MINI Cooper Nevada City Adventure 2008

The 7th “Nevada City Adventure” for Mini Coopers is set for Saturday, May 17th, 2008.  Held annually in heart of the gold country, this event celebrates both the Classic Mini as built by BMC (and Rover) and the latest MINI Cooper as built by BMW.  Planning is now underway to insure this will be the biggest gathering in the history of Mini Mania in the Gold Country.
Events planned include:
-Vendor Arcade- Numerous aftermarket supplies will be present to demonstrate product and answer questions.
-’People’s choice’ car show with awards in a multiple of classes!
-Nevada Country tour- see some of the best of the Gold Country
-’Vtec Mini’ Encounter- see the largest ever gathering of Vtec powered Mini in the USA
-Silent Auction- Great products at only the price you want
-Raffle- Take your chance and win your choice of great products
-Free Grand Prize drawing- Every entrant will be eligible for some great prices!
-Mini Mania Open House- 15,000+ parts, 10% Discount on most parts.

Ed D’Arata, Sales Manager of Mini Mania and who also serves as the technical expert on Vtec conversions says of the “Vtec MiniEncounter”;   ” The ‘encounter’ will be the pit the best of the original Classic Mini as well as many of the new BMW MINI Cooper against the latest innovation to spring out of the Classic Sports car after-market, the Honda Vtec engine powered Classic Mini.”

The Vtec Encounter presents and opportunity to stand up and be counted!  This will be the largest gathering of Vtec powered Mini in the USA.  Special Awards, Special Parking and Special activities will be highlighted by technical demonstrations from the development team at Mini-tec.  “Work in Progress” cars will also be displayed.  A special manufacturers direct sale will allow V-tec conversion kits to be available at huge savings for immediate delivery.

About Mini Mania, Inc.

Mini Mania was founded in 1974 and has grown to become a multi million dollar market leader that provides high quality aftermarket parts that include its own ULTRIK(tm) line of high performance parts and very specialized services to a growing customer base of approximately 50,000 consumers around the world.

Mini Mania solidified its market leadership position in 2001 by becoming the first company in the US to import the then all new BMW MINI to use as a product and performance test bed. Shortly thereafter, Mini Mania began to offer a suite of “lifestyle & performance enhancement products” that appeal to recent purchasers of the MINI Cooper(tm) automobile.

Mini Mania is headquartered in a 16,000 square foot state of the art facility in the Northern California foothills outside of Sacramento. The company’s dynamic web site is truly a one of a kind information portal for any Mini Cooper enthusiast – containing over 50,000 pages of unique content, augmented with 50,000 part number, technical articles and interactive community forums. Each month 75-100,000 individuals access the web site for research and purchase of Mini Cooper parts and accessories.

For more information - on the web: www.minimania.com, 800.946.2642, info@minimania.com

Classic Mini Cooper for sale

Another classic Mini Cooper has been added to the cars for sale page of the Mini Mania Website.
“Ive got a rough little car that needs some love and affection. Sat for about a decade before i bought it, but she started right up, ran (I even took it for a drive around the block!). Lived its life in the Aczores, has registration and some other paperwork for the island! Right now it is holding down the back yard, and is filled with parts. It is going to need alot of work, but i know there is always someone out there who wants a good project car. We are mini lovers, this being our third and have tons of other parts. Also a local mechanic for all locals with Mini’s and other Antique vehicles. Price is negotiable. Have many more pictures if you’d like. ” $3,000 - contact: sjh42188@aim.com

Mini Cooper Message forum at Mini Mania achieves another milestone!

Over 16,000 users have now registered for one of the longest running message forums on the Internet. The Mini Cooper forum has now been on line for more than 10 years and is celebrating yet another milestone with the number of registered users. On the forum you can find both a social network and very detailed answers to technical questions. The message forum includes both classic Mini owners and owners of the new BMW MINI Cooper.

A new feature of the message board forum is the chance to see where all you fellow Mini Coopers owners live. The new mapping option allows you to see the location of all fellow message board users.

“We are extremely proud of the message board community that has evolved around the Mini Mania Website. After all these years of supporting the Mini Cooper community it has been very satisfying to also be able to give something back. Our message board has become the biggest part of our Website and we look forward to it’s continued growth”, says Don Racine, president of Mini Mania.

