Hello:
I just picked up a clean 09 JCW that needed to some engine work (bent valves), it's nicely loaded with the aero kit II AND with several cf parts including rear wing, bilstein adjustable dampers and rear sway. Looks track focused so figured I would take it to the track and run a couple of sessions in an upcoming track day that I have planned.
Does anyone have pointers on an initial set up (ride height, camber, caster, sway, corner weight?). Not looking to break track records (it's COTA so the Mini isn't really well suited for that track) but just have fun.

Appreciate any suggestions!

Also the car has these interesting cut outs in the rear bumper - any clue what these are for (some kind of removable rack?)?
Thx
Franck

PS: sorry for the pics, my wonderful iPhone has a mind of its own

 

Chassis mounted wing.

 

Thanks, already has a pretty significant fixed CF wing...!

 

remove the wing, a big (4+" out of leading edge with aggressive attack angle terminating right at rear axle ) splitter up front is far more important. A wing without a splitter will just make the high speed instability even worse

get as much camber as you can, up until 2.5 and use a pyrometer to maximize tire life, 0 toe up front and slight toe in for the rear if it's a fast track

if you are fast get pads, last time I was at the track someone had street pads on a r56 and missed half the weekend, new to no pads in 4 sessions and nobody had spares for them (some kinda wilwood fronts)

 

also I like more caster, helps on these mcpherson sucks front ends so they do not gain so much camber when you turn, I run +2 degrees caster on the track car

 

Thanks for the pointers I will see how much camber I can squeeze without changing the top shock mounts. Not sure I will have time to get a splitter and install though since I have back to back travel over the next 3 weeks. COTA is a very fast track with turn 12 really pushing brakes to the limit (even CCMs). I plan to do a couple of sessions tops with the Mini so should good on brakes.

 

MINI is a great track car so don't underestimate it as most people do. Nothing better than passing a Porsche with a MINI.

Camber in the front will be the most important to not eat through tires.

 

If this is your first track day don't worry about setup too much, though I agree with the suggestions above for as much camber as you can get up front. Do the "free camber mod": raise the front end, on each side pull out the plastic pin at the top of the shock mount, loosen the 3 top nuts, push the top of the shock as far to the center of the car as possible, re-torque the nuts. Rear should be OK for a first time out.

At a minimum do a brake fluid flush with high temp brake fluid, and consider some upgraded pads.

 

What SquawSkiBum said.

Must have:
1) high temp brake fluid and full flush of the brake system.
2) track pads in the front for a fast track like COTA. Hawk HP+ at a minimum. The best option is a set of Carbotech XP10s. Put them in at home and drive them to, at and back home from the track. These are the best pads for the MINI stock brakes. Bring the stock mini pads for a backup set.

Optional:
Schroth Quickfit harness - https://www.hmsmotorsport.com/produc...harnesses#3366
Or CG-Locks

Most of all - have fun...

 

When are you looking at going to COTA? I may come out as well since I'm local to the track too.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, for some reasons I didn't get the notifications else I would have responded sooner. The COTA event was this past weekend and I have to say that it was quite entertaining.

Not to sound presumptuous, but more to provide context I have a couple of decades track days and spec series racings (F2000, SM, Club Porsche) so this was not my first rodeo. My current track day car a Ferrari Challenge Stradale which a well balanced car, quite light, decent power. It's older and doesn't have the new driver aids and feels quite analog (in comparison to the new stuff at least). So Saturday morning was spent buzzing around with it at COTA chasing down the new Shelbys, Z6, 911 and the occasional McLaren. The afternoon...well not so much fun, it got colder and lots of rain which didn't quite work with Trofeo R tires (not designed for rain). Drive home was one of the most tense experience in a long time - yes you can aquaplane at less than 40 MPH.

Fast forward to Sunday, I decide to hedge my bets and take the "New to Me" JCW since it was still raining and the All Season tires would do better than almost slick Pirellis . First session was very greasy, so it gave me some insight on how the car was behaving (my first time on track with a FWD), felt very nimble and easy to control. I did notice that when I tried to rotate the car with off throttle oversteer some stability control would kick in even though I had the DTC off :( , still the car was entertaining and promising. Second session, things dried up and I debated whether I should go home and switch cars, but since it was still cold (by Texas standards) I decided to wait and park myself at the back of a long line of BMW, Corvettes, mustang, etc and a lonely Lotus... After the warm up lap, I found making making my way up the field and was quite surprised by how competent the car was through the Ss and turns 16-18. The downside obviously are the straights (I could not get more than 122 mph per GPS on the back stretch), but the brakes performed very well and provided entainment when being chased down by the typical big HP machines - nothing like drawing them in on a very late braking and having them overshoot their braking point and miss the corner lol. Still I felt a little hampered b/c of the hidden stability control nanny (especially turn 6 and infield section). However; by the end of session 2, I was in love with this little car. Google search gave me the answer on how to fully disconnect the stability control and the rest of the day was spent "annoying" BMW, Mustangs and Corvettes through the corner and holding them up on the straights

In sum, had one of the most fun track days in a long time - the car is so tossable and easy to drive at the limit - but still feels very quick. While Ferrari is almost 30 seconds faster around the track (JCW lap times were 2:55-57 - yikes!), the JCW has a much higher fun factor for me especially on the $/mile running cost. So I am a JCW convert and will plan to do this again after some mods. Clearly the all season tires really couldn't keep up, but brakes did very well so will keep the stock Brembos and put track pads and new rotors. As I posted at the beginning of the thread, the engine is stock (even has the OE air intake) but the suspension may be upgraded since it have adjustable coilovers and rear sway bar. I will post some pictures and maybe someone can give me some insight and where I can go from there to make it even more track focused

 

Nicely done!
And welcome to the wonderful world of MINIs on the track. Here are some suggestions from my experience:
Suspension-
camber up front, -1.5 min to around -3 if you can get it. Need camber plates for the front. The rear is adjustable to a point.
Poly bushings for the front lower control arms.
I am a big fan of big front (27mm) and rear (25 mm, hollow) sway bars. But if you have the JCW sport bars (24mm front and 18.5mm rear) I would leave it. Or do what everyone else does,which is, stick in the 25mm hollow bar in the back and call it a day.

