Just my 2 cents, but the LSD is your biggest limitation. If I was to do only ONE mod, it would be camber plates. But my second mod would be LSD (then swaybars).

Think about it this way…. eLSD is not only wearing your brakes, but it’s also limiting power. I have F56 JCW and stock GP2 (with eLSD). F56 has Wavetrac LSD, Whiteline sways (biggest I could find, front/rear), and Vorshlag camber plates. With stock springs and shocks the F56 is 2.5 seconds faster at the track (same brake pads-DTC60f/DTC30r, same day, same tires- RE71RS). The only disadvantage the GP2 had was 215 tires vs 225 on F56.

BTW, have you tried a more aggressive pad (sorry if you covered this above)? DTC60 is actually a bit too much on the F56 with a real diff. They are barely wearing at all, so I think the rotors are taking all the abuse (I am going to give DTC30 a try on front).

P.S. I do my own alignments in the garage. The Mini is probably the ONLY one (of cars I’ve done) that I could actually change at track. Toe is a simple measurement that can be done with two tape measures and two toe plates (aka straight plates you can place against your wheels). If you have adjustable camber plates and a way to measure camber it’s not a big deal. You will need to adjust camber the same amount L/R and then change toe equally L/R to get total toe you want. But you better have a crew helping as you will eat up time. That said, the answer is still a real LSD.

P.P.S. The GP2 doesn’t eat pads with DTC60 installed. But brakes are massive in comparison, and I believe it has better cooling as well.

 

In my signature I list out the mods that I have made to my R56S. Sway bars, LSD, custom BBK, camber plates, etc. So, yup I am familiar with all of that. That is my track car I can still drive on the street.

My F56 JCW is my street car that I drive on the track. Stock, except the JCW Pro suspension (I consider that to be “stock”). My plan has always been to keep it stock. At this point, I have fleeting thoughts of camber plates to control tire wear. Quite frankly, I feel the car’s handling is quite good and the eDLC is really a minor issue, which only really affects how the car goes through the Toe at Watkins Glen. I just like whining about BMW’s idiocy in not having a mechanical LSD for the car. Then again, they got rid of the dip stick too, so go figure. The eDLC was more of an issue on the R56S, hence the LSD. But the eDLC is also track dependent. It is less of an issue at Watkins Glen with the higher speed turns than it is at Lime Rock Park with the tighter turns. So the JCW gets driven at WGI and the R56S gets driven at LRP.

Brake pads are always a conundrum. I fought with the brakes on the R56S for a long time. WGI cooks brakes. The pads that work there on that car are the DTC60s. No other pad can stand the heat. But those pads will eat rotors in a day if they don’t get hot enough. That happened to me at Palmer. I have since gone to the Wilwood Poly H for tracks with less braking. In the rears, I run the DTC60s all of the time. Works great with either of those front pads. Nope, that is not too much brake pad for the rear. It actually balances the car better than a “lighter” pad.

On the JCW at WGI I started with the Carbotech XP12s and have since gone to the XP20s; much better. In the rears I have the Carbotech XP12s.

You have an interesting issue with how the DTC60 work in the GP 2 vs the JCW. It may be that the brakes on JCW with the LSD are actually running cooler than they do on the GP with the eDLC and the pads DTC 60 pads on the JCW are not getting up to temperature and are just grinding away at the rotors. The DTC30s might be a good choice. However, I would strongly suggest trying the Carbotech XP12s for that application. I was not a fan of the DTC 30s when I tried them.

 

For years I thought the GoPro was a really neat idea. But I already had a really good video camera, with really good image stabilization and that worked really well for in-car video. And for years I used that for a lot of what I did. Then, along came cell phones with quite decent cameras, still and video. Then I lost the ability to edit the video from my really good video camera when I found out that the software “expired” with a Windows update. And I found that the image stabilization in phones was just so-so. Ugh! Procrastination set in…

Well, yesterday I pulled the plug and bought:


Welcome to the latest and greatest world of action videos.

And just in time for Albert’s trip to WGI. Now, to figure out how to pair it with Harry’s Lap Timer.

 

A little while ago I posed the above question about what happens to the geometry of the front tire that is on the inside of a turn.

It turns out that a picture is worth a 1000 words and can answer some questions. Here is my R56 with the front wheels turned and this is the wheel that would be on the inside of a turn:


So, this is pretty much what I thought it would do, and that is without any body roll. To be fair, this car has about -3 deg of front camber, so this would be exaggerated as compared to anything I would do on Albert. I am figuring Albert would get about -2 deg, IF he was to get camber plates.

From this, I would expect that adding front camber will exacerbate the tendency for that inside tire to spin. But I also would think that the inside front tire is already flying pretty high in the air, so what is a little more?

Something to procrastinate on over the winter. For now, it is what it is.

 

First off, I apologize for not reading up on your setup/background goals…

Interesting that you say the eDLC was more an issue on the R56. I purchased my F56 in winter after I’d done a couple of track days on a R56 JCW. That alone was my main reason for just biting the bullet and getting a LSD for the F56 over winter.

re: DTC60…. I hear you on that. My issue is that my son tracks the mini (and I’ve also lent it out to an out of town friend for a track day when they visited). I found that it took me an entire session (or two!) to get the brakes feeling normal after a day with another driver. I also drive it on the street quite a bit (I know, I know). I will try the DTC30 to see if they hold up. Thanks for the info regarding DTC60 on rear. I find that the GP2 responds way better to trail braking, so maybe with DTC60 on the rear the F56 can help out with that.

