Hello All,

Recently I made the colossal mistake of taking my 2016 F56 JCW (my daily driver) to the track for the first time. It'll only be $250 they said... Now I am blurry eyed from staying up all night, reading everything I can on tuning these cars, and placing expensive orders with foreign auto parts manufacturers. My three figure investment is on track to crest over five. And what's worse, I'm about to request the aid of the entire community here in throwing more gas on this fire.

I've already ordered a Stage 2 Tune from Mario Palza (ECU flash and downpipe). I've also ordered a Lohen Helix Organic Clutch and a Quaife LSD, along with some Powerflex Front Wishbone Rear Bushes. And I just purchased a new wheel and tire set: Neuspeed RSe16 17x8.0 +45 (customized for MINI) with Yokohama Advan A052 225/45-17 tires.

WHAT ELSE DO I NEED??

BRAKES? My stock JCW big brakes faded like a MF out on the track, but this car still needs to be a daily.
SUSPENSION? I've heard good things about the JCW Pro Suspension but I have a personal friend telling me I have to go with KW.
CAMBER PLATES?
INTERCOOLER?
SWAY BARS/BRACING?
SHORT SHIFTER?
ROLL CAGE? Should I delete the rear seats, I never have passengers back there...?

WHAT AM I FORGETTING???

For the record, my MINI has 38K miles on it and all of the warranties and service packages I had are expired (perfect time to start tuning). I'm going to be taking the car to a shop in the next week to take a good look at it to see what kind of shape everything is in, and to give them an idea of what I plan to do with it.

Please note that while I have many decades of enthusiastic driving on my resume, I know very little about what goes on under the hood of cars (read: next to nothing). These forums are a wonder of people who speak in mechanical lingo and acronyms. I am trying to learn as quickly as possible, but just know that you won't offend me if you present things in simple English. I have absolutely no idea about what these things do or what connects to what. I'm an idiot, I know. I'm working on it. LOL.

THANKS!!

 

Check the Gollum thread in the F56 forum for everything I have learned. There's quite a bit of hard won experience, and collaboration, in that tale.

You have your eye on power and the LSD, and that makes sense to me.. I'd add the JCW Pro coil-overs and your choice of camber plates (I use ECS).

I run -2.1 degrees of camber on all four corners, and the absence of camber in my view is your next opportunity.

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

Save yourself a lot of hassle and get a Mini track car with a warranty: TRADE IT IN FOR A GP3! !

 

Hahahaha, not going to happen. I was the first on the list in Portland for a GP3, and also the first to cancel after months of radio silence from MINI. And truthfully I prefer the manual transmission on these cars. I'll live with the hassles, the time, and the expense. It'll be a learning experience. Bring it on!

 

Well Charlie, I want to thank you for what turned into a very enjoyable, six hour rabbit hole of reading and note taking. I read the whole darned thread cover to cover. I also want to give thanks to @Eddie07S and@Darbys2019MiniJCW for their thoughtful insight to your many posts. I learned a lot, and am grateful to all those who've shared their R&D here to make the rest of our lives easier. I also really delighted in the narrative saga of Gollum's adventures, Charlie's relationship with MINI of Peabody, and the numerous trips down to North Carolina. I really MUST do that someday. Tracks are wonderful, but it's roads like that that truly give me my love for cars, especially those that value handling above all else.

Since I am a guy primarily intending these modifications for HPDE I think I'm going to go with the Wavetrac LSD over the Quaife (if I can get the order changed before Lohen ships, otherwise I'll be selling it when it gets here). I'll still be putting the Helix Organic Clutch in that got ordered from Lohen.

It looks like I'll also definitely be going with the JCW Pro Suspension and some camber plates. Did K-Mac ever modify their manufacturing process based on your findings or would I be expecting to have to re-bore them myself if I went with their plates?I may have also missed it in your post but I saw you were going to experiment with running -2.3 degrees of camber. Did you do this and then decide to switch back to -2.1?

I think I'm going to want sway bars in the front and rear. I saw some mention of an Eibach pair but can't seem to find it on their website. Not sure what NM offers for up front. Maybe Eddie can tell me what he's running...?

