When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Wonderful thread and links. Our 2016 JCW is tracked occasionally. Until last year, the “main” track car was a 2013 R56 S. Mods were simply a NM 22mm solid RSB, Ireland Engineering camber plates, track wheels and tires- ran Toyo Proxes R888R. Also had a JB+ tuning chip (questionable utiliy) and a Sprint Booster (throttle curve step up.). Next would ha e been coil overs to lower. That’s the list I suggest.
Why do I post here, you ask. We also have a 2016 F56 JCW with DDC which is also tracked. It has a 22mm NM RSB, a sprint booster and a Burger motor sports chip box. Again, Sprint Booster which is fabulous. The car is desperate for lowering and more negative camber. Rear is set out as far out as eccentric will allow. Best I can tell, no adjustment on front camber. I am desperate for ways to lower and adjust alignment. Appreciate any thoughts.
I agree with the comments above about power. IMHO, the suspension tuning, good brake pads and the sprint booster will keep you challenged for a long time and embarrass a fair number of Porscenicks.
K Mac makes a Caster/Camber plate which works well. Caster turns into camber when the front wheels are turned and the MINI is helped a lot by this. Without caster the static, straight-line camber disappears when turning the steering wheel.
Take care on lowering the car. A little is good, more is bad. Lowering the car lowers the roll center. A little lowering of the car lowers the roll center a lot and it can quickly get to be below ground level and when that happens it hurts handling. Maybe, only to about 3/4” is good. More, not so much.
The MINI JCW Pro suspension is a pretty good option for the F56. It will allow a modest amount of lowering and it stiffens the car nicely.
According to Realoem.com the “S” and JCW take the same intercooler. The Helix one should fit. That said, Forge makes one for the JCW that appears to be larger than the one they make for the “S”. Forge is a good brand. Wagner shows up on NAM quite a bit, with good remarks. Just don’t get a knock-off one. The flow tends to not be good through them from what people here on NAM say.
.
I think the piping connections are different sizes, most vendors have different parts for the S vs JCW.
I think the piping connections are different sizes, most vendors have different parts for the S vs JCW.
I saw the post above that Helix said they were different. That was a surprise given what RealOem said . Usually they are accurate in their information, or did I miss something in my search. This is why I like this forum, there is always something new to learn...
I saw the post above that Helix said they were different. That was a surprise given what RealOem said . Usually they are accurate in their information, or did I miss something in my search. This is why I like this forum, there is always something new to learn...
Maybe a fat finger? I pulled 4/2016 JCW and S on there and these are the PNs that came up: 17517617600 & 17517617598
There is a ton of great information in there, including his front and rear lowering heights and camber settings, which I will be using as my starting points when my JCW Suspension Kit and K-Mac Camber Plates come in.
Maybe a fat finger? I pulled 4/2016 JCW and S on there and these are the PNs that came up: 17517617600 & 17517617598
Maybe post LCI they made them the same?
Never have been accused of having fat fingers, but I have been known to misread things. In looking at it again, I see that I went to the cross-reference page for the JCW version and found “F56, JCW, ...” read it as “F56” thinking it was the base model, then “JCW” thinking it meant including the JCW... Clearly (now) I see that was bonkers...
It appears RealOEM is reliable and that I am less so...
OK, so the next round of installations took place last week: ECU flash, downpipe, clutch, intercooler, intake, various hard pipes, short shifter, etc. The car feels like a whole new beast. I'm still breaking in the clutch gently so I haven't tried out all of the additional power the ECU tune provides yet. Another 50-100 miles and I'll start getting frisky. Will report back once I have a sense of the full performance boost.
I'm still waiting on the JCW Pro Suspension Kit from Europe, which will get installed sometime next month, along with my camber plates, and a Milltek exhaust system. Still debating pros/cons of rear camber links, rear tie bars, etc.
Most of the recently installed parts aren't particularly visible, but you can at least see the Eventuri carbon intake and one of the Forge hard pipes in this picture:
Also forgot to post a picture of the new Cravenspeed Adjustable Short Shifter, along with a few of their other parts... Shift **** and Cap, Shifter Retaining Clip Pro, and their Shift Well Cover which deletes the MINI's stock Drive Mode Selector. With a little help from BimmerCode the car now starts up in Sport Mode so it's ALL SPORT, ALL THE TIME
OK, the project is finally done. In the end I upgraded nearly everything on the car... Wheels, Tires, ECU Flash, Downpipe, Clutch, Diff, Intercooler, Intake, Brakes, Shifter, Bushings, Suspension, Camber Plates, Tie Bars, Exhaust, and even the Instrument Panel and Headunit. I also wrapped the roof in a carbon fiber PPF.
