Have beed a little disapointed in the ammount ot torque steer on my 08 MCS. for the first 1200 miles I just passed it off as a MINI thing. Yesterday I decided to change the air pressure in the tires from 38 to 36, I found that the right front tire was almost 1lb low in pressure, usually not enough to bother with, but I went ahead and set all tires to exactly 36psi. It made a huge difference in the ride and the ammount of torque steer I have been feeling. It tracks much better under hard acceleration now. Before I would have to hold the steering wheel with both hands if I was accelerating hard, now it's a one hander . I guess I'll have to keep a closer check on the tire pressure on this toy.

My tires are 17' continental all season run flats, not sure if I like them but I'm gonna wear them out

 

That is good information! I had pumped up the tire pressure before a long road trip on another car (not a mini) to about 1-2 lbs higher than normal. If I remember correctly, it was about 36 - 37psi. The car was noticibly less stable, wandered more and required more attention. Point it that just a few psi can certainly make a noticible difference.

 

What does the manual / door sticker say to inflate them to?

 

The door sticker on my MCS says 38 psi all around.

 

Thanks for the tip KCinBR I'm going to give that a shot. I have also found that the ASC contributes to wheel tug under certain hard acceleration circumstances on particulary uneven road surfaces. When tearing through back roads near my house sometimes a drive wheel will lift and loose little traction. At that moment the ASC light will blink while I have to wrestling with the wheel for control. I take that particular stretch of road with ASC turned off now and I don't get that "oh $%!t" out of control feeling anymore. Instead of the car deciding to hit the brakes for me I get a little wheel spin instead but I'll take that over loss of control. My car is equipment with an LSD.

 

Keeping your tire pressures even left to right is more important than exactly what pressure they're set to. Most importantly, it keeps you straight while breaking, I hadn't thought about evening out torque steer before, maybe that's why I don't seem to have much.

 

Maybe your muscles grew

 

Wait til you drive on non runflats. Whole different feel. Much less "edgy" and better traction. WooHoo!

 

MCSa here. I also found switch off ASC somehow reduce torque steer a bit on uneven surface, and power delivery is smoother out of tight corner.

 

I have not tried turning off the ASC yet, but balancing out the air pressure made a big difference.
This is my first set of run flats and being they are on my first MINI it's hard to tell what part of the handling characteristics are MINI or what parts the Run flats.
I failed to mention that the reduced PSI improved the hopping/skiddish feeling when driving on rough roads especially when cornering.

 

QUAIFE LSD = NO TORQUE STEER.............

 

That's good to hear KC. I need to try this too.

 

Torque steer is a by-product of any front wheel drive with a lot of power... I found that adding a rear 19mm sway bar adjusted to the middle setting helped tremendously (but I have an '05 MCS). IMHOP it all adds to the fun of driving. It keeps you on your toes so to speak...

 

Dropping the tire pressures 2 psi just gives you a bigger contact patch, a lot of it is probably in your head though. Also you should never drive with one hand on the wheel if you're accelearting hard enough to get torque steer, that's just plain dumb.

 

The drop in TP made a difference in the harshness of the ride, the evening out of the front pressures helped with the torque steer NOT IN MY HEAD but in my single hand on the wheel, and that does not make me DUMB. I can take my Porsche 911 wide open thru all gears with one hand and it's no problem, with the MINI it's not the same.

 

I would stick with two hands.