I wasn't sure if I should post this in the 1st gen section or here, so moderators feel free to move it if this isn't the right place...

I took my 2006 R53 Checkmate out to the track a couple weeks ago. I'm not new to the track or HPDE events (been doing them in my other cars for 5-6 years) but this was the first time in a Mini, and first time in a FWD car. I didn't have time to set the car up yet, have just been heads down restoring it and fixing up issues since I bought it a year ago, and I have been focused on my other track cars, so I didn't even do the basics like a decent alignment or DOT4 fluid! Either way, figured I'd go shake it down and see what breaks so I know what to fix up as I convert the car to a proper track toy!

Wanted to share and see if some of these are common or known problems with the platform:
1. Car was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be in the current state :D It's definitely slower than my other track toys, but handled much better than I expected street tires on street alignment and street suspension to hold up!
2. The first issue was totally to be expected: my brakes faded & died on me early in the day since they were OEM & not DOT4 fluid. I spent the rest of the day sailing into turns way too fast and understeering through since I couldn't slow down and rotate the car enough as a result. I have ordered some DS2500 pads, SS brake lines, and I have plenty of both Motul 600 and Castrol SRF in the garage to flush with. Definitely 1st on my list of things to address.
3. I gave the tires a beating. The track I went to (Thunderhill East near the Bay Area) is really hard on the front right tire due to lots of high speed left handers, so the front right tire is absolutely shredded (see picture). They were new, only 1k miles on them. I think if I rotate diagonal and try and push a bit more camber (whatever I can do with stock suspension bits for now) I can get another day or two out of them though. I would not run that tire in the front right again though, probably wouldn't make it through the day without catastrophic failure.
4. My power steering kept cutting in and out. This was terrifying the first time as it happened at 90mph+ on a turn. The steering suddenly tightened up like a brick and I thought I was going to sail right off the track at the exit of the turn but I muscled the wheel to turn anyways and made it through. It was much harder to steer than a car without power steering, so I assume I was probably pushing against the stalled pump. This kept happening multiple times in the same lap. Like every few turns, etc... eventually I got used to it, but man were my arms, wrists, and forearms tired by the end of the day. I know the pumps on these cars are finicky, and I verified the PS fan was working, but I think since I'm going for weight reduction & stripping the car anyways, I'm just going to do a power steering delete & be done with it. I ordered the condor kit.
5. The seats didn't give anywhere near enough support. My back was tired from trying to hold myself in place, and my legs were chaffed up from rubbing aginst the center console to brace myself. I think I'm going to put in a race seat. I'm a pretty big guys, and I've had good luck with the Evo L (similar to the obsolete Evo 2 US) in my other race cars, so going to try and cram one of those in here :D

Again, overall really impressed with how well it handled despite all of that. Car has 119k miles and I've had to put quite a bit of work into it to get it running smoothly so I was going into this fully expecting to trailer the car home haha. But it survived!

Here are some fun pics and a video of one of my better laps of the day, but I was nowhere near the limit of the car because I had to coast up to turns and not rely on braking since brakes were dead

Car has an easy 2:15 at this track with just better alignment & brakes. I'm hoping with some weight reduction, stickier tires, and updating the suspension a bit to get it down to 2:10 - 2:12.

 

Nice pics - those tires look tortured, fun times. How'd you make out with the power steering delete? Any tips you can pass on for others going to do it? Any other updates/mods to the car since your last outing?

Cheers,
Colin

 

The car has come a long way since this post It's fully stripped out and getting prepped for a cage soon. I've reduced weight everywhere, race seat for driver, dialed in suspension (ohlin r&t + stiffer adjustable rear sway bar + offset ball joints + camber plates + alignment), upgraded brakes to handle the extra stress on them, and of course the power steering delete. Overall the car is around 2350is lbs with gas in it (but without me in it), and engine is still pretty much stock (only Alta air intake, no other power mods). Last time back to Thunderhill I did 2:11 on 4 day old tires, and still needed more camber. I've upped the camber (-3 deg F, -2.5 deg R now) and put on fresh sticky tires. Hoping to get a 2:08 next time out in the car.

Regarding the power steering delete: it took me a long time to decide if I was happy with it or not. The car is a LOT harder to steer at low speeds. More camber & a bit more caster (from the various suspension changes) helped. Going too wide on front tires just makes it worse lol. I've stuck with 205-215 tire width up front, even though I know some people run 225+. But now that I'm used to it, it's pretty good. First few track days with depowered steering got my forearms and wrists/hands so tired after about 15m that I often had to coast a bit my last few laps in a 20m session. Or I'd go all out and then need some rest afterwards. Maybe I'm just a wuss, but it was pretty brutal. Now I can easily do 25m+ sessions without trouble. I wish someone made a true manual rack for the car, because it feels like the gearing on the rack was really optimized for power steering, so without the pump it feels like the ratio of steering wheel to actual wheel rotation is not quite enough. Looking back, I'm happy with the change and would do it again. But there was a while where I didn't feel that way.

 

Some random progress pics while I was working on the car... I probably should have started a build thread with pictures at every step, but didn't really think of it