* OEM Sport Suspension (32,000 miles on car now)

* Alta 22mm bar (that can't be run past middle setting or else I get the car into "ice mode" while trailbraking)

* 16x6.5" MINI R-84 X-Lites (17.5 lbs. each)

* 205/50/16 Dunlop ZII's

 

that is pretty "underprepped." as skill level goes up it seems every little thing matters

 

My throttle issues and "Ice Mode" where the brakes become very stiff and non-reactive(different than ABS)are definitely different. I have experienced both, and, Ice Mode, if I remember was caused by having too much rebound dialed in on the rear shock. It was years ago and from what I remember, I had zero issues, then bumped the rear rebound up to full stiff and then experienced Ice Mode where it would not brake, brake pedal went extremely stiff and the Mini just plowed through the corner without wanting to stop. On the elements where it seemed to happen were when the Mini was being tossed around a bit and then into a braking zone. Well, I went back to a softer rebound setting(1/2 way between soft and stiff) and the issue went away. It might be worth a try. If you need more rotation after the shock is softened, just run more pressure in the rear. Hopefully this works for you

 

Thanks for the props! I was looking at your results as they happened, you guys have an insane tough class up there for sure. Hurst is going to be really tough all year I bet. How were the temperatures up there? We were in the mid 90's for our afternoon runs, not sure what happened on my Sunday morning runs, temps were ideal for us in the low 80's in the morning.

 

Thanks for the response - my shocks aren't adjustable actually, they were custom valved my Fat Cat Motorsports. I think for now the situation is pretty rare, if it gets really bad at some point I will definitely take your advice and ask him to tune down the rear rebound.

It seems from everyone's responses the "ice mode" definitely has something to do with the rear wheels, perhaps lifting a wheel, turning, braking, etc. Hopefully I can adjust my driving or perhaps the car.

 

I'd get an ice-mode-like plowing on Hoosiers sometimes if the rear was WAY up in the air when I got on the brakes, I have yet to have it happen on street tires.

Jersey Tour runs:

I'm kinda afraid to share Saturday's fast run since its UGLY. Off camber errrrwhurrrr and the nose just would not bite.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

Sunday's is better. Won the day and nearly the weekend.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

Do these videos work for everybody?

 

your "ugly" runs still look better than my clean ones lol!

the course overall just looks like front tire torture though..

 

It was kind of cold and very very windy. Like sustained 25mph windy. Temps were in the 60s mostly. Overall a pretty cold event. We had trouble getting heat into the Z2s even with two drivers. Hurst on the other hand was spraying his R1Rs like mad

Yeah there were a whole lot of sweepers. The course was really fun but really hurt the FWD/AWD cars with all the weight over those front tires.

 

We sprayed our Z2s Saturday but not Sunday. I was kinda kicking myself for not getting our R1Rs mounted, it would've been a perfect day to try them.


I didn't particularly enjoy Saturday's course. It was extremely challenging, and I definitely learned some things, but I wouldn't call it fun. Fighting the car through all the off camber sweepers was mostly just frustrating. Sunday though, challenging and fun!

 

Have any of you used any data acquisition? I just picked up Harry's laptimer and am excited to test with it.

 

Just ordered SoloStorm with RaceCapture Pro today. SoloStorm is becoming pretty popular in the auto-x community.

 

i've actually personally been struggling with solo storm, but i didn't get the full racecapture package, just the recommended gps and obd2 scanner. i think the gps scanner could be faulty though.

 

Ok, so they finally posted the results of my first race with the Mini. I won DS by a .15, but I was more interested to see how I stacked up against STX.

The winner of STX (also 4th overall in PAX) was about 3.7 seconds faster than I was in DS. He's in a fully prepared BRZ. I was in a stock mini, save for a D-Sport Comp rear sway bar (softest setting) and some 215 DII's on 17 x 7.5 wheels.

That's close enough for me to decide to grab some coilovers and jump into STX for the next race, as my raw time would have put me in 6th in STX this time around. I have to assume that camberplates, a race alignment, and some coilovers will earn me about 2 seconds. Now granted...I think I left a full second (at least) out there, as I've been driving a vintage RWD car for the last few years. I need some serious seat time with this new car.

At any rate, it was encouraging, so I'm excited for the next step.

My current line of thinking is that I'll do a set of Megan Racing coilovers with custom spring rates (thinking 350/400) to begin with, and continue to test from there.