Here are some pics. The Milltek Valved Exhaust sounds *fantastic*.
Last edited by bradstyle; Aug 25, 2021 at 04:01 PM.
As far as the suspension goes I installed a JCW Pro Suspension kit, based on the KW v1. I dropped the car by 15mm in front and 11mm in back, and shot for -2.1° of camber at all wheels. Thanks to @cmt52663 and @Eddie07S for the guidance. Here’s the alignment report and a sample of what the car looked like before and after:
I put the car on a Mustang Dyno the other day and she’s putting out 270whp. My best guess is that’s around 310bhp or an 80hp gain above stock. I’m pretty happy with that for not having touched the motor (yet… hmmm). Here’s the report:
Last edited by bradstyle; Aug 25, 2021 at 04:49 PM.
I guess it would make best sense to break my observations down component by component:
WHEELS / TIRES: I switched from 205/40R18s on stock 18” Cup Spokes to Yokohama Advan A052s 225/45R17 on Neuspeed RSe16 17x8.0 +45 wheels. The grip difference is phenomenal. At my last track session before the upgrades I was screeching all around the track, now I feel incredibly planted and capable of more speed. Not sure how many track days I’ll get out of a set but it looks like the front tires are taking the brunt of the wear.
ECU FLASH / DOWNPIPE / EXHAUST: The State 2 RPM tune provided by @MarioKart produced a huge change in the feel of the car. It went from being quick and refined to raw and ferocious. It’s definitely a bit of a handful to drive and I love it. It torque steers like my R56 JCW used to, or even a bit more, but I’m the type of guy who can appreciate a bit of “active driving”. I wish I had gone for the Cold Start option on the tune, it’s conspicuously loud when I fire it up at home, and it makes me a bit self-conscious with the neighbors. I used Bimmer Code to set the car to be in Sport Mode all the time, because, why not? I would even put the car in Sport Mode to move it out of the driveway. The Milltek Valved Exhaust is probably the most fun single component of the whole install. I didn’t think I wanted a loud car generally, but with the valves closed it’s very controlled, and muffles all pops and burbles really really well, especially when driving through my neighborhood. When the valves are open the car becomes over-the-top aggro and the pops and burbles are glorious.
INTAKE / INTERCOOLER: What can I say? I’m a sucker. I took one look at the Eventuri F5X Full Carbon Fiber Intake video and was sold hook line and sinker. It adds a great sound to the mix. With all of the performance components in place the car feels like its “lung capacity” has doubled.
BRAKES: The first time I tracked the MINI I killed the stock brake pads in one day, and experienced notable fade five minutes into each of the four 20-min sessions. With the G-Loc R12 pads I experienced no fade all day, and when I swapped them back off it appears I should be able to get three track days out of a set. Super satisfied. Next time I’ll order them pre-bedded.
SUSPENSION: After all the suspension/camber work the steering feels lighter and even twitchy in around town driving and higher speed sweepers, but absolutely fantastic in hard cornering on the track. I don’t notice the height drop while driving it. Compliance around town on crappy roads feels roughly the same, might be slightly improved, I can’t really tell.
INSTRUMENT PANEL / HEADUNIT: What a difference the digital dash makes! Such a better interface to all of the most crucial bits of driving information. And finally I can have a large speedo readout *and* be able to see my trip miles at the same time. It was such a frustration having it be one or the other in my daily driving for so long. The new headunit with its larger touchscreen interface works wonderfully. I most wanted it for wireless CarPlay, which works better here than in either of my two other cars.
SHIFTER: The only real disappointment. I had installed both the CravenSpeed Adjustable Short Shifter and the Forge Short Shifter, as they work in tandem, and together the throw is miniscule. Unfortunately something is just not quite right, and I think the problem is the CravenSpeed. In normal DD driving its okay, but at the track I had the hardest time getting the shifter through the gates at high speeds. At times it was all my strength to get it from 3rd to 4th down the main straight, and very hard also into 5th. Sometimes when dropping from 5th to 4th, which should be a straight pull down, it would go into 6th, and then when I thought I was dropping into 3rd I was just going back into 5th. It was an absolute mess. The most fun I had though was coming off the back straight at 120mph and not being able to get it into any gear whatsoever. That got my attention. I have the car going back to the mechanic to take a look at what the problem might be, and I have a feeling the CS shifter will be coming out. I’ll report back.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS: What a transformation! Despite having spent just one day post-tune at PIR, I’m only 4 seconds slower around the track than in my Porsche Cayman GTS 4.0 (1:29 Porsche / 1:33 MINI), and that’s with all the trouble I had shifting. What’s more, my top speed in the MINI on the back straight is around 119-120, whereas in the Porsche I regularly hit 132-134, and still I’m only 4 seconds slower in the MINI. This tells me the MINI is an absolute *MONSTER* in the corners, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the Cayman is no slouch either.
