Updated results from last weekend. Mixed weekend. Finally got new stickies, but couldn't get the job done. The course didn't really favor the MCS strenghts, but was still fun. I've also found that the front control arm bushings are shot, so that probably isn't helping anything.

Oh well, another event this coming Monday. Maybe I can get new bushings and ball joints in after that (courtesy of Way Motor Works ).

Scott
90SM

 

Status so far after 3 events in the VSMC VA area.
1st
1st
2nd (beaten by a hopped up Camaro)

 

Front control arm bushings are still all wonky, but it worked well enough for the course today. Very technical, with a boatload of transitions but only one spot slow enough to tempt me into going back to 1st gear very briefly. The last section down a taxiway had two back-to-back garages on the right, followed by about 2 seconds of WOT "straight" and then a left hand garage feeding into a right hand garage to the finish. All of the garages were open enough to carry lots of speed through (middle 2nd gear) if you timed your inputs JUST right. What a rush!!!! The whole series of elements probably worked out to 2 to 3 pedal or wheel inputs per second on average for a 1/4 mile of course. Makes me wish I'd had the G-Cube with me today.

Scott
90SM

 

Not feeling good over this weekend (Sinus and Stomach flu). Just finish installing the Megans with the revised springs (8kg in the front) and set hide hight to my desired hight. Aquired the assistance of a Co-driver to help with Suspension tuning. After the runs which we Finish (him)2nd and (me)3rd. I discovered as expected, That i will need to go to a slightly Heavier spring set for both front and rear. Simular as those used on the Ebach's 9kg front with 7kg in the rear.

Course was not very Technical more of a Corvette or power course. So we lost to the Camaro again. But on the bright side We can say that We were the Fastest MINI and Fastest FWD car at the Event. Only beated by 4 Z06 Corvettes, 1 Elise, 1 Exige and that Blasted Camaro. (raw times only)

 

Another one in the books. The Camaro didnt show up so another one in the win column for me.. that puts me at 1,1,2,2,1. Revised the suspension again and put it on my tweak boards. Car has balanced out nicely. Currently down to under 2 sec behind the Corvette which has people talking about the car again.

Oh and im loving the Hankook 214's C30 compound for these hot days

 

Congrats!

Scott
90SM

 

Had a fun day today. It was a little rainy, but never puddled on the line. Car felt much better after a little suspension work. Way Motor Works replaced my torn front control arm bushings with new polyurethane bushings. While he was at it, he installed an H-Sport front sway bar, set on the softer setting.

The idea with the slightly larger front sway bar was to allow me to soften the front dampers a bit for improved grip in sweepers without giving up transient response. Bottom line - I was right and it worked! Both ends of the car just flat out STUCK, which let me really haul a$$ through a momentum course.

Scott
90SM

 

Congrats again Scott! I've been out of the country the past couple of weeks, and following-up here was a bit of a challenge...

So... what are your damper settings now? If you ever do a video of your runs, please share!

 

Wheels, tires and pressures vary depending on event and logistics.

Today's setup:
PSS9s with 350lb/in, 2.5"ID, 6" long front springs, standard PSS9 rear springs
H-Sport camber plates (2nd gen)
H-Sport front sway bar (set on softer setting)
H-Sport Competition rear sway bar (set on stiffest setting)
polyurethane front control arm bushings
H-Sport rear control arms (upper and lower)
Quaife
5mm H&R spacer in front
TMS 75mm studs
Project KICS R26 lug nuts
16x7.5 ET43 Kosei K1-R wheels
Falken 615 Azenis 215/45-16
Front tire air pressure - 41psi
Rear tire air pressure - 37psi
Front Camber -2.4deg
Rear Camber -1.8deg
Front Toe -0.05deg
Rear Toe 0deg
Caster 4.5deg
Front damper setting 2
Rear damper setting 1
Total vehicle weight (with driver and fuel) - ~2925lbs
Ride height not immediately available (but I could supply it if desired). Maybe 1" below stock or so.
Air temp 73F-75F, very light rain, very textured asphalt (very old out of service airport), tires about 1/3 worn, course had lots of slaloms and offset gates in 40-55mph range for me. Certainly a momentum course, solid 2nd gear.

