Wow, that is some great driving! Congrats to Craig!

I never in a million years would have believed that an STX Mini Cooper S could win a national event, much less a Pro Solo against AWD and RWD cars, much less at its first event.

He also would have won STU by more than one full second in the STX Mini! He was also faster than STS and STC, which very often run faster times than STX cars...

 

seriously. MCS the new car to have in STX?? wonder how things will go at lincoln

 

People have suspected the car could be fast but there was never a driver of Craig's caliber who took the chance. The wife and I have been having fun locally but this year we'll be hitting the road hard. The car is faster and so are we. Although still nowhere near Craig's level of driving. Hopefully we get some more people thinking about the mini as yet another option for STX. I just love how diverse the class is. Oh and FWD isn't as much of a disadvantage as you think at the Pros. Especially with the torque of the turbo motor. Look at the 60' times. Craig was more or less even with (or faster than) all of the RWD cars. Even at the DC Pro where the start is uphill I was cutting 60' times similar to the fast RWD STX guys and that was before the Quaife went in.

And since this is a results thread... Had the first event of the year in the mini last weekend. Car drove great even though there are some issues with the car (busted control arm bushing). Car had the 6th fastest raw time on Saturday at the event and the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th fastest times on Sunday at the Test n Tune. Put close to 50 runs on the car this weekend between all the drivers. Hope the car drives this well on the larger lots. This event was just with a small local club. 80 drivers on Saturday and 50 on Sunday. Now just have to get all the little issues resolved and the car buttoned up for Wilmington in 3 weeks.

 

Yeah, I did look at that, and I was really surprised how close the Mini 60ft times were VS the Toyobarus. Then again, the Toyobarus are not easy to launch well/consitantly either.

But if you look at Craig's 60ft times VS the 3rd place WRX's time, the WRX was putting a whopping 0.5 sec lead on the Mini (and the Toyobarus) in the 1st 60ft. But Craig caught up, and then some...

 

The WRX will cut 1.8s 60's all day long. Too bad they suck at sweepers. I should know I also have an STI. The WRX was the car to have for a short while there in STX till people got tired of replacing transmissions.

 

We have a guy locally here who runs a MINI in STX (Eric Lam) who usually gets near the top in PAX. He doesn't seem to have run any national events though.

 

I would LOVE to see the MCS in STX as a front runner with the RX8 and E36s. That would make them a lot of fun since they are dead in the water in the new street classes

 

Mini dominating HS, STF, and STX?? Can it be done in DS too?

 

Thanks for the props guys! What can I say, I am simply blown away by the performance of my 2012 Mini in STX. I had NO IDEA it would be as good as it is right out of the box. I have to say a HUGE thanks to Way Motorworks, OS Giken and Hanchey Vehicle Tech for their support and spot on expertise. Way provided the priceless knowledge for the power, suspension bushings, brakes, swaybars, etc and OS Giken provided UNPARALLELED GRIP on launch and corner exit full throttle and HVT provided the amazing coilovers with dead on spring rates and custom valving. I have had a Quaife in the past and I can say the OS Giken LSD is leaps and bounds better than the Quaife. 39 degrees, full throttle acceleration BEFORE the apex with little to no wheelspin and this is on 15" wheels and tires with INSANE acceleration compared to any of my old stock class Mini's on R-Comps. It really felt like I was in a DSP Mini with R-Comps. I could not have asked for a better setup on the coilovers from HVT, this Mini sweepers so good and smooth compared to my 06 JCW Mini in STX that was on Moton coilovers. What is crazy is that this is the PROTOTYPE set of coilovers in a single adjustable with custom valving to match the springs. These guys REALLY know what they are doing and I can only imagine how good things will be once I get on the final version of Double Adjustable coilovers and can start some custom tuning on the suspension! Turn in was crazy good too as it was. I am running 15x9 Rota Grid Concaves up front in a 36mm offset with a 10mm spacer to clear the HVT coilovers, and, with the final version of coilover, I think we might be able to get away with a 5mm or less spacer, although, I think the 10mm allows for better turn in so I would probably run 10mm anyway. Rears were 15x8 35mm but I will probably go down to a 15x7 35-38mm to allow for a narrower track in the rear. Up front, HVT did some special things to allow for more clearance on the inside for the 15x9's.

Here is the deal, no one, including me, thought the Mini could be this good. The light has been turned on guys, so, I feel the desire to allow any of you who are in the area or want to be in the area of wherever I may be competing to give my Mini a run to see how good these parts perform. I hope to see more of you considering running the OS Giken LSD, HVT Coilovers and parts from Way Motorworks so you can also feel the real potential of your R56.