Obviously the biggest factor after that is putting the power down, so the next step is an LSD. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

 

I use Harry's with an external GPS receiver and a OBD-bluetooth dongle. Its very useful. I've used it to compare runs and work out where I, or my wife is gaining or losing time.

I'll compare our runs and see where one of us can pick up time. I quite often use it to give the wife coaching hints, as I'm usually fastest in the early runs. When she's ahead I can see where I'm losing time, I managed to pick up half a second at one event by looking at the data like that.

I can also compare my runs against each other and see if there's anything I can do.

On its own Harry's is not very useful, the iPhone internal GPS is not that accurate and it only provides fixes at 1/s. Harry's is crippled so it'll only log data at the speed of the GPS. (I've had correspondence with Harry about that.) With an external GPS, you can get more accurate fixes and with the right unit you can get faster fixes. I've got a Dual XPG150, with special firmware it'll give fixes at 5/s. (And now they have the 160 which logs at 10/s.)

 

A lot to do! Good luck!

 

Hmm, may have to look at the 160. I purchased a 150 and installed the special firmware, but it never worked right. Without the fast response Harry's app is cool, but not worth the effort to setup. May give it another shot knowing about the 160.

Have you tired using it along with a GoPro? In theory you can trigger and sync the GoPro vid to HLTP.

 

who's gonna be at chi solo this weekend!

 

Just curious...where'd you get the OBD-Bluetooth Dongle?

 

I'll be there. Looking like good weather. Possibly a little too warm. Give me 60's all day and I'll be happy.

I have a weird miss type thing I'm trying to figure out. On cold starts if I drive away within the first 15-30 seconds its like I almost hit a brick wall sometimes when I'm accelerating. I've tried to duplicate it but every time I think it happens I can't make it happen again. The idle at cold almost seems like it has a miss every once and awhile but no codes or anything.

I'm going to pull out the coil packs today or tomorrow because I don't think they were replaced when they put the new engine in. I'm pretty sure they put in new plugs but I'm not certain on that either. I have to order in a socket to remove them to check.

 

I got a GoPoint BT1, from GoPoint. That's the one reccomended by Harry.

 

I don't use Harry's for video overlay (I use RaceRender). When Harry's was accidentally controlling the GoPros, I could never work out what was going on. I switch of the WiFi to save battery.

 

FWIW I had "ice mode" like issues on the 2011. The older the car got the worse it seemed to get IMO. When it was newer it wasn't a common thing. By the time July rolled around last year I was having the car do it every event on at least one run. The dealer refused to ever replace any rotors on the car. I ended up putting new front rotors and carbotech pads up front and it seemed to help the problem but not fix it.

By the time I got to nationals I was spooked and my braking was all F-ed up. I was braking 10-15ft early for everything the first day (especially in the fast section I came into and had to do a 3-2 downshift). Needless to say that can be nerve racking. Slower smoother application of the brakes was all I could do.


By the way...congrats to Lee Chhit and Craig on their wins in Mineral Wells (even though Craig was already recognized).

And a special thanks to Jeremy, Ron and the polite midwest folks who stuck around for for karaoke "performance" friday night.

 

Here's all 6 of my runs from the Chicago region on 5/11. I have a 2007 Mini S with stock 115k mile suspension. Running on ZII's. In D Street.


I'm mad because on my last run in an attempt to gain some speed I figured I'd try to gain some speed by shifting into 1st in a very slow part of the course but I fumbled the damn shift. Last time I try that. Even with the fumbled shift I was like a few hundreds off my best for the day. If I didn't fumble that I would have probably gained 3-6 tenths on my best.

PAXed at 62 out of 140 or so.

Got some JCW springs coming and I'm going to decide on some shocks/struts before the June event. Anyone know a Chicago area installer who could hook me up on the isntall? I don't have my tools out here nor the space to do suspension changes.

 

^ nice runs - you've improved a lot over a short period of time, they actually look better than mine!

here's my fast time. a lot of little things to work on, and somehow I blew that last slalom

 

I had a good weekend with my Roadster S. The Star Specs are heat cycled to death after four years but I was able to fling the car with abandon without serious consequences. It and I both passed the test (I've been away for two years with health issues.)

Only had one competitor each day and fairly newbies at that. Helped the one today take five seconds off his times. That will help make the sunburn more tolerable this evening (yes, I use sunblock.) I'm thinking 205/45-16 Hankooks. Anyone tried the 200 treadwear versions 2's yet?