r53 JCW daily driver/STX build
 

After running the e28 in autocross and rallycross for a year and a half, I decided I wanted someing competitive in autocross. I was running mid pack in rallycross but generally bringing up the rear in autocross. I owned a 2001 BMW Z3 coupe at the time which could compete in C Street or STR. After two months of work and a large chunk of change, I figured out there was no way for me to fit in the car with a helmet. Due to the way the rear bulkhead works, there is almost no way to screw in the rear seat mount bolts with the seat in place. I have a bad case of fatlegitis so a sidemount seat was out of the question. That realization made me a bit sad because I accidentally bought the perfect autocross spec Z3. The 3.0 M54 engine has more low end torque than the early M coupes. With no sunroof and a removable spare tire, it is 200lbs lighter.

I started looking for a car that was reasonably competitive in class, fit me with a helmet, was a roughly straight across trade for the Z3 and works as a daily driver in Florida (AC). I don't fit into most of the usable suspects due to legroom, helmet room or both including all generations of miata, s2000, rx8, brz/frs, corvette c4, and the E46 3 series with sunroof. I eventually settled on the first generation Mini Cooper S JCW. I specifically needed one without a sunroof. The JCW package came standard with a sunroof so I was looking for one where the owner specifically unchecked the sunroof option box.

I search for 3 months before I found a car in my price range in the eastern half of the country. My wife and I flew up to West Virginia to pick up the car and drive home. Other than a very stiff ride which I attributed to oversized 18" wheels, the car worked as advertised so we bought it and started driving home. The one weird bit about the sale was the West Virginia transit license plate. It was a piece of paper masking taped to the rear window of the car. The West Virginia pickup meant that we could hit some cool mountain roads on the way home. We didn't quite make it that far.

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/FVANx63.jpg" width='400'/>

About 5 miles from our hotel on the first day of driving, the exhaust header detached itself from the cat. We decided to go to bed and deal with it in the morning. On Friday morning, with no cell service, we attempted to get our header welded back together. I think we found 3 shops that would take it off the car and 3 shops that would weld it back together but none that would do both. The nearest replacement part was far enough away that we wouldn't get there before they closed for the weeekend.

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/V5qxvfR.jpg" width='400'/>

Time for a new plan. Other than being extremly loud, the car was working ok. There is a car train that goes from south Washington, DC to north Orlando once a day. We decided to drive 6 hours to DC in a car with a paper license plate and open headers. If I kept the speed below 65, I could drive without ear plugs. My strategy was to speed up, then coast past state troopers to keep the noise down. The rest of the trip home was uneventful. Amtrak for 17 hours wasn't fun but listening to
the exhaust while the car was being retrieved from inside the train made up for it.

Once I got the car to my mechanic, it turned out that the very stiff suspension was actually seized shocks. Instead of preparing the car for D Street, I decided to start on an STX build for the car. I picked up an RMW shorty header, a set of coilovers, and the bits and pieces needed to get the alignment right for STX.

Double post. Sorry

Over the next month, we repaired and prepped the Mini including
- Ohlins DFV coilovers
- Vorshlag camber plates
- brake rotors
- adjustable rear control arms
- adjustable sway bar links
- RMW shorty header
- custom Jan tune
- replaced solid crank pulley with an ATI super damper
- wheel speed sensors
- radiator aux fan
- tie rods
- front ball joints

This list was a bit longer than I expected and I managed to burn through my wheel/tire budget. So I did my first set of events on 16x7 wheels BF Goodrich Sport Comp-2s. STX in central Florida is stacked with David Marcus, Ian Stewart, and Darrin Disimo among others so I wasn't expecting to win any time soon anyway.

<img src='https://i.imgur.com/kw8r9XX.jpg' width='400'>

By the time we got all the repairs done, it was early April. My wife and I drove at the Martin Sports Car Club April event at the Orange County Convention Center. I struggled to put together a clean run. Later, I figured out that the doors in the Mini are thicker than the doors in my E28. I hit apex cones with the middle of the car on nearly every run for the first few events.

Here is my . I believe I hit a cone going into the lane change box.

