Granted I have the JCW stage 1 kit so the car accelerates much harder than a stock 2010 MCSa, but the difference in torque steer is dramatic. Is it the extra bite from the slightly wider but much grippier tires that is enhancing the torque steer? Or is my alignment off? The new tires went on within a couple of days of taking delivery of the new car.

Torque steer is so strong that if I hit the throttle moderately hard, I can feel the steering wheel pull fairly hard. I'm afraid that if I'm not paying attention I could have the car run off the road LOL!

 

Come on, no one has this with their car?

What about self-centering? The self-centering feeling is also largely absent when I hit the throttle hard.

Alignment issue? Or normal for a JCW MCSa?

 

Wider tires will tend to grab around more. The lost self-centering feeling you are talking about could be due to the tires being squishier, i.e. not rocks anymore. Some of the return to center is being lost as flex in the tire. Adding negative camber or a tiny amount of caster should help.

Torque steer. There is a reason most people hate front wheel drive cars... don't know what happened with the R56, but BMW managed to make the R53s drive straight. A properly aligned first gen MINI does not torque steer. As for the 2nd gen cars, I recommend paying attention as you drive, especially if you get into modding the car.

 

The tires are only slightly wider being 215 vs 205 series. The tires are likely squishier since they don't have the horribly stiff sidewalls of the RunFlats. I don't know if the dealer will be willing to dial in more negative camber or caster. I suppose I could find a good alignment shop to do this. I don't want to end up with increased wear on one side of the tires though.

The funny thing is I had a MCSa loner without the JCW kit. That car had 16" tires and much less torque steer. It did not accelerate nearly as hard out of the corners though.

 

What suspension parts do you have besides any JCW stuff? You'll need camber plates to add negative camber. It is not adjustable in stock form. Even a slight camber of -1.6º to -1.8º would help it return to center a lot, yet not cause undue tire wear on the inside. I run -2º up front and -1.5º in back and my tires wear pretty evenly.

 

I've got the factory base suspension. I'm thinking of getting either some Bilstein shocks and NM springs, the H&R coil over kit, or the Bilstein PSS coil over kit. I don't want a radical drop, just something a bit lower, that helps with handling and takes away some of the sharp impact of the stock suspension.

 

The only torque steer I have noticed in the 3 or 4 r56s that I have driven were the ones without LSD. I drove a JCW about 2 weeks ago that it was strong but not unmanageable. And if you think that you are not going to be paying attention and jamming the gas then you probably should be driving something else. My Spec V had torque steer for days so I don't know if people here really know what hard torque steer is?

 

This spring I went from 16" stock run-flats to 17" wheels with the exact tire you have (same size as well). I did notice a little bit more torque steer until I lowered the car with NM springs. It's a slight drop but the small difference in camber changed the feel again. It's still there, but not as noticeable.

 

Agreed FWD = torquesteer. What inflation pressure are you set at cold? Lower pressures can exagerate this behavior.

Alex

 

While they weren't as bad as the R56, the R53 does torque steer. I owned an '03 JCW and I currently own an '09 MCSa Clubby.

The Clubby is worse, no doubt, but it's not undriveable - you just have to pay attention, and squeeze the throttle rather than slam it. I run 17" UHP non-run flats in 215/45-17 BTW. I ran the same tire/wheels on both cars, so I feel somewhat qualified to comment....

No question too that a good performance alignment shop can help it, but without LSD it will torque steer more, especially if the road surface is uneven or dirty on one side.

 

FWD will always have some degree of torque steer. I've got a full JCW equipped 06 cabriolet, including the LSD. When I made the switch to non run flats (205/40-18 Dunlops to 215/40-18 Hankook Ventus V12 Evo's), I did not notice any difference in the torque steer tendencies. It remainded the same. And, of course, the Hankooks are not as hard as the fun flats and are way stickier.

I would suspect the tires themselves. Sometimes you can get a "defective" tire and the only way it will manifest itself is through excessive torque steer. Many years ago, I had an 81 Honda. I got a new set of tires put on it and immediately, it started to torque steer badly to one side under throttle. I took it back and complained and they told me all front wheel drive cars torque steer. (Technicaly true.) But I told them this wasn't normal. They test drove it and said the same thing. Then I told them to swap the tires side for side on the front and low and behold, it then torque steered to the other side. So, they replaced one of the tires and presto, it was back to its normal self.

So, what you might try is to swap side to side on the front and see if the torque steer switches sides. Or maybe swap front to rear so you have a new set on the front. See if it changes. If it does, one of those front tires is likely causing the problem. Unfortunately, I know of no way to figure out which one other than swapping the tires out individually.

Good luck. Your torque steer really shouldn't be any different than before.

 

Oh, and by the way, those Hankooks are absolutely fantastic tires. 'Very highly rated by Car and Driver.

 

Thanks for all the replies. Now that I think about it, I did not check the tire pressure cold. I ASSumed that the installer inflated the tires to the correct pressure. I'm definitely going to check the pressures ASAP.

Since the car is an automatic, I can not get the limited slip.

The funny thing is, the loaner I drove, was also an automatic, but it had 16" tires and no JCW kit. It had much less torque steer.

 

I had the same problem with the AS in that size. I imagine it's a combination of the wider tread, tread pattern, and lower grip than the OEM summer tires.

 

As long as it's not consistently pulling to only one side, you're probably OK. On hard accelleration, I still get a little torque steer, even though I'm running LSD on my 06 JCW. Just the nature of a front wheel drive car. And frankly, I don't mind it at all. When it happens, it requires more input from the driver, but that's fine because one of the main reasons I bought my Mini was to have a car that was responsive and required input to drive fast. To me, it just makes it more fun.