Now THERE's your problem! Painted lines are slippery, pavement not so much. You were likely compensating for the varying friction coefficients.

 

Bingo!

 

I have only had torque steer once in the Mini. Going up hill and just hammering it off the stop sign. I've done similar attacks on different gradients and have not experienced the same level of TS.
One datapoint does not make a trend....

 

Check your tire pressure.

 

This is very true actually. Stock suspensions will cause more torque steer than MINIs with lower roll centers [usually done by lowering the suspension 1"+]. Tires that actually have grip [aka not factory run-flats] help tremendously too.

 

compared to R56, my R53's TS is minimally manageable. This is why I like R53 better, R56 needs AWD.

 

 

Umm My tire pressure is 42 pounds. because of the bad cupping i exprenced on the rear tires
it must have been the paint
or ill freely admit im a total crack head...
thanks guys

 

Lower your tire pressure buddy! How are you even getting any traction with your tires pumped up that much. You're probably at 45-48 PSI hot, that's DANGEROUSLY close to the maximum inflation pressure of your tires.

If you drive aggressively, set your tire pressure to 33 front and 35 rear, if you don't, try 35 and 36. If you're willing to give up some tire longetivity, drop it down to 31 and 33. You'll notice a BIG improvement, trust me.

I don't feel like searching for it right now, but if you look back to some of my posts from 2-3 days ago you'll see a LOT of information I posted about tire pressures in a thread about 18" wheels.


Edit: I lied, found it.

 

my dad is an engineer and hes pretty freakin nuts about stuff
i dident argue with him. and ive got some pretty sticky tires as is.
But it did make the cupping stop.
i dont know if thats and alignment problem.
i was gonna see about doing something about that.
ive got the 17" split rims.
its pretty bouncy at the limit.....

 

Just thought i'd throw my 0.2 in real quick. I own a 05 R53 and have test-driven a few R56's. The dealership was kind enough to basically throw me the keys and say come back whenever. The R56 has a LOT more torque steer than my R53 which basically has zero. I was more disppointed in the torque steer than any other change in the car. I was considering selling mine at the time and upgrading, but I couldnt get past how much I had to fight with the steering wheel when putting the power down. I read earlier that the new MINIs don't have equal length driveshafts. why would they change that? or is it a limitation of the engineering? Anyway, it basically convinced me to keep Kal and enjoy my total lack of torque steer.

 

I live near Lake Forest, and I have a JCW with LSD. I remember having some torque steer at first when shooting off the line, but then I got camber plates and an alignment and everything was fine. I then started having torque steer again... but I later found out that one of my wheels was bent and out of balance. Straightened the wheel and balanced everything and I have no torque steer. We live in CA... the roads and freeways here aren't that great. If you have a chance, get your wheels balanced again (not a the dealership though). However if you're talking about Lake Forest Drive, I know how smooth the road is going up towards Foothill Ranch, you shouldn't have had any problems when shooting off the line.

Also, there is a thread in the wheels and tires forum about excessive wearing on the front passenger tire. We have a couple of people in our club who have experienced similar results. Having uneven wear may also contribute to the pull/torque steer.