Lots of cars have lots of tricks. And many of those tricks are not necessarily legal in various events or classes. Some of these "tweaks" are watched for in events, and called out.
So, let's say I don't care. The only thing I care about is raw times in AutoX. No classing, no restrictions. And it makes no difference to me if I get a trophy or get DQed. JUST raw times cornering.
Given a very limited budget, what are some of the basics you would do to a 1st gen MINI Cooper S?
I don't want to cut up the car or make weird mods. Just want to make it corner like crazy.
(I have my list. I'm waiting to see what others suggest first)
It would be all the usual suspension stuff normally, but if you're looking for cheap there are a couple of weird ones. I've read a thread someplace else where a guy rallies an R50 MINI and for cheap suspension he fit the stock springs and shocks from a Subaru WRX STI. This gave him increased ride height and stiffer spring rates. For autocross I'd cut down the springs to increase them a bit more. I've looked at the rear of my R53 and I'm pretty sure I could cobble up a rear sway bar from junkyard parts from other cars. Those two suggestions aside, I don't know that I've ever seen anything that I'd describe as a sneaky cheat on MINIs.
SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:
Lots of cars have lots of tricks. And many of those tricks are not necessarily legal in various events or classes. Some of these "tweaks" are watched for in events, and called out.
So, let's say I don't care. The only thing I care about is raw times in AutoX. No classing, no restrictions. And it makes no difference to me if I get a trophy or get DQed. JUST raw times cornering.
Given a very limited budget, what are some of the basics you would do to a 1st gen MINI Cooper S?
I don't want to cut up the car or make weird mods. Just want to make it corner like crazy.
(I have my list. I'm waiting to see what others suggest first)
I like the cut of your jib. But... "cheats" are hard in autocross, because in some classes, whatever it is, is legal to do. Isn't XP for anything? Shoot, make a sucker car or strap a turbine to the top.
now, if you want to raw dog everyone, get slicks, and throw the Mini catalog at it. Then, Show up and enter Showroom stock or something like that. That'll raise eyebrows and get you immediately contested, depending on the size of worts on your competitors hands.
Tom Suddard
Director of Marketing & Digital Assets
12/14/20 4:04 p.m.
Find a friend with a lathe and have a smaller pulley made that looks just like the stock one?
In reply to Tom Suddard :
I don't have to hide it. Don't care if I'm caught.
Yes, undersized supercharger pulley and oversized crank pulley are on the list.
Remove the springs completely & stack bump stops on the shock shaft until you get the desired result. At least it seems to work for Corollas anyway.
Take a hole saw & remove as much metal in front of the stock suspension/subframe mounting points as you can.
In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
Is this for the JCW you have already? Doesn't it already have the smaller pulley?
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
The JCW came with an 11% underdrive pulley. There are 15%, 17%, and 19% available
Can you be more specific what your budget is? For $1,000, the answer is to buy the widest Hoosiers you can find and mount them on your front wheels. Nothing else will net you more time than that. If you have more money, here are some ideas.
I am not convinced a smaller pulley will make you faster over a 60 second autocross course. In my car, we heat soaked the intercooler long before that. I don't know where they would go but hood vents wouldn't hurt.
If you removed the core support and bumper, then switched to a front mount, it would be good for 20-25 extra hp on the back side of the course. If you want to swap a JCW pulley, you need a special tool.
If you literally don't care about getting DQed, fill a garden sprayer bottle with 90% ice water and 10% methanol and spray it on your intercooler between runs. It cools faster than just water. It is also extremely dangerous. This may permanently DQ you from running with this region so do this at your own risk.
Remove the plastic overfenders and run wider tires on the front. I believe you can run the 295 section 15" Hoosier A7 if you don't use all your steering lock. 949 Racing made a 15x11 wheel that comes up for sale from tiem to time.
Depending on the course, you can choose between the 02-04 transmission with a 70 mph 2nd gear and the 05-06 transmission with a 60 mph 2nd gear.
It is pretty easy to get down to ~2300lbs with regular weight savings and still keep the carpet. Weird stuff is really heavy like the headlights. 2000 lbs is possible with gutted doors, plastic windows, etc. There was an E-Prepared justa mini with doors made out of foam about 6 or 7 years ago. See here for ideas.
What is the maximum spring rate you can run on your current shocks? As long as you can keep enough wheels on the ground to put down power, I would raise the spring rate.
In reply to ojannen :
All excellent input. Thanks!
E 8 5
Don't spray the ic in the pits. Do it on course by re-aiming your windshield sprayers.
You can just barely crack the nitrous valve and let the nitrous into the crankcase through the oil pan. Let the pcv system bring it into the intake.
