Runflats give no feedback?

[chiph]

Something that I've noticed in several of the "I wrecked my MINI" threads is that the driver frequently didn't get any feedback from the tires that he/she was approaching the limit of adhesion. Do you think the stiffer sidewalls on the runflat tires are responsible, and would it be a good idea to swap them out for regular tires, and just carry a can of fix-a-flat with you?

Chip H.

[3GGG]

I guess it may be a bit like changing from crossply to radials back in the '70's. Suddenly you could go round corners without squealing tyres as if the car was on rails - up to a point...

I haven't got my Cooper yet (with 16" runflats), but I plan to take it easy and drive it like its a 'normal' car for a while till I get very used to it's handling.

One thing - those that have had no warning of impending loss of adhesion - did they not see the ASC/DSC warnings?

[bigahead]

I've got the 16inch runflats, and I reckon they could be a lot grippier (real word, don't know?).

Sound nice when they squeal (they do that a lot )



EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

[dukesantos]

Take your MINI to an autocross to explore its cornering limits in a safe way. We have and the Dunlop runflats give plenty of squeal before losing traction. I'm not sure what you are looking for, but you can't repeal the laws of physics no matter what kind of tires you have. The MINI has excellent handling. I would guess the accidents are involving new cars and drivers that don't have performance driving experience. They roar off and expect that they can take any corner at any speed only to find out otherwise. The ABS, cornering brake control and DSC, if you have it, all help but aren't impossible to overcome. Probably the best handling car sold for normal street use is a Porsche Boxster. It's mid-engine design and excellent suspension really will take you up to its limit quite easily but then it will let go without much, if any, warning from the tires. You have to be way overspeed for the situation for it to let go but I think that may be more of what you described.

[chiph]

Quote:

Originally posted by dukesantos
<snip> You have to be way overspeed for the situation for it to let go but I think that may be more of what you described.

Hmmm. That may be more of a factor than I supposed. All the protection systems in the world won't let you violate Sir Newton's laws of motion.

I guess I'm trying to delay the first fatality happening in the MINI. Because you know that as soon as someone wraps it around a tree & kills themselves, it'll be all over the news: "Are small cars safe? Film at eleven". Next thing you know, there'll be federal laws against fun cars.

So maybe all we can do is get the word out that the MINI is a high-performance car, and you can't drive it as if it were a Honda Civic (or Nova, if you're in the UK).

Chip H.

[noahe]

I haven't noticed much, if any auditory warning from the Pirelli Eufori@ tires on the 17" S-Lites.

However, I also haven't noticed anything other than very crisp, predictable, tractable handling. 99% of the time, the car simply turns, even when you've really thrown it into a hard corner. If you do overcook it, with the DSC on you get corrected with a ABS like thumping. (The system is just so very impressive). With the DSC off, the steering just progressively starts to understeer. It is a very linear slip, and easy to correct by lifting the throttle.

I haven't been able to induce any unpleasant behaviour, even by trying 'stupid' things, like powering around a decreasing radius turn, and lifting off completely mid-turn. The car just returns from understeer as the speed drops. Short of using the hand-brake, I cannot hang the back end out, or induce oversteer.

One final note, when we took a test drive of a Cooper S in a snow storm, I was very amazed at how predictable and progressive the loss of traction was. You just knew what was going to happen, before it did.

Maybe because the driver feed-back is so good in a small car, you really don't need the tires to howl, to know something is up with this corner you're taking at 80km/h.

In my experience so far, if the MINI has done anything 'unpredictable', you really weren't paying attention to what the car was telling you.

[HarryHBMCC]

My Cooper has the Goodyear Eagle NCT5 EMT (runflat) 16" tires, not the Dunlops, and they also squeal a good bit well before they actually lose traction. I find the feedback is quite good, along with the flashing light of ASC+T. Overall I find the Cooper has very good road feel.

Harry

Quote:

Originally posted by noahe
I haven't noticed much, if any auditory warning from the Pirelli Eufori@ tires on the 17" S-Lites.

I'm ashamed to admit that I've found the tyre squeal ridiculous at times. Our town was imortalised in song by Charlene from Texas - East Kilbride otherwise known as 'Polo Mint City' (on account of the millions of mini-roundabouts built there).

Funnily enough, the used to drive me mad but now they just make me grin. Funny that...



DBK.

[bigahead]

the only answer to your problem would be to hire another car (any car, possibly something with the word FORD written on it). Drive it around for a week, drive it like you would the Mini. Then after a week of self denial, get back in your MINI, and laaaaaugh like a loooooooney for a month after.

Works for me everytime!

[noahe]

Quote:

Originally posted by bigahead
the only answer to your problem would be to hire another car.... ...Then after a week of self denial, get back in your MINI, and laaaaaugh like a loooooooney for a month after.

I expect a number of people here get to do just that with thier company cars... Some of the luckier ones get a MINI One! Wouldn't that be nice.

Anyways, after a full day of driving around a Ford Crown Victoria LTD, Chevrolet Caprice Classic, or the smaller (ha!) Pontiac Grand AM's, Chevrolet Impala's, or god forbid one of the trucks, everything about the MINI is better.

Not too much to compare between a land yacht, and a sports car.