.

 

Spinning your tires never help. If you barely squeak your tires and then get all grip, thats pretty close. You want to know your car well enough to just get all no real excitement off the line, but all GO!

 

Ok ill practice a bit more..thanks.

 

Going to a test and tune day/night at a local dragstrip can give allow you to practice different techniques throughout the time that you are there, and give you a printout of your launches (the 60 foot time).

For example, the first slip that you get might show that you got a 60' time of 2.9 seconds. You'll want to write on the slip EXACTLY what you did and what happened on the launch (example: Held RPM's steady at 4000 RPMs, and dumped clutch. Resulted in tire spin through most of first gear.) On the second slip, you may get a 60' time of 2.4 seconds by holding rpm's steady at 3000 rpm, and slipping the clutch just a bit while quickly going to full throttle. This resulted in a slight chirp of the tires and full traction.

However, every road surface and every track surface is a little different. What works well on a sunny day at 90 degrees on concrete might not work as well at 60 degrees on worn blacktop, for example. You'll need to just get comfortable with the car over a period of time, and figure out what works the best most of the time.

Keep in mind that your clutch will experience the most wear while you are practicing hard launches. And clutches are not cheap or easy to replace on these cars.

 

Just enjoy the car through the corners like it was designed for. This is not a stop light racer.

But if you insist, a quick blip to about 2k to 2.5k, a swift clutch release and then easing fast on the gas will give you the best results. Minimal tire noise is a good thing.

Also, I'd like to point out a good shift technique. When shifting, use your finger tips and an open palm, and gently guide the shifter real easy like. Grabbing the shifter and forcing it slows you down and damages the syncros.

 

I find a little chirp mean you have done a pretty good lauch. Generally I rev it up to about 2500 or so then start to let the clutch out, the trick is though that as you start to let the clutch out you quickly add a whole lot of throttle. It's about finding a balance when you do this, clutch to fast any you stall or have cruddy launch, to much gas and you spin your tires and wear your clutch a lot.

 

You're 16 and have a nice car, keep it out of the shop and preserve that clutch!

Carve up the twisties and and get some instructed AutoX time, eventually your instructor will talk you through heel toe and launching the car to the first corner the quickest, but you'll save more time in the twisties!

 

+1

I bought my MCS last Nov. and it was my first manual car. I just started to pick up heel + toe 2 weeks ago (after a whole year) and it's one of the best things that I've learned since learning to drive manual.

 

Why would spinning your tires be hard on the clutch (as long as the clutch is completely engaged, foot off the pedal)?

 

I read that as heel-toe launching, hahaha

Personally, I've never understood the FWD "dragster" but people do it. I know a guy who used to be a professional drag racer and he has a Monstrous hot rod that will empty a full tank of gas in less than 80 miles, but he recently bought a Mazdaspeed 3. It's quick and it'd designers said to get the fastest 0-60 (with that car) dump the clutch at 5k and flat-shift through the gears (flat shifting is when you don't lift your foot from the gas pedal), but he's never done it. even though it's engineers said it can take that abuse, he never puts his foot down hard 'till 3rd gear.

There's also a guy around here with a 650hp SRT-4 (I don't understand how he does anything but spin the tires)
sorry for this long post, but what I'm saying is that some people what to drive their cars hard, some people don't. some like to drive them in a straight line while others want the opposite.
The MINI Cooper S it not going to be very competitive (except to similar cars) off the line. While there are MANY MINIs on this forum that car eat muscle cars alive, they'd have a bunch of trouble doing that off the line. MINIs aren't that spectacular from a performance standpoint on city streets, but on racetracks they make up for it.

If you're practicing launching from 0-60, don't do a bunch of consecutive runs, my last car was a Mitsu Eclipse GSX and since it was AWD and a turbo, the fastest way I found to launch it was just dropping the clutch at the redline (there's a little more to it, including some slipping) but it would reak havoc on my clutch, after one or 2 launches, I could smell my clutch, so just remember that the harder you push to go faster, the harder you're pushing almost every component on your car, the clutch and tires take a lot of abuse.
a tip for a quick 0-60 is your tire choice, it makes a big difference, especially if you have the stock run-flats, they don't offer a lot of traction.
again, sorry for writing so much
-Nick

 

you'll be at a higher rpm when you let off the clutch, it's not just how much you slip it, but what rpm you're slipping it at

 

Advice from some one who has 3 manual transmission cars right now and has been driving sticks for 40 years. Buy an automatic transmission! NO clutches to tear up (especially when you are 16. I had a MG and spent most of my first year driving ,walking)

 

The guys I knew as a kid with an automatic spent their time doing neutral drops............for awhile and then they were walking for a long time!

A stick is the way to go. Clutch replacement is cheaper than a tranny rebuild!

 

+1
MINI is a corner carver not a straight line shooter. Plus turning the steering wheel left and right makes things a little more exciting, rather than just going in a line for 1/4 of a mile . Save like $200-400 bills and take a High Performance Driver Education course, there is still time to catch a track day, as BMWCCA has their annual Dec 31 Drivers School at Laguna Seca. Tell your parents to get you the course for x-mas and tell them it will make you a safer driver on the street and better prepared to handle emergency situations The other option and less costly is Auto-X, $15-75 depending if your a (scca, nasa, bmwcca) member. But I think auto-x is done for season?

 

Most people don't truly understand the operation of the clutch. Here is a good explanation:
http://www.clutchwizard.com/basics.htm

You wear the clutch through normal use, but more so when you hold it partially engaged (riding the clutch, when you slip it under high RPMs) and even when you are "lagging" in a gear and try to accellerate without downshifting first.

Congrats on your car and also on the fact that you are willing to seek the advice of others. You should be pleased with yourself and I am sure your parents are proud of you also. You can see from the posts here that we all ask others for advice as you did.

 

The only time that really should be happening is if the clutch plate is spinning in the flywheel when it is fully engaged and if that I happening your clutch is probably already toast.

And to to clarifiy the statement I made that has been quoted, even dumping the clutch if you really want to spin your tires you will have to intentionally slip it a bit. since you are generally doing it at high rev's and when the clutch is already mostly engaged you are really wearing it very hard.

 

Ok, I'm 19 and have had my MCS since February and have since been doing a lot of work on it. I took it to an 1/8 mile drag strip with some friends of mine with cars made more for drag racing, like mustangs, and I got my *** handed to me. There is a catch 22 when trying to launch a front wheel drive car, especially an MCS. The car hardly makes any low end torque and thus needs to be launched at higher rpms but at the same time, the front wheels (I had runflats which I have since switched to BFG GForce) hardly make any traction. I had a lot more fun flying past everybody on the drive to the track than I had racing my car when I was there. There isn't much point in drag racing your car...you're not going to do very well. Go watch some high HP drag cars instead if you must.

 

Really, with these cars, its just not going to ever be a great launch. They are low torque motors and its all fairly high up in the rev range. The previously posted suggestions on how to do it are exactly what I've found to work. Just drive it, learn to shift competently, and enjoy the sensations through the corners. The ability to hit each and every apex with pinpoint accuracy is incredible in these cars. Get out and drive.

 

Yeah, go to a track and hand some Mustangs their asses.

 

minis dont handle all that well,... to be honest. From the factory they only hold around .89g, which is what most cars will do. Sharp steering doesnt mean great handleing.

just my two cents

 

Blasphemy!

 

He is right though. My Cooper has right now 5.5" wide tires. Getting the tires squealing going around corners isn't that hard. Next spring however, Team Dynamic Race 1.2's for me. That'll help!

 

I think there is a lot more to how well a car handles than skid pad numbers.
How well they do in autox makes me think they handle quite well. ( besides what other car is more fun on express way on/off ramps)

 

dont get me wrong, its one of the best fwd cars produced today.

 

You can call me a "party pooper", but I would be horrified if my 17 year old son was trying to figure out how to launch his or my Mini off the line. I guess there is a time and a place for everything, like a track, racing school etc... The last kid in my neighborhood that launched his parents Turbo Volvo, wrapped it around a tree and killed his best friend.

Hopefully you do all of your launching at the proper place at the proper time, as this comment is not meant to discourage your possible racing ambitions.

Signed,

The Party Pooper