I have an '02 MCS with the following:

Rogue CAI
Madness 15% pulley
Magnaflow exhaust

Before the next season I plan to have:

H-Sport competition front and rear sway bars
H-sport springs
H-sport front camber plates
H-sport strut tower brace
H-sport rear camber arms
Team Dynamics 15x7 inch 13 pound wheels with Hoosiers

I would like (but can't afford right now):

Quaife LSD
Light-weight flywheel

Are there any other reasonably-priced mods that would help?

Thanks for the input!

 

-deep 6 the front swaybar, doesn't help in Auto-X
-can the front strut brace too, it's not helpful on the MINI chassis
-also, to be acutally competitve in SM, you'll need STICKY tires and a fully adjustable Leda coilover setup (see Webb Motorsports)

Good luck,
Ryan

 

You also need to put the car on a diet.......

- get rid of the stock seats for lighter ones
- remove the rear seats, including the rear bench
- replace the stock battery (40+ lbs) with a 14 lb motorcycle battery
- carbon fiber/composite hood (I don't know if these are even made for a Mini)
- carbon fiber/composite bumpers
- carbon fiber/composite front fenders (again, not sure if available for the Mini)
- ditch the Magnaflow and go with a Quicksilver exhaust (it is the lightest on the market at 26 lbs) or go with a simular custom design

Hopefully you are already starting off with a light car (i.e. no sunroof). Hell, the Zenon headlights weigh 15 lbs over the non-zenon headlights.

Other suggestions.........

- put as wide (and light) a wheel/tire combo you can fit (keeping gearing in mind of course), the more rubber on the road the better
- the LSD is a definite must
- use wider aftermarket fender flares to make that wide wheel/tire combo fit if needed (I saw them on a Mini vendor's site, but I can't remember which)
- go with the 19% pulley for maximum boost at the lowest rpm possible
- get a good "auto-x" alignment

After suspension and tires (which are very important in any auto-x class) it is all about power to weight.

 

My advice?
Don't do another single modification until you get a Quaife. All of the power and suspension mods will do you no good without the traction to use the power.
I'll take a stock Cooper S with Quaife and R Compounds over any other modded Cooper S out there.

Brian

 

Welcome to Nothamericanmotoring Brian!
Chris

 

Thanks for the ideas. guys.

Being relatively new to autocrossing I guess my question is this, say I won the lottery and did all of the above mods, would the car be competative or is the MCS just out-classed by the usual Hondas, etc. ?

 

>>Thanks for the ideas. guys.
>>
>>Being relatively new to autocrossing I guess my question is this, say I won the lottery and did all of the above mods, would the car be competative or is the MCS just out-classed by the usual Hondas, etc. ?

Unfortunately, I would say it wouldnt be competetive, depending on your local competition. Here we have a turbo Civic that runs 11's in the 1/4 mile, among others. A friend of mine has a 92 civic with a complete type-r conversion, plus some other stuff, and he was the fastest FWD at Nationals on day 2.
Not to say you won't have fun. I used to compete with a 92 Acoord in SM - definitely not the car to have - and still had a ball, and even got a couple podium finishes. I just recently did the pulley mod to my otherwise stock MCS, and may run a couple of events, but I just picked up a 91 Sentra SE-R for autox (and hopefully track) duties.

 

I would have to agree with wkndracr on this one. Even if you did all of the above mods you would a VERY fast Mini, but it still would not be able to compete with the SM M3s that took the top spots at nationals last year. The Mini just doesn't have the power (not that I am biased or anything since I have an M3 that is similarly prepared as some of those top M3s !!)

But on the flip side, if you did do all of those mods to your Mini, you would have a great time racing!!

 

In my opinion, it's got nothing to do with power, at all. It's got to do with the DRIVE wheels. With FWD, more than anything, you reach a point where more power does no good on an autocross course. That point arrives VERY quickly, I'd say at about 225whp.
Weight shifts to the rear and lifts your drive wheels, not a good formula for any class where you compete with RWD and AWD.
That said, Mark Daddio makes a valiant effort

Brian

 

Okay i am a novice here but in Road & Track magazine a year ago, the MCS had the mags record for their slalom course, eclipsing the Porsche GT II. Which is a car with much more HP and better rubber than our run-flats. Recently Mini Mania's Stage III package was tested in Motor Trend with a claimed 245 HP. The car ran their slalom with an avg speed of 70.2 which was said to be in the same class as the Porsche 911 Turbo. So i guess i'm saying that i believe we can be competitive. A Civic? Really? I would think we would be able to take a Civic anyday in the twisties. Huh....Looking forward to reading why i am wrong . Thanks

 

>> A Civic? Really? I would think we would be able to take a Civic anyday in the twisties. Huh....Looking forward to reading why i am wrong . Thanks

Keep in mind that this Civic I'm talking about is much lighter than a stock MCS (under 2k lbs I believe)

 

>>Thanks for the ideas. guys.
>>
>>Being relatively new to autocrossing I guess my question is this, say I won the lottery and did all of the above mods, would the car be competative or is the MCS just out-classed by the usual Hondas, etc. ?

Anything is possible with enough money, so with Lotto winnings, E46 motor and RWD. Maybe even supercharge that. I can see it now "this week on monster garage, to take a MCS and turn it into a nationally competietive autocross car, the team is limited to a budget of $3000 cold, hard cash and unlimited freebies from sponsors." (think five figures). At the end of the program Mr. "get in the Zone, Autozone" Jesse destroys the car because he thinks it would look cool.

jmciver-fast M3 huh? I've got five words for you "H Stock MINI. Ed Raymundo."

 

>>jmciver-fast M3 huh? I've got five words for you "H Stock MINI. Ed Raymundo."
>> !!! Nice to hear form you BTW......How are things in CA?

 

Well, I'll be racing for fun anyway. I'd like to have a car that can get respectable times but can still be run on the road.

I'm sure I'll end up with a crappy street mod autocrosser and an uncomforatble road car, but what the hell...

 

>>>> A Civic? Really? I would think we would be able to take a Civic anyday in the twisties. Huh....Looking forward to reading why i am wrong . Thanks
>>
>>Keep in mind that this Civic I'm talking about is much lighter than a stock MCS (under 2k lbs I believe)
>>

Aren't you guys both in the NYC metro area? I am too and I pretty sure the discussion is about Matt's car. How are you not seeing the same cars? :smile:

 

>>
>>Aren't you guys both in the NYC metro area? I am too and I pretty sure the discussion is about Matt's car. How are you not seeing the same cars? :smile:
>>
>>
The Civic I'm talking about is a red Hatch owned by Chris Travis.
http://www.b18c5.com

 

That car is so fast it's scary... but it is fun to watch, and race with. Can't wait wor april to come aroud to see how my car will fair in streetmod this year. I stayed away from SCCA Last year, but should be back this year. with a few more suprises under my belt

 

SM? Great...look forward to it Dan!

 

quick slalom times don't necessarily equate to quick lap times. there are straights off turns where you can't accelerate cause your inside tire is spinning. You are wasting your power. That is where the rear sway bar or stiffer rear shocks (G stock) or ltd. slip (SM) help. With the pulley and other reasonable bolt on mods, you just can't put the power down. Chuck Waer, who runs a stock cooper S with Konis in g-stock (SoCal SCCA and took local class podium put his hoosiers from light wheels onto the xlites cause the wheel/tire combo was so light he could not get traction. This is for stock cooper engine. Garfield is right as always.