Hi everybody, I just wanted to introduce myself.

If you couldn't tell, my name is Ben. I started off as a Subaru guy with a 2008 2.5i hatchback, and was autocrossing that happily in ST until the end of last month, when I was hit by a drunk driver, totaling the car. I'd always, however, had my eye on a MINI because I know they're excellent autocrossing cars, and the Subaru was getting heavy and understeery on me; I was quickly outdriving my own car despite a fair amount of modification. Additionally, I was definitively underpowered and overheavy, especially with the engine slung way out in front of the front axle. After searching around for a bit, I was able to find a nice low-miles MINI Cooper S to replace my Subaru. I will be picking it up on Saturday, and I couldn't be more excited. The other car I cross shopped was the VW GTI, which was a great car in-and-of itself. I really liked the GTI, but I loved the MINI.

My new MINI will be a 2008 MINI Cooper S, Pepper White with a black roof and black stripes from bonnet to boot and the checkered mirrors. It's got a 6-speed (my qualifications for my replacement car were 3 doors and 3 pedal, no more doors, no fewer pedals), Xenons (are they self leveling like my friend's 2006 MCS?), Bluetooth/iPod, and the rare (so said the dealer) LSD. I have a feeling, however, I will fall in love with that little SPORT button, as well, and I'm wicked excited to autocross with the LSD.

Again, I pick up the car on Saturday, and work a closing shift that night before taking on a Big Lot (that's what we call it) FCSCC autocross event on Sunday! I've classed myself as DS with a Street Tire PAX... it'll be weird to have a PAX again! Haven't done that since I won Rookie Street Touring in the Subaru! But I suppose that's certainly one way to learn how a car reacts :-D

Thank you all for reading; I look forward to becoming a helpful and participating member here on the forums; I've heard nothing but good things from my friend with the '06. I've also heard this place is nothing like NASIOC, a big Subaru forum I avoided as it was just chaos. I also look forward to meeting fellow CT MINI motorists! If you see my plates, please, give me a wave!

Here are some pictures of my old car autocrossing; the plates will be transferring over to my MINI. I'll post up new pictures of my car as soon as I pick it up.

 

Enjoy!

One difference is that without the AWD you might not be praying for rain so much.

D'ya reckon you'll eventually go to the dark side, with DOT R rubber?

 

Welcome, Ben.

I think you're gonna love AX-ing that MCS. Our SCCA region has the street tire class too, and it's very popular. The only down side is that it draws a lot from the stock and SP classes.

Last year our MCS DS driver mopped up in DS; won every event and finished in the top 5 overall in PAX almost every event. This year he's driving a BMW with a Corvette engine, giving others a chance in DS.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome. I can't wait to get out and learn to drive all over again. I would love to throw parts at it, but all of my old mods that I'm going to sell are being put toward upgrading to a Cooper S. I will, however, revel in beating up on my Subaru friends now. Going from a not-so-great car that I just drove the doors off of to a perfect autocrossing car.

One of my friends has a WRX swapped '99 Legacy, he'll be racing for the first time this Sunday. The other two buddies are both in WRXs, X Prep because of the chassis bracing they've done to it. My final friend is in a Civic Si, and he and I have always had a friendly rivalry because we were both N/A Subaru autocrossers, comiserating in our lack of power. But he's got a nicely balanced N/A Honda, now, and I've got a MINI. He's got the rev-range, I have the turbo. It's gonna be a battle, but his PAX is gonna help him a lot... GS to my DS.

I cannot wait to just enjoy the heck out of this car. The clutch was spot on, and the six speed was a joy to row, even if I almost missed 5th gear. I've been stuck in a Kia Forte automatic for a month, and I'm making myself set the e-brake just to get BACK into the habit from my old car. I think the center mounted speedo, the push-button start, the turn indicator and the position of reverse will take the most getting used to. My reverse used to be where 6th will be soon. That will take a LOT of getting used to!

 

I don't have a 2nd gen but from what I've ready around here..the only way to drive a 2nd gen is with the sport button on! Enjoy your car!

 

Welcome to NAM! Congrats on the new MINI. My '06 was a Pepper White/Black roof bonnet stripes and checkerboard mirrors! Like your Subaru, mine was totaled in January by a guy who crossed the yellow line come over 2 lanes and totaled my MINI. I just picked up my '11 MCS on Saturday. One of the reasons I ordered new instead of getting another '06(my very favorite MINI year) is that I could find very few with factory LSD like El Kabong(my '06) had. I did DEs with El Kabong but have been toying with the idea of trying autocross this time around.
Can't wait to hear how your first event goes, I hope it's a blast!
Love the plates by the way .
Annette
Here's a shameless pic of my '06.