DTC - you should be able to turn that off with the button by the shifter. You need to hold it down for about 10 sec for it to go full off. That is how both my ‘07 and ‘1w Ss work. Yours should be the same.

Tires - Bridgestone RE71Rs. Nothing else to say there.

A real LSD - do you know if your MINI has a factory one?

The Schroth Quickfit harness I suggested before.

Glad to hear you are having fun with it!

 

Oh, ya, leave the engine stock. There are some really good street tunes out there but friends of mine who have tried them on the track have not been overly successful, as in they throw codes.

Also, replace the fan belt.

 

Is this some kind of Mini of test? Considering the car has a 2 stage electric fan that is ECU controlled...fan belt, is that what you wear around your waist?

 

I'll take some pictures of the different components that are currently on the car to see what needs to be upgraded. I like the RE71, good all around tires - size? BTW, was able to disconnect everything (considering the BWM lineage should have guessed since my M3s have similar process).

THX!

 

I’m just a bit old school

The serpentine belt. I had one let go on my ‘07 MINI and one almost go on my ‘12 MINI. Both were at about 35k miles. The ‘07 belt took out the water pump when it went.

Another “also” - these car eat spark plugs. At least mine does.

 

Well I went online looking for some info to see if the car has a limited slip diff. I could not confirm but did come across a link to a cool story about the car. http://www.motoringfile.com/2013/06/...to-the-jcw-gp/ (the VIN is WMWMF93589TF96238)

 

Interesting story. It would have been nice if he had posted the part numbers. I believe the GP suspension uses the JCW (option) Sports suspension front and rear sway bar and adds to that a Bilstein height adjustable coilovers. The MINI version of there coilovers are much more expensive than the Bilstein version. There are several vendors who post here on NAM that carry both. The thing I don’t know about is how MINI obtains the -1 1/2 deg camber up front. That might be a special bearing set at the top. From what I have been told the defuser from the GP kit is worth it. Again there are vendors here who carry it.

As for tire size - there is not a lot of room in these wheel wells. I have not been able to figure out how I can get an 8” wide wheel to fit. One that I did try, didn’t fit. So that leaves 7” wheels. In that size the best option is a 215-45x17. While a 225 will fit, I found that a 7” wheel pinches the tire and there is no gain in traction (but it looks cool. ).

I have seen posts where people have put 235s on there cars, but I don’t know how. My 225s rub.

The stock wheel offset is 47mm. The MINI really likes 35-40mm.

Hope that helps.

 

I'll stick to 215, my experience is that larger tires don't necessarily result in better handling (and create more problems, rubbing, tramlining etc..). Not sure if the car was ever corner weight after the suspension replacement, but may do you time permitting. Any recommendations on the ride height and rake? I assume 50% cross is the way to go?
Thanks again for the input!

 

Not sure on lowering the car and corner weighing as I have stock springs and non-adjustable shocks. The only thing that I have read on NAM is that going too low causes a vibration in the front on some MINIs. There was nothing that anyone could say for sure as to what caused the vibration but it would go away when the car was raised a bit. I seem to remember lowering the car up to 1.5” was ok. A place to start would be the height of a stock MINI and go some amount below that, maybe an inch all the way around. Then play with it from there. I could get you a measurement from mine as a “stock” measurement. At least it would be a starting point.

You asked about caster - Alta used to carry a bushing for the front lower control arm that was made with an off set that would add something like 0.5 deg more caster. From the one person I know who tried them, he liked the result for autocross. You could check into those.

As a point of reference, I run a pretty conservative setup. It is fun, but it also will keep me out of trouble. By that I mean that if I have to lift off the throttle in the middle of a 105 mph turn because someone decides to slow suddenly in front of me, I don’t have to worry about snap oversteer, which these cars can be setup to have. The sway bar combination I have gives me a front to rear roll stiffness ratio that is in between that of the MINI sports suspension and the JCW sports suspension, with my rear sway bar on the softest setting. I also run the stock toe-in setting and I balance the -1.5 camber in the front with -2.0 deg in the rear. With your driving and race experience you could go with something a little more radical, such as a stiffer rear sway bar ratio compared to the front and maybe a little less camber in the rear.

 

Agreed on the need for more camber, Vorshlag camber plates allowed for -2 deg. all around and transformed the car. Also a 22mm RSB.

 

The 22 mm RSB is a solid bar; the 25 mm RSB that I have is a hollow bar. They are about equal in stiffness; the 25 mm bar is just a few lbs lighter. <div style="text-align:left;"></div>

 

on the track more tire helps a LOT, autocrossers will fit 275's hoosiers on the front and smaller on the back

I picked up quite a bit of grip going from 7" with 205 to 8" with 225 and an r56 has more room for tire than my r53

 

mega72 - I can’t get 225-45x17 R888s on 7” wheels to fit on my R56 without rubbing. It would be even worse with 8” wheels. Those same wheels wouldn’t fit on a friend’s R56 with coilovers, without a large spacer up front. On the other hand, I have friends who ran 225-45x15s on 8” wheels on their R53s with no problems. Not sure how to make an 8” wide wheel with 225 or larger tires fit my car without rolling the fenders and/or needing staggered offsets.

 

how close to the coilovers were you?