Had a very fun first year autocrossing my 2007 Mini Cooper s with a Manic stage 3 tune with a JCW turbo 244WHP. Won 10 out of 10 entered in my region based on our PAX times.
Last weekend really killed it with my raw times.

 

 

JFC that thing looks real fast. MY DS car looks like a Justa Cooper by comparison.

 

Just out of curiosity, is your drivetrain setup DSP legal? All Cooper S including JCW&GP are on one line so the JCW turbo is good to go. Any software is good to go. As long as you didn't tear your interior out you could probably run DSP which has a softer index than SMF.

 

No it’s not. I have a bigger turbo. It’s only a jcw turbo. But have the manic stage 3 tune added.

 

​​​​​​JCW turbo is legal through update / backdate. Tune is legal too. JCW GP stuff is legal too, so GP aero and GP rear seat delete are ok to add to a regular S. I've seen Vitamvas's car, Campbell's car, and the freshly built Hunt car run quite a bit, and they're really fast.

Pretty sure a DSP Mini would easily have the best power to weight in the class if your dyno numbers are accurate, and also the lightest weight. I guess the only question is if one on wide A6s could put it down effectively.

 

Hmm, I have a hard time figuring this stuff out lol. They said go to smf and I said ok. Lol but my last post I did beat the 3rd place solo national driver in smf Sunday.

 

Hmm..... this had me thinking and went back and reread the rules. So the only thing as of now that puts me into SMF is my blow off valve. I can easily put back on my old one with the Alta spring😉. I haven’t done any internal work yet. I did just buy a ported head with race cat cam’s for a great deal. And planed on rising the rpm limits to 8,000 then I could go 72 mph in second with Hoosiers. Hmmm..... Pax would go from .848 to .842

 

I looked at solo national and compared the classes there pretty even.

 

Yeah the rules are a real labyrinth, especially SP and beyond.

In P you have to do math to figure out how much your car can weigh. Screw that.

Anyways, I think a DSP Mini has an outside shot on certain courses based on zero real data and gut feeling.

 

I’ll definitely keep this in mind. Thank you. Although it mite be fun kicking some Honda butt. Lol

 

My son normally rides with me. Us together in the Mini is about 3050 lbs

 

I’m not removing the headed seats or a/c. Lol

 

My DS everything delete car is 2400lb flat with 8 miles to empty worth of fuel and no driver. <2300 I think is fairly easy in DSP.

My build would look like this:

Stage 1:
Whatever the hell power package you've got. Car looks crazy powerful.
1.0-way LSD. I hate OS Giken but don't think there's another option. Not sure the Torsen is enough, but it might be. The OE LSD on my car struggles a bit at factory power.
I'd probably start with the 245/40-15 A7 on 9" wheels to keep the car narrow, but definitely test the 275s.
Zero idea what ride frequencies you need in a fwd car on Hoosiers, but I'm guessing there's nothing off the shelf stiff enough. Car would likely be unbearable on the street with what is needed.
Lots of camber.
JCW GP front undertray and a front splitter to the max of the rules. Car will be 100% limited by front grip levels and I'd do anything to maximize it.

I think that's a good, solid, 95% build that would make it quite clear if it's worth going the full monte or if it's a wild goose chase.

With the short wheelbase, light weight, and narrowness of the Mini I think it would wreck the BMWs and RX8s in the little ticky tack transitional stuff. Looks like your car has plenty of power to more than keep up in straight line acceleration. With the fwd penalty the big challenge is sweepers and more importantly getting power down coming out of them. Your car really, really struggles to put anything down but your tires aren't doing you any favors.

 

Somehow I am going to try to verify the rules over this winter make sure I am good with the JCW turbo for dsp and everything else sounds really good. Obviously I can’t get on the throttle a lot as I’m pulling out of a turn. It will be interesting with the Hoosiers because I’ve really only ran the autocross with two different tires, the federals that are on there now and the Indy 500’s LOL Right now I’m running pretty close to 3° on the front they’re maxed out and on the back I’m running 2.2° camber

 

That's how the line is written, so to be 100% legal to the letter of the law an entire JCW motor including turbo would have to swap in. So I guess your car specifically isn't legal as is, but your power level is legally attainable by someone else copying your setup with an eye on the rules. The whole engine is considered as a power unit so it's good to use via update / backdate, but only the whole thing.

I'd say your car is close enough to the rule for everywhere except if you win in Lincoln, as there's zero advantage to an S block over a JCW block.

 

I could just show up with some jcw stickers. But yes it’s definitely crazy how I could go out and buy a JCW and do the exact same thing I have now. But I can’t use mine. But what you said that’s basically how they told me.

 

I originally bought this Mini a little over a year ago for $2500 not running. At that point I really wasn’t thinking of autocrossing like I am now. I just wanted something that was fast LOL and I actually did it for fairly cheap.

 

it's the same part number that's all that matters

 

Even worse than that, you could start with a base clubman or roadster if you wanted, plop a full JCW GP motor into it on whatever tune you wanted, and be 100% legal. But just swapping the turbo only... isn't legal.

Like I said, SP rules are real bad.

I was under the impression earlier that the S & JCW blocks were identical and I guess they're not after a quick Google search.

 

If I ever get good enough I’ll just go drive somebody else’s car LOL

 

identical but it depends on the year.

They both used the N14 but the S got the N18 (different block) in like 2011 while the jcw did not get it till like 2013

dont quote me on the year crossovers I dont know the r56 platform that well