At the end of the month, I went to a practice autocross in Sebring to get some seat time in the car. Sebring is far enough away that the practice events usually have less than 30 people. I was rewarded with 16 runs. I was still struggling with the dimensions of the car and hit 13 cones.

Here are a few of my . The course was designed to be run in the opposite direction for the points event on Sunday so the ending was a little awkward. I decided to slow down a bit and not take out the timing lights.

The SCCA managed to get a new site behind the Daytona speedway. We normally run in the cart track in the infield when they do track days there. This parking lot was huge and allowed a 70 second run. I would have been up into third gear for some of it if I was a little more brave. Hopefully we can do more events here in the future.

<img src='https://i.imgur.com/HCnnnMi.jpg' width='400'>

nice! I did the same thing to my 05 with almost the same mods, I did not bother with rear control arms though, I got lots of camber and zero toe out of the stock arms back there.

I'm running STX this weekend but it is going to be a track car I have a stock JCW I use in d-street

How do you like the header?

I am not sure if the adjustable control arms are necessary with the current drop but they are nice to have. Right now, I am running 1.5 degrees camber and 0 toe in the rear.

With the header, stock pulley, stock injectors, cold air intake, and a custom tune I am getting about 200 wheel hp. I drove the car for about 3 hours with the stock header before it detached. So I can't really give any comparison other than the RMW header is softer than open headers.

Awesome tread. I'm new to autocross (just finishing 2nd partial season) and am also running a R53 JCW that is also my daily from April to November (put it away for the Canadian winter).


I participated in my first Canadian Autocross Championship this summer and finished next to last in STX. I attribute this result more to my crummy skills than to the car itself or its setup.


I'd love to be able to get some pointers if you're so inclined or have the time.


Thanks

I am only a few months into FWD autocross so I am not sure how much help I can be. Here are the basics that I have figured out so far.

Setup wise, tires are worth about 3 seconds. Rivals are available in better sizes for the car than RE-71s but both work. If you have the money, spend it there first. Somewhere over 2 degrees front camber and a little less rear camber is the next step. Anything past that and you are getting into daily driving compromises. I have fairly stiff springs on mine and bouncy is an understatement.

Coming from a RWD car with grip issues, the hardest things for me have been when to add mid corner power and getting used to off throttle oversteer. I took me a few events to get comfortable throwing the car around. You can brake, throw it into a corner, wait for the rear end to come around, then get on the gas before you spin. Here is an example of me trying to do this and overcooking it slightly: . Fast forward to 2:52 if the video loads at the beginning. It is occasionally faster than the smooth line and is always good fun.

At the end of July, my wife and I headed over to the Deland Municipal Airport for our last autocross
on street tires. The site is a no longer used runway at an active airport. It was once used as a
drag strip and grip levels change as you move across the tarmac.

<img src='https://i.imgur.com/mm6onlp.jpg' width='450'>

I still hadn't learned to turn off the traction control before every run. I managed to throw away
two runs. Once traction control kicks in, it does not turn off until you get all the way off the
gas and back on.

I ended up with a 51.722 in third place in STX. I was prety happy with a 28/80 PAX time on street
tires.

Danielle's fastest run:
My fastest run:

At the beginning of the month, I finally saved enough money to get wheels and tires for the mini. I
decided on Rival 225/45r15 tires and 949 Racing 6UL wheels. 15x9 in the front with a big spacer and
15x8 in the back. It was a huge difference. I have previously run RE-11s on my E28 but it's
suspension was compromised enough that the grip level was not even close.

The front wheels poke quite a bit and they lower the car significantly due to the smaller diameter.
I prefer the term mexiflush.

<img src='http://imgur.com/sbNSNws.jpg' width='450'>

The first autocross I went to on the new tires didn't have anyone in STX. There was an r53 in SMF.
It was pretty much an STX prep car plus a pulley. It was on good 200TW tires. With around 200hp to
the wheels, it was roughly as powerful as my car. I ended up 42.055 about two seconds back from the
other mini.

