Hi all,

I've got a new MCS that I am going to autocross a little. Actually I should say my wife has a new MCS that we are going to autocross. I'm probably going to do this with the local BMW club, but I might keep my options open for SCCA G Stock.

At any rate I am considering getting an adjustable rear bar, but before I do so I'd like to get some opinions on the balance of the car as is with the sport suspension. I believe the sway bar sizes are 24mm front and 18mm rear. Can you get acceptable rotation via tire pressures with this set up? If not or if an adjustable bar makes for a more fun drive I think I'll say the heck with G stock rules and get one. I'll also put on adjustable endlinks front and rear and urethane sway bar bushings in the front and back as well. I've got some 16 x 6.5 slipstreams in the garage and am awaiting some 215/50/16 BFG KDWs so I can put them on. At this point this is likely all I want to do to the car and frankly likely all my wife will let me get away with!

I should explain that we both autocrossed for years and then I went on to open track with a 5.0 Mustang that went from street prepared to a full Griggs, barely streetable, mostly track car. This explains why my wife cringes when I go out to the garage and slide under the Mini. She's sure I am going turn her cute daily driver into another track car. I think I can resist the temption. At this point I just want a low maintainence autocrosser with a driving school or two thrown in. I'm not really even up to having a dedicated set of race wheels and tires at this point. That's why I'm thinking of just tightening up the sway bars so I don't stiffen up the ride or lower the car to where it scrapes on speed bumps, etc. I may want to put some adjustable camber plates on it once they are available just to save the tires.

At any rate since G stock is stuck with the stock sway bars I thought this would be a good place to get some feedback on their balance.

Thanks,

Mark

 

I've been auto-xing my R56 for a few months now and I would say keep it in Stock class and try it out for a while. You can now add some negitive camber in the front with the slotted shock towers. And the rear camber is adjustable too so you can take out some camber. Adjust the toe +1/16 front, -1/16 rear and add lots of air to the rear tires and it will rotate just fine. Remember to drive it like a FWD car.

 

The MINI is a stock class car. I'd give it a good alignment and let it go. I can't speak for the R56 but the R53 does benefit from a smaller front bar. For tires I'd go with Falken Aziens RT615's. Even with stock camber -.4 I've never corded the edge of a tire. The tires heat cycle out before you run out of rubber. If you start the mods you'll end up in STX where I don't think you'll be competitive with the WRX's.

 

Follow Per Schroeder at Grassrootsmotorsports and their project R56 MCS. There are some things to do in stock which make the car real competitive. If you mod, like has been said, you will not be competitive.

 

Going to the sport suspension swaybars w/o also installing the sport suspension springs will increase inside-front wheelspin, regardless of whether your car has an LSD or not. Hard to say what it might do to the front/rear handling balance, since I don't know if the sport suspension springs increase the spring rate by a larger percentage at one end of the car compared to the other.

I agree with the suggestion for getting an autocross-friendly alignment and leaving everything else alone for now. The R56 can get very close to 1 degree of negative camber in front, much better than the R53. That alone makes rotation at corner entry less of a problem. In short, the car is even more "tossable" than before. Unless you're determined to start modding the suspension just for the sake of modding it , mount up the KDW's, get an alignment, and go have some fun.

GH

 

Agreed, the car is tuneable and fun in stock form, to the point where I'm still not as fast as it is...and I've been autocrossing for nearly 20 years.

 

With regards to front camber, ours is only at -.4 How is it possible to even try to get it to -1.0?

d

 

OK, I'll just keep things stock for now and give it a try. What does the new alignment do to street manners? I'm hoping it does not lead to wandering or accelerated tire wear. I ordered the car with the Sport Suspension so that is already in place. I guess I did not make that clear. I guess the 1st mod I will due is the exhaust. I think I'm just going to replace the stock muffler with a pipe w/new tips. I have a posting on an thread trying to find out if the stock resonator is a straight through design. If it is not then I'm going to replace everything after the second cat with 2.5" pipe. If that is too loud then I'll go back and put a straight through muffler back in. Thanks for the advice.

Mark

 

SM2Dan, remove the tiny socket head screw on the top of the strut tower, loosen up the three nuts and push the wheel inwards...that'll give you another .4-.5 neg.

street manners are fine with these very small changes in alignment. zero toe front and rear can make the car more neutral, but it's still an understeering car. tire wear is unaffected at those settings.

 

Dan....Per beat me to the punch on explaining how to adjust the front camber. One other tip, though...when you have the car aligned, you'll probably find that the *minimum* setting for camber in the rear is about 1 degree. IMO it's best to leave it at that minimum setting, which will let the car rotate into corners without resorting to a bunch of rear toe-out.

GH

 

Thanks guys, I'll throw it on the alignment rack asap! I pulled out the camber from the rear this past weekend and got it down to -.4 and -.7 and then toe'd it out about .05 on each side.

So far I absolutely love how this car handles and am curious as to how it does at this weekends SW Divisional against some other top drivers. I miss running in SM2, though, against the Strelnieks since that class was significantly faster :P