 

welcome to the world of MINI. Good luck with the car. They are a blast to autocross. When I run I run in HS. I have been know to bring a camera and take pics of others.

 

To answer a question I forgot to address earlier, I will not be going with DOT-Rs. I have too much of a mod-addiction to follow the Stock classing rules. Eventually, I'll probably end up in STX, but not for a bit. Time to run the car, learn the car, and learn what I need to do to make the car best for me. First mod will probably be a second set of wheels (even stock 16s will be fine) and Dunlop Z1 Star Specs. That's what I ran on my old car, and they were amazing. Just need to figure out width; I certainly do not want to rub.

I hope to get into HPDE soon too. They look like a lot of fun! I can only imagine what it's like to drive around a true track, with no speed limits to worry about. I drive like a grandma normally; one of the benefits of autocrossing is that I really have little to no need to speed or drive aggressively. However, even just to make you a better driver, I always recommend the autocrossing circuits!

I'm already taking a lot of flak at a local Subaru forum I belong to for getting a not-Subaru. Which is weird, because back when I had a Subaru, they busted on me for not having a turbo. Now I have a turbo and no Subaru. Whatever... people here are so much nicer and, dareisay, more intelligent. It's nice to see capitalization and punctuation used! :-D

Alright, time to figure out if I can get NAM on Tapatalk... I need to feed this addiction mobilely! Saturday cannot come soon enough!

 

HPDEs are a blast. I've never done autocross, so can't compare, but seems like the flip side of the same coin. I usually go to the HPDEs with the attitude that I'm there to further MY abilities and the other cars are just there to do the same. From my limited experience in the Atlanta area, the BMW and Audi DEs are my favorites, not as much testosterone toxicity . (Not trying to offend, that was a term one of my instructors used which I found pretty amusing)

Oh, and yes, the Grammar Police do patrol NAM. There are many of us here who feel it is our duty to maintain order and civility, at least with the written word. . There are multiple threads in Off Topic area regarding the like.

Annette

 

If you are interested in the tuning and dyno part of mods, we are having cars tuned next month. Stop by anytime and hang out even if you don't want a tune.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...gn-up-now.html

 

Annette, believe me, no offense taken! I've used that testosterone to my great advantage during my rookie touring year... I was doing horribly all day and then busted out a BEAUTIFUL "hero run." My friend Bev, who drives a self-tuned (stock boost) 2006 WRX on coils and 245s (he'll wreck STi's all day long... so much quicker!) called it... he said I was due for a hero run. I had been doing terribly all day, and then out of nowhere, shaved off 10 seconds and went from 5th to 1st in Rookie Touring. I quite literally kissed my car. So sometimes you just gotta harness that testosterone.

HRM: I'll try to stop by, but I woke in an Apple Store, so my hours are retail :/ But it'll be nice to learn a lot more about these MINIs. I know a lot about cars in general, and a goodly amount about Subarus (more than a lot of the turbo boys who hated on the N/As), but the MINI is another ballgame. There's so much left to learn, and I can't wait. Heck, I'm looking at pictures online to see where everything in the interior is, figure out how the iPod adaptor works, Googling to see how to rig up the rear fog light and the like.

Thanks again for the warm welcome. I can only see more of the same for my friend Branden - he's the one with the swapped Legacy. I told him how nice it was here and he's decided to join up... he won't give up his Subaru though. Can't blame him; it's a beautiful (and unique) car!

 

If you are headed for STX, may I suggest you consider 15" rims?

I've had good results with the Kosei 15x7 with any of the treadwear 140 tires including the Toyo R1R, the Hankook RS3, and (most preferred) the Direzza Star Spec. Regrettably Bridgestone does not do a 205 or greater for the 15" rim.

Total diameter with that setup is just under 24", so the shorter distance from the hub center to the contact patch offers more leverage for brakes and acceleration. My gain versus the stock setup is about 4%.

Another way to estimate this is to look at the revs/mile spec from Tirerack for the alternatives. As long as you have enough RPM in 2nd to get the max speeds you anticipate for the courses, more revs/mile might be helpful.

