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SilverBeast Gets GP Under Tray Fitted

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A long while back we installed the GP rear diffuser on SilverBeast. This improves the aerodynamics under the car and gives a more appealing look to the rear of the car either side of the exhaust.

It is because of this visual improvement, giving the car a beefier, sportier and more purposeful look, that this modification has been so popular.

However, without the engine under tray from the GP2  also being fitted then this modification in truth is purely aesthetic and gives no aerodynamic benefit at all. However, match it to the engine undertray and you have the same aerodynamic set up under the car as the GP 2 and this does make a difference.

Above is what SiverBeast looked like before the engine under tray was added and below is how it looks with it installed.

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Yep no difference can be seen at all unless you crawl under the engine bay. This is why there has been a much lower take up on having the under tray fitted, compared to take up of the rear diffuser as a modification.

In terms of aerodynamic handling I doubt I drive the car hard enough to notice much difference. That is the honest answer but having spotted other signifcant differences, I don’t doubt that is does work in making improvements in the handling.

Two things we have noticed. First, the noise. This car not quiet and a lot of the noise comes from road noise under the car. The car is a lot noisier than an R56. You had to either talk or listen to the radio but not both. Now, with the undertray fitted, you can have the radio on and still be able to talk. Now we can hear the engine more which is a much better noise than the road noise that dominated before. Also we can pick up the windscreen windnoise which again was drowned out by the road noise from below. For these benefits alone we feel the under tray has been a worthwhile benefit.

Secondly, we have a better fuel consumption. We are now getting an extra 2 to 3 miles per gallon on what we got before. I kid you not here.

So there you have it the GP2 under tray. It works!


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Car Events 2015 – St Fagans Welsh Museum

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A young MINI enthusiast – Aaron – organised a MINI meet at St Fagans National History Museum, commonly referred to as St Fagans after the village where it is located. It is an open-air museum in Cardiff chronicling the historical lifestyle, culture, and architecture of the Welsh people. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. The day out was organised via The Welsh MINI Group, an online Facebook group of MINI enthusiasts and it took place on Sunday the 11th October.

We left Malvern at 8.30 am in order to be at Cardiff West Services at Junction 33 of the M4 for 10.00am, where we were meeting the rest of the gang. We took two cars, Our MINI GP – ThunderBeast – and our JCW Coupe – SilverBeast – and had some fun on the drive down to Cardiff! From the services we all convoyed the short drive to the Museum. However, first there was the ritual of standing around in a carpark for an hour while we all admired the MINIs. Once at St Fagans we parked in a grassy overspill car park where we were all able to park together and get some good photos of all the MINIs. Inevitably then another hour was spent hanging around the MINIs as we repeated the exercise of admiring the cars and making new MINI friends. All good fun and an essential part of a MINI meet. Aaron just loves MINIs and I confess his enthusiasm certainly rubs off on me.

We then wandered around the open air museum where you can glimpse Welsh life through the ages. It makes for an interesting day out and below I have posted a few pictures from around the Museum. I shared a chicken and leek baked potato with Peanut for lunch and then ambled around some more after lunch with our old pals Debbie and Aston and Aston’s son Jenson. Great company and we always enjoy catching up with them.

Two thirty saw us back in the car park while a raffle was drawn for some MINI goods and then a few of us went to the OysterCatcher in Penarth for tea. Unfortunately they could not accommodate us so after some thought me and Peanut decided it was home time, said our goodbyes and drove the hour and a half back to Malvern. This time I was in SilverBeast and Chrissie was chasing in ThunderBeast, as with the morning drive down to Cardiff, this was a lot of fun! The conclusions from us both were unanimous. SilverBeast is faster, ThunderBeast handles better. SilverBeast is more refined, ThunderBeast is more fun.

All in all it was a lovely day out and it was exciting taking ThunderBeast on his first MINI meet. It was fun seeing all the other MINIs too, 2, GP1s, 2 GP2s about 5 F56s, 3 Roadsters and two Coupes plus many more MINIs.It was also good to meet old friends again as well as make a few new ones!


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ThunderBeast Gets His Decals

  
A massive thank you to Pete Morgan from the GP UK Owners forum for going the extra mile to make the decals for our Gen 1 GP.

  
Before you ask BP stands for our names in the MINI community, Beastmaster and Peanut. 500 is because all our cars have 500 in their number plate. 5 is because we have 5 cars in the “500 Club” although one we have given to The Elf – Peanut’s daughter.

  
  
Finally we have MINI cooper laurels because all our MINIs wear these on their A – Panel.

Next stop is the “500”number plate!