Thanks again everyone. NAM is a wealth of knowledge.

 

K-Mac acknowledged and corrected the problem immediately.

Glad you enjoyed the tales!

Cheers,

Charlie

 

thanks for the acknowledgement...

Here is a link to my Albert thread. There is more in here related to tracking the F56 JCW. Not a lot, but some of note.

I am a big fan of using track/race pads on a MINI being used on the track. Carbotech makes a great pad (XP-10), as does gLoc. I am currently trying pads made by iSweep, which seem good. Not a lot of experience with them, though. Use the same pad on all 4 wheels. My experience is that having different pads front to rear confuses the traction control. Oh, yes, leave it on when on the track. If it flashing at you, then you didn’t do something right... And if you really screw up, it has a good chance of saving you and your car...

With the race pads, don’t bother with the sticky-spring pads that MINI sticks to the back side of the brake pad plates. The heat will just take those off and they are a pain for changing pads.

Motul 600 brake fluid and flush it before each event.

“Yes” to the JCW pro suspension. Lower the car no more than what Charlie did.

“No” to a changing the swaybar(s). Not needed. Learn to drive the car on the track first. There is a lot to that and if done right, there is no reason to change them, especially if you put camber in the front.

K-Mac camber plates allow for both camber and caster. increase the caster by whatever Charlie did on his car. This is important as caster becomes camber as you turn the steering wheel.

You will need a bigger intercooler with the extra power... I like Helix...

Get a set of the Schroth QuickFit harnesses for the R56 and don’t tell anyone they are for a F56 (they are not DOT approved for the F56). Get the Pro version if you are getting a roll bar, and with that, get a HANS device. These both work with the stock belt buckles and air bags. Second thought, just get the Pro version either way. They are more comfortable and you should have a HANS device no matter what... Your neck is worth it.

Get a ScanGage II to watch what is going on with the engine.

I am sure I missed something...

Oh yah... Have fun and be safe...
Motor on!

 

Thanks Eddie! Great advice, I've made notes on all. I'm going to get my readers back on and comb through the Albert thread today. It's looking like Helix doesn't make an intercooler that works with the F56 JCW, so I'll keep looking at Wagner, Forge, and Airtec, but yes one will go on. I'll hold off on sway bars for now. I hadn't thought about a harness before but it's obviously the right idea, and I'll get one with a HANS device. Still not sure if I'm going the rollbar/cage route, I need to learn more about what will happen (weight/handling-wise) if I delete the rear seats, but I'll get a harness regardless. I'll put the ScanGage down on the Accessories list along with an AiM Sports Solo 2 DL GPS Lap Timer.

OMG, my mechanic and my wheel/brake/tire/suspension shop are going to LOVE me. Here's the current shopping list:

 

I think you have made some good choices on upgrades.

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.

MINIs don’t tend to roll easily and the bodies are strong. I would say you could hold off the roll bar for now. Removing the rear seat is a bit of weight, but when I did that on my R56 I didn’t notice much of a change in handling.

Realoem.com is a really good place to look up MINI parts and see where they are used. Really helpful at times.

Harness - https://www.hmsmotorsport.com/item/s...ning-Harnesses These guys also carry the HANS devices. Helmets - shop around like to Summit Racing and the like.

 

PS: I would forgo the tune for now. You can alway do that later. Learn the car first. More power is great for top end, but it doesn’t get you around the track quicker than someone who knows how to drive a car really well. I have a friend who drives a stock base Cooper (120 hp), with the optional MINI sports suspension. No camber plates, no R-Comp tires and he has been known to embarrass much mightier cars. My R56 S has a stock engine and I have been able to better a Lotus Exige and pretty much stay with a race prepped Acura ...