My car turns 30 mph in 2nd at 3,000 RPM with the 205/50-15 Star Spec, and that gives me 67 mph at the limiter which is enough even for the fast courses at Fort Devens up here in New England.

The '06 has slightly shorter gearing though doesn't it?

Just a thought,

Charlie

 

Thanks for the advice! I hadn't thought of going SMALLER than OEM (bad Subaru thought pattern... BAD!) rather than larger. I fell in love with the Star Specs on my Subaru, so I'll probably end up in another set of those. Having to look for 4x100 bolt patterns is weird... but my friend (who is a Miata enthusiast) is showing me some crazy lightweight MX-5 wheels that are 16x6.5, 4x100 and weigh about 16lbs. That might be too good to pass up! Offset is 40 rather than 48, though... but I think I can get spacers to fix that.

 

I'd strongly recommend a 7" min width, and I'd personally be running 7.5 or 8 if the racing budget were a bit fatter over the winter.

The Kosei's are 15x7 +38, which is a lot less offset than stock (+48). That means the rims are further out from the center line of the car than is desirable.

Of course a spacer only makes that worse.

In my case I've a full on STX suspension with coil overs, lowered, -2.5 camber in front and -1 in back. My 225 R1R just clipped the rear fender wells at the 10 and 2 position on the clock dial, but only under significant compression. The Star Spec 205s have no clearance issues at all.

The ideal fitment would be 15x8 at +42 I do believe.

Miata and Mini do share many wheels, and the +40 wheels you mention should do well, but my experience is that with 6.5" of rim anything over a 205 is not going to perform as well as it should due to pinching of the beads.

YMMV,

Charlie

 

The lower the value of the offset, the further out the wheels will be pushed. Offset is calculated by the distance of the mounting point from the centerline of the wheel. Thus, a wheel with an offset of 0 will mount dead center of the wheel, an offset of +48 will mount 48mm towards the outside of the wheel, and an offset of -10 will mount 10mm towards the inside of the wheel. You follow, or do I need to draw out a diagram (honest question, not being sarcastic)?

 

Hello Ben,

Welcome to NAM and MINI motoring. I am new to driving a MINI also, and have great interest in learning about the autocross scene here in CT. I would enjoy tapping into your base of knowledge sometime if you don't mind.



Cheers,
Chris

 

http://www.fcscc.com/ for a start!

 

Haha, I PMed him that not too much before you posted that. It's a great club

 

Thanks for the replies. I will definitely be checking it out. I am very close to Stratford and am going to try and weasel out of some (honey-do) things on Sunday to see if I can make it.

 

Like I said, I'll be there. Look for the Pepper White among a couple of Subarus and a blue Civic Si. We're all nice folk!

In other news... I CANNOT WAIT! Less than 12 hours!

 

Hey Ben,

Welcome to NAM and MINI autocrossing! I started autocrossing and doing DEs shortly after getting my first MINI in 2002 and I've been doing it ever since. It's down right addictive! (as you well know)

I started out by joining the Colorado BMW club and running in their events. They are very welcoming to MINIs.The best part of the BMW events around here is that they are limited to around 60 entrants and we generally get in 6 to 8 runs. They also run some great DE events at High Plains Raceway.

Here's a smidge of advice that I learned the hard way ..... for autocross in a MINI, tighten up that adjustable rear sway bar, for track events loosen it.

 

You have Superleggeras on your MINI? Man... memories... I ran Supers on my Subaru... they're still in my parents' garage, pretty much useless because of the bolt pattern. Gotta sell them and look into something else.

Also, you said "tighten up that adjustable rear sway bar." You're referring to an aftermarket bar, correct? The stock bar on an MCS isn't adjustable, is it?

In other news: LEAVING IN 20 MINUTES FOR MY MINI MORNING! \o/

 

You're probably picking up your new MINI right now so you may not be reading this for many hours ....... maybe days!

Yes, an out of the box MINI tends to push so most people get an aftermarket rear sway bar ASAP.

Have a terrific day with your new ride!

 

I'm at work right now, so driving will have to wait. But I got autocross tomorrow, and I'm super stoked. You should have seen the looks on the faces of my Subaru friends (there was a big meet at EFI Logics, where my old car got tuned) when I pulled up in my MINI. EPIC!

However, I did get a couple snaps of my car before I got into work. Here it is, with my vanity plates on it!

 

Congrats! Let the good times roll .

Annette