Hi folks,
After 3 years in a STU Evo we are ready for something lightweight and nimble and will be building up my daily to compete in STF for 2014. I've started a blog to detail the build. I love my MINI and I'm pretty excited as this will be the first car that I'll be doing all the mechanical work on myself. Usually my husband does the majority of it. Wish me luck in the development and I really look forward to racing with all of you next season.

Michelle
http://watchoutcones.blogspot.com/

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...one-doing.html

Michelle that's my pathetic build thread LOL I'll holler at you once the parts become available

 

Yay more competitive minis! I'm surprised you're ready to move on from the Evo though. I'm looking at an *SP car once we get rid of the mini. Need something faster

I think you're very close on spring rates/alignment. That's about what we run although our spring rates are softer. I think we're going to be going from 350 to 400 next year for some testing.

SuperPro does make an offset control arm bushing that adds 2 degrees of caster. We haven't tried it because I'm concerned with rubbing with the extra caster. But we're running 235s in STX so there is a lot less space in the wheel well. If you're interested in the bushings sends me a PM as I have a contact in the Subaru world who can get them for far cheaper than I've seen them for sale on the mini sites.

Oh and go ahead and drill and timesert the aluminum rear trailing arms now so you don't have to do it in a rush the night before an event. Ask me how I know

 

Drill and what? I've never had any rear control arm issue on the 2011. 49k miles and 3 HARD seasons of autocrossing all over. Maybe 60 events on the car and over 500 runs I'd say. Half on R comps in HS and almost half on the STF setup with -3 up front.

And about 10 events on the 225 r comps with 9s up front and 7.5s out back with the STF setup Running a few more this year...

 

Sorry I meant to say the trailing arm not the control arm. Drill and Timesert. A timesert is pretty much the same thing as a Helicoil. The steel bolt that bolts the shock to the trailing arm will eventually strip the aluminum threads in the trailing arm after you remove the rear suspension a few times. You have to remove the rear shock to change the rebound settings. If you don't pull the rear suspension that much then you might not have a problem. Some people haven't had issues and some people have lost the threads the first time they pulled the shocks. I've had the rear shocks out something like 3 times (once for a rebuild, once for a spring change, and once for a rebound change) and both sides have stripped and needed to be helicoiled.

A quick search turned up this thread but there are many others...
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...bolt-size.html

 

Funny story when Michelle swapped in the coil overs, she stripped out the rear trailing arm bolt on the passenger side. Apparently you are suppose to torque it to around 125#, it stripped out well before that. I got the fun job of doing a Helicoil repair on it, seems to be holding up. Luckily our coil overs adjust from the bottom.
Chris

 

makes me nervous about installing new dampers in the rear.. what then, should you torque it to?

 

You should still torque it to spec but be prepared to repair the threads if they strip out. I think the spec is a little over 100lbs*ft

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using NAMotoring

 

should I use some antiseize or no? using it will probably increase the pressure and I'll probably have to back off the torque spec a bit though

 

I still don't see the worry. I would just torque them down and be done with it. I removed and installed the bolts on the rear of the 2011 6-7 times and NEVER had an issue.

 

seems kind of hit or miss - mainly miss. i'll be careful though. should be fine. only 2000 miles on the car, not even.

 

I personally have not had an issue other than back in 2007ish when I unbolted the trailing arm bolt FIRST without having both sides jacked up. That definitely screwed up one of my trailing arms. To adjust the rebound on top, this is what I do now after learning the easy way.....

1) Jack up BOTH sides on the rear(can use one jack but the opposite side teeters so 2 jacks are highly preferable)
2) Unbolt the two 13mm bolts on the top strut mount on each side
3) Then put foot on the top of the brake rotor and push down or have someone do it while you adjust the rebound.
4) start the threads by hand, then bolt the two 13mm bolts back up
5) lower car and test new settings....

Once you get use to it and have proper tools, it should only take 15 minutes or so at most and poses zero risk on the trailing arm :-) If you are in a real hurry and have 2 people, an impact gun for the wheels and two sets of wrenches, this could probably be done within 5 minutes

 

^ gotcha. not a bad deal for when you need to adjust damping. my bilsteins are already set and custom valved, no adjusters to speak of. I just need to make sure I thread it perfectly to avoid stripping anything.