I am currently sticking with Hawk because they are available “off the shelf” here in Canada. I would love to try others, but this just helps with my sanity and pocket book. You may not know how good you have it down south! Haha

P.S. camber plates have a slight downside in regards to a street car (mainly tire wear). However, I can’t really find a downside to the LSD, with regards to being streetable. At least, with the Quaife/Wavetrac that is. But I’m sure you are well aware.. haha. Sorry to push it, but isn’t that was track buddies are for??? 😂. Ok, I will stop now.

I also like to complain that BMW/Mini took it off, but it’s hard to argue the eDLc vs. is an expensive part that most drivers won’t benefit from. Unfortunately, I can see how the penny pinchers won out on that.

 

I agree with the sentiment that the inside tire is already heavily unweighted so what’s a little more… I feel that the added grip (and lower tire wear) will definitely make up for any lost grip on the inside wheel. Your eDLC is already stopping it from spinning, and would handle that regardless. The reason I think this is because I’ve always gotten more corner grip by adding camber on any car. I HAVE noticed a downside in braking, when I’ve gone way too far though (e.g. over -3.5 degrees I started to notice braking performance started falling off on my z06). That downside should carry forward to acceleration on a FWD, but I don’t think -2 degrees is at that point. (All just my 2 cents).

EDIT: I suppose there could be an argument that you are losing more power to the brakes because the eDLC on your car could be sapping more power. I’d think the outside tire would get the grip that the inside tire loses, but maybe not the power that’s lost to the brakes. 🤔

 

No worries.

I only ran the R56 for a little while with the stock brakes. I don’t remember any particular issues with them in the stock form. But I may not have been looking for it. Then I went to the Wilwoods. That was when the problems really started. The eDLC was literally over braking the inside wheel causing it to actually drag. It took me a really long time to figure out what was going, but long story short - The Wilwood BBK uses a different piston size which made it incompatible with the car’s ABS system that drives the eDLC. At that point frustration was through the roof and the LSD went in. It was also a good excuse to do the larger swaybars and poly bushing. And down the rabbit hole I went.

Ok, a Z06 and MINIs out on the track, go you!

What tracks in Canada do you usually run?

My guess would be that you have visited the Hawk web page for their brake pads. Is there a chance you can get the DTC50 pad. It has been a long since I tried the DTC30, and it might have been on the rear of the R56, but the performance curve for that pad shows it dropping off with temperature and it having only a modest upper temperature range. This seems to match my recollection. I wasn’t thrilled with it. The DTC50 looks to be a better fit. My 2 cents…

Just a note… The backing plate for the JCW’s front brakes are the same as that for the BMW M2 (2016 vintage). I know Pagid makes pads for that and I would thing PFC too. The difference is that the M2 pads are a millimeter or 2 thicker and are just a little too thick to fit the MINI. You can custom order the MINI size pads from Pagid. That may be an option. There is also a company from Japan, iSweep, that makes pads for the JCW. Their 4000 pad is good for lighter applications. Some options to look into if the Hawks don’t work out.

I think you are right about why the LSD went away. Sad, though, as they put it into the Gen 3 GP3.

As for loosing power from the eDLC - From my experience with the R56 issues, I think as long as that inside wheel isn’t dragging, then the engine’s power should all be going to the outside tire. It just depends on how much brake is applied to that inside wheel; much like the split a LSD has. However, that is not to say that a LSD would not be better (much better).

And, yes, camberplates, LSD, etc are all about trade offs. And rabbit holes…

 

Thanks for the tips!

Re: pads. I was able to fit the BMW pads on the F56 by removing the shims. I have new rotors, and it was a very tight fit! Had to get the pistons all the way back.

I saw the DTC50 as well, and may try those next year, if I can get some. I’ve also heard a lot of talk locally about “Endless” pads. We have a local dealer who can taylor them to my needs (apparently). Might try that next year.

My local track is Rocky Mountain Motorsports Resort and that’s my main haunt. Just getting back into things after a 15+ year hiatus from motorsports, so haven’t hit any other tracks recently. I just enjoy lapping and spend way too much time out there as it’s only 45 mins away. My split is about 30% Mini and 70% Z06. Mini days provide way more bang for the buck though! 😂

Good on you for sticking to your guns on your street car. I am somewhat trying to do the same in that most of my mods are aimed at longevity, while keeping the cars at a point where I still enjoy to drive on the street. Camber to help tires last, LSD for brake wear, big swaybars instead of crazy spring rates (and I would do this again in a heartbeat). I’ve found, and I have no doubt you’d agree, that the mini can be pretty capable in mostly stock form. I did find that the stock suspension (including springs) worked well on track with the big swaybars (except braking). In that form, there was almost no downside in normal driving. It was only noticeable when hitting a bump on one side at low speeds (e.g. pulling off road into a gas station or going over a curb into a parking lot required a cringe to prepare for the large jarring that would ensue, 😂 ). As I eluded to earlier, under heavy braking at track the car would drive way too much (enough that it was affecting enjoyment). I put in Dinan lowering springs and that has solved that problem and I do like the looks of the lower stance. The Dinan springs seemed to be one of least aggressive, and I’m happy overall. I will note that the springs affected the street ride the most. However, if you consider the “wife test”, I would say it still rides better than the GP2, which is not too bad (and has a certain “purposefulness”, if that were a word). For me, I will keep the GP2 mainly stock, even though I think the F56 started as the better daily driver. I’ve had to replace the worn out coilovers on the GP2 (went with PSS10), but aside from that I won’t change anything else.

Anyhow, I will watch your thread for more updates on Albert. Thanks for sharing!

Cheers