It begins...

 

Hanging around bars now are we??

:-)

 

hopefully it'll be worth it... do you set up your car fairly loose?

 

My setup is neutral enough so that I can go from mild to "Oh Sh*t" by changing the rear tire pressures.

When we run on the postage stamp circuit at New Hampshire Motor Speedway VIP Parking lot (about a 30 second course) I find that a wagging tail can be helpful.

Working the sweepers at Devens near the top of 2nd gear - not so much!

But the bottom line for me is the daily driver role, and I have no desire to be crossed up on a public road.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

good info - thanks!

 

Just thought I'd throw a mini update in here:

I've got all the parts I need now, save for FCM tuned Bilsteins. Just waiting for a warm day to put everything in the car! I've been doing a lot of updating in the new journal that I made, but once events start I'll probably post in both places diligently so I can get quality responses.

 

I too am waiting for a warm day...

6 degrees this morning, so not yet.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

yeesh. btw, you don't have a blog or anything for ur autox endeavors do you? something like http://r56hs.com/ ?

 

FWIW Shaikh decided to get into minis after driving the one I was running in Houston while he was visiting.

Save up because his valving will be wonderful.

 

lol then i have you to thank. he's got the bilsteins right now.

 

Will you get before and after test plots of the shocks?

 

Nope - just a few comments here and there, but you've seen that.

Not much to say in winter, as my escapades in snowstorms aren't noteworthy.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

sadly not.. as soon as I got them I had to ship them out to fcm to get them ready in time

 

I was wondering if the shop doing the revalve might do a before and after test.

 

good question - not sure. i know he doesn't like to reveal dyno plots of the dampers though.. so probably not.

 

Interesting...

 

just to update this thread: i finally spoke with FCM about the setup etc., and I'm confident I'll receive the dampers on time. Everything else is about ready to go, just need to receive the dampers and throw everything together!

Full set up data here: http://r56hs.com/2014/03/04/suspension-set-up-fcm/

 

Love the Fat Cat magnets

As for the springs, you say in your blog that they are progressive. The JCW springs you show have evenly spaced coils of the same diameter, I would think that makes them linear rate springs. The little change at the end gets compressed out when installed and would not count.

At any rate...looking forward to hearing about how the rest of your build goes.

 

Before he finishes those up, you might want to have him add more compression to the rear shocks, and a way to adjust it. Just because its the "right" damping doesn't mean its fast.

 

thanks - the FCM magnets I had done by SPS, only cost 40 including shipping - idk, I thought that was a really great deal. Once they're on the door I'll have a good pic of how big they are.

As far as the springs go, you're right - I'm actually not sure. I assumed they were progressive because that's what people said, and I'm not sure if the springs with the tightly wound-ness at the end means it's progressive rather than behaving as a helper spring. It's a shame MINI doesn't just publish all this info.

I think the way he's setting up, we're just targeting a good "ratio" as far as the frequencies go - I mention in my blog, I think we're looking at 1.4hz in the front and 1.6 or so in the rear - and that's before factoring in adjusting the rear sway bar to it's stiffest settings. I believe he's also got another trick up his sleeve as far as "adjusting" goes, but not with a ****. Also have tire pressures to play with. Really though, I'm hoping the hsport comp RSB, at least on it's stiffest setting (~383% stiffer) will be "enough" - let me know what you think. I'm not fixed on anything just yet, and definitely appreciating the inputs and suggestions.

 

This is what I would expect a "progressive rate" spring to look like:
http://www.waymotorworks.com/nm-engi...g-springs.html
The objective of these springs is that the coils that are more closely space will come in contact leaving the remaining, wider spaced coils to do the work, which effectively shortens the spring to make it stiffer. These generally are less desirable for racing because the springs have to compress more than linear springs in order to get their performance. This will mean more dive in braking and roll when cornering.


I can't say for sure about the MINI springs. As you said it would be nice if someone published the actual spring rates for their MINI springs.

 

The bar is only useful up to a point, then it mostly just adds snap oversteer (that said, mine is on full stiff). The extra compression in the rear shocks slows everything down (you are fighting both the spring and the shock) and will give you a smooth, relatively predictable, trail brake looseness that can be exploited. Ask Honda93, he was skeptical on the double adjustable rears til he drove my car.

You can do the math all day (and I do at my day job), but you need to really do things "wrong" on these cars to get them to work. I was going to add even more rear compression after last year, but decided to keep it where its at due to the street tires. Really, the car still isn't loose enough. Drive a ST civic and you'll realize what its supposed to be like. One last note, a car that works well on your local asphalt may need ever more compression for grippy Nebraska concrete. Adjustability matters. No surface is identical.

 

hmm yea - i assumed that was more for acting as a built-in helper spring. you might be right in that these aren't progressive though, in which case i could give compressing them a shot - or just take it somewhere that can measure rates. STL isn't exactly a hotbed for performance, but I have a shop I can check with.

Thanks for the insight. I was wondering whether full stiff on the rear bar would be "too much" but it seems like they won't be from what you say? I can definitely follow up with Shaikh about adding more compression in the rear, or at least what we have as far as adjustability goes. I have driven an insanely loose SMF '96 Civic, which was decently fast - as long as you could keep the car from oversteering into oblivion.

 

The mini will never be that, but that is the goal. Just the bar and tire pressures will not get the car to rotate on concrete.

 

Interesting. Thanks for the insight. I'll keep that in mind, and definitely follow up with FCM on the setup matter.