From the Archives
Posted in My MINI — by db on 02/07/07

Here is a nugget from New Years Day, 2003. Thought you might enjoy it.

I decided against any parting last night, so I was able to wake up this morning, bright and early, and take Roxy for a real ‘drive’ over the Ortega Hwy. For those of you unfamiliar with the Ortega Hwy, it is a major west-east route that connects southeastern riverside county with orange county, california. From Lake Elsinore to San Juan Capistrano it is roughly 26 miles, but the best parts are the 15 miles from Lake Elsinore to the ranger station. And, it went a little something like this… I started off up the mountain, hitting 4K RPM and shifting…1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th….speedo at 70mph, clear road ahead of me, clear skies above. we hit the first turn, and it was excellent! not a waver, tires didn’t even squeal. tossed her into the next turn and powered out. back and forth through the twisties…the engine humming along, and nice growl from the exhaust. never left 4th gear, except on the few straights where I went into 5th, careful not to exceed the 4500 RPM break in limit. Taking the 30MPH turns at 70 without breaking a sweat! coast in, power out, she sticks. even through some of the more challenging parts, very narrow, lots of changes, Roxy didn’t even waiver. she was just singing happily along. We got the ranger station on the Orange County side and turned around. Drove up a bit more to a wide turnout and I pulled over. Climbed out to admire the view this morning, which was unusually quiet and very peaceful. Roxy looked awesome framed by the mountains, her green matching nicely with the surroundings. After about 5 minutes, I just back in and repeated, but going west to east. This time was EVEN better. the turns got faster, and she loved it! the next 15 miles were truly awesome, driving a road that I’ve driven for almost 10 years at speeds that would send other cars off of the edge. Even got some waves from the crotch rocket set. Just wanted to share! Happy New Year everyone!!! :D 8) :D 8)

Maybe I’ll get to do this again fairly soon?

1 comment

Tires
Posted in My MINI — by db on 02/03/07

Ok, so the Kumhos (Ecsta ASXs) have been on for a week and I’ve been able to do all kinds of driving. Here are my thoughts so far.

  • Wet traction is awesome! I drove Topanga Canyon in a pretty good rain and didn’t even break a sweat
  • Dry traction is very good. I was able to get in some time on my road that was fairly spirited to get the tires nice and warm. They did get just a little squirly but I think that’s because they had less than 500 miles on them. Not sure I’d use these at the track or for AutoX, but it would be a worthy experiment.
  • They are quiet. Road noise is almost non-existent.
  • They track well. Even on the freeways with huge grooves, they resist tramlining. There is some, but only on the extreme grooves
  • Ride quality is good. I would say the ride quality, while not as good as the Pirellis, is better than run-flats. On a scale 1-10, I’d rate the ride a 8.
  • They look great.

If you are looking for a good set of all-season tires and don’t want to break the bank, I would highly recommend a set of the Kumho Ecsta ASXs. I don’t think TireRack is carrying them anymore, but you can get them at Discount/Americas tire for a song!

Oh yea, I might have ordered an R56. Actually, I did, but you need to wait a few days to hear about that. Speak not of this in the comments as I wish not to jinx the process. All y’all should know how much I hate banks (read back to ’02 and the early ’03 posts to find out), and that process starts Monday.

But, if you wanted to cross your fingers or something, that would be ok ;)

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