So i have competed with the BMWCCA NY Chapter in their Mini Cooper S (MS) class and i won the season. Granted the only real competition i had was with one other person it was still A LOT OF FUN!! My car performed very well but i think it can do better. I have camber plates in the front and rear adjustable lower control arms. My front camber is set to -2.6* on both sides and the rear is -1.4*. I am going to try and flatten the frame a bit up front behind the shock tower so i can squeeze in some more camber up front and maybe increase the rear camber to -1.8*. The car was turning pretty nice for the most part but there were some instances when the car just plowed through the turns. This was my first year Auto crossing so i may not have the experience but i did learn a lot from the people i was racing with.

Here is a pic from my final run from this weekend.

 

Make the drive to MetLife Stadium this weekend. That will be your proper introduction to autocrossing.

 

You don't want to increase (more negative) rear camber. It will just make the car push more.

And yeah... try running with some other clubs for more competition. SCCA particularly.

 

If and when you do go to a SCCA competition, get some co-drive time. You can learn a lot from sitting in the passenger seat. Seeing the lines, pedal work, steering work. All of it. Each time I rode with an experienced driver my next run would be a full second or two faster (depending on the course). And those runs were with non-MINI cars. If you can find a driver with a MINI thats been doing it for a while, even better.

 

I would love to make it to Met life but my tires are FINISHED. The car is getting parked up until next season. Next year ill be competing with SCCA. I did a couple events with them this year and it was a ton of fun.

Griz, thats exactly what i did...I did some co-driving the past couple events and it did help A LOT.

 

i might go back to stock control arms and run in stx

 

why you were outclassed?

 

i don't run an mcs, but i think the control arms would throw you in SMF

 

Depends on the bushing/metal ratio. If they're rod-ends then yeah definitely straight to SMF. The H-Sport control arms are the only ones I know of that are STX legal and the bushings need replacing probably every 2 seasons. But the bushings are easy to get/replace.

 

The BMW club is where I run for fun and practice, even I managed to come 10th in the shoot out last year (against the whole club, not just in class).

The SCCA is where the competition is.