Interesting. Maybe front strut bars aren't mostly bling? Certainly cheaper than coilovers.

 

Good points about people who are seriously pushing their car in a controlled setting. I guess the biggest point I was trying to make is that the amount of power to add to the 2nd Gen MINI is so relatively low to make it a straight line pony car crusher. It is almost a fruitless endeavor. It's not like we were blessed with an easily tunable platform like the Honda K-series, GM LS series, JDM...etc. It's just somewhat entertaining to watch how passionate and nasty people are getting about CAIs that might net a gain of ~5hp or something. Really the only proven power mods for the 2nd gen MINI are a big fat intercooler, catless downpipe, and tune. It's the tune that's the huge pain and what is causing the most heartburn as our limited market doesn't have a lot of sway with tuners.

That's why I say, focus on suspension and driving pleasure. Stuff you can feel with every turn of the wheel.

 

I don't blame people for wanting more power. It's a car guys nature to me. But with that said, we bought MINI's. We did not buy an LS1 car, we did not buy an RB25 car. We bought a car known for it's tight, short chassis and amazing handling. On top of that, you don't even start with 200hp. You didn't buy it to make a drag car out of it.

I've got to agree with the basics people are talking about in here. After you've perfected and dialed in your new suspension components. Be it just a rear sway bar and some slightly better tires for your every day car, or a completely new setup top to bottom, THEN worry about the little extra power.

Just like I had learned in autocross, you don't want to mod the car ahead of your skill. Drive the thing to the limits that you desire, then see what it needs. I wouldn't suggest someone go out and pop R-compound tires on their car before they have done any other mods or driving, just like it doesn't make sense to put more power down before you see how you drive and how hard you can drive it first.

Though this thread has basically outlined it, I definitely stand by dialing in your suspension before anything else(other than tires....tires before anything!). Popping for a downpipe and tune if you want that bit of extra power and if you drive hard in hot weather or do longer track runs and feel the crippling of heat soak, an intercooler or meth. All in that order. The arguments over intakes are hilarious. For $400 or sometimes even more, you get about 5 horsepower(which I haven't see any 3rd party dyno tests done on any of them....), just at the peak of your RPM range so you can't hardly use it, and then you shift. I don't have any idea WHY intakes and catbacks are such hot debate topics when NONE of them do more than that.

 

Reading > Me
Sorry about that. What I wrote still applies but mostly to lowered cars.

It depends on the dampers. Lots of dampers are called "digressive" which means they are linear on the rebound and digressive on the compression. There are also new pistons out which are "double digressive" which means both the compression and rebound curves are digressive. A digressive curve means that at higher shaft velocities (large bumps) you should be operating past the "knee" and so the damping forces (compression) should be similar between (as an example) a piston moving at 60 mm/s and a piston moving at 100 mm/s. I would guess that the stock shocks are mostly linear in their compression forces and that's why the shocks are harsh on the big bumps.

The Koni site has a page on how the Koni shocks work. From what I can tell they might actually be using a regressive piston which would give fairly good bump compliance.
Koni page: http://www.koni-na.com/fsd-frequency...ve-damping.cfm
Look at Figures 1 and 2 to see example compression curves for linear, digressive, and regressive shocks... http://www.penskeshocks.com/files/racecar.pdf

 

I have EBC yellows with the R56/JCW calipers and rotors on my R53, along with stainless brake lines. They take a little bit to warm up, but grab hard. Dust is as bad as OEM pads, and a little harder to clean off.

 

For the record, I read your sig--"Shopping for coilovers" doesn't necessarily mean coilovers aren't on the car, it would be an assumption either way....For what it's worth, I have coilovers on at the moment, and I'm currently "shopping for coilovers." Having driven a car with JRZ's, that's where I'm going.

I'm reading this thread, and it's gone off path--I doubt your issue is "bump steer", but I'm bowing out of this thread as more and more misinformation is piling up.

