Assumptions like 'seems pretty even' are the enemy of improvement, you don't know how far is far enough until you go too far and have to bring it back. The double edged sword of ST, lots of ***** to turn.

Our Mini on Bridgestones would be in the top 10 times of the day at one club and midpack with another club at the exact same site drawing 100+ participants at each event, I don't think it was ever out of the bottom half on PAX in STX let alone STU for the clubs that follow SCCA class structure, and I have zero complaints about either's course design nor do I think one favored a certain car over another. Our local SCCA chapter is very strong with several drivers and fully prepared cars that have won national trophies in STX, STU, and some very fast STR cars. Our Mini was never in the ballpark but our FR-S is getting close to competitive with the fast guys.

An ST*-lite Mini is great fun and will surprise a ton of people who don't know what they're capable of but I just don't think they stand a chance against well setup and driven Street Touring Evo's, STI's, M3's, 350Z's, RX8's, MX-5's and FRZ's.

You're right, I glossed over the LSD, it's a real shame they didn't bother to put a torsen in this thing from the factory, the open-diff brake biasing is terrible for going fast, probably a tie for me on the worst design choice for the car aside from the wheel/tire clearance imho.

I can't speak to stock springs but yes, more than -3° of camber is possible with 60mm ID springs, not sure how much bigger the spring can get up front before issues happen but I think there's some wiggle room there for say a 65mm or 2.5" spring. We're using KW Clubsport camber plates and powerflex lower control arm offset bushings to get that much camber, I don't think you can get there without bushings+camber plates.

 

I don't think Mini Cooper JCWs that are in STU should be there. They are "underhorsepowered" and FWD...They fit right into STH but for some reason are excluded as hatchbacks from that class...SCCA reasoning, I don't know.

That being said, I bought a Mini for a number of reasons and am enjoying trip up the timing ladder so far...I have knocked a lot of rust off my driving after 6 AutoX events and plan to become a spoiler in STU...lol

 

IMO, the Minis were a good fit in STX, speed was on par with the Twins. But you can't anger Twin owners or they'll take their ball and go home.

I think Minis would destroy STH due to their weight and physical size compared to the other cars.

 

I have learned through other threads on NAM that MINIs weren't placed in STH primarily due to their lower weight vs. HP advantage when compared to other cars in the class. I have an 06 R53 JCW. I used to compete in STX at the regional level and kept losing badly to RX-8s and FRS/BRZ twins. In my mind, STX should be restricted to RWD drive cars. FWD and AWD cars in STX should be in another or separate class. But that's just me.

So this year I said to hell with competing in STX. I pulled the rear seat and installed a rear seat delete kit and am now competing in SMF. I then placed second in PAX for all SM cars and finished first in RAW for SMF cars at a regional event earlier this year.

 

I don't think they're under powered at all now that boost is open, the NA STU cars are around 300whp, Heitkotter claimed 290whp on his championship winning 350z when he sold it, the M3s are right around there too. Pretty much all the hot hatches including the Mini can hit numbers like that.

I think the Mini needs STH to prove that it's faster than STX on big courses, right now it's paxed slower, which may not change significantly since pax is skewed towards local competition not national. People need to build serious Civic SI, GTI, Focus ST and WRXs for STH that prove what kind of speed the class is really at. Those cars are bigger and heavier than the F56, but I think they get a wheel and tire advantage over the Mini that would make it a fair enough fight and the mini can get bumped down into it. But I think this horse might be significantly beaten to death, looking forward to seeing if the 245/45/17 works out!

 

whats your operating temperature of the tires ?

 

An Audi TTS in STH set up properly is super fast...AWD is a huge advantage. With so many AWDs out there now I really think the STF Class should come back for Front Wheel Drive Cars. All that being said, I'm having a lot of fun
in the Mini and am getting faster in STU LOCALLY...gonna jump up to 245/40/17s next weekend to get the mini lower than on the 245/45/17s and gain some acceleration over the taller 245/45/17s. The other change I might make
soon is to upgrade the Bilsteins to the B16 PSS10 that have 10 Shock/Strut Adjustments available and also change the camber settings (Probably next week with the 245/40/17s to gain a bit of clearance)

 

Years back talking to the Bridgestone reps at a national tour the RE71R likes to be between 140-160F, probing after a run on a hot day I usually see 120-130F, a little more when it's scorching a little less when it's chilly (usually 50F-105F temp range out here for our autoxs). Seems to be reasonable temperature drop, managed to skidpad and stop on course (test and tune event) and probe and did see 145-ish iirc.

 

Sounds like you are having fun with this...

It will be interesting to hear how you make out with the 245/40-17” tires. In particular whether they are overly pinched on the 7.5” wide wheels.