Hi All,

Fairly new to the Mini game here but lots of track and autox experience with 3 series BMW's as well as other cars. I picked up Leda coil overs with 250 lb front springs and 300 lb rear springs. I installed them with RDR camber plates and H-Sport adjsutable rear control arms at this point. I then had an alignment done on a nice Beissbarth machine by the guys who used to care for my race car. I am going to give it a shot and here is what I started with... and let me say that I am jsut guessing as I know very little about setting up front wheel drive cars.

Front is -1.75 degrees on each side with 0 toe
Rear is -0.75 degrees on each side with 0.09 inches toe (0.16" total toe)

I haven't given it a serious shakedown but it feels very frisky and I look forward to trying it out on the track.

Davemon

 

Not a bad choice to start with. If you are autocrossing or tracking the car, you might find that something around -2.3deg front and -1.7deg rear (maybe less in back if you stuck with the stock rear sway bar) works a little better.

If you haven't changed the RSB, the MINI really responds well to a stiffer rear bar. Depending on your preferences, a touch of front toe out might be appreciated. I use zero front and rear, but have different spring rates and possibly a much stiffer rear sway bar than your setup. I prefer to set my car up to be very neutral in sweepers with a steady throttle position. It still rotates very well if desired.

Scott
90SM

 

It is worth noting that I think these are the stock settings for a 2006 MCS:

Front has -0.50 degrees camber and +0.08" toe on each side (+0.15" total)
Rear has -1.53 degrees camber and +0.10" toe on each side (+0.20" total)

When you lower the car you get quite a bit of camber as it is a mac strut style setup and the rear starts with so much that it is probably wise to get at least adjustable rear control arms if you lower your Cooper.

Dave

 

The first thing I put on the car was an RDR Adjustable Rear sway bar which I currently have on the stiffest setting.

Do you know the toe numbers your currently running?

Also, do you do track or just autox? I am wondering as I have done both and the autox is different due to the extremely quick transitions. My race car (an M3) when fully dialed in was awesome on the track and held some class records for a while but it was utterly hopeless at the autox in my hands and in the hands of folks a tad sharper than me as it was just too stiff.

I thought it was werid taht the rear spring rates on the Ledas were higer (or at least read that way to me) but I don't even know the stock rates. The springs I have are linear.

Dave

 

I'm set with zero toe at both ends. I'm an autocrosser, but have somewhat compromised the toe settings due to the amount of daily driving I do (~100 miles a day). Having said that, the car behaves the way I want it to.

I run the camber settings I suggested, and used kmac camber plates and H-Sport rear links to get there. I've had an RDR rear sway bar set full stiff since March 2003, year 'round.

My current setup uses PSS9's, with spring rates a bit stiffer than yours. Unfortunately the fronts are progressive rate. I'll probably swap to a stiffer front swaybar this winter to help in transient elements. That will probably drive the need for a stiffer rear to get the balance back where I want it. The linear rate SPAX I had before felt better in slaloms.

[FONT=Verdana]PSS9
320 lbs/in front
340 lbs/in rear

Stock
225 lbs/in front
220 lbs/in rear

[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]SPAX[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]50N/mm(285lb/in) front[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT='Times New Roman']60N/mm(342lb.in) rear[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The stiffer rates in the rear helps get it to rotate plus cuts down on weight tranfer off the front, which helps with front wheel traction coming out of corners.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Lowering the car increases the rear (negative) camber more than the front, but screws with toe (in) on both ends.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Scott[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]90SM


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I fixed your fonts. The top left button in the reply box with the double A will remove font types.

 

I still havenn't had a chance to drive the car in anger but I have driven it wihtout a toolbox in the boot waiting to kill me. The car tracks straight and true on the highway and responds to every input NOW. It also feels very balanced and on a few long sweepers (off ramps that go 270 degrees) I brought it up to where the tires start talking and it was really neutral... a little lift and the back starts rotating. At least it did once I turned the traction control and stability control off, until then it was just this odd feeling with a little kick here and there. The Leda shocks are soooo much better than stock that evenw ith the spring rates I ahve now the car rides better than stock on bumpier city roads and yet it carves so nicely that it makes a stock Cooper S feel like some far more pedestrian vehicle.

Now I really wish I had R compound tires for the track as it won't go much faster now with than it did before. Nice! Once I have driven in on the track in 2 weeks I will report back.

Dave

 

I got out on track at Mont Tremblant and let loose... at first it felt fantastic and then after 3 or 4 laps as I built my confidence with this new setup that it was understeering more than I wanted even though it was far better than stock. I had front and rear dialed in to 10 clicks from full soft (I think it is a 20 click range from full soft to full hard) so I added 3 more clicks to each rear shock and took it back out. The result was wonderful and while I am sure I could fine tune it for the best lap times I decided to spend my energy learning how to exploit this new coilover setup... and to grin that my guess at a decent starting point resulted in a very neutral and fun to drive car that was showing extremely even tire wear even when I was doing lock to lock sideways maneuvers through the esses at Tremblant just for fun (not the fast way but who cares). As it sits now I can use the throttle and steering wheel to create understeer, oversteer, or balanced midcorner acceleration at will. The car required plenty of throttle to keep the tail in line over 1 and 2 at Mont Tremblant at an indicated 104 at the top of the hill on Falken Azenis 615 tires. At 95 I could just use a little and the shocks and grip kept everything in line. Very, very nice!

Dave

 

I'll second 90STX's comment about front camber, you'll like a bit more up front. I have 2 degrees neg up front and it is not enough on the track...1.5 in the rear.

 

Davemon: I saw about 4 Mini's at Mt Tremblant over the weekend. We were busy with our own issues so I didn't get a chance to speak with you. Setup ideas. Among many other things, if you have Ledas and camber plates you should be running 3+ deg of neg camber at the front. And if you run on smooth (for NA stds) tracks like Mt Tremblant 500+ lb springs in the front, 350 rear, are a beneficial. There is much more to this story but...

 

I want to lower the rear a bit which will require another alignment so I think I will dial in a bit more camber and see how it works. The car is our only vehicle (I live in the heart of Boston) so it won't be getting any stiffer springs and will continue to exist as a compromise car with a heavy emphasis on street comfort and reliability. I do understand your points though as I road raced cars for a few years and motorcycles before that. Tremblant allows for radical stiffness compared to LRP or NHIS... that is for sure. A fast setup for Tremblant would be skipping all over the pace at the other two.

My Cooper S was the Pepper White one with the offset black stripe and the Falken Azenis on gold Rotas.

Dave