Quote: Originally Posted by jwardell (original)
I'd love to hear your opinions on the differences of each of the minis that you drove.
I don't want to upset any of the owners.
Here's my opinion(s)...
Springs typically do not change the balance of the car in terms of understeer / oversteer. They just increase the speed you can go before you start losing traction. Of course, there could be some spring sets out there that have spring rate differences front to rear that are vastly different from the stock front to rear rate difference. That would change the balance of the car. But, I bet most of the lowering springs keep the difference front to rear pretty similar.
A big rear bar definitely changes the balance of the car, but not in a very subtle way. It's cheap, and it "works", but it makes the handling of the car at the limit "interesting".
Camber plates and a good alignment
almost are enough. But, not quite. It's really close to how I'd like a MINI to handle. But, it needs just a little more understeer removal.
The cars I've driven / ridden in with camber plates, a medium sized rear swaybar, and springs and dampers have been the best handling MINIs.
Pretty much all of the MCSes have enough torque to make street tires spin on an autocross course.
My new
MCS has enough torque to make the stock runflats useless. First gear is all wheelspin. Second gear is a lot of wheelspin. Run second gear up to close to redline, shift to third, and go straight to full power and the stock runflats spin in third gear.
That means spinning tires at 50mph or so. And the "sport" button doesn't help. It doesn't add any power or torque. It just makes the gas pedal more sensitive, which makes it harder to modulate the throttle.
If I had to guess, I'd say I was fastest in Dave T's car.