The Mini Cooper message forum provides the ability for the entire community to share there ideas, problems and technical expertise with fellow owners. The forum provides allows a community to find everything from that no longer available part to the best service shops. The classified pages sell more Mini Coopers than most dealerships.

http://www.minimania.com/msgthreads.cfm

 

Mini PU Vtec Conversion update!

Got a call from the local body shop today that has accepted the challenge to restore the Mini PU to a condition that can accept the Honda Vtec conversion! I first have to admit that I have little or no experience with body work. What a lesson! I have been into the Mini Cooper for over 30 years and still have never seen such a thing first hand. What a challenge?? All the guy could say- get me more parts!

7th Annual Nevada City Adventure by Mini Mania

Mini Mania has now announced their very popular annual “Nevada City Adventure”. The event kicks off at the Mini Mania headquarter, 870 Gold Flat Road, Nevada City, California. The date has been set for Saturday, May 17th, 2008. The event this year will again host Classic Minis as well as the new BMW MINI Coopers. A new feature at this years event will be a special gathering of Vtec powered classic Mini Coopers. These cars have the body and looks of a classic Mini but all have had their stock engines replaced by Honda Vtec engines. While engine transplant have been a staple of the hot rod world for many years, it is only in the last couple that it has been so popular among Mini owners. The availability of conversion kits as supplied by Mini Mania has made the whole process much easier.
Can a Vtec powered Mini out-class the new BMW MINI Cooper?

Highlights of the event will be the popular vote Car Show, a Swap Meet, a local Gold Country tour and a full open house at Mini Mania.

Classic Mini Cooper race cars

The Mini Cooper was designed and built as a car for everyone to drive, everyday, everyplace. Little did the builders realize that it would include driving it to many race tracts and using it on them! The first models were built in 1959 and raced the same year. If statistics were available it would surely show that no other mass produced car had some many of them raced over their history. They were raced when they were new, raced when they were period and are now raced as ‘Vintage’. The Mini was featured at Laguna Seca Monterey Historics in 2006.

Installing a rear subframe in a Classic Mini

Question: Has anyone bought and installed an MS45D aftermarket rear frame? I’m needing to replace the rear frame on Mrs. Mad Dog’s Mayfair and was wondering if the aftermarket unit is a suitable substitute. If anone has installed one of these and have some comments they’d like to share, please let me know.

Answer: I’m not sure if it was this rear subframe or another that I installed, but ANY rear subframe will have it’s trials and tribulations and generally not because of the subframe itself but because of the rust in the parts you are trying to remove and/or reuse. The trunion bushings allow for a bit of manufactured misalignment, so shaving some here and there will allow you to compensate for gross errors. The errors in tracking or toe, which you would have in probably any Mini Cooper subframe you use, can be corrected with shims and files (if you’re patient and have a lot of time on your hands) or with the adjustable rear brackets (which could speed up the process some or even actually add more time because of filing/grinding you’ll have to do to get them to fit with your existing parts).

I advise you to be prepared with helicoils for the heelboard mounts, completely new hardware, a complete section or splice of hard brake line and possibly fuel line as well, new flexi lines (while you’re in there) and that short section of hard line that mates up to the rear slaves, new rear brake cylinders (again, since you’re in there), new trunion bushings, and possibly new rear pins. Also jack up and inspect the swingarms for play because if there’s play you may as well take care of it all at once.

If everything went perfectly, it would just be under a couple of hours; chances are it will be the better part of an afternoon or weekend, though.

Thanks: Mike Spangler

Mini Pick-up on the way to a Vtec Conversion

The Mini pick-up that has been in the family for the last 20 or so years is now finally at the body shop for the first step on the road to being converted into a Vtec powered monster. I gave this pick-up many years ago to my first daughter to learn how to drive in (and get her first speeding ticket). She drove it a number of years until it was not big enough for a family, then it was handed off to my son who drove it as a daily commute car for many years. Finally it landed back in one of my garages where it has set for the last almost 10 years! It will not be rebuilt as a personal toy for use only (maybe).

Can I use your waxoyl kit to to the underside of my Mini?

Question:
Can I use your waxoyl kit to to the underside of my Mini Cooper? I want to do the whole underside and the complete inside floor, any idea of how much I would need?

Answer:
The kit, part number WAXOYL is available from Mini Mania and it should contain more than enough to do what you want.  I suggest you do the underside first and then see how it looks and feels. You may not want to cover the inside floor.

