I just realized today when driving my dads 2002 turbo porsche that our MINIs are horribly slow. Forget breaking the 200HP barrier we need at least 400 ponies :smile: anyways.....back to reality.

I was just wondering if anyone knew what kind of work it would take to make the mini a rear wheel or all wheel drive car. (NOT SAYING THAT I WANT TO)


That is the only way I can think of having more than 200HP in my car. I know that the MINI race car is a rear wheel drive. Does anyone see more than 200+ HP in front wheel drive form as something that would be nice or easy to drive?

 

even before moving beyond the stock 163 horses, 1st thing on my wish list is a LSD.

 

VERY VERY nice to drive!! You can never have enough power, well theoretically I suppose you could. With the proper upgraded suspension mods to hold the 'lil beast to the road it must be a hoot, If I only had another couple of thousand to blow!

Kevin

 

What is "LSD"? Are we supposed to hallucinate going fast?
Carman

 

Limitied Slip Differential....helps transfer power from one wheel to the other when one wheel starts to spin...this occurs will accelerating through a corner...this allows you to continue to put down power through a corner...until there is too much power and both wheels start to slip...this is then when you need traction control to handle that if you can't handle it yourself.

 

almost Casey - a limited slip diff actually transfers torque. The most common LSD's are clutch pack style; they essentially lock up the two output shafts with a few hundred pounds of clutch pressure. This allows for close to a 50/50 torque split among drive wheels. The results? Straighter launches, a bit of understeer in the corners, but no loss of acceleration via torque transfer to the unloaded wheel like an open diff. Very tight corners will also scrub the drive wheels a bit, since they can't turn independantly as easily.

Have power, need to control it, a limited-slip differential is a great way to do it!

Cheers,
Ryan

 

I agree that beyond about 230HP, any FWD car actually becomes less fun to drive.

I'm hoping that BMW decides to rally race the MINI so they'll do the hard work of building a AWD version :smile: Without that, it would be EXTREMELY expensive to do it in the aftermarket. I converted a 98 New Beetle to AWD but it was relatively straightforward because the NB and Audi TT are build on the same platform so retrofitting the TT's AWD system to a NB is not as big a deal because all the parts came from VW. Here is a link to my AWD New Beetle.

I've heard that Cosworth will convert the MINI to AWD for about $40K

 

>>I just realized today when driving my dads 2002 turbo porsche that our MINIs are horribly slow. Forget breaking the 200HP barrier we need at least 400 ponies :smile: anyways.....back to reality.
>>
>>I was just wondering if anyone knew what kind of work it would take to make the mini a rear wheel or all wheel drive car. (NOT SAYING THAT I WANT TO)
>>
>>
>> That is the only way I can think of having more than 200HP in my car. I know that the MINI race car is a rear wheel drive. Does anyone see more than 200+ HP in front wheel drive form as something that would be nice or easy to drive?


Since Mini will most likely adopt this engine for the 2005 mini you should consider it and its AWD system.

Puegot 205 WRC

 

>>>>I just realized today when driving my dads 2002 turbo porsche that our MINIs >>Puegot 205 WRC
>>


No way! It's French!

 

Why are you comparing a $20,000 car against a $116,000 machine? I'm sure with an extra $100,000 you could make any car FUN!

Personally $20,000 is about all I can afford.

 

>>
>>I was just wondering if anyone knew what kind of work it would take to make the mini a rear wheel or all wheel drive car. (NOT SAYING THAT I WANT TO)

Drive in reverse.

 

>>Drive in reverse.

What he said!