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Hello everyone, I'm Ben and I've got a 2013 Cooper Roadster (base).
I've had the car since new, and I'm now approaching 19000 miles. The tires have legal but uninspiring tread left.
Until this year, I hadn't driven the car in inclement weather, but this year I may need it a few times in the Maine winter. The current tires won't do.
Now, the ennui. My previous car, that I loved dearly, was (and is, for it's not completely gone, just in need of some tlc at 250,00 miles) a 1999 Mustang 35th Anniversary convertible. Like the Mini, it's all black (inside and out). Not many options-just a manual transmission and a radio. Although the Mini's heated seats are a nice touch.
I've never connected with the Mini the way I did with the Mustang; and part of that is the handling.
I've put a lot of time and money into the Mustang brakes and suspension, transmission and engine. It's a car that I can get into and I know what it will do, from a smooth dry highway to an ice storm on a twisty back road. I've driven it in club racing and I've driven it on long trips in ice storms where other cars on the road were struggling out of the ditch, and I've never hesitated to drive it.
The Mini, on the other hand, handles quite well, except when I want it to do something like get out of the way of an oncoming truck, or switch lanes in heavy rain, or merge onto the highway when there's dirt and gravel at the on-ramp (like, pretty much any time after the first snowfall). I've gotten to where I don't drive it in the rain, let alone truly bad weather.
The symptoms are basically that I give the car a lot of gas, and the wheel spins a little bit, and suddenly the DSC is cutting throttle, the brakes are applying, and now I'm going too slow and I have to downshift and the truck that was a good distance away is hitting the brakes because some moron in a Mini just cut him off; or instead of pulling onto the highway at 70 like all the traffic (70 being the speed limit near me), I'm cutting to 40 at the end of the ramp before the engine lets me speed up.
If I'm already driving in Sport mode, or if I'm on a back road and already in a lower gear than I "should" be, it's not as bad. If I move my coffee and hit the "DSC" button it usually figures out that I'm displeased.
But it makes me pick the Mustang (before I decided to overhaul it) or my F150 on days when I really should be enjoying the Mini.
Anyway, how big a difference will non-run-flat tires make? I'm not used to ABS, electronic stability/traction control or front-wheel drive. Will decent tires make a huge difference, or should I just throw on the OEM style run-flats and try to fix the Mustang (that the Mini was initially intended to replace)? I'm willing to go to non-run-flats, I just want to drive with confidence, and if I can't get that from this car I will put it up on the market...which sucks, because when I'm enjoying the car, it's brilliant.
Get rid of the runflats and the ride will be much better, just get a tire kit and you will be fine. Get a set of steels and winter tires ( I like the studded versions for the ice). Then turn off the DSC and control the throttle yourself. Bets tires for the 15" steels , 175/65/15 , the ride will be smooth and the extra side wall will help with bumps and pot holes.
BTW I have an R58 and an R52, the R52 has studded snow tires and is a tank in the winter. These cars were made to rally.
For the Base R56 you can use the Gen 1 MINI steelies with stock brakes.
Fair enough.
I'm going to go with all-seasons on the stock rims, any tire suggestions/anecdotes?
I usually agree with a separate tire/wheel for winter but this car should get under 1000 miles of snow, this season only, before I can get my daily back on the road; and I'll be on plowed/sanded roads only.
It seems my R59 has the carrier for a spare, at least some of the toolkit*, and possibly everything except the actual spare. I'm curious on people's thoughts regarding a spare vs the mobility kit?
Thanks!
Ben
*I didn't actually look, the car is parked at my dad's for a few weeks; he looked--I'm trying to get the tires done before I pick the car up.
I carried a spare in the trunk (tied down). See your other thread for tire recommendations. You have yet to experience what a delightful car the roadster is with performance tires.
Update!
I put on the ExtremeContact DWS06. It's a whole new car. The exec who decided to spec run-flats on these cars should be fired.