A good place for the Waxoyl is inside the sills. This may require drilling an access hole.

How to Identify Your Mini?

When is a Mini, is a Mini, is a Mini? Most current or potential Mini owners have no idea how to tell what kind of Mini they have. In fact, in many cases they don’t even know there are really so many different Minis.

The first Minis were released to the public in 1959, and while the same basic car was produced for 41+ years, the differences from start to finish were very dramatic. The first Mini was the ultimate in an economical everyday, entry level car. By the end of production it had been transformed into an almost modern car with fuel injection, catalytic converter and air bag. Needless to say, all Minis were not created equal, and in fact, have tremendous variation in performance and desirability.

The Mini was only sold in the USA from 1960 thru 1967! The very first cars were powered by 848cc BMC A-series engines. The same basic engine configuration found its way into many of the entry level British cars of the day. Everything from Morris Minors to Bugeye Sprites all had this basic engine design. So you ask, why all the confusion as to what Mini you might own or consider buying?

As a first consideration, let’s simply address those variations as imported and sold by the factory. The most distinguishing feature of all models from 1959 through 1967 was the use of sliding window doors. These windows slid fore and aft in the doors that also featured external, visible door hinges. The very first cars were simply called Minis and all were supplied with the bullet proof (but slow) 848cc engine. The first of the models to be identified as Mini Coopers were introduced in 1961 and were powered by a 997cc engine. The Cooper designation was continued as the engine evolved to a much different and better 998cc one. The first of the Mini Cooper S models was introduced in 1963 with a tremendously upgraded 1071cc engine (the choice of displacement was driven by race class considerations as was that of the very rare 970cc S engine). The most common and sought after model of the Mini Cooper S was introduced in 1964 with a 1275cc displacement. This is the same displacement as used on the car when production finally ceased in the year 2000. The final year of factory sales in the USA saw the introduction of the Mk II version of the range that featured, among other smaller cosmetic changes, larger tail lights. The only other significant variation is that the first of the Minis all had drum brakes at four corners, but starting with of the Mini Cooper, the Cooper and Cooper S had disk brakes at the front. All models used 10” diameter wheels of various widths. You could easily argue that if that were all we had to consider when owning or buying a Mini today, it would be too easy. But the current appetite for a Classic Mini in the USA has pushed the market way beyond those cars imported by the factory. At this date in time it is easy to admit that more Minis have been imported into the USA by private parties and private dealers than were ever imported by the factory. And the problem is knowing what the Mini really is. The factory produced over 5,000,000 during it 41+ year production run. Less than 15,000 of these were imported by the factory into the USA. So what really is the Mini that has been imported by the aftermarket?

The problems start from 1968 on when the factory no longer attempted to have the Mini of any configuration conform to current emission or safety standards. Now, Federal law allows models at least 25 years old to be imported into the USA without concerns for these standards. Thus, the next pool of “legal to import” Minis are those produced from 1968 through 1981. These models start with the Mk II found with 848, 998 and 1275cc engines. By late 1969, the models known as the Mk III now featured roll-up windows and internal door hinges. By1973, the electrical system was upgraded to include the use of an alternator to replace the generator. And the use of a “rod change” transmission to replace the “remote” and “magic wand” transmission began.

In 1976, the range was further upgraded to the Mk IV. The most significant change was not very visible as it was an attempt to isolate the car from road noise and involved using rubber mounts for the front subframe. In 1980, the most obvious change was the introduction of the “Verto” clutch system. Again, not an outwardly obvious change but significant none the less. The year 1984 saw the introduction of the Mk V Mini models that are most notable for the standardization of the use of 12” wheels and bigger disc brakes. The various changes after the Mk V seem to come fast and furious. The Mk VI is generally around 1991 with a number of variations. The 998cc engine was discontinued in 1992. The introduction of a ‘single point fuel injection’ system to replace the single 1¾” SU carb took place in the same era and it continued through 1996. For the final years of production the most significant changes included the use of a ‘multi-point fuel injection’ system along with many modern features: such as, alarm systems and catalytic converters.

So what year is the Mini in question? These were also hundreds of other changes and more subtle ways to determine the year and model of the Mini. For an extensive detailed review and interactive pictorial visit the Website www.Minimania.com/MiniID