Scott
90SM

 

Scott, your incessant noting and logging of such information contributes greatly to your ability to refine your set-up. Kudos to you! I really appreciate you sharing. I've been contemplating a front bar also, and with somewhat comparable mods, I always love to hear of your progress. As I recall, your MINI is also a daily driver. If you find this set-up not to be so ideal for every day driving, please do share.... Thanks much.

 

Tony,

I put about 90 miles a day on this setup, with a minimum of changes. Tire pressures drop a couple of PSI as the tires cool off, but I don't actually bleed any air out of them after an event. I do reset the dampers to 8 front and rear for commuting. Otherwise, no changes. The wife and kids don't complain about the ride with that damper setting.

Scott
90SM

 

Hello everyone,

Just searched out this thread for some advice on rear swaybar settings....

Started autocrossing this year and have done 2 events so far: Placed in YN a few weeks ago and won (bye bye Novice class) with a time that was 4th best out of 109 entries, and yesterday I was placed in DSP and won that also with six cars in class. I managed about 13th overall with 91 entries.

Now back on subject..... After a couple runs I decided to shift up to 2nd in the begining since the car was running out of steam in a quick right hand sweeper leading to a slow 90 degree right. Right after upshifting I got some oversteer ( and slapped a cone) that wasn't there when I stayed in 1st. I don't think I was going all that much faster at that point but for whatever reason the car broke loose. My mods are listed below and the bar is set at the stiffest setting (forward). I'm not using the listed wheels/tires as I managed to purchase a dedicated set of Autox wheels wrapped in Toyo Proxie Ra1's (205/40's) that were purchased used off eBay. Should I soften up the rear bar setting? Rear tire pressure was 38lbs. I have no camber plates so the settings are whatever they are after the lowering springs were put on...

I'm not all that concerned about it but I was curious to hear some imput from some more experienced autox'ers. I'm knockin on the door of the real fast guy's so I'm tending to be a little aggressive into the corners and finding myself coming in a little too fast and cranking on the wheel to get her to turn at the next corner, bleeding time. Any suggestions would be helpful.....

Thanks....

Bob

 

Thank you Scott. I do recall your MINI being a commuter car alright. I'm glad to hear that even with its continued evolution and auto x refinement, that she remains a pleasure to drive Mon through Fri...

Hi Bob. I'm not an experienced auto x'er. Heck, I've never even participated in such an event before! That said... it would be nice know what your current alignment settings are now. I realize that from your sig you don't currently have the means to make for such adjustments (lower rear control arms and camber plates).

The quickest and easiest thing to try first is playing with the tire pressure. Drop down a couple pounds to 36 in the rear and see what that does for you. Going to the middle setting on the rear sway bar should make a noticeable difference also. I do find that a lot of guys doing auto x have their rear bars on full stiff though...

Being that your car is lowered due to the springs, this would give you more negative camber in the rear, which is generally desirable. And as I understand it, lowering does not alter the front camber. So, you should have for neg camber in the rear, making it stick better. Since you are not having that problem (understeer), and actually having it skip-out on you, I'd take some stiffness out of the bar, or play with the tire pressure...

Again, I don't speak from experience with the cones... I'm sure others more in the know will give their thoughts.

 

hey scott.. if i may ask what is the stroke on the PSS9.

 

I'm not sure what the stroke is.

Making some assumptions about why you are asking... it is very, very unusual for me to bottom out. Some of our sites are pretty bumpy, and I never run out of travel even hitting them mid-corner. If I hit a bad enough pothole on the street then it does come crashing through, but it takes a pretty serious one.

My strut towers are still un-mushroomed after over 105,000 miles, though I have had camber plates of some form on there for about 95,000 of those miles. I do live in the land of potholes and frost heaves (Midwest).

Scott
90SM

 

Bob,

Sounds like you are off to a great start with those finishes.

For the record, if you are running with the SCCA you should be in SM due to the pullies.