The DSC will no longer engage under moderate throttle in dry conditions when crossing a patch of sandy pavement or when changing lanes in light rain. I haven't had to turn it off (except when doing stupid things in icy parking lots to figure out how the car will handle).
The last flat tire I had was almost a decade ago, and I waffled on buying a spare...but in the end, I decided to. Having other things to attend to, I simply threw it in the trunk and figured I'd mount it when the weather is a bit nicer.
Good thing I did--with about 500 miles on the tires the left rear blew itself to rubber chunks. The tires were all at 40psi (I haven't taken the time to check tire temps for ideal inflation, I'm going to wait for warmer weather when I'll be driving the car regularly). The carcass is at the shop that put the new tire on, and although it was replaced under warranty I haven't heard back about what caused it (no debris in the road and it looked like a segment of tread separated, so I think manufacturing defect, it didn't look like a puncture and a slow leak would have set off the tire monitor?).
I'll update as the tires wear, but to be honest at current driving rate if these tires last as long as the ProContacts (18K miles) they'll still probably have tread when I sell the car in a couple years. I won't be using them much before April, to be sure--I'm back in the Mustang for now.
I'm sure in warmer climates the rf tires are much better--I didn't mind mine in the summer (like when I bought the car). That's only about 3 months per year up here.
In Maine, on days with poor weather the car was simply undriveable on the factory tires--and again, the comparison car is an almost 20-year-old Ford Mustang and the handling difference was so great I thought it was more than just tires causing the Mini to not go around corners, up hills, or out of my driveway.
Also, I drive the Mustang very hard and get about 30,000 miles out of a set of rear tires (staggered sizes so they are not rotated). To be fair, I swap winter/summer tires so I get 3 years per 2 sets.
The Mini's run-flat tires were rotated at 5 and 10,000 miles but by 15,000 were so worn that I just replaced them at 18,000 instead. While I don't put winter tires on the Mini, I also don't drive it in the winter or on long trips with multiple people. I've had the car since it was new and it took me the better part of 4 years to hit 20,000 miles (which I did right before I posted this and parked it for the remainder of the winter). I have put 20,000 miles on the Mustang in a single year on several of the years I've owned it.
I agree 40psi is overinflated, but only by a couple psi and well under the 51psi rating shown on the sidewall. That's also 40psi WARM--I should have specified that. Again, I've had them just over 500 miles (of which 300 was driving from my dad's house in Vermont back to my house in Maine) and when spring rolls around I intend to use my pyrometer and a back road to find something better.
It's fine that we have different opinions, I just thought I'd let you know how I formed mine.
Cheers.
Mini Roadster run-flat tire pressure recommendations in the owner's manual run from 35-38 psi for the 195/55 16 tire and 39 to 41 psi for the 205/45 17.
The 17 inch Continental run-flats on my Roadster are OK as long as they are inflated to at least 40 psi. If they are below that, they really feel unresponsive/dead.
For the type of driving that I do with my Roadster, a non run-flat would be better, especially with the roads conditions here in Maine. I'll trade a little response for a little extra compliance. The Roadster's suspension does a good job in most conditions. If I drove my Mini in snow, I'd definitely go for a full set of snow tires. One of the best and least expensive tires for snow is General's Arctic Altimax. It's grippy in snow, does well on wet roads and will handle dry roads quite well. It's also pretty quiet for a snow tire. There are quite a few excellent and more expensive snow tires to chose from.
A normal summer tire won't be very grippy once the temperatures get down below 45 degrees F or so. All Season tires are a good compromise for most conditions, but a snow tire wins when Winter conditions are at their worst. There's just no substitute for the amount of extra grip you get out of them on snow. But our Winters have been spotty, so unless you live out in the hills, you can probably get by with an all season pretty easily.
There are lot's of tire choices for all kinds of conditions. The ExtremeContact DWS06 is a really good tire. Glad it's working out for you.
11-28-2016, 10:05 PM
