Retro Looks...

modern power!

Sexiest Car on the Planet

An absolute stunner: Maserati GranTurismo
I'll take one in blue...'nuff said.

Picture courtesy of Maserati

Two Wonderful Cars Side By Side

At the Ferrari Service Clinic

Our 355 Spider up on the lift undergoing a 27 point inspection. The car has a clean bill of health. Only a rubber drive axle boot is starting to crack which will allow grease to seep through. It'll be fixed at the next service. Other than that all is good in Ferrari land.

Canyon Run With New "Go Fast" Parts

Took a quick run through the twisties to see how the MINI felt with the new limited slip differential, flywheel, and 19mm anti-sway bar. Result: big grin!

The car felt more planted, responded more crisply to inputs, and just had more grunt. I could feel the diff at work putting down more power to the ground rather than just spinning the inside wheel. I've never timed my runs through the canyon and don't go all out all the time (it is a public road after all) but it just felt like I was making very quick time comfortably.

Definitely love the way the car drives.

Ferrari Beverly Hills Service Clinic

Picture: Our 1997 355 Spider on the dyno at a 2005 MINI Dyno Day event. Suffice it to say that it made a few more HP than the JCW 210.

This weekend Ferrari Beverly Hills is hosting a service clinic in conjunction with Ferrari North America. A new Quattroporte automatic will be on hand for test drives and I'm sure I'll take advantage! :) A good time for a check-up for our car and it needs to have its bi-annual emissions certification SMOG check. Shouldn't be a problem even with the lovely Tubi exhaust system on the 355.

Dyno Time

Picture: On the dyno with the JCW 210

I think that it is time to get back on the "rolling road" and figure out just how much horsepower the JCW MCS is really making after a slew of modifications. In 2005 I took my car to DRS in La Habra, California and was surprised at how much/little power was getting to the wheels. I need to dig out my old Dyno printouts and try to get them up here on the blog. I think it would be beneficial to compare the JCW 210 dyno runs to the JCM 225+ car. Perhaps then I'll go for the crank pulley and maybe the Schrick as well and then do another set of runs. We'll see.

2005 Flashback: JCW On the Lawn at Huntington Beach

My JCW 210 at the 2005 Huntington Beach Concours d'Elegance. Took third place in the MINI "street" category.

My JCW and M Roadster

Here's a picture of my JCW back in 2004. I took delivery of the car as pictured with the original 200HP JCW kit. It sits face-to-face with my 1998 M Roadster. Yes... I like blue cars...

Time for Routine Service

More pressing than the mods I'm still considering in the post below is the fact that I need new tires. I'm going to stick with the Dunlop DSSTs for now. I'll have those installed and change the oil. At the same time I'm adding the factory armrest retrofit. Not for sports reasons naturally, but just because my JCW is meant to be a MINI GT... not just fast but also comfortable.

I'll also have Long Beach MINI look at my third brake light as it seems to not be leak-proof.

What next for the JCW MCS?

Well, I think that I'm 90% done with modding the car. Just a couple items to think about and these would be non-JCW items. Currently the only non JCW/JCM peformance parts on the car are the H&M 19mm anti-sway bar and the BMP/ProMINI Gauges. I really want to keep the car as close to John Cooper Works/Motorsport as possible but I'm very tempted to add some limited non-JCW/JCM upgrades in order to pull a few more ponies out of the engine.

1. 2% Crank Pulley. I think I'd go with the Webb Motorsports version.
2. Oil Catch Can. M7 has a really nice unit. Steve of Steve's Auto Clinic thinks this would be a good addition to my particular engine.
3. Schrick Cam.

My guess is that the cam and crank pulley would add between 10-15 HP to my bottom line HP. I need to see where I'm at power-wise by getting on a dyno, but I'd hope that if I go with this last round of mods I'd be somewhere in the 235-240 BHP neighborhood.

Steve Finishes the JCW GP Intercooler Installation

The new intercooler cover is placed on the engine. This new JCW GP cover actually looks better than the stock JCW cover.

JCW GP Intercooler Installation

The JCW GP Intercooler is on the engine. It let's the engine run cooler and prevents horsepower loss.