I saw a picture that that indicated that MINI elongated the slots in the strut towers on the GP2 to allow for more negative camber. So when I was swapping struts, I decided to follow this idea. In my past car, I was around 1.4 degrees negative camber with IE fixed camber plates.

I matched a drill bit to the size of the slot, and drilled a hole about 1/8" from the end of the existing slot. I then used a dremel tool and file to even out the slots. The first pic shows where the strut mount ended up with 2.0 degrees negative (with the IE fixed camber plates). I was limited by interference with my NM strut bar. I spent some time with a die grinder and relieved the inside surface of the strut mounting plate. For a reference, I can barely fit the 22mm socket through the hole in the strut tower, thats what I'm trying to show in the last picture.

The car seems to like the additional camber. i made a bunch of changes at once, but it seems like this is a positive change. I have not seen any camber wear in the tires after about 10k in the summer (and about 5k on my snows). Just slotting the holes took me less than an hour, it was another couple of hours to clearance the strut mount plates and paint them.

Have fun,
Mike




The one negative thing that I've seen is that there is some rubbing on the fender liner in front of the wheels. This is with my factory 17x7 et 48 MINI wheels and 215/45/17 tires. This only happens during parking lot maneuvers. I did not notice the rubbing when I swapped in the snows, so maybe they have a little different sidewall profile than the similar summer setup that I have.

Have fun,
Mike

 

I had a shop do the same thing and slot my strut towers because I bought the GP2 strut brace. I also got some NM wheels that are the same size as the GP2 ( 17 x 7.5 ET 45 ) and no rubbing issues. I have around 2.0 degrees of negative camber as well.

 

Hi, I plan on doing this I already have fixed IE camber plates and swift springs and would like additional negative camber. I know you had the shop do it, but do you have any tips before I tackle this?

 

I haven't performed the modification, so take this with a grain of salt...

Look at the tower holes, they have some slot already. Follow the angle back, drill a hole, then cut out the metal in between. Done. Should be a pretty easy task. Be sure to paint the bare edges to prevent corrosion.

 

[QUOTE=r53racer;4545942]Hi, I plan on doing this I already have fixed IE camber plates and swift springs and would like additional negative camber. I know you had the shop do it, but do you have any tips before I

Just make sure the strut brace will get to that position and maybe look into some spacers or different rims so you dont have amy rub. I would make sure to have some sticky tires also. It will really need that since your doing more of a track setup. Ive just been basically copying the gp2 specs. I got the gp2 strut brace, not knowing what was exactly different about it. Its basically just shorter than the others for the different position of the struts for the extra camber. I got a gp2 alignment. I'm going to have that as my summer setup and get another set of rims for winter setup ( put struts back to stock position without a strut brace and do jcw alignment ). Race shop said there should be no issues. Cheaper than buying camber plates just gotta watch paint probably..... old school racing techniques 😎😎

 

[QUOTE=JSimm1986;4545998]Oh I am not running a strut brace. I am running RPF1 with 35 offset so probably would be ok. as for tires, I am using RE71Rs so I guess I'm ok on that too, maybe upgrade later on. Thanks for the response. I'll probably be conservative with how I notch them.

 

Thanks for the tips and for reminding me to paint the bare metal. I wasn't planning on doing this due to laziness, but you swayed me.

 

Use a primer for rust protection
like POR-15 or similar.

 

I do this to all of my track/autocross cars, I also slot them at a little more angle so they add a tiny bit of castor too

 

I have leftover por-15 from
another project. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

hmmm, now that you’ve said it, I really have to this.

 

I didn’t even think of that!

 

Ps Clean up carefully after (I didn’t)

I’ve done it, to my jcw roadster
but to be completely happy I need to find longer bolts for my bilstiens B16 pss10
to allow for the gp strutbrace as well...

 

I slotted mine, don't know if its worth the effort, was only able to pick up another .5* camber, better off buying camber plates in my opinion, then not exposing metal touch up paint etc.

 

Hi, is that with the stock springs?

 

No H&R Coil overs

 

ohh I have camber plates and slots, camber plates alone do not give enough for competitive track use

 

Be sure to check, adjust the toe in-out adjustment also..!

Moving either the back or the front suspension onto more negative camber, will change the toe in-out.
Then you either have to do the toe adjustment yourself, or find a shop that will work on a modified suspension. MANY will not..! And you have to be careful of the ones that will.

As me how I know this..!

Mike

 

I just slotted my towers. I didn’t measure my before camber. After slotting, i got -2 degree camber roughly using protractor app on my phone. Can’t wait to get alignment to see how much max negative camber I got. Thanks for the suggestions of adding caster and painting them.

 

Is that with camber plates also? Stock is around -0.5 just for reference for before, I guess you're around -1.0 now once on the floor?

 

Yes, with fixed camber plates. Right now I'm at around -1.25 but that is using a camber measurement device from Amazon so I am not sure how accurate it is.

 

That upper right hole makes me anxious. I'm not a fan of making irreversible changes to the chassis of a car.

 

I have a GP2 and i'm still looking for more camber, anyone elongated their holes further than OEM on a GP2?