 

I got this message earlier this AM from the folks at Helix:



I've been looking into Wagner and Forge. They look similar, but I'm seeing Wagner Comp in stock and Forge about a month out. Probably go with Wagner. Good call on the seats, I'll leave them in for now. Thanks for the tip on RealOEM. I'll get back to looking at harnesses, and yes, I need my own helmet. The tune is already bought and paid for, but we've got a couple solid straights here at PIR. My JCW has hit 128 on the front and 121 on the back one, stock. As a result I'm extra grateful for that advice on brake pads. I think I'll start with the Carbotechs XP-10s you recommended and take it from there. I live three miles from the track and my wheel/tire/brake shop is right in between... handy.

That's a fun video. Some beautiful Porsches in there. Your lines seem very consistent to me, and that Acura driver looked squirrelly. I got a kick out of the titled commentary. Thanks!

 

Interesting about the helix intercooler...

Thanks on the video. That was a really fun day and the MINI does well there. The track does well to cancel out HP advantage that some other drivers have.

I have seen videos of another MINI driver at PIR. I would say it is a pretty technical track and a few places where it will be easy to be off line, but it might still feel right. If I remember it was the part of the track just before getting back on the front straight. INDY Car has run there and videos are up on YouTube. If you can follow their line, you will be doing well...

 

Consider getting a pedal commander, better and quicker throttle respnse.

 

That's an interesting looking product. I think I want to see how much torque steer is introduced under hard acceleration with this new MarioKart tune I've got coming before I look at ways to get there even more quickly.

 

The MINI intercooler is not bad only its flows . Either you change that or find something else that keep the IATunder 40Degrees

 

That is one big honkin’ intercooler... Who makes that? And what does it do to the air to the Coolant radiator and is the engine able to maintain proper temps?

The nice thing about Forge, at least, it fits without having to modify the front. That looks like it will take some work to get it in.

I assume “40 deg” is “40 deg C” or about 110 deg F.

 

Man, that thing is burly! I've got a Forge on order.

 

Do you have a ScanGauge or something like DashCmd to see what your intake temperatures are now, stock, to see how they compare to after installing the Forge IC?

 

I don't, but I've got a Bluetooth OBDII connector on order. I'll take a look. I was planning to install the Forge at the same time the ECU gets tuned, and they're both scheduled to be completed before my next HPDE day, so I may not have quite the baseline to compare from. I do have some pretty deserted long straight roads in an industrial part of town where I can implement some test parameters though. That's a good idea.

 

Even though you are getting a tune, you should still see a big difference in intake temperature with the Forge IC. So, even though it isn’t exactly apples to apples, it will still be worth knowing/seeing.

I don’t remember if you are planning to get a data logger, but a highly popular track app is Harry’s lap timer that runs on your cell phone. This a full fledge data logger with all sorts of capabilities.

https://www.gps-laptimer.de/

The thing that is needed along with that is a GPS antenna such as the . The thing is, at least for the iPhone, the sampling rate of the phone alone is 1 Hz, which is some what useless. If you add the antenna, such as the Dual, the sampling rate goes to 10 Hz as Harry’s keys off of that when it is connected.

Harry’s will also integrate with Go Pro video, although that is something I have yet to do.

 

Was already planning to get an AiM Solo 2 DL, but that Dual GPS Receiver looks like it's got a bunch of other applications as well. Cool piece of tech, thanks for the heads up.

The list keeps getting longer

 

A Wagner same like Forge we tested had 14kilos, the GP3 intercooler is ok but his flow is poor. For a record lap you need 260 km/h also at the end . Forge and Wagner won't do that so sorry.

 

OK, thanks to the great help of all you lovely people, the transformation of my car has begun. First stop: Wheels & Tires.
Replaced the 18" Cup Spokes with Neuspeed RSe16s 17x8.0 +45 in Gloss Black, and fitted them with a set of Yokohama Advan A052 225/45R17s.


Before


Old on left / New on right


After

Next up is a basic paint correction and a roof wrap. The real meat and potatoes will happen next week and the week after when we address: ECU, downpipe, clutch, diff, intercooler, intake, exhaust, suspension, camber, brakes, and other related accessories. Hoping to get as much done as possible before my next track day, June 18th.

 

Nice. I'm guessing you needed spacers?

 

I haven't needed them yet and have only driven 10 miles to the next installer. No sign of rubbing yet.