I was destroying the inside edge of the tires. I added toe-in to help prevent this, on this particular track. The toe-in is much like caster in that it is affected by steering angle. If you don't have sharp turns, then less or no toe will likely be ok. But for the particular tracks tank is going to, I feel some toe is warranted.

I am guessing a bit, but I believe your tire wear is coming from not having enough roll stiffness up front. Without front roll stiffness, the body roll will cause the front struts to reduce your front camber. Hence the wear. I have had 3 different suspension setups on my MINIs. The worst for front tire wear was a stock S suspension with a 20 mm RSB. The best is my current setup with the big front and rear sway bars. All had the same camber; -1.5 deg.

Most people increase front roll stiffness with stiffer front springs. This will hurt ride and can hurt handling on a rougher track. It also prevents you from gaining camber when you brake hard going into corners. That added camber can be held in the corner by trail braking. Also, stiffer springs should be matched to stiffer shocks to keep the suspension from being under-damped. So I choose a larger front sway bar instead to increase the car's roll stiffness. I didn't loose the things I would have with stiffer springs and I gained the roll stiffness I wanted.

 

I will have to admit, I have been using Eddie suggestions and everything seems to be working out on track. I use the stock alignment and the car is very neutral No over or under steer. I'm happy with the stock set up. My tires are still in good condition. Don't know if this helps, but after every track day. I swap the rears to the front and front to rear. I was mostly doing this to wear them out as evenly as possible. I feel like i push really hard in the corners too.

If anyone asked me i would say stock alignment is the way to go. Unless you go to a track that you would benefit from some under/over steer. I run my rear sway bar in the middle setting. Like i said no problem so far.

Two more track events and I'm done. Hoping for no rain lol.

 

I'm on stock sways and kW v3 but going to 10kg front and. 9kg rear I have run sway bars before but I did not like what it did to the rear end, caused it to load up and snap I might like pillow ball sway on bearings not sure if they exist for r53

 

Sway bars need to be added in pairs if your objective is to increase overall roll stiffness, much the same as adding springs.

Changing either the front or rear sway bar is intended to be done to change the balance of the car. This is what you experienced; a change in balance. You would have had a different experience had you changed the front bar as well. The sway bars I added were intended to match the front to rear stiffness ratio that the JCW suspension has; no snap. When I had just the 20mm rear bar, I had the same experience as you did.

Your spring choices are almost 3x stiffer than the stock. These will probably work for you, but your shock settings will need to be upped to match the springs. It will be interesting to hear what you think of the change these bring.

 

I was told the snap was due to bushing bind then releasing causing the car to become unsettled

 

Come to Florida and race all winter!!!!

 

I think I'm going to order 9kg/mm aka 500 lb/in front and 8kg/mm aka 450 lb/in rear, I'll swap ends and see what I like, 50 pound difference if I wanna go another 50 in either direction I'll order another pair

stock are progressive front and 230 in/lb rear so I'm not even 2 times stiffer, bunch of threads on people doing this with KW V2's so it should work

 

Hmmm... Seems really odd that a poly bushing could actually hold the force that bar can produce. And it seems that you would hear something.

On mine, what I felt was the inside wheel coming off the ground and releasing what little grip it had. This would cause the back to step out a bit. Could that be what you felt?

I have none of that now. But now I have slightly stiffer springs and shocks than I did before, and I have a lot more rear camber, which all may make a difference. I'm told I 3 wheel a bit with my current setup in autocross but I don't feel it like I used to.

That sounds familiar. It also seems to be in line with what other MINI friends of mine have done and they did well with it. But I have have no experience with it. So I'll have to wait to hear how you make out.

 

Woooo Hooooo

If I did I would have to get a second job to afford all of that track-crack.

 

my dstreet car has a big hotchkis hollow rear bar and it 3 wheels and will slide around, it snap slides a foot or so and then will get grip again when I autocross. On the incar vids you can see me getting thrown around in the seat a bit

the track car can be drifted a bit if I lift in a turn, very good balance but bad for autocross

 

Wow

That is not a car I would take on the track.

 

why? Most people set minis up with tons of rear swaybar

 

I guess I am confused.

You first posted that you have run sway bars before but did not like what it did to the rear end, caused it to load up and snap. Then posted that your dstreet car has a big hotchkis hollow rear bar and it 3 wheels and will slide around, it snap slides a foot or so and then will get grip again.

I assumed that your Dstreet car statement was a example of what you didn't like about rear sway bars. And that your track car was an example of not changing the RSB. Yes I know RSBs are changed out all over the place. However, I thought your examples were why you didn't like the idea of changing sway bars.

