wow, kinda amaze on how you are able to run 20's on the track
i still have trouble running 18s on the road sometimes.. drive me nuts once in awhile~

 

M!n! me...Thanks! glad u liked! I'm running 225 all around. With regards to the weight, you should choose a wheel that obviously is not too heavy...I drop some weight when i run by removing my back seats (+- 200lbs)...

granted 20 inch wheels ARE NOT ideal for this car but believe it or not I dont rub unless I sit someone in excess of +- 300lbs on the passenger. Only then do I rub when I come across a bump.

If you pick the right wheels they won't look big. They actually can look proportionate to the car. Mini's are wide cars! At times wider than some mid size cars on the road. (including higher end sport cars). So running 225 's can be a benefit...

Thanks for the compliments!

 

More pics to come...I'll upload tonight (miami time)...

 

nice donk

 

Les: Have you ever tried the same car with smaller wheels on the track? A MINI is going to do nicely in almost any hands and prevailing theory says that a smaller wheel (15"-17") would do better, but it would be interesting to hear from someone who has ACTUAL EXPERIENCE running 20" and say 16" wheels on the same car, on the same track, on the same day.

If you ever wanna run the test and are on a track near Dallas, lemme know! I'll bring out my 16" for you and see how we do!

I'm usually not much for 20"s on the MINI, but that's a nice look. Good work!

 

That car is lowered?

 

agranger...thanks for the comps!

I have driven the car on the stock wheels (17") however it was at stock height...And I must say i enjoy the handling better now than i did now given the extra tire width. I went from 205's to 225's that's a huge stabilizing bonus. For some reason the car feels a bit more stable specially on tight corners.

However, you do have a point...I ran the car before i dropped it (on 20's) and it was a disaster! because of the added height due to the wheel size. Now that i dropped i'm acutally just 1/4" lower than the stock height...

Performance and proportions are crucial for the track but, in my opinion, what counts the most is the overall experience of the driver!

 

At almost 2 full inches larger in outer diameter (24.4 vs 26.2), it will really mess with the gearing ratios and in turn acceleration.

Driver experience definitely helps and any wheel could be run on the track....but the outer diameter is more than likely slowing you down a great deal coming out of the turns.

 

Still not a great pic, but here's one with my daily-driver wheels and tires on... Factory web-spokes that I disassembled and had the centers powdercoated to a light metallic bronze to pull a bit more of the brown tones out of the Pepper White body paint.

 

says the guy on airbags who can pickup cigarettes off the tarmac when dropped

 

...which is why I don't talk about how awesome it is on the track or call it a "track mini" I'm all for focusing on non-performance related mods if that's your thing (I know it's my preference)...just don't call it what it's not.

If I ever call my non-turboed bagged grocery getter a track car, I give you every right to point it out

 

What is that exactly and what happened??

Im dropped about as low as you and am just wondering.

My car has been raised a good bit till this thursday as I have MOT which we have in the UK lol Will be dropped back down asap and i will get some photos to add into this thread( already have but better pictures)

 

the guy knows he's not doing things optimally for the track. The mere fact he's taken it to the track is more than 99.99% of the people on this forum have done to their cars (even those with track mods).

 

to each's own...I think you can argue both sides. Example, these are the dimensions that most of the vip cup race cars (corvette, m3, audi etc...) use not to mention the latest lemans cars...

front 10.5J x 19, offset 43; rear 11J x 20, offset 30

I'm not arguing that big wheels are better (performance) than a smaller wheel...If you read my post I say that 20" wheels ARE NOT the ideal size wheel for mini's...What I can tell you is that the combination of a 20" wheel with a lowered suspension does work quite well! I know it's hard to believe given the general perception that mini's should only have small wheels but I have 8 friends whom I race with weekly and can honestly say my car performs at the same standard...Wether or not you want to believe it is another story??

If you're ever down in Miami drop me a line!

 

Thanks for the props! I'm not the best driver but cant seem to grasp the idea of owning a mini and not run it closed circuit!

No offense to those who prefer to cruise! Nothing wrong with that!!!

 

Guess that makes mine track minis too then

 

you've had yours at the track on airbags?

 

Nah. Haven't seen any track time in the clubman yet....just in the old R50. I was just joking in the comment above. I would never actually call my cars track cars.

But I did enough laps in my r50 on different overall diameters to be able to discuss the effect of the gearing changes and track performance from experience. I figured I would bring up the discussion since Agranger mentioned being interested in the difference between 20's and smaller wheels on the track. Then you decided to make some connection to my discussion on gearing ratios to the fact that my current car is low.

 

I see your point - sort of like you making a connection between me asking for data on the Cosworth head and me buying Ohlins coilovers. Just as pointless, but, as usual it's ok for you to do it as long as nobody else does it. Carry on.

 

Les, what part of Miami are you in? I'm assuming Miami, Florida and not Ohio lol

 

ah, so you did have some kind of point your were trying to make that whole time

 

we have about a 1inch or more curb type thing to get into the driveway. though my car isnt 1inch from the ground somehow I always managed to drag there. my front end is extremely low though. just be careful

 

 

yeah mine scrapes everywhere, speedbumps and other little things,

I am careful with it though.

 

If I'm on the 16" wheels with 40 profile tires I scrape on everything with the front bumper air dam and have to drive diagonally across speed bumps or else the OMP lower bar will graze the top of the speed bump.

On my 17" wheels with 45 profiles, I have few problems like this, though I might still hit the top of a very tall speedbump if I go over it too quickly.