Well, I finally sold that old house of mine that was sucking up all my extra funds. Got a nice little deposit wired into the checking account as well.

I'm out of debt, and I have this JCW MCS sitting in the garage broken.

What's broken? It understeers too much and I haven't put a single aftermarket part on it yet.

So, time to fix that.

Over the past few months I've asked a few questions and read as much as I had time to read. So here is what I've come up with:

First thing to order -- M7 USS system.

Second thing to order -- Camber plates

That much I'm sure of. Question is, what kind of camber plates should I get?

Then, should I get a front STB, and an adjustable H-sport RSB? I'd like the chassis to be as stiff as possible, with the ability to tune for balance through the rear sway bar. Eventually, I'm sure I'll do springs and struts but I think with 10k miles those are fine for now.

So. What do you think of my plan? I already have the 18" JCW black powdercoated wheels. What kind of camber plates should I get?

Anything else you guys think I should hit up?

 

Hi succ,

Congrats on the sale of your house. I bet you're going to get a bijillion replies to your post. There's nothing quite as exhilerating as spending someone else's money!

I want a stiff MCS too...as stiff as possible. I went M7 STB and USS. Got an TSW Engine Dampener, and I'm researching which sway bar I want.

Good luck in your mods. It's a fun adventure!

 

You've banned your Mini to the garage and declared it "broken" because it pushes??? ummmm.. OK?

Well, anyway, .... just how do you drive? What is it that you want to do with this Mini? Dailey driver, track, both? Is comfort and a good sound system more important then wild driving?

 

Are you guys forgetting the most important solution for fixing understeer? A stiffer rear sway bar.

http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...table_Sway_Bar
or
http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop..._rear_sway_bar

And IMO a front strut bar in a MCS will make absolutely NO difference in stiffness or rigidity, but I would consider buying the M7 STB only because it protects against mushrooming and looks aggressive.

 

My motivation for the FSB is to prevent mushrooming, and if I get some added chassis stiffness (how could I not?), great.

No, the Mini is not banned to the garage. My 2006 330i is my daily driver. The MCS is actually my wife's car, but I can do whatever I want to it. We both work together and commute together in my car. The Mini is for fun.

Yes, I want a certain degree of comfort, and the sound system must stay. It is not an all-out track racer, it will be driven primarily on the street.

I want a very stiff chassis, so that the suspension can do it's job. That is why I'm thinking to stiffen up the chassis, tune for balance with the rear sway bar, and keep the stock springs and shocks for now.

I don't know, if I get aftermarket shocks/struts I'm a big fan of Bilstein, but don't know how the ride would change in this car.

What is the deal with the TSW engine damper?


edit -- the whole "broken" part was mostly just humor. How you missed that, I'm not sure. Anyway, there's nothing literally broken. (why did I have to explain this? lol)

 

IMHO, a 19mm rear swaybar is the place to start - I prefer H&R, simply because the bushings are killer. We've had one on the mega-Cooper test mule now for 4+ years with nary a squeak. And, it's been an integral part of all the suspension setups tested to date...

Second, camber plates and adjustable rear control arms + an alignment. This will make even a completely stock MINI suspension perform lightyears better - this setup alone is remarkably good.

Since this is your wife's car, you should seriously consider what mods you'll put on it - especially camber plates and a more performance-oriented alignment, as that will require considerably more attention be paid while driving (even in a straight line!).

For more information on our damper kit, check out our website - we made a final tweak to our internals several months ago to provide longer life, especially for cars driven very hard, for high hp applications, and for track use... To us, it makes a major difference for autocrossing and track work, at the sacrifice of slightly more NVH being transmitted into the cabin. Again, if this is primarily your wife's daily driver, I would take the NVH into consideration if she might find it annoying.

 

I recently (last week) put Randy Webb's Extreme Rear Sway bar on Phil. Wow, what a difference, from understeer to oversteer. During a recent autocross, I was told that no one had seen a mini drift before.

Highly recommended. Easily installed (took 1. 7 hours) and it is infinitely adjustable. Also, it comes with new end links.

http://store.webbmotorsports.com/

And BTW, was much more competitive!

 

Do you back off that bar for street use? I'm guessing in an emergency maneuver it could get very interesting.

 

I agree with txwerks. The MINI is already incredibly stiff and you're going to see the most improvement with a rear sway and camber plates.

 

I have not yet, I am still fine tuning the setting, I think I had too much oversteer for AutoX, so I back it off a bit. I expect that once I get it dialed in, I will be able to quickly adjust back and forth, as the adjustment is a slider. Easy to tweak before and after competition.

 

sweet trade off, MINI parts for your house

 

To decrease understeer read the chart-
http://www.rallylights.com/other/stuning.htm#alignment

Look over the options and keep in mind that you don't have to do them all to get a neutral handling MINI.

Some of it depends on your driving style.

The more adjustable your upgrades the more you can fine tune your suspension for different uses whether for street use or for performance driving.

Don't go overly stiff, that's why a 19mm rear sway bar was suggested- if it has 3 adjustment holes you can use all three most likely. If the bar is extra stiff you might not be able to use all the settings.

As a fine tuning adjustment you can tweak handling with tire pressures.

 

UPDATE

I've ordered from M7 their FSB, USS, and the H-Sport 19mm RSB.

Now I'm considering TSW Springs and H-Sport Camber plates along with adjustable rear control arms.

Input?

 

k well i used to have a red jcw so what i did ...cosmetics all the way ....i think a fast car is only worth while if your taking your ride to the track otherwise a jcw's power should be more than enough IMHO buttt a nice stiff and smooth ride is nice too .....now to the looks ...the rims sound very nice so since theyre black i would also black out the lighting and joey mod the headlights ( blacked out inner headlight housing ) also i would go with the piaa driving lights ...mainly because they look very nice with the black grid they come with . when i had my red one what i did was black out all lighting and threw some checkers on the roof and some nice black hood stripes....im a big fan of the viper stripes now though