OK, so I know my car is pretty low. That's what LEDA's force you into doing
I put on a new set of AVON TechR's (225-45-17) yesterday for an autocross and the inside of the fender is cutting the tread near the outside edge. I'm OK when I have rubbing from the plastic fender liner - those just wear away. But this is worse - I'm hitting the metal.
Has anyone cut the metal ridge inside the fender well away, hammered them out of the way or found another solution?

I can raise my car up a bit, but I like it where it is, and since I corner-weighted the car I'm reluctant to screw up the balance.

TIA
Mark

 

I know of an individual or two that has "frenched" his fenders, cutting some plastic and rolling metal in order to accomodate wider rubber on a lowered MINI. Best of luck doing so. Post some pics when it's done.

 

Got any pics of your slammed coop? I love the low look and would like to see what other people have.

cheers, jason

 

Mark,


I suffer similar problems when running at Second Creek. My fender liners are pretty worn. When I had the fender liners out to fit the Sport Bar, I used a small hammer (like 1/2lb) to bend the metal edge over. Pretty easy to see where the tires have been rubbing.

The sharp edge is where two pices of sheet metal have been joined in forming the unibody, so I would be hesitant to cut the metal to trim it.

Of course, your Mini sits about 1 1/4 inches lower than mine.

HTH

Grant

 

Ahh, the sledgehammer approach to modding - I like it!

 

I got a sledge hammer,

 

Being driven by racing professional Michael Galati:

 

Find where the problem is,then use a heat gun.

 

hard to use a heat gun and make the metal bend

 

Yup, This is slammed... for a good cause of course.
Hitting plastic- trim and cut it away
Hitting metal? Bend it- see a body shop for advice- one that caters for race cars would be nice. I see alot of Hondas, VWs and Lexus like this.

See- Alex@tirerack wasn't fooling us when he advises to be prepared for major cutting when using 225/45-17 tires on a lowered MINI.

 

i used a baseball bat. all the cars that i have done the baseball bat is the most easier way to do it and its cheap. bends metal like no other, work awesome on the rear fenderschris

 

Yesterday I tackled my problem:
Removed the plastic fender liner and cut an arc around the outside edge - basically continuing the arc where it had already rubbed through. A pair of clippers I had made short work of the plastic.
Hammered the metal edge where the two pieces of sheet metal for the unibody met so that the edge was facing towards the outside of the car instead of down.
Raised my right rear coilover one turn. (not much help to my corner weighting - I'll do the others when I have those wheels off).

I hope this solves the problem.

 

I'm in the process of playing with my ride height as well, but for me the object is to raise the Leda's to the max to retain full travel for the battle zone of NY streets.

 

I raised the other three corners on Saturday. So far it looks like I've solved the rubbing problem; the real test will be on Friday when I put my Avon TechR's on for a track day. It also seems that my ride has improved considerably, the car is not nearly as harsh as it was. Maybe I've found the sweet spot of the springs

 

Hey, Mark are you serious about Galati? Saw him a few weeks ago at Portland in the Speed Challenge. Great, very aggressive driver. Tell me how you got him behind the wheel and instructing you.

 

Norm,
Yep, that was him!
The Audi Club brought he and Pobst in for a fund-raising event to get $$'s for a new race track. They needed cars for them to give donors rides in. They did this after the Portland race.
I'm on the ACNA board and was at the track to work. When I got there they asked if they could put my MINI in the rotation, as they were trying to have enough cars for them to use and to not over-use anyone's ride.
Galati took mine out for about ten laps. I asked him if he would change anything, hoping for some professional advice on suspension settings. His reply: "More power, " Duh!
He was about a 1.5 seconds a lap faster than I am. Of course he was probably at 50% and I'm at 95%.
Mark

 

Can you please post pics with the 225s (from the back if possible.)


I haven't seen any yet, and would like to see what I'm missing out on (now that I know what it will take)

Thanks,

L

 

sure - I'll take some on Friday. We have 10 MINI's coming out to Second Creek Raceway to play with the Rocky Mtn Club B5 (VW and Audi chassis) gang.

 

Awsome...

I also have the Leda's...was wondering what rebound # you use on the track, and what psi level you've decided on...

I'm currently going with (from the softest) 7fr 10bk and running 34 front and 37 back psi (cold) with the sway bar on the softest setting...

I increased the rebound levels once and the results were very bad...VERY bad...haven't been on the track since, but plan to...

L

 

I use full soft on the street and have been playing with 8/12 and 12/12 on the track; 12/18 when autocrossing. I just stiffend my rear bar a notch (it's an Alta and is on the middle setting now) so I'm not sure what to expect for settings on Friday, we'll see.
Tire pressures - your's sound pretty good. I haven't had the Avon's on the track yet so I'll take my pyrometer and see what they do. I usually shoot for around 41lbs hot, if the pyrometer supports it.