Thanks again for all of the support here, folks. I’m absolutely over the moon and the journey really has just begun.
Last edited by bradstyle; Aug 25, 2021 at 04:50 PM.
Glad it all worked out well for you. The JCW is a great base for a track car, especially if using it as a street car that occasionally goes to the track.
Nice to hear about the G-Loc R12s working well. I am thinking I need to step up to those
How much rubbing did you have in the rear with those wheels and tires?
Track Crack...
Glad it all worked out well for you. The JCW is a great base for a track car, especially if using it as a street car that occasionally goes to the track.
Nice to hear about the G-Loc R12s working well. I am thinking I need to step up to those
How much rubbing did you have in the rear with those wheels and tires?
Track Crack indeed! I didn't have any noticeable rubbing in the rears. There could have been a tiny bit but I didn't notice anything. I think you'll really like the G-Loc R12s, they're fantastic. I will probably just leave them on all of next summer, since generally it's hot and dry here. They're a bit noisy for DD but I really don't mind.
I have been known to leave the track pads in while doing DD. I have not found a track pad that didn’t work well on the street. Noise and dust are the worst. Also, some pad, such as the Hawk DTC-60s, are very abrasive on the rotors if there is not enough heat in them. But, with the Carbotechs, which are similar/the same as the G-Locs, I didn’t see any excessive wear. So, rotor wear would be what to watch for...
I have been known to leave the track pads in while doing DD. So, rotor wear would be what to watch for...
Good to know. Yeah, if I'm going to attend 4-6 events in season next year it will be a big cost savings to me if I'm not swapping brake pads all the time. I did end up with matching R12's in the rear as well. I was on the phone with the manufacturer with a bunch of questions and they talked me out of using R10's in back. If I remember right, they were concerned about uneven wear that the rears wouldn't be doing much, so the amount of brake pressure required was higher and excess wear fell to the fronts. I think there was a bit more to it, but anyway, they convinced me. Without a baseline I can't tell if it was the better decision or not but I do know that the brakes were good enough I hardly thought about them the whole day, they just did their job without complaint.
Having matched pads front to rear is what the car designed for. This is what I have done; DTC60s front and rear for running at WGI in my R56 S and a similar combination in my F56 JCW. The people at G-Loc were correct and you made the right decision.
The thing you will need to do is to look at the leading and trailing edge of your pads to check for tapered wear. I flip my pads inside to outside once a day to even out the wear. Hopefully you didn’t put the nipple things that MINI uses onto the backs of the brake pads. These can come apart and get stuck inside the caliper pistons piston. I changed out a set of pads on a JCW for someone at my last weekend’s track event and found this had happened. Not sure what the owner will do in the future... These things are not needed... And the pads are easy to change out without those.
One more thing. Just had a custom trailer hitch receiver installed. Not the most convenient vehicle to do this on, but the folks up at Torklift Central in Kent, WA did a great job. Now my wife and I have two cars to shuttle our road bikes around with, making point-to-point rides MUCH easier.
I’ve seen a lot of custom hitches at the track on various cars that aren’t really designed for towing... Most are innovative, like yours. They are all for pulling small utility trailers with 4 track tires and a big tool box. I have yet to find a need for one on the MINI; I can fit all of that inside my MINI...
Enjoy your bikes...
Last edited by Eddie07S; Sep 18, 2021 at 04:57 AM.
Reason: Edit
Hahahaha. Thanks for really giving this some thought. Perhaps I need to put the car on a ship and take her over to Germany for some thoughtful touches.
No only the exhaust "Little Wotan" but also a new pair of brackets which take some of the downforce and keep the diffuser in place. Can you believe that the exhaust system inclusive brackets and diffuser safes over 20 kgs ? Also a look at the at the front suspension with max 4 camber.
and for your towing buss, we offer a radiator plug & play with a 50mm core depth it comes with its own fan coded into the BMW world. The radiator takes all sensors ! and fit the original HEN system. It makes the remotes useless. A future top mount CAC is possible. For the regular GP3 we only optimized air flow.