<img src='http://imgur.com/FFWOduC.jpg' width='450'>

Looking back, there were a few points in the run where I did not trust the tires. Most notably at
the slalom just before the finish. I only threw away one run forgetting to turn off the traction
control so I am getting better at that.

My fast run:
Danielle's fast run:
The next event I went to was the final one before Solo Nationals. I was hoping to see how I
compared to the fast guys as they did their last tuning before the big show. I was running in the
third heat and we got a standard Florida 15 minutes downpour just before my first run. Thankfully,
there was a timing problem and I didn't have to run in the downpour. There was still a bunch of
standing water for all of my runs.

<img src='https://i.imgur.com/OR47Foi.jpg' width='450'>

About half the class got a single dry run so I wasn't event close to them. I was about 2 seconds
back from the fast guys in the wet. Good enough for a 50/109 PAX.

<img src='https://i.imgur.com/K4nRBBH.jpg' width='450'>

I also center punched a cone at about 40 mph. Got a little behind while my arms were crossed.

no rub with those tires? I get rub with my 15x8 and 205 width re71r, they are "clearancing" the rear trim

The plastic fenders and fender liners are ok. The inside of the tire may be rubbing on the plastic outside of the strut. Maybe the Rivals have a slightly more rounded shoulder than the re-71s?

I am stretching these 205's to fit onto the 8" wide, they look stanced a bit, but they sure feel fast.

I was thinking I might stick to 205 width when I got to maxxis RC-1s for the track

After a two month break, I am back to rallycross in the BMW for an event at The FIRM. The events at the firm are closer to a rallysprint than a rallycross. The course was about 3.5 minutes long and wound through their gravel skidpad, on and off the track, and into some of their rally stages. I believe that some of the cars were well into third gear through the trees. I had to drive the car home so I was not.

My first few runs were truly terrible. After driving the mini for two months, I got used to mid corner power.
My fastest run was in the late morning. I am not very consistent with handbrake turns so I downshifted into first and powered around the hairpins. .

In the afternoon, the course degraded. The start was a sand pit for 25 feet. The hairpins grew deep ruts at the entrance and exit. I slowed down to save my front valence.
I ended up in fourth place in stock rwd. About 8 seconds from third place and 20 second from second place after over 20 minutes of driving. I am still searching for pictures of the event. I saw a photographer on course but I haven't been able to find the album anywhere.

I ran a fun event in the infield of the Daytona Speedway this past weekend. I should have an update for that event in the next day or two.

Back from an autocross on the cart track in the infield at the Daytona Speedway. The course was very different from a standard autocross. The track was not quite wide enough for a safe slalom. It sort of turned into straight -> sweeper -> straight -> sweeper. I had some problems judging where to apex some of the corners. I think I messed up the turn around at 0:47 on every run.

My best run:
Danielle's best run:

The video is a little blurry because I hit a branch with the camera last week at The FIRM. I need to get a new gopro case.

see if you can find one of the fastest guys vids of the same run, thats how I learn where people turn on these tight courses

Here are some quick videos from the last few autocrosses

Every time there is a practice event at Sebring, I try to make it down. Some of them end up with 15+ runs and make up for the long drive. There was a timing problem at this event so full results never got posted. I spent most of the day blowing the turnaround and hitting cones with my right front tire. Here are our fastest runs of the day.

My fastest run: Danielle's fastest run:
Towards the end of the day, a friend and I swapped cars which led to this. . And the best corner worker reaction ever. He made the good point that my brakes were a bit crap. Not much happened in the first inch of pedal travel and things felt spongy after that. I took a shot a rounding off the bleeder screws then sent it off to the mechanic. It was a good thing because they found the brake line to the right rear completely clogged. Things felt better afterwards.

Danielle and I made our way to Ft. Myers for the Florida State Championship at the beginning of November. It was a long and boring drive. The venue down there is amazing. It is a double wide runway about a half mile long. The course was over 70 seconds long with lots of time at the top of second gear. By the end of the day, I figured I could be flat after the first cone of each slalom. Got to hear what my rev limiter sounded like at the finish line of the faster runs. Fun stuff.

