Hi,
I mentioned a while back that I would write about my experience of having my car rolling roaded in Bury, so here it is.
I had the car set up as I wanted (stock air filter/housing, new exhaust, everything tight or so I thought) so in June I set about getting the car properly tuned. As I live in Merseyside, anywhere in the North West was preferable. I contacted Mini Sport who still advertise rolling road sessions on their website, but when I enquired they informed me the chap that did it away and/or the rolling road needed repair. I asked whether he could recommend another garage and he mentioned RE Performance in Bury. The guy who ran the garage was old enough (70's) to have been around when mini's were far more common and tuning much more common place.
I rang them up and spoke to what sounded like an old chap, we discussed what set up I had in the mini and arranged a date.
I arrived early at the garage, which is just outside of Bury town centre in an old industrial estate. I waited for the garage to open up and spoke to the proprietor, a man of few words. I was told it would take 2 to 3 hours. The garage also does routine maintenance and this was their main source of income, not the rolling road. The session did indeed take over 3 hours, and I walked around Bury and into the town centre as there wasn't anything else to do. I did see the car take several runs on the dyno, and the tuner did tweak the timing and carb. The engine/ exhaust manifold got hot during the runs and it transpired I hadn't tightened the exhaust clamps enough, so the exhaust started drooping somewhat, the chap got under the car and rectified this.
Unfortunately the rolling road was not able to give a HP reading, the meter wasn't working correctly, but the chap did file down my BER needle and replace the 4 spark plugs. I took it for a drive and it was much improved. Previously I had billows of ball smoke out of the exhaust and the car was incredibly rich. The mixture and idle speed has been adjusted and it was running correctly. The engine has been faultless since.
The total cost for the rolling road tune and 4 spark plugs? £171 which I thought was very good value. The tuner said very little and worked at his own pace, but he knew what he was doing and that's the main thing.
Edited by lippo, Yesterday, 11:42 AM.
