My car

[Lowe]

/me points at Showroom Sticky thread

[Zak33]

me agrees with Lowe...but even more so with Moby.

Right....lets talk Mini's

I like that colour, very nice. I love the condition....very very nice. Spooted the tyres straight away too!

And I like Min's when they're normal horsepower, always feel quicker than they should, so with anything over 50 it's gonna rip along

Best news is the ECU though. Mini's are a sod for water ingress into the distributor (from now on called dizzy's).

/story mode

I piled a Mini through a shallow puddle once, and that was it.....coasted to a halt! It was a part exchange which I was supposed to be valuing and appraising, while the customer was in the showroom looking at new cars, but which I was laughing my arse off in, round the back roads of Hayes, in sunny Middlesex.

But there I was....stopped. No power.

I popped the bonnet, scratched my head...and an old woman, about 70, with her green and black plaid shopping trolley stopped walked past , stopped, and said "my Burt thinks Sir Alex needed his bumps feeling puting the dizzy on the front like that"

And she handed me a rolled up tissue from the pocket of her long tweed coat, and off she walked.

I thought maybe she thought I was gonna cry..... but one word...always trust the old for their wisdom.

She was gone.

5 minutes later a mechanic from my dealership drove past on a PDI test drive, stopped, parked, got out...laughed at me...popped off the dizzy cap and said "Don't suppose you've got a tissue have you?"

If you want a sight of gob smacked amzement....that's it. On my face..all those years ago.

I did have a tissue!!!!

I gave him the old dears tissue and he dried the inside of the cap and rotor arm, stretching to reach it down the awkward front, and 3 minutes later I was off again.

So....ignition pack idea seems good to me

[menthel]

Nice story Zak! I always found old minis scary as they are so small, but I bet its a hell of a lot more fun than my wifes new cooper (I hate it!). Probably a tenth of the cost to maintain as well! That brown is almost exactly the shade that my dads old Lada Riva estate.

[Zak33]

ohh...Riva's....dont get me started on them!

Hold on...somehwere I have a picture of me navigating in deep wales in a Riva

[5lab]

60bhp in a 750kg car is *not* like 120bhp in a 1500kg car. ya see, they'd have the same power to weight ratio but speed to 60 is much more due to weight. an easy example is to compare a vx220 to a big fat merc. vx220 weighs ~1 tonne, has 200bhp, gets to 60 in ~5. merc weighs twice that, but has 3 times the power, yet still takes over 5 secs to 60. if you want accelleration, weight is where to start, not power.

additionally, that mini would loose a mondeo in a second on a b road.

[Zak33]

Riva power

[Zak33]

/reminiscense over

Back on track

MINI...love those arches too look nice in black

[5lab]

whats the smallest engine you can get in one of them (rivas)?

[Zak33]

1200...why?

[Fox]

an easy example is to compare a vx220 to a big fat merc. vx220 weighs ~1 tonne, has 200bhp, gets to 60 in ~5. merc weighs twice that, but has 3 times the power, yet still takes over 5 secs to 60. if you want accelleration, weight is where to start, not power.

Errr show me a 600bhp Merc that does 0-60 slower than a VX220.

FWIW the uber huge barge tank that is the S65 AMG weighs over 2 tonnes but does 0-60 in 4.3 seconds, and thats with an automatic box! Even the normal 500bhp S55 is 4.6 seconds.

IMHO Power to weight = almost everything..

[Moby-Dick]

actually doesn't the inverse square law apply ?
if you double the weight , you need to have 4 times the power ?

[steve threlfall]

I dont think 5lab was talking about a 600brake AMG tuned beast... just a regular big fat merc

[behappier]

actually doesn't the inverse square law apply ?
if you double the weight , you need to have 4 times the power ?

No that applies for speed. If you want to double the speed, quadruple the power. Power to weight ratio is a direct relationship.

Very nice car BTW, love the color - very understated in a Q-Car sort of way. Would love a nice mini...

[Tumble]

Is that the car you fixed the differential on with a banana Zak?

[Moby-Dick]

No that applies for speed. If you want to double the speed, quadruple the power. Power to weight ratio is a direct relationship.

Very nice car BTW, love the color - very understated in a Q-Car sort of way. Would love a nice mini...

I sit corrected

[5lab]

1200...why?

need a 1l 4wd for a banger rally (theres a suzuki taht i could use, but was wondering about the ladas)..

weight has near nafall to do with top speed - its all about aerodynamics and power.