How cool is this?!

[jolly]

Hi all, bought a copy of 'New Mini' for some light reading on the train today and came across a small article on the 'Palo Uber Conversion Kit' I think it looks the dogs danglies!

Website said:

The Complete PaloUber Conversion kit includes:

Coilover suspension with 3" height adjustment

(4) 18 X 7.5 PaloUber rims. Uber Grey or Winter Black

PaloUber catback dual exhaust system with 4" tips

PaloUber dual exhaust rear valance

PaloUber The Light Bar with wiring harness/faceplate/switches/relays/fuses/fully bound moisture resistant harness with all fittings attached.

Four Hella 500 driving lamps with covers

Burlwood dash (Uber trademark)

Uber 6-speed leather power shift knob

Interior and exterior PaloUber London badging

Black mesh upper grill

Shadow line side grills

(2) Brushed aluminum PaloUber side grill badges

(2) Palo Uber 3" antenna

Exterior rear window PaloUber London badge

A few pics..









ETA - The kit costs around £3k

Edited by jolly on Friday 19th January 23:17

[james f]

[redacted]

[slinky]

get rid of the extra lights on't front and I'll take one in matt black

[tvrbob]

Looks cool but in the end I like a car that drives well. This car will drive like a pig. 18" plus lowered suspension, it'll tramline, bump steer and feel like a bucking bronco on anything rougher than a billiard table. Suspension needs lateral movement between tread and rim, sidewall flexing. Without it the tread will transmit every sideways movement straight to the rim, which in turn will transmit through the rack to the other rim. I've never understood the desire to modify a car so far that it destroys its drivability.

[james f]

agree with bob great for show not for go tis why my cooper is still on 16's as will the S when i get it when i can afford it in a few months

[mo1984]

i've got 17s on my cooper s and it handles fine

[tvrbob]

mo1984 said:

i've got 17s on my cooper s and it handles fine

I'm sure your car does drive well, so does mine but I know it would drive better if it had more lateral flex in the tyre walls.

No offence but the mods I see on your car are cosmetic. Skirts & bumpers, lowered suspension are a purely cosmetic things, they do not improve drivability; often they destroy it. I can see why big rims fits the car you have created and they look great but big rims are for track cars like BTCC and are not something I'd want on roads with potholes or undulating surfaces. I have owned two of these cars, the latest is the new MCS which has 17" flame alloys. To be perfectly honest I wish I had got 16" alloys because the cars handling has been compromised and does not handle as well as our Mini One with 15". The handling characteristics are classic examples of insufficient lateral movement. Read any text on the subject and it will tell you that sidewall lateral flexing is what prevents tramlining and bump steer.

[james f]

bob have you thought of ditching the run falts as i know a lot of people who have and have found (toyo tr1's yoko prada spec2's and pereli p zero neros much much better even on stock 17 rims) peronaly i have 16's on my cooper and my S will also have 16's not geeting a new one but a cherised one

[tvrbob]

james f said:

bob have you thought of ditching the run falts

Yes. I did this with the Mini One and it made significant improvements. Most noticeable was the improved braking, with the increased adhesion the ABS does not trigger till much later. I will be putting non-runflats on the MCS and will work with my tyre man to see how low I can take the sidewall rigidity. I really need to get some miles out of the runflats first though. I hate throwing things away when they still have life. I guess that's why I have 5 cars.

[james f]

i think in that case toyo t1rs should be close to what your after as they are the much much softer without sacrafcing too much a guy on our club froum scnm.net had the older toyo TS1 and found the side walls to have far to much flex and swapped for avon zz3's which he found to be a nice compramise another has toyo T1R (the newer version) and finds them to offer very good grip and a nice ride at the same time taking out a lot of the road noise and removing the suspesion crahes and jaring ride of the run flat

[Hobzy]

Bob is right about the side walls though - even the JCC boys ran 16s.

Mine has little in the way of cosmetic changes, ( but a lot of others ) and the way mine handles on 17s and toyo R888S is very different from the way Keiths JCC cooper on 16sfelt when i drove it. (both on slicks)

Edited by Hobzy on Saturday 20th January 18:58

[tvrbob]

I know Toyo T1-S & T1-R. I use these on my Chimaera. They are soft walled. I have to increase pressures by a couple of PSI from book settings on the TVR to re-balance the suspension. Cheap as well, definitely worth considering.

By the way the MCS is my wife's car (PH name Stardust). I have the Mini One and TVR to play with.

Edited by tvrbob on Saturday 20th January 19:00

[james f]

Hobzy said:

Bob is right about the side walls though - even the JCC boys ran 16s.

Mine has little in the way of cosmetic changes, ( but a lot of others ) and the way mine handles on 17s and toyo R888S is very different from the way Keiths JCC cooper on 16sfelt when i drove it. (both on slicks)

Edited by Hobzy on Saturday 20th January 18:58

how are the tweeks coming along tony ? last time i saw it was south downs are you going to be at the abingdon track day in feb ?

[Sharief]

slinky said:

get rid of the extra lights on't front and I'll take one in matt black

[stardust]

tvrbob said:

By the way the MCS is my wife's car (PH name Stardust). I have the Mini One and TVR to play with.

Indeed it is mine. What Bob doesn't realise is that I tell everyone the TVR is mine too.

[Loui]

Id rather stick with mine

[hobzy]

Getting there slowly james - hard to get garage time with the little sprog taking up me time and cant get a crank pulley remover to fit without buying a special BMW one, which has a mad price and silly order time. It will have to wait until my next trip up to Lohen i think

[hobzy]

ANd still dont know about abingdon as i might be moving house that week and the mrs will have me nuts in a jar if i go then . Am planning to go if not though.

[james f]

cool ive got a trip down to lohen next month for de-modding the cooper as its getting traded for an S and if i get it all sorted i will be at abingdon not running but would be a chance to see a few folk and play with the camera

[hobzy]

You'll be welcome for a spin