Although I have owned my 91 for three years, by habit I hold my gas cap when fueling (I lost one years ago). Killing time while filling up today I tried to use the cap holder on the door and for the life of me, I couldn't make it work. I'm reasonably intelligent (Ph.D. from Penn State) and reasonably mechanical (just finished building a D-Prepared Mini Cooper S autocross car) but I had to look in the manual to see how the damn holder worked- how embarrassing! Please tell me I'm not the only one who has had trouble here- my self esteem needs help.
Gas Cap Holder
- Thread starter Sven
- Start date
Sorry, but I had no problem with it. What did they teach you at Penn-State? Just kidding. Would love some details on your Mini Cooper -S!!!
I'm running the rarest of all Minis, a 1962 Mini Cooper S 1071 cc. It has all the legal go-fasts including big valves, race cam, 11-1 compression, DCOE 45 Webber, crank-fired ignition, big Hoosier slicks, limited slip and a special straight-cut drop gear giving a 5.1 final drive. The rev limiter is set at 9200 rpm (no VTEC here!). At 1200 lbs., the car is very agile. My driving skills are the biggest problem at this point.
very, very nice! Have you driven a new cooper yet?
With the gas door open and you facing the open side of it, place the cap in with the topside away from the gas door and slide it down and to the left into the resting place.
Regarding the new Cooper, a couple of months ago over 50 race Minis and a new Cooper competed at Leguna Seca in a special event. The new MINI had suspension and tire upgrades but a stock motor. It placed 8th, which is not bad considering that only the all-out race machines were faster. Handling is the new car's strong point and the more powerful Cooper S package should make it very attractive driver. As for me, I've owned 7 early Minis and am biased toward the originals.
Regarding the gas cap holder, I now have it down pat-thanks.
Regarding the gas cap holder, I now have it down pat-thanks.
Is that 1200 lbs, not a typo? That's just amazing! What does a used Mini go for (or are they really hard to find)? Wow!
Minis have gone up in price in recent years. The asking price for a concours-level Mini Cooper S can be 25K. The Mini Owners of America (MOA) is a very active group and there are lots of chapter web sites. As far as weight goes, a street Mini usually runs about 1500 lbs. My autocross car is completely stripped to make the minimum weight allowed for a 1071 cc engine. By replacing the subframes and going with lighter body sections, 1000 lbs. is achievable. Race Minis are about as close to go-karts as you can get. My last "street" Mini weighed 1100 lbs and had a big-bore 1430 cc engine with NOS. It would run with almost anything on the street up to say 70 mph- great fun messing with Vettes and Porsches.
Sven, I didn't realize there was a gas cap holder at first, and then one day filling up, I noticed the label. I looked and thought, how does this work. I put the gas cap there and it stayed. I thought, how ingenius of a design. No moving parts to break, simpleness in design using gravity as your friend. Maybe Homer Simpsons rule applies, I only have an MSEE. Homer says, new info in, old info out. Must be those 2+ additional years for the PhD hurt you ;-P.
Fritz
Fritz
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