Would these two systems work "in harmony" or would it be better to have just DSC or just LSD ? I'm interested in the pros and cons for mainly street-use/daily driving rather than for a dedicated track or auto-x car. This would be for a daily driver with JCW engine mods used year-round (including snowy Upstate NY winters).

 

It sounds like you are ordering your MINI and want to know how useful it will be to have:
DSC- Dynamic Stability Control- it is electronic and built into your MINI as an option beyond ASC. It will sense loss of traction and enact brakes to slow the car to regain traction. Most of the time the average driver will be safer keeping DSC on but during performance driving it is better to turn DSC off. For the average owner having DSC is good but for an autocross or track driver you'd want to not order this.
Or
LSD- limited slip differential- more helpful on high performance cars, certainly helpful for track and autocross but does allow for maintaining traction of the front two driving wheels with the ground based on the physical presence of the LSD in the transmission. An expensive option. It will help during times of inclement weather.

If you have both DSC and LSD they will work together well. LSD is on and working all the time since it is physically present. DSC is electronically controlled and can manually turned off at will using the center console toggle switch.

If you have an MCS with JCW kit and live in a snowy area I'd say skip DSC and order LSD. If you have multiple drivers for the car then having DSC would be a good safety option which they can use passively but you can turn off if you want.

I drive an MCS with DSC and an installed Quaife LSD. Works fine for me.

 

Minihune,

Thanks, that's just the kind of info I was looking for. For most of my previous car purchases I've always gravitated to something with AWD; it's fantastic for putting the power down & great in inclement weather (especially with a set of dedicated snow tyres). I've not owned a FWD for many years and it certainly didn't have DSC or LSD (but plenty of torque steer and understeer ). I think the combo of DSC & LSD would be nice, especially since you can turn the former off when required.

 

FYI, gr8britwjh, I've just ordered an MCS from Classic Mini in Cleveland and was told the earliest I could get an LSD-equipped car is March. I was strongly tempted to wait for it and order later but they also told me that there's a good possibility that if I ordered now, the car would arrive before the $500 price increase. Too bad, the LSD would have been very nice.

Mark

 

MarkS,

Thanks for the reminder....I'd totally forgotten about the $500 increase. We have already ordered my wife's MCS (should be here in 2 weeks) and I was contemplating ordering my own sometime next year (with LSD). However, I think I'll sink some money into my wife's car instead (JCW stuff) and we'll just have to fight over the keys

 

We ordered our car from Classic last Dec right before the 04 price increase. Julie knew exactly when the last order of cars would go through before the price increase - it was an order placed around the first week of Dec. I thought the price increase was happening in Jan again, and I'm suprised they wouldn't know the cutoff order date again this year.

Also, our Dec order got us some of the changes for 04 (factory rear fogs, etc), so it's possible that if you timed an early Dec order just right, you could get an LSD w/o the price increase.

I would do the factory LSD if at all possible, and would like to do one aftermarket on our DSC equipped car.

 

LINK
$200!!!!!!! I hope that's not a mistake where someone left out a zero!

And it delays the activation of DSC 'when specified'....I'm thinking 'when specified' is a nice way to say "Duh".