyable stuff I'm sure you'll agree
So how was it?
Day itself? Brilliant. Well organised, loads of track time, no t
ts, only one red flag all day (for a brakedown) and great photos. The car? Well, it's hilarious. All the 'track car' modifications of seats, harnesses, shifter, cage, clubsports etc are almost certainly wasted on a man of my limited talents, but it makes every drive on the track feel like a bloody EVENT. It's loud, the tiny steering wheel makes it hard work on the arms, getting in and belted-up takes a fortnight, but it certainly adds loads to the experience.
The additional gauges and dials are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's great to be able to take a peek on the straight and know that oil, water and intake temps are all okay, oil pressure is good etc, encouraging you to keep pressing on for another few laps rather than questioning yourself and coming in for a cool-down. On the other hand, I had to initially fight my instinct to be distracted by it all.
What WAS brilliant though is that I could see the oil and intake temps creeping up as the day got hotter, so about 11am I stopped, whipped off the bumper and removed the blanking plate from the oil cooler. I also switched on the meth injection to get a real back-to-back comparison. Firstly, with the oil cooler fully open the oil temp ran 90-100 the whole time, peaking at 103ish in traffic late on. The meth seemed to do a good job on the intake temps, bringing them down 5-10 degrees consistently vs without. That said, I had it set relatively conservatively because I wanted to make the tank last through the day.
What I really loved was knowing that the car was more than happy to take long stints. I was typically doing 7-10 laps in a stint towards the end of the day (GT Circuit is 3.8 miles, about 3 minutes), so 20-30 minute stints with one slower, cooling down lap in the middle to give the tyres a chance to come back. I was definitely tiring before the car, which is exactly how I wanted it.
In comparison to the Clio? Hmm. I think the best way to describe the difference is that the Clio is a class act, and the MINI is just brutally effective. The Clio sounds better, had much better tyres (Cup2s), used 30% less fuel and was a far more pleasant place to spend time. The MINI was quicker in a straight line, braked better, but the sh@gged PS4s needed a cool-down lap every 3 or 4 laps and it couldn't stay with the Clio in the tight stuff where ultimate grip mattered most. The net result was a very similar laptime but a totally different experience.
Summary. It's exactly what I wanted from a dedicated track car. With a set of R888Rs on, and with a bit more practice, I think it'd be an absolute weapon. All the track-day paraphernalia just makes it so exciting to drive and despite sounding like a bag of spanners next to the Clio's tuneful wail.. that supercharger is just so f*cking addictive
That's it... time to book the next one ASAP!
Edited by MDifficult on Monday 19th April 17:28
Matt97 said:
Looked like a great day! I was tempted by an R53 a little while ago as a cheap trackday car but I don't think there's such a thing as a cheap trackday car! Once you start modifying it's a slippery slope 
Cheers. Finding a good one was pretty tricky because there’s LOTS of shoddy builds. The good builds using good bits are nearly always broken because they’re worth much more in parts. You have to try and find one built by someone who loves it so much they can’t bring themselves to break it Court_S said:
Nice update, glad to hear that the first outing went well and there was no need for any of those slates you took!
Thanks mate - you and me both! There’s always that thing that, once someone suggests you take certain spares, you’ve GOT to take them otherwise fate will make you regret it. By taking them, it almost certainly means I’ll never need them cerb4.5lee said:
That Mini is so cool. A fantastic selection of cars you have for sure.
Thanks mate - they’re each brilliant in their own way. When we got back from the trackday (3.5hrs there and back, then probably 8 hours at the track) I had to pop out to get some food so took the M5. Felt like I was driving a Maybach So it's come to this... I'm making meth in my garage
No no, this...
Yes, I could have bought 50:50 pre-mixed but it seemed a) slightly more expensive and b) slightly less funny
At least this way I know I'm using quality stuff AND I get to give my neighbours a brilliant answer when they wonder what I'm up to in the garage. 20 litres should last me pretty well for a while.
You can also dye the end-product slightly to make it easier to handle / see how much is left in the tank. I'm thinking blue
No no, this...
Yes, I could have bought 50:50 pre-mixed but it seemed a) slightly more expensive and b) slightly less funny
At least this way I know I'm using quality stuff AND I get to give my neighbours a brilliant answer when they wonder what I'm up to in the garage. 20 litres should last me pretty well for a while.
You can also dye the end-product slightly to make it easier to handle / see how much is left in the tank. I'm thinking blue
Some sexy rubber has just arrived from Germany for the MINI. Long wait but much cheaper than UK suppliers. Took a punt and went for 215/45/17 (vs 205/45/17) so I may be subjecting myself to some rubbing in exchange for more rubber on the ground while maintaining the bigger sidewall. If so, I'll either ease the arches or sell them on and try again.
Got both Brands and Castle Combe booked in the next two months so looking forward to seeing the difference vs sh@gged-out MPS4
Got both Brands and Castle Combe booked in the next two months so looking forward to seeing the difference vs sh@gged-out MPS4
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