Couple of thoughts on your oversteer situation:

1. It doesn't take much more speed to jack up the cornering forces. Continuing to accelerate in 2nd gear may very well have been enough to put you over the edge.

2. Going a step softer on the rear sway bar will reduce oversteer in general, but lifting mid-corner or trail-braking will still probably result in the back end stepping out.

3. Dropping the rear tire pressure may either help or hurt. Both too high and too low tend to induce oversteer. What are your front tire pressures?

4. Do you bleed your tires after each run, or at least check the pressures? You'll tend to build heat in the front tires first, which will change the balance if that isn't compensated for.

Scott
90SM

 

Thanks everyone for your imput.......

No, I don't think this group is with the SCCA so maybe that's why I'm in DSP

http://www.cartct.com/index1.shtml

I mis-stated my tire pressures after rereading them.....I actually was running 38lbs in the fronts and 30lbs in the rears. And yes, after asking a co-worker/friend/SCCA racer about the oversteer he explained the tendency of the FWD car to break loose upon upshifting in a corner so I'll either shift earlier, before cornering, or not do it at all. We tend to run fairly small courses so it's negligible it makes much of a diference....

I think first though that I will try loosening up the rear bar........I'll keep you posted! Next event July 8th.....

 

38psi front, 30psi rear seems like a bigger spread than I would expect. Your rear tire pressures might be low enough relative to the front to be part of the problem. I would have expected something more along the lines of 33-35 in the rear if the fronts are 38.

Just something else to fuss with. Softening the rear bar a step will certainly make a difference.

FYI, you don't have to have the end links in the same holes on each side of the car. Just moving one of them further towards the rear of the car will make be a smaller change than moving both of them.

Scott
90SM

 

Thanks 90STX.........I'll play around with the pressures next go around.

Did you attend the F1 race two weekends ago? Maybe we crossed paths as I was there.....

 

Absolutely. I've been to all of the USGP in Indy. I went with my sons (ages 5 and 10) and some autocross friends, and sat in the newer stands in Turn 6.

I was parked in the car corral on the back straight of the oval, on the south end of the corral since we got there pretty early. The rest of the MINICCI club were a little further north. I'm currently sporting a white scoop, so Oscar looks a little bit different from the gallery pics.

Where were you?

Scott
90SM

 

what your assuming is somewhat correct. but not in the same fashion. With the Megan's im currently running i did some calcs and got to a stiffer spring than most. what im looking for is a conformation on the math i was using to get the springs i got. With the 350 your running in the front that would put it around a 4" stroke and your car about 50lbs lighter than mine on the front end (around 825-830 on the front)

 

I'll see if I can get a stroke measurement for you this weekend.


Changing topics, I see in your sig that you have a dual Supertrapp exhaust. Me too. How is your's laid out? Any pics?

Scott
90SM

 

I was also parked in the car carral all three days. But on race day I was mixed in with the Lotus's as only one other Mini was in the 8am escort to the track. We had GA tickets for the weekend and sat in the Tower Terr on race day. My S had the quad light bar in front of the upper grill (There was another S with quad lights down low). Check my gallery if you want to see if you recognize it.....

Sorry for the off topic banter......

 

S-Driver - that looks familiar. Nice looking MINI.


Mugami - I've got some info for you, though not exact. Bilsteins have interal bump-stops. At full droop, my fronts have about 4.75" of damper shaft exposed, and the springs are 6" long. That's their full length, but there is just enough tension on them to keep them from moving. The block height for the front springs is 2.32". For the rears, there is abouut 3.5" of damper shaft exposed at full droop. I don't know what the block height is on those springs, is the stock PSS9 combo with a tender spring.

Hope that helps in some way.

Scott
90SM

 

There was three wrx's in Sm with Me the lone MINI and I took them all for the win. This was just great. This was my First time on R compounds . But I also added a Exhaust header (Alta) and I have all the power I need. (well until I get beat).

Anyway this year so far with about 4 driver in my class I have run 2nd to 3rd and now the win yesterday.

Hey Thanks everybody for all the info to help me get the win.