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I've searched and googled and I simply cant find much info on Autocrossing a Paceman. My son has been my co-pilot for years at autocross and HPDE and he finally got his license. We took his Paceman to both HPDE (Palmer CCW) and AutoX and the understeer is absolutely insane!!! On one hand, that's kind of good because I found with HPDE, it's a really safe car that's very hard to get into trouble with. Lift off the throttle when understeering and it straights right back out. OTOH it would be nice if I could dial it back a bit.
He needs to invest a lot of seat time in himself to improve for sure (he dropped 22 seconds at his first AutoX last weekend) but the understeer is definitely frustrating. (Note we are not doing SCCA, none of the clubs I run with have any issue with running a Paceman). I've upgraded the brake pads and fluid but that's all so far. He's running on all seasons, but I have dedicated winter tires and wheels for the car, so I could definitely improve on the rubber. I was just hoping to find more info out there from people who have already figured things out for the Paceman, but it's such an oddball car I really can't find anything.
I've been autocrossing for decades, and started with a 1995 Civic that I'd built up since buying the car new, back then. It eventually had a full autocross suspension (Koni adjustable struts, Suspension Techniques antisway bars, Neuspeed springs) and good - but still "street" tires.
A veteran autocrosser pulled in about 2000, with a beat [manual transmission] Subaru Forester. Bone stock. Popped his hatch and bolted on a set of steelies with sticky autocross tires. Kicked my *** by a big margin - like 8 seconds.
I say that because "Bone stock 1990's Subaru Forester" was super inferior to a lightweight Civic (the lightest car with a full dynamic-camber dual-wishbone suspension, even through today, I'm sure) with all the right suspension parts.
A "Bone stock 1990's Subaru Forester" is definitely inferior to a Paceman, even bone stock.
Now, about that understeer - if he's learning car control at autocross - to me, that itself IS "safety". That's driver education, that's awesome. And that means, you don't need to fear killing off the car's default tendency to understeer like you might for Grandma.
The easiest way to deal with that is to install a rear sway bar, or upgraded thickness rear sway bar. In hard cornering, it'll start to lift the inside tire, like you'll see in old-school VW GTI's if you've ever watched them. It shifts the balance of traction from the rear to the front, especially as you lift throttle or apply gentle braking, rolling the weight forward.
In my Civic - it was the 1990s and I used to do custom audio work so I had a trunk full of mostly lightweight fiberglass, but was still heavy audio equipment - in my case hanging behind the rear wheels. That also helped shift the balance rearward slightly, off the front tires, since a Civic weight distribution was more front heavy than 50/50. That also helped with throttle-off rotation.
In my Mini Cooper S convertible, the battery is in the hatch - I don't think it is on the Paceman, but you could relocate that to the very far back of your hatch - maybe on the passengers side to counterbalance a far-left driver in the car. That would also help. They make kits for that, but it's mostly just running some thick cable (somewhere between 4 gauge and 1/0 gauge) to the rear and establishing a good ground.
Thanks very much for the informative reply, sorry it took so long for me to notice it, I may have forgotten to subscribe to this thread . From what I've read, a Paceman is a very different car than a Cooper and doesn't handle nearly as well. It is a very unusual car, but we like it for what it is. Maybe I'll just throw some summer tires on it and a rear sway and call it a day. I've spent far too much on my own car to start spending too much on his . And I can appreciate the car audio reference.... I used to compete in IASCA and CAN a long long time ago.
I'm going to send a link to this thread to a friend of mine who auto-x'd his R60 Countryman for several years. Mechanically the vehicles are identical, so he'll likely have some good insight!
I'm going to send a link to this thread to a friend of mine who auto-x'd his R60 Countryman for several years. Mechanically the vehicles are identical, so he'll likely have some good insight!
I have a Paceman, but I've never put it on the track or auto-x course. That's what my R53 is for! Having said that, the biggest bang for the buck at this stage may just be a set of dedicated track wheels and Rcomps. I know that made a huge difference for the R53. The Paceman will never handle like a Cooper, of course, but I think a set of sticky tires on lightweight wheels would take multiple seconds off his times, and the added traction would give your son a little more confidence with respect to understeering.
Yep, paceman is bigger and i have not seen many people autoX them, I have been doing it with MINI since 2004. Most use the R53/R56 platform. I bet it will need to be lowered a bit on coilovers and get some dedicated lighter wheels.
Most people that have at CM or PM use them to off road or rally cross.
What the heck. As much as I've Google'd the X-Raid MINI's over the years, I don't recall ever running across an example of a Paceman variant.
But that's a pretty cool website. Some of the tires we have sold at our family business have ultimately ended up on big Dakar trucks like the ones they have listed. Just wish those things were more readily available in the states — would love to have one for our own service truck!
. From what I've read, a Paceman is a very different car than a Cooper and doesn't handle nearly as well. It is a very unusual car, but we like it for what it is. Maybe I'll just throw some summer tires on it and a rear sway and call it a day. I've spent far too much on my own car to start spending too much on his 
