u/chanrahan1

I just bought a Mini (1980 998cc) last month, and I'm off to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka next week.

I'm hoping to pick up some JDM items from both, the type of thing that you can't get on this side of the world, that represents the unique look and feel of Mini tuning and culture there.

We're staying a few kilometers from Mini Maruyama in Tokyo, and King's Road isn't too far from our place in Osaka.

Aside from a set of RS Watanabes (which I'll struggle to get in the cases! ) is there anything else for the car that I should be on the look out for?

Pic for reference, and just to look at...

Tried a slightly more eclectic mix for the weekly races this week.

A selection of shots from a recent museum visit to Sinsheim!

More vibe code tools that I wish I knew how to build myself!

Following on from the SVG splitter last week, I wanted a tool that would let me combine the left hand side of one photo with the right hand side of another. That lets me shoot 3 cars, then swap some, and then merge the photos.

There are probably a few other tools that do this already, I just want a quick clean way to do it myself.

https://cianhan.github.io/svgsplit/combine.html

This is an example of rediscovering a car you'd forgotten for ages, then diving in with both feet.

I wanted to build a grid of 400pp classics after watching some Historic Touring car action. When the Alfa popped up in the UCD I picked one up, to see if I could make it competitive. I've already got a bunch of Gordinis and Minis to compare them to so it'll be interesting to see whoch approach works best.

As they're pretty close to 400pp already there's not a lot of headroom to work with. I like a light car, so I've applied Stage 3 weight mods.

Tyres (CM), Suspension/transmission are stock, or Sport. I noticed that upgrading to Height Adjustable will reduce the PP limit, I'm assuming it makes the car too stiff and less easy to rotate?

Similarly I've installed the LSD to get some more PP, but even running it fairly open (10/20/15) I'm not convinced it's helping. The biggest issue I've found so far with the car is trying to get it to rotate without understeering. The tyres haven't got much grip, so gradual trail braking combined with gentle turn in seems to work best. Lifting off on corner entry can help shift weight onto the nose, but getting back on the throttle pushes the nose wide. I'll reduce the diff setting more to see if that helps. Usually on a small RWD car I'd be able to turn in rather assertively, then balance the car on the throttle out of the corner. With the Giulia I'm finding I need brake earlier and get on the gas more gently, which is still slow. I'm going to try playing with toe and camber next to see if I can make it a bit more darty.

Power gains are limited to about 140bhp or less. I've tries a few different paths to get to 400pp. I built one to rev out to 8500, which sounds great, but really isn't any faster, and the car in the pic above has just had the long stroke upgrade, along with induction upgrades for better power through the rev range. In my experience, tuning for torque is better than peak HP figures.

So far I've managed a 1:13 around Tsukuba which puts it mid pack.