Handling Impressions: I think “WOW” pretty much sums it up. After a year of more or less fighting the old 08 Mini’s (stock sport suspension) understeer, this is a huge surprise. This car is very very neutral. I should probably add an asterisk here, my impressions stem from one (so far) autox event on a cold day, albeit with a codriver and tire warmers. Anyway, I think it is neutral enough that I can play with tire pressures to get the car to basically the same level as it was today. There is a hint of understeer when I overcook things, and a little more than a hint of oversteer when I lift throttle or I’m being too jerky with the steering wheel. I used to have to use some pretty violent inputs to get even a neutral balance out of the old MINI, so this is going to take some seat time to get used to. Fortunately enough, seat time is one thing I will have a lot of for this year. Overall, the car feels very good, and very planted. It just feels well sorted out, and I think the JCW FSB + JCW Springs + Fat Cat Motorsports Bilsteins + Hsport RSB is the best combination for HS. Seriously. In addition to FCM’s custom valving, my Bilsteinsn also came with his proprietary Kerb Blow Off (KBO) technology – AKA a proprietary technique to high speed compression blow off. All in all, I wouldn’t change anything about this set up (except if I could somehow increase the front camber).