Soliciting similar experiences. Have recently purchased a used 04 MCS 6 speed and found during a descent of Mt. Washington yesterday that low gear is not all that low. How have other folks found descending a steep grade to be? Am not educated on the gearing of my mini yet, but felt it necessary to stop to cool the brakes quite often.

 

Most forced-induction engines (supercharged or turbocharged) have a rather low compression ratio to allow the forced induction to work "best". This results in less engine braking available to you. It's just the nature of the beast, so to speak. You can tootle along in 1st gear ("low enough") but without higher compression the engine just kinda revs back up. Not a lot you can do.

A good thing is that the Minis brakes are fairly large for its size, and with 4 wheel discs they dissipate heat well, so you should be OK there - maybe some of the racers can chime in with braking experience? If you're going to be doing this type of thing often, maybe consider one of the many "big brake kits" (BBK 's), which further improve that area.

 

What Mt Washington are you speaking of...the one in Pittsburgh is not that high of a hill where I'd worry about the brakes overheating.

 

Sorry about that, the Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. There is an Auto Road to the top (elevation 6288 ft) that is approximately ~8 miles in length. The top is the home of the 231 mph World Record wind speed. Not a very good one, but check out the pic in my gallery.

 

I think there have been a few MINIs that have made that trip...

http://www.minisontop.com/



I haven't done it in an MCS myself, so I cannot answer your question.

 

Yeah I know, I was looking forward to it next year!
Thanks