So I picked up an 09 MCS a few months ago as a new daily, and figured I'd take it out to the local auto-x last night. As it sits, it's tuned, has a set of coilovers, a catless DP, and some Enkei's with 235/40/17 square.

Unfortunately it didn't drive how I expected it to. I'm new to FWD, but I didn't feel like I was overdriving the car. Here are my specs.

Camber: -2.5f -1.5r
Zero Toe all around
8k front springs 7k rear springs
235/40/17 Yoko S.Drive 33psi front 40psi rear
I did not have the car corner balanced, but I've set the rear wheel gap to be a little more than the front.

I have stock swaybars and bushings all around.

The main issue I had was getting the rear to rotate... The only way I could "set" the car was to come in a little hot and push for a second, and then lift to get the rear finally start coming around a little. Is there a way to set up a FWD car that will allow the rear to start rotating before it pushes? Does anyone run a smaller rear tire than front? Maybe a big rear swaybar will make that much of a difference?

I have hundreds of hours of seat time in a BMW, but have never really driven a FWD car before, and this is frustrating me haha. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Larger rear swaybar. Done.

 

A MINI will not drive like the RWD BMW. The balance is all different. With FWD you don't have the ability to steer the car with the rear wheels as you are probably used to. As you say, rotating a MINI takes a major throttle lift in a corner... That said:

Your front tire pressure is way too low. I run about 40 psi in front and a couple of pounds lower in the back. Others on here have said they run about 45 up front. You will need to search a little to find the details.

You didn't say what your toe-in is. I believe that should be about 0. Again, a search should provide you with good suspension settings. If you have much in the way of toe-in the car will push.

You also didn't say whether the car has LSD in it. Not having it is a royal PIA in having to control wheel spin and will cause the car to push more.

Turn off any traction control.

Slow in, fast out. If you start with too much push in a corner, you will kill a lot of speed controlling it mid-corner.

In general, the MINI S with the stock sway bars front and rear will push in a tight corner. Are the shocks adjustable? If they are, then you will need to get out on a skid pad and figure out the settings that work best. I think the Koni web page has some instructions as to how to do this. This is probably more important than balancing the springs.

A larger rear sway bar will definitely help. There are many to choose from. Personally, I like the larger front and rear bars that came with the sports suspension. My '07 had a 20mm RSB and I didn't like the handling changed when the rear wheel came off the ground. My '12 with the sports suspension is much better. I would expect that you can compensate for not having a larger front bar with shock adjustments.

However, IMHO I think you should not change the car from what you have right now. If I were you, I would learn how to set the shocks and tire pressures and work with that for a while. Once you have that optimized/figured out, than think about sway bars. If you change too many things right now, you may just make it worse.

 

FWIW my STX car ran 38f and 50r with a stiff bar out back. That was pretty neutral. Did I mention I was running a staggered setup also? 15x8 w/ 225/45 out front, but only 15x7 w/195 in the back...

I also learned the hard way that it takes 8" rims to get the benefit of tire widths greater than 205 mm. Are you running 8"? If not those 235s are pinched a bit, and raising the tire pressures in front could cost you a fair bit of traction.

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

I run 215-45x17s all around at the pressures I noted. I have noticed that the MINI really likes the 38mm offset wheels that I am using. They are almost as good as the camber plates I have.

The 8" wide wheels also effectively move the tire further out. However, I could probably do with wheels wider than the 7" that I currently have.

 

Eddie,

I have my front offset at 33mm and my rears at 45mm. The wheels I'm running are 17x7.5 all around.

I don't think I'd ever want to increase the front bar size... the car pushes enough as is. I know that it won't drive like my BMW, but right now it pushes more than I feel it should. I can lift-oversteer, but not enough so that I can make it around the larger sweepers effectively.

CMT,

My wheels are 7.5 all around, and the 235s are a tad squished on there. I can feel the tire roll over slightly on turn in, but not enough to where I feel like it's causing anything to behave inconsistently. I'll try raising my rear pressures up quite a bit and seeing if that helps. I may have to drop tire size like you did in the rear as well... Thanks for the input!

 

I know, I am in the minority on this one. Everyone of my track friends told me the same thing when I had my '07 and I complained about it plowing...then I got my '12 with the sports suspension and I am a believer. Here is my take on it - and I am not trying to convince you to go this way, just my thoughts... The front corner of a stock MINI dives a lot in a turn (I know, yours is not stock, but bear with me). You can improve that with a larger bar in the back, which in effect moves some weight to the back by lifting on that inside rear wheel. But, you lose overall traction by doing this (eg: 4 wheels on the ground is better than 3). Putting a larger front and rear bar on, as MINI does with the sports or JCW suspension, increases the overall roll stiffness of the car and moves some of the roll stiffness further back. You get less dive in front and get improved rotation of a large bar in the back. This does work well in a long sweeper. Now, I will admit that I got more rotation in my '07 with the 20mm bar in the back when I would lift off the throttle, but I think that overall my new car is more consistent and easier to drive.

Now, in effect everyone who puts stiffer springs into their car is increasing the roll stiffness of both ends of the car, similar to putting in a larger sway bar at each end. Just "food" for thought.

Now, back to your car...I would work with the shock adjustment, if they are adjustable. This can really change the under/over steer characteristics of the car. Sorry, I can't find the instructions on how to do this; they were on one of the shock manufacture's web page, just don't remember which one.