Moved to Chicago 5 years ago but left the Mini at my mom’s in Socal (garaged on 4 jacks). Recently bought a place with parking and shipped the Mini over. I used to casually race in DS and mostly did time-only. Since the car is mostly here for pleasure and the occasional Costco and Home Depot run, I thought I’d now be more serious about autoX.

Current mods:

• AEM cold air intake (pushes me to street touring)
• step intercooler
• recirc spring
• Enkei RPF01 17x7
• Bridgestone Potenza RE71R (from 2015 or 2016)
• Hawk HPS
• ATE super blue

Looking for recommendations on suspension parts: what’s a street-able spring-damper or coilover that could get me through the rough streets of Chicago to the autoX then get better at driving and tuning.

What’s a good Extreme Summer Performance Tire with a soft sidewall? I have the RE71R but they’re quite expensive and wear quickly. I was always gonna go back to the Hankook RS3 because they were cheap but grippy and were very comfortable… may need to trailer my autoX wheels and tires to do this right, though.

Finally, here she is at Gearhead Workspace in Chicago where you can rent out a lift to work on your own car. Had to go to my 4th thermostat house: 2x leaks, 1x stuck thermostat