I had a 2010 R56 and now own a 2013 R56. I could swear the new one's handling is mushier and I wasn't expecting that at all. I know they added a couple of HP to the new engine but I'm hoping they didn't mess with the handling. Anyone else experience this? (And sorry if this is a thread already - I searched for "handling" but came up empty.)

 

i havent driven an '10....but if a '13 is "mushy"....then a '10 must handle like a cheetah wearing nikes riding on rails.......because my '13 handles great.

what are the specs on the '13?

and did you have any mods on the '10?

 

Handling differences between your 2010 and 2013 MINIs would depend upon the suspension, wheel and traction options on the two vehicles as well as the tires you are/were running on the cars.

Have fun!

 

I wouldn't say mushy. They've tweeked things over the years, the steering weight varies, I'm not sure if that's car to car variation or year to year. Our 12 (a JCW) has the lightest steering of any MINI, a bit too light for my taste, the 13 is a bit more weighted and just about right. (All in sport mode.)

The thing that bothers me about the 13 is the throttle, even in sport mode, its a bit dead starting from a dead stop. I almost stall the thing, like I didn't have sport mode on.

Now we just tested our 13 vs the 07 at Autocross, the 07 was about 1 second faster. I think that may be something weird going on with the 07 rather than a problem with the 13. (Tristan is exhibiting oversteer when he never did before.)

 

Not sure about the handling department, but the clutch in the new R56's suck compared to my heavy clutch. Yuck!

 

did you perhaps have the sport suspension in the 10 and dont have it in the 13?

 

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i noticed the same thing in my car........i installed a D1 Spec throttle controller and maxed it out and it seems to have taken care of that issue.

 

The power steering was changed from 10 to 11+. I thought it felt different when driving them back to back recently and ended up buying a 10 for that reason.

 

Thanks for all the feedback. The 2010 was a stock justa MINI, no sport suspension or anything. Same with the 2013. Now that I've spent some time with it, I think what I'm reacting to is the lighter steering. Sport mode makes it a bit tighter which I prefer but it still seems indistinct as compared to the 2010. Sport mode definitely makes the throttle respond more quickly - without Sport mode there's almost a full second delay but with Sport mode it's nearly instantaneous. With my 2010 I didn't really feel a need to keep it in Sport mode; now I do.