My fastest run: Danielle's fastest run:
I won STX but it was a hollow victory as the only ones in the class. For reference, David Marcus in an SS Cayman GT4 beat me by about 10 seconds. The SS and STX PAX numbers are essentially the same. I don't expect to ever beat him but I would like to be a bit closer. I also got raw timed by a very good driver in an HS mini.

Back to my home region and the Deland Municipal Airport. The course was a standard runway course. The pavement in Deland has very little grip and I was fighting wheelspin all day. It made me wish my car had a LSD.


I was about 2 seconds off the fast guys at the end of the day. One of my better showings at 25/109 overall.

How did you go about the custom tune? I'm looking into the RMW header and assuming it would really benefit from a tune, wondering what the most cost effective way would be. I see things like the Evotech chip with various preprogrammed tunes available.

Jan from RMW came down to Florida for a dyno/tuning day. I got a big power bump but I was on a stuck tune before. I have about 200 at the wheels now with the stock JCW pulley. Not sure how much headers factored into that number.

My last autocross of 2016 and my first of 2017 were both run by the Martin Sports Car Club at their Tavares venue. 3 days before the December event my right rear caliper on the mini stuck hard enough that I trashed the rotor driving the rest of the way home. Hopefully I am getting close to the end of the Northeast/rust based problems with the car.

Either way, I had to run the 5 series in the autocross. I haven't run that car in autocross since March. I wasn't sure what to expect coming back to it from the mini. I am aware that I am getting faster compared to other drivers but I didn't know how much was car vs skill. Here is my best run

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhOpa1HsmVw

Terminal understeer followed by corner exit oversteer and understeer at the same time. It was fun to wrestle it around. Danielle and I finished in 4th and 5th place at the bottom of the class.

Three weeks later, I went back to Tavares in the mini. It was an extremely cold day for Florida in January, around 35 degrees when I left the house. Everyone's tires were just at the line where they stopped gripping. On my second run, I managed my first spin every after some sloppy driving:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fX_zMYTIy4

After another run or two, I finally put everything together and ended up with a reasonable time and 2/6 in STX.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEF5j4yQEkY

One driver beat me at both events. I lost to him by 2.626 seconds in the 5 series and 0.997 seconds in the mini. The big difference between the two cars is that I think I am driving the 5 series as fast as I can but I can still see more time in my runs in the mini. I will see if I can reel him in over the next few events.

Last weekend, I drove out to the Brookesville Airport for the first SCCA event of the season. Most of the really fast guys have changed cars away from STX or gone to a pro class so I was hopeful going into the day. The class had something I have never seen before, a 318ti clubsport. It had the front clip of an M3 but the back half of an e36 compact No idea why that is in STX and not
STF or STS. Only ~140hp but it does have an LSD.

On the day of the event, a bad storm was supposed to roll in around noon. We split up into heats and only ran three times for the competition. This worked great for me as I was able to get up to speed by the third run and won the class by 2/3rds of a second. If the event had gone on another run or two, things would have been a lot closer.

Here is my fast competition run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZeQ2v4_wnQ

And Danielles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfKmEP_QQ94

After watching other drivers' videos, I am losing over a second in the start. I think I am letting out the clutch too fast and bogging the engine down. Does anyone have a guide about how to launch a FWD car for autocross?

i rev to 3-4k and spin out, it'll only spin a bit

Same here, the sweetspot is definitely getting a bit of wheelspin... if you aren't getting any you're probably bogging down or not being aggressive enough with RPM or clutch release.

My first couple runs I might take an easy (street-like) launch, especially if there's a good run up area, just to put a little less punishment on the car... but then when I really care, I get to about 4k and let the clutch out pretty quick... I try to never feather the clutch, so as not to burn it up.

Also I just watched the video, you get that chirp of wheelspin but I think you need to sustain it for a bit longer (start at higher RPM, give more throttle).

Listen to this for comparison, this is when I'm going for a good launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWK80AaDA54

Catching up from the last month of autocrosses. I am going to the Dixie regional event in March so I tried to get as much practice as possible.