Hire a ringer to drive the car? Glue a sprint car wing to the roof? Lambo V12 stuck in the backseat?
Took me half the thread to realise it was a BMW mini not a proper one.
Way back in the day the UK had a racing series for Escort Mexico's that were fairly well scrutineers for "stock" I believe that a good trick was to take the diaphragm out of the power brake booster and lose the one way valve in the vacuum line for an instant one and a half horsepower!
I can't remember if the Minis use a top mount or front mount intercooler. If a top mount, hide a spray nozzle inside the hood scoop? Still, not sure anything beats the widest tires you can stuff on the car and it still be considered 'Stock'. Or 'Street' whatever they're calling it these days.
But I basically always broke it down like this. The two biggest challenges to turning fast times in a boosted car are heat and weight.
I doubt tech at your local events are checking the amount of sound deadener found under your carpets. Or if there are actually speakers behind the covers in the doors. Program the fans come on sooner to keep the engine cooler. Go with a stock-appearing dual-pass radiator.
Probably the biggest thing you could do is figure out how to get as much air through your intercooler as possible. Get some dry-ice and crank the car up and get the fans going and see if you can figure out where the 'fog' is going around the intercooler and start sealing up those gaps.
If the budget is there - ceramic coat...all the things. Exhaust manifold, blower plenum, etc. If it's not in the budget, heat tape all the things? I'm not sure where heat tape/wrap falls within the rules right now.
Basically, 1) Widest class legal tires. 2) Eliminate as much weight as possible in a hidden fashion. 3) Eliminate as much heat as possible in a hidden fashion. 4) Tune. 5) Stock appearing solid motor mounts.
These last two, there is a lot of horsepower to be picked up when you're tuned for 93-octane, particularly if your local blend is E10 (like most are). Not as much as E85 will net you, but still quite a bit.
Poly or Delrin inserts where rubber once was can really change the game. The other thing I've seen folks do is basically pull a rubber bushed motor mount and fill it in with expanding foam. Harsh, ugly, works (for awhile at least).
-3* Camber, 1/8 toe out, stiffer springs, large rear bar and a set of uber-stickies.
In reply to RevolverRob :
These cars have a top mount intercooler. If the under hood insulation is in good shape, the seal from the hood scoop to the intercooler is normally pretty good. The big problem is there is nowhere for the heat to go after exiting the intercooler. It just hangs out in an extremely hot engine bay. I am curious what a heat extraction fan at the base of the hood would do for intake air temps at the end of a run.
200hp is the end of the world for a stock head on pump gas. You can run a tiny supercharger pulley and make a little more horsepower for one or two pulls but not for an entire autocross course. I have never experimented with E85 because it is hard to get in Florida.
I want to second the poly/delrin motor and transmission mount inserts on the R53. I don't know if it made the car faster but it made the car feel a lot better. I thought it was a bunch of snake oil when I bought the part but I was wrong.
In reply to ojannen :
By "base of the hood" do you mean the back hinged edge at the cowl?
In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
Yes. Maybe offset to the passenger side a bit so it is over the headers too.
Huh.
I wonder if extractor fans would work better there, or under the car. Considering the car was originally designed for airflow and heat to flow under the car...
careful, the leading edge of the windshield is generally a high pressure area. You want cooling ducts to exit at a "low pressure area".
Even though it is maybe counter-intuituve, the leading edge of the hood (where cooling air is supposed to come in on the cooper S) is generally a low pressure area.
I dont know who made this, but it shows a bit of what I'm talking about
Looks like some people make the top of the IC opening bigger (make it stick out forward) to make the IC opening more "front" of the car than "on top" of the hood. Seems to me that would benefit IC airflow and therefore cooling.
In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
Don't mistake my curiosity about heat extraction for any amount of knowledge on the subject. Most of my motivation comes from taking a steam bath between runs during a Florida summer while trying to run a two driver car. If I didn't cool the intercooler to be cool enough to touch, the computer would pull timing enough to drop double digit horsepower. There was enough power loss to make it tough to improve on first run times when running on a hot day.
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
It's been a while since I owned my R53, but from what I remember the problem isn't so much getting the air to the intercooler via the duct, it's getting the air moving through the intercooler because someone helpfully put the valve cover right underneath the intercooler.
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:
careful, the leading edge of the windshield is generally a high pressure area. You want cooling ducts to exit at a "low pressure area".
Even though it is maybe counter-intuituve, the leading edge of the hood (where cooling air is supposed to come in on the cooper S) is generally a low pressure area.
Right!
(I was aware- just leading the query)
Although the extractor fan idea has merit.
