Given that this is a pretty serious surgery mod I wanted to mention that we just completed our Quaife LSD installation on our car. You can see the article at TEAM MCO along with pictures. We'll be providing a high-level how-to soon which will include a full parts and necessary tools (those that are MINI specific). Be sure to check it out. Enjoy!

Mark

 

It looks good! Keep us posted on your impressions. Without the front clip it looks almost like you could reach the pulley (for swappage) pretty easy. Interesting to hear of the magic MINI tool for removal.

Jeff

 

Mark, Did you not have to grind the small hump down for the Quaife to fit? Mine had some clearance problems there but after grinding it has worked fine.
Small hump is obvious in this one picture.

 

I was fully anticipating having to machine the inside casing as well. When we did the test fit we had about 2mm or more of clearance all the way around the diff. Also, we did a test fit with putting the case back together, torqueing down several of the case bolts and found no clearance problem. I had read that machining was to be expected so I called Quaife to see if a new revision of the diff had occurred (we received a diff from the most recent container that came over from Europe). Based on the model and revision number on the exterior of the Quaife it appears to be the same unit.

Without machining BimmerHaus put everything back together, installed new fluid, and we test drove it for 20-30 miles. Worked like a charm. We then drained the oil and found no metal shavings or contamination that would indicate an interference. Next we refilled the transmission with Redline MTL and while I don't have much mileage on it yet it definitely works. The car really feels like it shoots out of turns now and doesn't have any type of pulsation. Just like stock except better :smile:

Mark

 

Mark, nice write up on Team MCO. I can't belieive it fit so well! That is great! When I was at Bimmerhaus a while back I told Dave S. to get ready to grind to get that Quaife to fit (seeing as we saw your car on the schedule for the following week).

Hopefully they (Quaife) have made a permanant change to all future production models.

:smile:

 

If I dug that deep into my tranny I'd want to lower the gear ratio to say... something reasonable. I can't imagine how much fun a LSD equipped MCS would be if 1st gear were low enough to make full use of it! I'd even be able to beat mopeds off the line! That'd be sweet!

Are there any final drive ratio kits for the S? Or better yet, a means of altering only gears 1-3 (same shaft IIRC)?

 

>>If I dug that deep into my tranny I'd want to lower the gear ratio to say... something reasonable. I can't imagine how much fun a LSD equipped MCS would be if 1st gear were low enough to make full use of it! I'd even be able to beat mopeds off the line! That'd be sweet!
>>
>>Are there any final drive ratio kits for the S? Or better yet, a means of altering only gears 1-3 (same shaft IIRC)?

I've been asking the same thing for a while now. Still no word.

 

>>>>If I dug that deep into my tranny I'd want to lower the gear ratio to say... something reasonable. I can't imagine how much fun a LSD equipped MCS would be if 1st gear were low enough to make full use of it! I'd even be able to beat mopeds off the line! That'd be sweet!

I haven't seen any mention of alternative gearing available for the Getrag. I would suspect that it would be available since once you break it apart its just standard gearing that is used. That said, for the SCCA Solo 2 class that we are focused on, drive ratio changes are not allowable...hence no investigation of changes. Also, we have created about 5% improvement in gearing simply by going to the 16x7.5" wheels we run mounted with 215-45R16s Falken Azenis. I like this set up for two reasons:

1) The wheel/tire combination is almsot 15 lbs lighter per corner
2) The 5% gearing advantage

Between the two street and autocross improvement is pretty dramatic.

Best mod for your MINI? By a lightweight set of wheels and mount your favorite sticky summer tire on it.

Mark

 

Hmm... Looking at this picture I see that there's no room for a larger final drive gear, nor is there room for the pinion at the top right to be any smaller. Looks like any gear ratio changes would need to be done elsewhere. Gets me thinking -- I wonder if Getrag compromised the gear ratio for space requirements?