First session was good. Mini fairly capable car on track. Brake fade after 2-3 hot laps. Tires greasy after 4-5 laps. Brake pedal soft after 5+ laps, backed off a bit till they came back some. Needs higher temp pads and fluid plus a real LSD to be a track weapon. However, I was holding my own against everything this side of cayman R and new 911s. Although I should mention that I have 1000+ laps at mid Ohio; that helps. :-)

Suspension is a good compromise for street and track, could benefit from RSB but not absolutely necessary.
Back end was twitchy and stability dicey under heavy braking with all nannies turned off. Might have been tires getting too hot.

Impressed but I will stick with my race car for track fun.

Actually left after two sessions. Had fun but without better brake pads and fluid felt not smart. DEs just get boring to me. Racing is more intense and more thrilling than DE.

All that said, I love the GP and feel it is a thrill to drive daily on street.

MPGs ---> ecu retrained?
It's weird... My MPGs now suck after this track day.
Could it be I trained the ecu for more aggressive driving?
Prior to event 31.4 MPG avg since new. On my 40 mile drive home I struggled to get 28 MPG at hwy speeds. For reference, I was getting 38 hwy now 28 hwy.

In summary, GP is a street car that really shines off track and hold its own on track.

Oh btw The exhaust has a really cool crackle off throttle. >:-)

I do wonder what pads and fluid the GP had that ran 8:23 at the The Ring.

 

Great write up, thanks for sharing. Others have made similar comments regarding brake fluid and pads. Not unusual for a bone-stock setup and easily remedied

 

Agreed.

Thanks for the comments.
That write up was mostly from a series of txt msgs I had sent to a couple track friends. I thought some GP owners may be interested.

 

Do you have a recommendation for a better brake pad for hard street/ track, that's obviously better than stock? Something that's not too obnoxious noisy on the street? I've heard that the brakes are the same ones on the BMW 135.
So that opens up a lot more options.

Do you think stainless steel brake lines are really necessary, if you have a better pad and brake fluid? My average MPG with 2k miles is 24-25.

Thanks

 

Motul DOT 4 anyone ??

For pad recommendations, I track my Z06 with Carbotech pads-I'm new to the world of Mini, so I'm not sure what the popular track formulations are.

A fresh set of bedded Carbotechs and Motul DOT 4, and I am ready for 2 days at Mid Ohio with about 4-5 30 minute sessions per day(sometimes 6 sessions per day when I'm running with the Chin folks)....no brake fade through both days....

 

good info and feedback on the zo6 setup.

this is not the first time that i have heard good things about carbotechs for track use.

 

Hey thanks for the feedback on MPGs

As for the brake pads and SS brake lines, don't know, but i bet someone on this forum does.

I've heard the same thing about the brakes on the GP matching up with the 135i brake setup.

 

What where your times at Mid-Ohio?

 

For brakes we have some very cost effective upgrades for the GP.

Yellowstuff Pads which are direct replacement pads, and can be driven on the street.
Motul High Temp Brake Fluid
SS brake lines

 

Do these brake lines fit the GP? I thought the lines were slightly different on the GP to the JCW? I only have a had a quick look.

I was about to send my lines away to get a set of braided ones made up. If you have them on the shelf, that would make things easier

 

Best I can recall, my best lap times were in the low to mid 1:50s.

 

Oh Nice... any videos? WE do 1:39s in the MX5 cup... I love that track.

 

That's really moving!