I have a 2012 MCS R56. I had just tried launching this thing for the first time. I did it with traction control off and on. Both times the traction light would blink and the car would bog. Is there something I'm missing or can these cars not be launch from a dig?
6MT. I'm super confused and disappointed here.

 

Nvm figured it out

 

You should share for those who haven't figured it out yet.

 

Did a full search on the traction control instead of how to launch.
You have to hold the button down till the caution light comes on. That fully turns off the traction control.

 

I've got a 2013 MCS, but I've never gotten that to do anything for me. I only have one mode of "traction control off" that puts a light on my speedo and a "!" on my tach, but holding the button never has changed anything else.

 

That's strange. I haven't tried it fully but I just assumed holding it down was the problem. So are we just not able to launch at all?

 

I can launch just fine, I can get traction control off but I've never noticed holding the button doing anything different than just pressing it. My friend with a CM however can hold his button and holding it turns off something additional.

 

To disable it, (for track launches, AutoX, etc) you have to HOLD the Traction Control button for 3-5 seconds until "DSC OFF" appears in the tach cluster display.

(Just pressing the TC button doesnt disable the dynamic stability control which will cut engine power when it detects wheel spin.)

 

You are correct. Holding the button down for 3 seconds on cars with DSC or DTC will disable it.

I can't say how it impacts the launch though. I've been afraid to try it with these fragile stock clutches.

 

It helps considerably on the launch. When I autocross my Mini I tend to launch it quite hard, hard enough to break the wheels free at launch and chirp in 2nd. Because the car has a decent amount of turbo lag it is really nice to already be in the boost after launch when trying to get moving in the autocross.

BTW, if I forget to turn the DSC off in an autocross, my lap time is typically 4 or 5 seconds slower which is basically an eternity in autocross times.

 

are we taking MT OR AT?

 

I just tried it out today. Everything works fine after the DSC fully turns off. I dumped it at 2500. It hooked pretty well but had a slight bog. How high is everyone else dumping it? I'm tempted to go at 3500.
This is fairly off topic but does the manic tune have two step? It'd be nice to build boost before a launch. :(

 

I was launching mine between 2500 to 3000 rpm. It was just enough to get a chirp chirp chirp while leaving the line but not so much as to just light the wheels up.

 

Launching a MINI. Soon you'll be able to replace the clutch & CV joints.

 

 

I didn't buy a MCS to look at. Lol.

 

Ain't that the truth. I've never owned a car that has required so much money and effort just to drive it.

My clutch fears come from me buying a car with only 37k miles and had already been through 2 clutches. First replacement at 9k and second just before I picked it up.
With 62k now, I always feel like I'm on borrowed time.

 

Geez... Well not every driver is created equal. I could see how a clutch could go fairly quickly after driving the Mini around. It took me a couple weeks to smooth things out. It's really different jumping from Japanese imports (Honda) to this. I bought mine with 60k and the clutch still bites fairly well.

 

Hey fellow Honda (insert gender neutral pronoun)

Spent 25+ years working for Honda/Acura and owned a shop that specialized in building them, so I know where you're coming from.

My car was originally sold in Chicago, so I can only assuming the traffic and snow may have played a part in the rapid clutch decay. My biggest concern is that the flywheel was never replaced, only resurfaced. From past experience, most manufacturers do not recommend resurfacing a dual mass flywheels. Sure, it's been done with no problems, but I'm still concerned about it.
And I REALLY don't want to spend the kind of money it takes to put a good clutch in these things. I've already dumped enough into it.

Luckily, I've driven manual trans cars my entire life so I feel I've got a grasp on the concept by now.

 

The Mini is cheap compared to the e39 M5 I had. I wouldn't necessarily say more reliable though, the e39 was pretty good, I drove mine hard and put a large number of miles on it.

Anyway, clutches are wear items that are very dependent on how they are driven. Almost all of my friends daily drive manual cars and I have found all of them have the bad habit of not rev matching on down shifts. I have had to yell at all of them when driving my Mini to rev match the down shifts. I learned to rev match because the M5 required it. If you just let the clutch out the engine took so much torque to spin up that you would usually skid the rear tires a bit. Rev matching is an art that everyone should learn if they want to save their clutch.

 

Manic tunes can have the launch RPM set to whatever you choose --- just let your tuner know what you want. Mine has been disabled so it can launch at max RPM.