I have done AutoX once. Will be out again Sat 21st with the BMWCCA Boston chapter http://www.boston-bmwcca.org/ .

I think that the MC suffers a bit much from understeer I have been throwing it around in the parking lot and trying to induce oversteer by left foot braking. All I manage to do is get it to neutral, so far no oversteer

Any thoughts

Malcolm

 

try accelerating a little more into the corners and turning the wheel a little harder/faster, while tapping the brakes as soon as you've begun entering the turn. I don't expect it to be too easy in the Cooper, as it does have a fairly wide stance.

Aswell, if you are beginning to plow/understeer into the corner, unwind the wheel a tiny bit and you'll gain your traction back allowing you to take control of the car in the turn again

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darkSsilver

 

>>I have done AutoX once. Will be out again Sat 21st with the BMWCCA Boston chapter http://www.boston-bmwcca.org/ .
>>
>>I think that the MC suffers a bit much from understeer I have been throwing it around in the parking lot and trying to induce oversteer by left foot braking. All I manage to do is get it to neutral, so far no oversteer

 

I have an old timers trick to induce oversteer if you want to give it a try. First you need some Wisconsin chrome (Duct tape) to tape the button on the emergency brake handle in. Make certain the button will stay in. Anytime you are moving quickly and want to induce oversteer grab a handfull of e-brake and let go when you are pointed in the desired direction. practice a few times and you will find this quite entertaining!

S.D.

 

Just this weekend, i took my MCS downtown chicago on the north side, and went for a drive down Sheridan Dr, at about 12.00 a.m.. this road is up and down hill, with a heavenly section of tight undulating curves, mini territory!.

I did acheive oversteer in one of these corners!! heres how, on the straight leading into the corner, i accelerated through 2nd gear, to almost readline, lifted at corner entry, but did not apply any brake, just let the engine braking do the slowing down, and this was almost a disaster, midium oversteer that got worse as the car came over a slight hill in the corner, i had to counter steer to keep the mini out of the trees, but none the less, had a blast kicking the back end out a bit. i made sure that i had no understeer at corner entry, in order to loose the back end, the front needs grip to throw it.

I have tried to replicate that corner and have not been able to do so on a flat surface, i think a combination of the car cresting a slight hill, and leaving the back wheels free spinning, only letting the engine hold the front back was the reasoning for the oversteer condition. in all other corners, i had the car mostly neutrual, but a heavy throttle on corner exit will lead to potentially deadly understeer, i usually ended up in the oncomming lane when doing this out of a right hander.

 

Standard all weather 15 inch.

After another couple of AutoX events since my last post I have decided that I will run my current wheels through the winter and get new wheels and tires for next season.

I need some advise about what to buy. I want to stay in "street" class. I would not mind keeping the current wheels for comuting and using the new ones for competition.

 

I find my MCS to be very twitchy in high speed corners. Too much turn-in and very sensitive steering promotes steering wheel "cycling". I suspected the shocks might have too much rebound. But now I believe the "run flat" tires have sidewalls that are just too stiff. I think this is the reason for the huge amount of turn-in. I'm going to do some hot laps at Lime Rock next week. Will be able to tell more then. Anyone have this problem with the MCS and don't use "run flat" tires?

 

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I am on my third set of wheels and tires on my MCS and I think I found the perfect combo. Kosei K1 racing wheels with Yokohama AVES ES 100 215/45 17. I can now eat corners ten mph or so faster than the 17" runflat Pirelllis with only 50 or so miles on the tires. Imagine when they are scuffed in????
I just copied and pasted this from another post of mine. I haven't driven a Cooper with the 15" but had the 16" on the Cooper and thought it handled amazingly well. When I got the S again 16" and thought it was twitchy as well and the 17' runflats helped but weren't just right. The Yokos , I think are perfect tires on the S. I don't autox but used to Club race with SCCA and Skip Barber. I now find the S handling incredibly well and the tires don't yet have 200 miles. I took a corner today a little faster than I should while breaking in tires and it did get 'squishy' but was controllable. I think, with a few more miles these will do the trick. BTW I think for autox most are happy with the Yoko in 16" size.

Florida Mini Owners

 

Did you try throttle lift-off at mid corner to induce oversteer? It should work regardless of fwd or rwd