Hampton Roads Club Mini

this saturday was a sad day as i sold my 2008 cobalt to pay off my 03' cooper. i sold the car to prepare myself for purchasing a new ride. of course it would be a mini. but it was sad for me, i spent alot of time tuning and spending gobs of money on a car that only netted me 4500 saturday. i spent sunday wondering if i made a huge mistake. but monday i was excited as i rode up to fredricksburg to look at my first prospective new car. it is a laser blue 07MCS loaded. i knew instantly i found my next car, and scratched numbers 2, 3, and 4 off my list. i bought my 07 for 13995 and now i paitently run out the timeclock so i can clock out at 730 tues. morning and go pick up my new car. pictures will be posted soon and also a thread for ideas on what to name the car. cant wait. and yes that means we are now a 2 mini family, my fiance drives the 03 justa coop. and i will be driving the new blue 07 MCS. i finally have something to come autocross in.

Second on the congrats!

dont forget VMSC has one this Sunday the 27th

Brake mods are always good, Prokit from Eibach is a god choice.

Skip the front sway bar that will only make the car push in the corners. The rear bar is all you need to change.

I'd guess probably 50% of the cars that have coilovers don't NEED them. There are a lot of fast street cars, track cars and autocross cars that don't have or need coilovers. They are good for tuning. If you need to corner weigh you car, that's the only way to go. I think the Eibach Pro Kit or the like would be fine. Also, look at the NM engineering and the H&R springs. Though the H&R's on Tyler's MINI does have it sitting quite low. Another option that people seem to be happy with are Mach V (five) motorsports springs. They're up on northern VA. You can find them at www.fastmini.net.

Worse case, call Way at Way Motorworks in Atlanta. He's good for some advice and he sells them.

help!
new 07mcs is back in fredricksburg with a horrible knocking noise. autohaus swears its a timing chain and the dealers tech swears its the clutch because apparently the noise goes away when you push the clutch in, or so he claims, and he says thats normal and theres a tech service bulletin out on it. but when i drive it i still hear it with the clutch petal to the floor. i dont wanna walk away from the car i like it way to much. but how do i force these guys to fix the damn chain? thier warrenty states that thier tech has to fix the problem so i cant pick my own shop. and its not a quiet knock. its LOUD! and its in the valve train, ive checked it out myself. anyone have any suggestions? i gotta get this solved before the chain goes completely and wipes out the valves and god knows what else. and the jellyty part? i have to pay half of all repairs. god i hate used car dealers.

Where did you end up trading/selling your problematic MINI? 

It would be a bad stroke of luck if he ended up with your old MINI...maybe you guys can share the last 7 VIN numbers to see if it's the same MINI?

I sometimes wonder if it'd be a good idea if we had a special section on the forum where we could list the last 7 VIN numbers and include a detailed description of the good & the bad issues we had with our MINI...especially if things got so bad that we traded-in at a non-MINI dealership and/or sold it at auction or to Carmax, etc.

On the positive side, the VIN numbers would be found via the normal internet search, so if the vehicle gets shipped elsewhere, a prospective buyer would be able to read up on the prior history of the car.  This could include mods, etc.

Such a special section might be viewed as a negative, but if I were buying a MINI for the first time and couldn't afford brand-new, I'd be grateful for all information about a used MINI that I was thinking about buying.

Thoughts?