I wasn’t sure were to post this so I’ll start here.

Going to Open Track the car this spring at Thunderhill Park Raceway with my GTO buddies.

The MCS is pretty stock.
I have a small under drive on the Eaton and a Light weight going on the Crank.

Brakes are new Powerslot Rotors with Porterfield R4-S pads front and rear.
Tires are Potenza RE050A II RFT. No I’m not going to buy new track tires.

What are the weak points on the Mini if I do this? Are the brakes too small?

I just want to stay with the rubber on the ground and get home when I’m done.

I know all the basics like fresh brake fluid and a safety check before I go but is there anything the Mini could benefit from.

 

Some good brake fluid would be good, like:
Motul RBF 600 Brake Fluid.
http://www.waymotorworks.com/product...cat=331&page=2

With your pads and rotors you will be fine.

If you want to do this more than once or be faster, you should think about front camber plates and an adjustable rear sway bar.
Without the camber plates you may waste your front tires as they will take a beating.

 

Tires - The car is suprisingly fun out of the gate! If your not intersted in tires, or brake fluid, I'd run the car until your sailing along fast enough to need new tires.

HP Drivers' Ed may be a best 1st investment for you!

Alex

 

Thanks, I have a little tear in the rubber mounts so I'll plan to upgrade those.

What camber works well for these Mini's but is still streetable?

 

Thanks Alex, I'm not a total noob. Just a noob with Mini's.



It takes much money for the GTO to be fast and not destroy it's self.

 

With a 15% pulley make sure you watch the water temperature. I've always made it a point to flush the coolant system before a track day. An adjustable rear swaybar is a good cheap mod. Fun one too. You could also do a front strut bar. Other than that, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how fun the MINI is around the track; especially Thunderhill.

 

Front camber somewhere between -1.5 and -2.0 degrees is great on the track and won't destroy your tires on the street. A thicker rear sway bar will help, too, and you can always run higher tire pressures in the rear to get a similar effect.

Also, keep an eye on your brake pads. The R4-S pads should hold up, but they'll wear much faster on the track.

 

welcome to the dark side!

a great quote from another forum: "taking your car to the track makes crack seem like a vague desire for chocolate"

the weakest point for the MINI is the driver. nothing personal, but until you have done a couple of track weekends, you (or anyone else) cannot appreciate the limits of the car. when you find these limits, you will want to make changes to form new limits.....repeat until you have a race car. ask me how i know!

i run -2.5* front camber on the street and got 21k miles from my last set of steet tires. i have several friends that run -2.2* and have no abnormal wear issues.

as others have stated, a larger rear anti-sway bar will improve the car's handling by reducing understeer.

although you state that you are not a noob, i will warn you that track time is much different than a/x. speeds are much higher and an emphasis on being smooth is important. good instruction at a HPDE will give you that foundation.

your brakes will be fine. tires will be your limit at this point. see alex when that isn't the case anymore. a change of fluid to one w/ a higher boiling point is a good idea, but probably not necessary for your first event.

i've done DE's for three years in florida and have never had water temp become an issue (nor have any of the dozen or so MINIs w/ which i've run). oil temps can rise to the high side of acceptability, but again, it shouldn't be an issue for a while.

i tracked my MINI in total stock form (including run-flats). it was a blast. i had many porsche and bmw drivers stopping by to see what i had done to the car. on most tracks, i would suspect that you would be faster in a stock MINI over a stock GTO.

most importantly, have fun and drive within your limits. you will keep the shiney side up and want more.

see the "Driving School" section of the forum for answers to more of your questions. scroll down until you find it.

 

A rear sway bar will help you rotate the car around corners and reduce understeer. As for camber plates H-Sport and Helix have good camber plates. Check marketplace they got the IE plates for $175 and H-Sport sway bar for $200.

 

+1 on these recommendations. I usually track my boxster, but rain was expected and the hardtop on it leaks like a sieve, so I took the mini last weekend. Depending on your auto-x experience, you might want to get a thicker rear sway bar as it understeers like mad at the limit-especially in the wet. However, it's easily controllable with lift throttle, but it does hurt your laptimes. I suspect if you got r compound tires, you'd need to upgrade the brakes. If I remember correctly, Thunderhill isn't too hard on brakes anyway so what you have should be fine. Personally, I had fun taking my completely stock car out and sliding it around in the rain. The only frustrating thing was not having a LSD and spinning my inside front tire with no traction on a few turns.

 

I agree with Alex in that tires are your weak point. You will notice them getting greasy after a lap or two, so just try to keep the tire squeal in check and you'll have a lot more fun. If your car understeers, don't crank the wheel harder, but lessen your steering angle and the car will start to grab again. Just be nice on the tires and have fun!