 

I've noticed a good amount of bump steer issues myself, so feel free to correct any of the misinformation in this thread, Mr. All knowing. People who come in somewhere saying "Everyone is wrong, there's so much misinformation" then ducking out without actually offering their corrections or good information usually don't actually know as much as they present

 

+1. Many people make claims with no supporting evidence. Now as for the bump stops, maybe these will work for you all:

http://www.waymotorworks.com/bump-stops.html

 

I ran a JCW brace on my 2012 MCS for over a year. It's noticeable, for sure, in that it "sharpens" the steering response, but that's just "feel", and I wouldn't be surprised that it wouldn't be measurable. I recently removed it (is not SCCA autoX DS legal, at least at the moment) and was surprised by how much harshness was removed from sharp impacts on my daily commute (makes sense, with it gone some chassis flex was allowed to return).

Just one data point for you.

 

Sees the bait...Doesn't take it. Good luck....

 

See what I mean. Being a condescending ***** is easy(check any of my posts). Actually knowing something rather than just stirring a pot to stir it is different. You posted about how much misinformation is spread, but you won't say what or correct it. The whole "I'm above that" attitude in your reply proves it. YOU could be helpful, instead you're a cvnt. Note taken.

 

While I respect the opinions of every person who offers one, I will simply say this, stop comparing the size of your egos. If there is misinformation then please enlighten us so we can learn and not make mistakes and waste $$$. Saying "there's so much misinformation, i'm leaving now" (i paraphrased it) instead of offering to explain which information is misinformation is like saying there's a design flaw in the International Space Station but not saying what that flaw is. Anyone can say there's misinformation/lies present in a discussion, but not as many can say just what those lies/misinformation really are. Talk is cheap, where's the proof of the supposed misinformation?

 

The way the car reacts when I hit a bump at high speed is the wheel twists in my hands, the car veers to the outside of the turn, and I need a quick correction to stay on course. If that isn't "bump steer", what would you call it? And how to minimize it? Other cars I've owned, for example BMW 3 series, didn't do that.

This thread is titled "The Secret to Speed", and since it is in the suspension forum, we're not talking about speed in a straight line but speed around corners and finding more of it through suspension improvements. So I'd say we're on topic, even if it is a broad one.

 

Alright are we back on topic?

I believe that I am also experiencing something similar and it's what I call bump jump - where the car hits a bump and it jumps over (at least that's what it feels like). My car is lowered on NM springs with the stock dampeners. I think this is the problem, and that the solution is to replace the dampeners with more appropriate ones for a lowered suspension. This will be my next mod - do you hear me Santa?

What about changing out the bump stops?

 

Take this for what it's worth, which ain't much. I don't know how to completely eliminate this, but I think stiffer sway bars do not help. This is because as the weight of the car shifts to the outside of the turn, the chassis exerts force to the end of the sway bar, which is connected to the shock body. Force is exerted at two points: the sway bar end link and the upper strut mount. So, we have the two points: (Chassis --> to Sway bar link --> to outside contact patch ultimately) PLUS (Chassis --> to shock--> to outside contact patch ultimately). This additional force due to the presence of the sway bar which reduces body roll also inhibits the ability of that suspension linkage to absorb the bump that's in the turn by effectively limiting the suspension's ability to act independently.

If we removed the sway bar the additional force of the sway bar is eliminated - allowing the suspension to perform independently of the other wheel. I experimented with this and disconnected my front sway bar. I have this terrible on ramp leaving work that has bumps in the curve due to the separation of the concrete slabs. They cause my car to want to skip to the outside of the turn and jerks the steering wheel. The faster I go, the worse the effect. This "bump hop" was GREATLY reduced with the sway bar taken out of the equation.

I'm not saying that we should eliminate sway bars, but all things being equal, thicker sway bars do not help with this "bump hop" phenomenon.

 

FWIW our fJCW with stock sways and TC Kline DAs is pretty composed over mid-corner bumps. Not completely gone but better than stock

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