The first was back in Tavares for a Martin autocross. The course featured a big sweeper with a light pole in the spin zone that I never got the nerve to take at full speed. With that in mind, I was feeling pretty good about my fast run. I was about a tenth off of first place in STX. I know I lost time in the second to last corner with a bit of understeer. Then, the guy in first picked up another half second in his final run. Either way, I narrowed the gap to him from about 0.9 in the January event to 0.6 seconds.

Here is my fast run: And Danielle's fast run:
Before this event, I installed a Minifini trailer hitch system to the mini. I have the same harbor freight tire trailer that everyone else has. The car pulled the trailer with no problems but the trailer was a little bouncy. I may remove a leaf spring and see if it helps.

After the event, I was swapping tires back on and noticed that both of my inner CV boots on my front axles were leaking grease. That is an annoying job to do once so I sent it into the shop for the repair. Turned out to be a good thing as both engine mounts and the transmission mount needed to be replaced. While the car was apart, I had the shop put in transmission mount inserts. I am not exactly sure what they do but the end result was a significant decrease in slop in the transmission. Definitely worth the $35.

I also met sherman89 from the forums. He won the novice class again and posted a DS pax time somewhere in the top quarter for the event.

After a few weeks off, we went back to Brookesville for a test and tune. The course wasintentionally set up to be simple. There were evenly spaced offsets at the start, 4 sweepers in themiddle, and an even 6 cone slalom at the end. There was sector timing for each section of the course. Danielle and I focused on improving on the sweepers. We both picked up multiple seconds after gaining more confidence in the car. The car did 20 runs on the day and didn't miss a beat.

Here is my fast run: Here is my fast sector 1 and 2 with a missed cone on the slalom:
Here is Danielle's fast run: Here is Danielle learning the limits of the car:
The following weekend we went out to The FIRM for an autocross with the Buccaneer region. We weren't going to go because it is a 2.5 hour driving starting around 5am. Then I found out that there were already 17 people already signed up for STX. The class had 22 people on the day of the event.

The autocross takes place on about half of the track there. There are a bunch of slaloms because there isn't enough room for much else but there are also some high speed sweepers that are rare to see on an autocross course. I got into third gear for the first time on an autocross course hitting around 75mph according to gps.

At the event I had a nationally competitive driver sit in the car for a few runs and drive on one. On his only run in my car, he was 2 seconds faster than my best run of the day. I think it would have been a top 12 pax time on the day. Between his run and some tips, he showed me how to catch oversteer with the throttle and how much earlier I could get on the gas in corners.

It turned this spin: Into my fast run of the day catching the oversteer in the same spot:
Towards the end of my fast run, I accidentally shifted into 5th instead of 3rd gear and lost time downshifting. I ended up in 7th place, a third of a second out of the trophies. All together a good day

I am taking a weekend off, then traveling to Indiana for the North American Brass Band Association Championship and south Georgia for the Dixie National Tour the following weekend.

I attended my first regional autocross event at the Dixie Championship Tour at South Georgia Motorsports Park.

The weekend was complicated by an oil leak on the way up. I was missing a bolt on my coil pack and it put a small hole in the valve cover. For some reason, it sprayed oil straight up into the strut bar and underhood insulation. I temporarily solved it with a hardware store bolt.

On Friday, I attended the Evo Advantage School. I got about 10 runs in on the practice course. About half were with Jinx Jordan, 2016 SMF national champion, as an instructor. My big takeaway was that I need to get back on the gas much earlier in turns. My tendency is to not give full throttle until I have unwound the wheel.

The two competition courses were fairly straightforward. Out and back on the long, narrow lot. The course consisted of a section of offsets, a big turnaround, 6 cone slalom, and some slow, sharp turns on the other side. Saturday's course had two 180 turns that were a bit weird. I decided not to downshift into 1st gear for them which was a mistake. On Sunday, they were replaced by a sharp left, right that worked a bit better for me.

Both days, I struggled with nerves. On the first day, I ran slower and safer than I needed to. On the second day, I overcompensated and ended up with cone problems. Despite the poor finish, I am looking forward to doing this again next year. Here is Saturday's fast run, Sunday's fast run, and what it looks like to understeer into a cone.