Hey everyone, So I have a '02 Cooper S with a 15% pully reduction, no run flats. I live in Seattle and so roads are wet a fair amount in the rainy season a.k.a. now... When taking off in first gear on flat land get massive amounts of wheel spin, don't even touch traction control...yet.... Just wondering if anyone gets this too? The tires are fairly new with still tons of tread on them. Never had a car with this much torque at low RPMs . Kind of wondering if there is a way to get around that since I know one day I will get stuck on a steep slope in the rain.

 

did you use the wrong type of rubber? summer or all season kind of thing in places less than 7 celcius?

 

it's half and half kind of like a semi slick... so maybe summer tires... (I didn't buy them I got the car with them)

 

yeah, we need to know what kind of tires are on the car, and in the grand scheme of things the MINI doesn't really have a lot of torque compared to some other "Tuner Type" cars. Maybe equal too but differently not at the top of the list..

 

I have the same issue, I'm running fallen ziex all season tires, brand new. Even in the dry they break into a full on burnout at the top of first gear and will continue through second and third if I don't let off during gear changes. I don't why they spin so much, I'm guessing the 40 profile has something to do with it.

 

No, it's the crappy tires.

 

+1 for tires.

A lot of people want tires that will last a long time, and in doing so, end up with a very hard tire compound (great for mileage poor for performance). Some people opt to compromise long tire life for more grip. (The difference between All Season to Summer Performance and a compromise between the two is a All Season Performance).

Motor on!

 

Buy better and the right tires ...
Cheap discount made in China rubber is pretty bad.....especially if there is a tiny amount of sand or moisture on the road...
The 200 foot burnout is fun sometimes....but veryvhard on the drive train...and tires will not last very long....
Course you could learn how to use your right foot for traction control....hate to see you in the snow if you spin in the rain.... Just cause you can does not mean you should....

 

Crappy rubber & heavy left foot = wheel spin. To remedy this change one of those 2 components.

 

summer tires in the super cold will do this, also crappy tires will as well, one big difference is that we do have instant boost, unlike a turbo need a load to create high boost.

some surfaces are slipperier than others as well. not to mention you dont have a LSD to help put the power down, one wheel peel!

ive used 3 sets of tires in two years, not including my winters

i originally had khumo all seasons run flats, these were interesting, a mishmosh blend of no traction and traction, had no problem moving through snow and rain as i was moving, couldnt get started tho. and in the dry i could feel slippage while enthusiastically going thru gears. then i moved to BFG KDW's, these took all the slippage out in the dry and ran really well in the wet, i pushed these tires real hard and found their limitations in the dry/wet. moved to sumitomo HTR z3 and wondered why ever had the KDW's. when its warm i feel as if i nearly have more tire than car and in the warm wet they are fantastic.

lesson learned, 2 sets of dedicated tires is way better than 1 pair of crap-seasons

although if i had 3 sets, it would be a winter set, a summer super sticky set, and a long range set for when i do road trips

not sure why they are called all seasons when they really work in nothing but warm temperature dry, and even then they still dont work to the lowest grade summer tire

 

I have Continental extreme contact tyres they say DWS dry wet snow. (http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthr...DWS-235-45ZR17 this is their tread)

 

What do you mean by "don't even touch traction control". Do you mean that the traction control doesn't come on when the wheels are spinning?

Is there a possibility that the tires aren't spinning, but the clutch is slipping. I am just asking to be thorough not to be insulting.

 

You must have 2 left feet. : )

Sent from my iPhone using NAMotoring

 

The DWS are an excellent tire - one of the higher rated all season tires for rain and snow. How much tread depth do you have on them?

 

Also you might want to post the production date stamped on the tires sidewalks...
Old tires tend to harden...and become dangerous after about 6 years from production...

 

rwkeating- not being rude here, but I do know it is the tyres.
SquamishDroc- More than Abe Lincoln has on his head (about 12mm in depth? not entirely sure but there is still a lot of life on them)
ZippyNH- As far as I know right now they are a under a year old. It's dark right now and raining so not checking currently.

 

You are riding on a mediocre all-season tire over wet pavement - wheel spin is to be expected.

Conti DWS are at the bottom third of the list (#22):
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey....jsp?type=GTAS

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The list you gave a link to doesn't even have the DWS listed in it......

 

I have the Conti Extreme DWS and they are an excellent all season. I don't have any abnormal issues with traction.

 

I'm running Goodyear Eagle GT's on mine and don't have anything even resembling excessive wheelsman. I'm sure the my factory LSD helps a lot, but it sounds like you are running a very hard compound tire to me.

 

^ I'd say the LSD is the key there. I had Brand new Eagle GT's that the previous owner installed on my '07 and the grip was less than great. Good for a basic sport tire, but not for my driving. Cold wet weather it didn't perform. Otherwise a decent tire.

The DWS tires are great, I'm puzzled why you would be having an issue with the tires. So my only guess is that heavy right foot. You don't happen to have a Sprint Booster do you?

 

DWS with fairly new tires, intsalled atleast, with tread.

i thinking sprint booster, or just a very greasy road

 

When new they have 11/32 of tread...

I'm guessing that this is you first higher powered car....
if the PSI is good, and the tires are reasonable recent, they should do fine if you do not have too much of a lead foot....

A very smart driver once said "it is more fun to drive an under-powered car hard than an high powered car gently."......
When the road surface is not ideal....aka contaminated, you cannot push as hard...

 

ZippyNH- This is actually the lowest HP car I have driven/Owned, I am more concerned about on the hills of Seattle.. I don't care about in a straight line it's not having grip up these mountain hills.
The tyres are from 2011, I was told to try a rotate of the tyres, if that doesn't help, burn them out by hard driving and replace them...

 

2011? Those tires sat for a while, if you bought them, thats kind of a bum deal.