Oh, and, I just checked the PAX results for the Prosolo and I ended up 2nd overall!!!! I coned away 0.4-0.5ish as well on the right and had top PAX on the left!!!! This is all on an underprepped STX Mini!

With all of the above said, its not just the driver, it REALLY IS a good part the setup and knowledge of those who you do business with that makes the difference. Might as well get it right the first time by surrounding yourself with Awesomeness like Way Motorworks, OS Giken and HVTAuto.com! I should also mention the BFG Rivals really rocked as well, much better than I anticipated. The QuickSilver Exhaust was great too and the lightest DP back exhaust for an R56 that I am aware of. NM Engineering suspension bits worked perfectly as well, can't wait for their tune with a raised rev limit!

Will post pics and video tomorrow

Shoot me a PM if you want to give this Mini a run sometime this spring/summer at a test and tune, divisional, local or possibly a National/match Tour(no Prosolo due to launch, hehe) and we will set something up!

 

Craig, thanks for sharing all that with your fan club here...

We shall see who may be tempted to follow your lead.

All the best,

Charlie

 

lol ditto! please keep us posted here or wherever else about how things go

to add: OSG LSDs are the real deal. I don't have an OSG, but I have a Cusco 1.5way in my Evo's rear diff (similar to the OSG function, tons of clutch plates, springs to adjust the lockup etc), and it is legit, but OSG is really considered top of the line as far as LSDs go IMO.

 

Now I wonder what could happen if someone looked over your shoulder and contacted the same vendors, took the setup and budget to 11 and entered the car into SMF?

I will probably still get eaten alive by the damn 1800lbs Hondas, but I will know nothing was left on the table.

 

do ittttt

 

haha, once u settle in and get some seat time you will definitely be good to go. They raised the weight up a good bit on the Hondas in SMF, so, you probably aren't as far off as you think. I think you can give them a good run!

Oh, and, BTW, your setup blows mine out of the water. HVT 3 ways? OSG LSD AND Clutch/Flywheel? More powerful turbo? That is going to be amazing to watch! I'm just glad you added the LSD, without that, it would be ridiculous trying to put down power. You would burn more money on smoking rubber in 1 season than the LSD cost. Oh wait, you had the ELSD so you'd be buying brake pads, haha.

 

Craig, maybe a fun run on the T&T at the spring nationals in lincoln? Just for kicks. I'm curious how an OSG feels on a MCS

And I'd love to get your feedback on my 3 if you would take it on a couple runs too.

 

Absolutely, feel free to take as many runs as you would like. I'd be happy to give your 3 a whirl

 

first event of the season tomorrow: one forecast says 50% snow in the morning, the other says freezing rain best part is, no one cares! we've all been cooped inside too long!

 

That's the spirit!

Here's the forecast for Sunday (our 1st event).

Sun Mar 30

Hi -- 41°
Low - 35°
Heavy Rain / Wind - NNE at 23 mph


As long as we stay safe, we'll be fine. 34 folks are coming out for the first time, so our pros and our Safety Steward will be vigilant.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

:(

our 50% snow turned into zero precip, just a cold and windy day. too tired to make an "official" post about it, but i LOVE the new car's suspension set up - the MINI is SO neutral, and has full range of behavior, including lift off oversteer. my driving needs a lot of work, but I did the best I've ever done today (13th overall in PAX) among a very talented group, thanks to my codriver Dan M. I really like the suspension, and I think the FCM dampers are just perfect.

 

My that sounds very promising indeed! Should be a good year 'tater... :-)

 

yup! here's a more complete write-up of the event: http://r56hs.com/2014/03/31/starting...n-a-high-note/

Overall, the car did very well and I'm very happy with the setup. On the other hand, I need a lot of work and a lot of seat time. Hopefully both are upcoming this season. Can't wait! I'm absolutely convinced custom valved Bilsteins/custom valved dampers in general are the way to go for stock class over the ubiquitous koni yellows. I'll probably write something separate about them in more detail later.

 

well - no new results for me but i've found that most people who have codriven with me are looking for the car to be a touch looser - considering my alignment has a slight amount of positive toe as well as a solid (~0.20) amount of positive toe in the rear, I'm hoping adjusting that will help me get a little more rotation without making a major change... two events coming this weekend!

 

Philly season opener, on Z2s, prob high 40s in the morning, but sunny
http://phillyscca.com/results/2014/event1_fin.htm

Top pax (co-driver)

Third pax (me)

I think he beat me through the first gate, need to look at the data.

 

^ nice work - are u using racerender for the videos?

 

I screwed up this weekend at the San Diego tour, we came 2nd and 3rd (out of 3). I should have been able to make up the 0.054s I lost by. More details to come later.

http://scca.cdn.racersites.com/prod/...%20Results.pdf