Sorry if I missed something.

Nonetheless my comment had to do with your autoX car. For me, that would not work on the track. Yes, I know it is an autoX car. But this is a perfect example of why "one size" doesn't fit all when it comes to setting up a MINI. It depends on what you are doing with it. Mine is setup for my likes for the track but I do autocross it. Not sure I would do the same with a car setup for autoX, that is, take an autoX car on the track.

But, again, sorry if I missed something.

 

yeah I have a hard time following your posts, I would not hesitate to take a big rear swaybar the track

but I prefer to use springs instead and keep the rear end more neutral, powering out of slides on sweepers is a lot of work if your doing it over and over all day long

 

Suggestion.

I have the opportunity to get an Quaife LSD Supposedly brand new, for a great price. I was looking at OBC racing LSD as well. Don't know which to go for or hope and pray i can identify which tranny with what lsd if any in that JCW I'm Parking out. The OBC is an affordable alternative to the Quaife. This is the first track car i have with no LSD. It really noticeable in corners. The JCW I'm parting out may or may not have a factory LSD in it, but i don't know how to tell if the tranny has a factory LSD or not.

I have been told the LSD on mini's are more or less the same as the Quaife (performance wise). So i don't want to spend close to $1k on something that I may have already in the car I'm parting out.

Suggestion or information on how to find out or where to look so you can identify the transmission on a R53?

 

Look up the VIN to see if it's listed as one of the build options, 2TA Sperrdiferential.

http://bimmer.work/

 

So it turns out based on this i have a LSD In the JCW car.

So now the question is are the aftermarket any better then the Stock one?

RB-MINI you seem to know A LOT. thank you for the link. Is there anywhere i can read up on the tranny? or if you can answer the question?

Thank you again. The Decoder site i use to us went down.

 

I just wanted to thank you for saying this! because I've been feeling the same thing but haven't quite been able to put it into words. My car is really a daily driver that I like to play in, so I'm on stock springs, FSD's and have a 19mm rear sway bar. For street and slower autocross I'm pretty happy with it, but in faster sweepers in autocross, or at the track, mine does the exact same thing, it feels good, feels good, feels good, then snaps out. I do think that some rear camber would help with that, but I don't have adjustable end links or time to play that much with it.

everyone raves about how much a rear sway bar improves the handling and rotation, and in some settings it does, but I've just been wondering what I was doing wrong that kept me from loving it all the time.

 

Thanks, unfortunately it's more "book smart" and weekend modding knowledge than something picked up from tons of wrenching on MINI's. Check out minitorque and trackmini for more technical/performance info.

Not sure how accurate this is, but I did find this here on NAM.

 

.

I believe your quote info is not quite correct. The are two types of LSD. They both work on a slip principle. One is a gear type, of which the MINI, Ford Focus ST and Quaife are all part of that group. They work by back driving a set of worm gears. The angle at which the gears are cut determines the percentage of torque transfer and the amount of slip there is. I don't know the percentage but I believe the Quaife has a higher percentage of torque transfer.

The other type uses clutches and the slip between them. These can be setup for different amounts of torque transfer.

In the end, there is always give and take. The MINI style is more street friendly and the plate style is more track oriented.

 

Here's a pretty good thread. I haven't read the whole thing (was looking for a different thread but came up with this one).

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...e-learned.html

 

I tried a setup not too different from yours. I concluded the problem was the FSDs. They don't react fast enough for autocross and they are too soft for the track. The Bilstien B8s are a much better choice for a non-adjustable shock for this purposes.

Added rear camber should help to make the car more stable. The stock camber for the rear is -1.5 deg. I run -2.0 to go along with the -1.5 up front. So there is adjustment room in the stock suspension for this.

 

Will this apply for the R56. still reading but just want to make sure. So just from your experience. I'm guessing the stock is better then the non LSD and the Quaife is better then the stock LSD.

At this moment i want to cliff notes, so i can make a decision to get this quaife or pass. I mean the guy is only saving me about $150-$200, but since the track season is over. I think i would prefer to hold on to my money since it wont be used until next season and since i have one already in the car which will improve my NON LSD trans lol.

 

Yah i read the thread a while back lol.

 

If I remember correctly this applies to both the Gen I and Gen IIs. I have not compared one to the other, but I autocrossed with a guy who had a Gen I with the the factory LSD and he made it look like there was nothing better. I would think you will be fine with it. I would have ordered it if it was availability. It cost me a small fortune to upgrade my car with the Quaife.