The title really says it all, just watch and be amazed!

I’ve had this CravenSpeed supercharger pulley on the car for a couple months, and now I’m finally making a post about it! Kellen let me send him whatever design I wanted on the pulley, so I decided to go with a Tony Stewart “Smoke” logo. I think it looks great, and the extra power is pretty nice as well.

Here’s a video I threw together (and Courtney filmed) of the Blue Ridge Parkway Tour. It was such a blast that plans are already in the works for the next cruise up the Parkway

Photos will be added to the photo gallery shortly. View Gallery

We depart for the BRP tomorrow morning at 9, we can’t wait!

Last week my dad and I got to work on installing an 19mm Eibach rear sway bar on the MINI. I would encourage anyone who is planning on getting an R.S.B for their MINI(and has a decent set of metric tools) to save a little dough and install it themselves. Just allow yourself plenty of time and you’ll really learn a lot about your MINI. As for how the Eibach performs? I would say when set on the stiffer of the two settings, it’s really an ideal setup! When I first installed it, I had it set on the more conservative setting, which did make it a bit more surefooted in the turns compared to stock, but there was still plenty of under-steer present. Once set on the stiffer setting, it really had me grinning. In most cases it’s now very close to a neutral handling car. On the track I’ll probably be able to apply a little trail braking without experiencing excessive snap over-steer. I imagine trail braking could get pretty scary with a 22mm or higher rear sway.

On Tuesday I went with few guys from the Tar Heel MINI Club to the Hybrid Technologies open house in Mooresville, NC. It was great to see all the technologies involved to convert vehicles to electric only (didn’t I mention that’s what they do?) Check out the pictures in my photo gallery and the short video below.

And thanks to Bill who also showed us around the Roush-Fenway garages as well!

On the morning of April 12th, Courtney and I joined over 20 other MINIs for a great adventure to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The Swan Quarter Ferry brought us to Ocracoke after a two and a half hour ride. After a quick lighthouse photo-op, and hotel check in, we had dinner at Howard’s Pub.

Sunday morning we all took off to the northern tip of Ocracoke to catch the ferry to Hatteras.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was our next stop.

..and then the Bodie Island Lighthouse

We then went to Big Al’s Soda Shop for some tasty treats (mmm chocolate cola.) From here we all said our goodbyes and made our way home at our own pace. Big thanks to Paul (BlimeyCabrio)for his precision planning of this event!

These super sticky tires replace my BFG KDWs. The KDWs were great, especially in wet conditions but they’re a bit overpriced in my opinion. These Falken RT-615s were almost 30 dollars cheaper per tire! While my KDWs were 205/45/17, I decided to go with 215/40/17 which is a little smaller in diameter, but I don’t notice a lot of difference in acceleration or wheel-well gap. I’m now looking to get some front camber plates to reduce some of the outside edge tire wear I’ve had on my previous two sets of tires. Hopefully regular rotation and the camber plates will help these last until the Phil Wicks MINI Academy at VIR.

..and I’m really liking the sound, it really lets the supercharger sing. Unfortunately it does now have a bit of a partial throttle lisp, but I’m able to live with it for now.  Click play below to hear a quick sound clip of my MINI’s new sound.

The MINI’s seats are known for not being very supportive during quick cornering maneuvers. The CG-Lock is the perfect solution to our slippery seats! It locks the lap portion of the belt as tight as you can stand, and unlike a racing harness you can sit forward when you need to. I really didn’t notice how often I use my knees to brace myself until getting the CG-Lock.

Installing this 3rd backup light was a snap, and it adds some much needed visibility when backing up (my tinted tail lights weren’t helping things.)

Check out this video clip I threw together of the PC game rFactor, with the MINI Cooper Challenge addon. rFactor is a racing simulation that encourages its community to create cars and tracks to add to the game. The Lime Rock Park and Laguna Seca tracks in the video are user created as well.