This weekend will be my first AutoX of the year, and my first one ever in a Mini. I'd autoXed my bone-stock WRX a couple times and had a blast, but it just plowed everywhere. I'm hoping the Cooper doesn't do that....I think I'll be ok as long as I can keep from driving too exuberantly and focus on being smooth. I tend to grab my car by the scruff of the neck.

The folks and info on this site are fantastic! I've looked the car over and everything seems fine, suspension-wise. I'll be replacing the pads, rotors and fluid when it finally gets delivered. I've replaced plugs, wires and coil with upgraded units......even if the car doesn't really need it, being stock and all. I bought a set of Holies and wrapped them in Dunlop Z1 Star Specials (I've never felt tires that grip like that! ). I'm planning on starting off with 40psi in front and 48 in the rear and adjust it from there.

I'm seriously excited about autoXing this weekend! This was compounded by watching F1 practice this morning before work.

I'll have an in-car camera running, so I might have some vids by next week. I'll share them depending on how crappy my driving is, lol.

 

You'll find that the stock brakes, pads, rotors, and fluid, are perfectly adequate for autocross. I suspect that it would be easy to take the car in the wrong direction here (more "bite"...harder to modulate/threshold brake). I'd say the same for the ignition parts that you mention. Keep the money in the bank for the V710s that you will inevitably want .

 

You know. I completely agree. I had a blast! It took a little bit to be able to anticipate how the car would react when turn, braking, etc. The stock brakes bite plenty. And then I had to re-learn it all over again as it rained in the morning and then dried out in the afternoon.

I was stoked that I ended up getting 2nd in the class. I had my usual habit of over-driving the car and hitting cones as a result. The last run, I just settled down and concentrated on driving cleanly. Surprise surprise, it was my fastest run of the day.

You're totally right though. Once it dried out, I quickly found the limits of the Dunlop Z1s. Nice tires as they are, I think I would love some V710s. But they're expensive and I think I need some more experience under my belt first.