Last week I found out that there was a chance to see a Shelby Super Cars (SSC) Ultimate Aero.  Not one to pass these things up, we rearranged our schedule a bit and went down to a building in the south end of Seattle owned by North West Auto Salon where the car was supposed to be.  As we turned onto the street, I spotted a group of people standing around a non-descript looking building, but I knew we were in the right place.  Parked outside were a Lambo Gallardo Spyder, a Rolls Phantom, a Maserati Coupe, and a couple Porsche & BMWs.  When we walked in, the Aero was an overwhelming presence in the room.  And given that it was parked between a Lambo Murcielago LP670-4 SV and a Lambo Gallardo LP550, that’s saying something (ok, it helped that it was a gorgeous metallic orange). 

It has a few impressive stats:  It’s the fastest production car in the world, recording a top speed of 257mph – yes, faster than the Bugatti Veyron.  At 2750 lbs, and with an 8 cylinder twin turbo with 1287hp, it can do 0-60mph in 2.78 seconds.  You can go checkout the rest of the stats here.  For reference, it’s somewhere around $650,000, which makes it less than half the price of a Veyron too.  It was in Seattle on its way to the port where it was being shipped out to the Dubai Motor Show.  It was very cool SSC to put it on display for a few hours so we could check it out.  Fascinatingly, one of the people we talked to about the car turns out to be the same person interviewed by Jay Leno here:  Jarrod Shelby, the founder of the company.  What a cool experience.  And what an outstanding car…

Earlier in the week as I planned for the install, I had read about a modification to increase airflow through the stock hood scoop opening.  It’s actually something Alta recommend as well with their CAI.  It’s a nice budget mod that cost under $10 in parts.  I replaced the stock hood scoop opening with a piece of gutter mesh from my local home-improvement-mega-store, cut and shaped to the opening  then spray painted black.  The stock scoop grill has only about 50% of the holes open.  My new grill is much more free-flowing and was a cinch to install.  Here is the before/after:

   

Click here to download:

Alta_CAI_upgrade.zip (28 KB)

Then was the harder bit:  pull out the stock airbox and turbo inlet hose and put in the Alta parts.  Install took a bit of time as I was being very careful not to screw up my first mod.  Alta’s instructions were generally good, and after about 1.5 hours of careful work the new parts are in.  Naturally, this being Seattle, it started to rain just as I was finishing up, so I can’t comment on any performance difference yet.  What I can say is that the noise of the new intake system is awesome.  Before the mod, the blow-off valve made a petite whistling noise when letting off the gas after accelerating. It was a high-pitch whistle that went from the high-pitch of the turbo under load, to a lower note.  That noise is more like a muscular exhale now.  More mechanical sounding, and fantastic.  Here are the before/after pictures of the install. 

I dropped the car off to have the chips repaired this past Monday morning at about 8:30am, and got a nice Red Cooper S loaner (automatic, but still nicely equipped).  The service  advisor told me it might be the next day, which surprised me since the chips were so small, but I agreed that in the interest of getting a flawless repair, they could have my car overnight.  At 3pm on Tuesday, after nearly 2 full days,  I went to pick up my car.  Let’s say that I was shocked at what I saw when I got there.  The photos attached tell the whole story (click for the full size images to see the exent of the scratches). 

       

Click here to download:

MINI_Seattle_Returned_My_Car_L.zip (2008 KB)

My car only has 1300 miles on it.  I’ve only washed it about 3 times since it seems to never stop raining here.  As you can see in the photos, the entire passenger side of the hood, and the passenger side A pillar were covered in swirl marks.  It looked like someone took a shop rag, dropped it on the garage floor, and then wiped my car off with it.  Shocking. 

MINI Seattle told me they were sending my car to a paint specialist to do the repair.  I don’t know who did the work but I am baffled how my car ever left their facility in this condition.  Why on earth did they need to wipe the A pillar for a touch up below the front headlight?  Why the entire passenger side of the hood?  Why did MINI Seattle accept this work?  Why did they return the car to me in this condition? 

To their credit, Kyle (the service manager) offered to fix this mess for me.  Since they’d already had my car for 2 days, and this was the shape it was in, I was in no position to give them permission to have anyone else touch my car.  Thus, I spent 4 hours today washing, prepping, polishing, and waxing to bring the paintwork back to about 95% of new condition.  I should have used a slightly more aggressive polish on some of the deeper swirl marks, but didn’t have any on hand.  For now, this will do till spring when I can do another thorough detailing.

I have to say that my first experience with MINI Seattle’s service department has left a pretty bad taste in my mouth…

I’m told I’m good at “Spatial Awareness”.  I can pretty much pack anything.  It’s why, when looking at a MINI, I was immediately sure drums would fit.  Here’s proof.  Needed to swap to “softs”, but soft case technology has really come a long way since I ever considered them.  Now fully “soft”, this shot shows the regular jazz kit, all hardware, etc. in the MINI ready for today’s rehearsal.  And yes, a passenger would still fit.  Probably even room for a second snare drum.  Bring on the gigs!