A few minor updates here. Due to shipping and other constraints, tomorrow I’ll be working with some guys from the St. Louis MINI Club to install the front and rear sway bars alone, without the springs and dampers. Then on Thursday of this week, I’ll install the springs and dampers, and Friday off for an alignment. Saturday’s the first event, so I’m really down to the wire now. After that’s done, everything will be set.

One last thing: I’ve been driving the MINI without the rear headrests purely due to lack of rearward visibility. I wrote a letter to the SEB to see if removal of the rear headrests falls under 13.2.A, which basically states that any comfort/convenience modification is legal provided there are no performance/handling improvements, or a “material” change in weight. I believe the rear passenger headrests are ~2 lbs each, and according to the SEB this is not legal. In other words, I needed to either start bringing the headrests with me just for autox events or think of something else.

What I found was that there is a plastic ring on the rear passenger headrests that prevents me from pushing the headrests all the way down. I removed these rings and was able to get the headrests down far enough that I’m comfortable with. Anyway, only the big stuff left! Fingers crossed!

Before:

After: