Hey guys,

I was just curious as to whether anyone else finds this annoying. I love the transmission on the MINI, but how slow the RPMs drop somewhat kind of slows how fast I can shift into higher gears. It's great for downshifting, but when I'm accelerating I find myself holding the clutch down for an extra second or two to avoid that push you get when you enter the next gear too high. This isn't really that big of a problem, especially in the shorter gears like 3rd, 4th, etc... but going from 1st to 2nd is what's slowing me down. I've tried checking whether it's me; I use to have this odd habit of pushing the clutch in before fully letting off the gas. I did this buy ensuring my foot was completely off the gas before shifting... and the nusuance still kind of presented itself. I don't like to do too much accelaration in 1st, so I usually shift pretty early (often around 20 mph), but then I have to wait like 2 seconds before I can get into 2nd smoothly (and that's without giving it any gas when releasing the clutch). I can damper the RPMs a little by using the clutch, but, I'd rather not even though I don't think it does that much wear. Eitherway, I'm OCD when it comes to driving stick. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Besides installing a new flywheel to replace the heavy dual-mass original flywheel all I can say is that the 02-06s are known for lethargic RPM changes while this was improved with the R56 which is far more responsive.

 

Nature of the beast. As suggested, you may want to replace the flywheel with a lighter weight aftermarket version (Clutchmasters is one of the best).

The MINI engine is SOHC old school cast iron block technology. Virtually bulletproof but it is not an ultra rev happy engine in the vein of a Honda VTEC.

The R56 has a DOHC-VANOS setup but the Turbo engine runs out of steam past 5K RPM. Trust me I have one too.

This is the beauty of the TRITEC Supercharged engine in the earlier MINIs....You can redline the thing all the way to 6.8K RPM and in pulls like a freight train from 3K RPM all the way to redline.

 

Try shifting at 3,500 RPMs and above.
And smoothly!
Smooth is mo' bettah than fast.
Fast comes later.
Holds true for a lot of things.....

 

So true. Definitely some words of wisdom there.