The R56 Harness Bar is In!

Phil & Jeff @ Burkebuilt have sorted a great solution for our R56!  Our approach is similar yet simplified over the Brey Krause solution for the 1st Gen MINI.  We've added an additional rearward mounting point.  This bar is seriously solid.

Our bar will unbolt easily enough for quick removal after the track day.  

Here are some of the key features:

• Bolt-in - no mods neccesary
• Loads into 5 solid locations onto the chassis
• Takes wrap around style shoulder belts with guides
• Fire extinguisher mounting plate
• Almost full seat travel (less 1")
• Rear seat bottom can be installed
• Works with stock seat
• DOM tubing

More info to come as we continue to finalize this complete kit.  Contact us if you are interested.

We are fitting the same harness that we've developed for the Lotus Elise/Exige: Schroth Profi II with ASM.  This HANs compliant harness can safely be run as a 4pt solution allowing you to use your stock seats.  This can be upgraded to 5 or 6pt if you choose to run a race seat.

  

Harness Bar Fitment

We attempted to fit the BreyKrause harness bar into our R56 and have found the following issues:

• Seat travel is reduced significantly for taller drivers
• New brackets are required to bolt the bar into 2nd Gen MINIs

This picture shows Jeff in our car.  He has a 34" inseam and can not get enough leg room - we

 placed a rubber pad between the seat and the bar (see the circled area).  MINI has done a great job in creating a ton of seat travel with our car but it runs into the harness bar.  With an average sized driver (see Phil below) there is enough room.  

The BK bar attaches to the rear belt mounting points via rear seat brackets and to the front with additional supports and brackets.  We've discovered that almost all of these will need to be redesigned to fit the R55/56.  They are very close but not close enough for us.  

Though it is an excellent bar, the BreyKrause bar was designed for the 1st gen MINI.   We had hoped to get it to fit but we did not succeed.  With our partners, BurkeBilt, we will now design one that will work.  Luckily we have a bit of experience as we were the first to develop a harness bar to the Lotus Elise in the US.  

Mini Harness Bar Under Development!

The Brey Krause harness bar arrived today. Its an very well engineered and fabricated part. We know the bar isn't designed for the second generation MINI's, but we are going to create one that will. Stay tuned!

NM Tie Bar & Enkei Wheel Install

Our MINI was spoiled this Valentine's day. When I arrived to the shop on Saturday morning, I was eager to get the new Enkei's mounted and install the NM-ENG billet aluminum tie-bar.


Everything is pretty straight forward when it came to installing the wheels. As long as you have all the necessary tools you shouldn't have any problems. We all agree that the car looks a lot better with the new wheels on. The Enkei RPF1 wheels are hub centric, light weight and fit perfectly. There's no guess work in lining them up on the hub.


NM-Engineering's billet aluminum tie-bar was next to go on our Cooper S. This billet aluminum tie-bar, often referred to as a strut bar, mounts easily to the top of the two front strut towers, located in the engine bay. There is no interference with the stock intake, hood or NM's high-flow induction kit. The quality and attention to detail in this strut bar is really amazing. Everything has been well thought out, including: install instructions, mounting pads and each nut and bolt. All the hardware fits flush and torque specs are provided.



An example of NM-Eng's attention to detail is the machined pockets on the mounting pads that accommodate the upper strut bearing locator pin. The less-esthetically-pleasing solution to this is drilling a hole straight through the the mounting pad. NM-Eng's method is much cleaner and better looking.





Another great detail NM includes is the two bolts connecting the rod to the mounting pad. This design prevents any pivoting that would occur if only one bolt connected the rod to the mounting pad. This, along with the billet construction, makes for a super-rigid system.

We chose the black bar to contrast well with our blue NM-ENG high-flow induction kit. We especially like the blue adjustment/locking nut that matches our induction pipe, springs, and sway bar. The nut allows you to adjust the length of the bar to fit your MINI perfectly.

After everything was buttoned up and torqued down, I took it out for a test drive. You could definitely feel the difference in acceleration, stopping and turning. The car, with the new wheels/tires and tie-bar, feels like a totally different MINI. It's much lighter and tighter.

Enkei Wheels + NM Billet Tie Bar

Our MINI got an earlier valentines gift today - new wheels and strut bar. We had the Toyo's mounted and balanced and will bolt up everything tomorrow.

New Tires & Wheels for the MINI

We've ordered a new set of shoes for our MINI. Now that we've upgraded the suspension (review coming soon), the tires have become the weak link. We looked at the market options and opted for a light weight wheel and some high performance tires. We've chosen the Enkei RPF1 as they are very light and affordable. I decided to get the TPMS bits as well so we can keep the ecu happy. Here are the specs:

17x7
$229 (each)
Offset: 43mmBackspacing: 5.62"Bolt Pattern: 4-100Rec. Tire Size: 205/45-17Weight: 14.6lbs.


We're sticklers on proper fitment and lightweight. Saving unsprung weight is a mantra in our company. I thought long and hard about sticking with a 16" wheel but ultimately decided to go Plus 1 for potential BBK clearance. I ran 16" wheels on my R53 MINI and was very happy with how it sucked up the road/canyon irregularities. This time, bigger brakes are something I needed to consider when choosing a wheel. Our Plus 1 solution will fit well and should deliver some great canyon carving along with occasional track use.

We chose the Toyo T1R tire in a 205/45 ZR17. We ran these on our Sky and feel they are a great tire for all season (CA) performance. I considered fitting the R888s we run on our Exige and Atom, but opted to run tires that should deliver more life. They would have been a blast though clearance is an issue I need to investigate further as they are wider...maybe sometime in the near future?!

Springs and Torque Arm

The NM Engineering front and rear springs are all installed now. Everything fit like a glove! The car's still up on the lift right now, so we don't know how low it will actually sit with the new setup. It should sit about an inch lower, though. The blue springs, sway bar, and induction kit look really good installed too.

The engine torque arm was installed also. That installation was extremely quick and straight forward. Now, we'll take the car off the lift and see how she does in round 2 on the dyno. We'll post the before and after dyno graphs here shortly.

NM Rear Sway Bar!

Slowly but surely its coming together. We were able to get a little dirty along with Arturo from Paladin Motorsports as we installed the new sway bar. Every thing lines up perfectly. The detailed color instructions made it much easier. Can't wait to put it to the test.

Intake

The Paladin Motorsport guys are helping our Cooper S breath better. The NM-Engineering High-Flow Induction Kit is going on smoothly. We'll post the results of the dyno run before and after the installation to see how much the induction kit improves the engine breathing.

Have "Car"- Will Travel

If you don't get the 1960's TV reference, Abel and I are at Paladin Motorsports in Corona, CA. We have our MINI Cooper S here to have dynoed and to install our NM Engineering parts on it.

The Paladin guys just strapped her in the Dynojet. They did some test runs and are now preparing for some real ones. We'll post the results here soon!