Mini Cooper S

[darren9]

My wife has recently bought a Mini Cooper S and blyton park is on my doorstep, this makes for a tempting combination. Does a standard Mini Cooper S make for a fun track car or is it too compromised by being a road car?

[FlyingTrotter]

I've seen a few on track going quite well - I have one and when the weather is bad have been tempted to give it a go instead of the Atom but I still have the nasty run flats on it and might need to swap to something a bit more suitable to take on track - would be interested to hear what others have to saŷ

[drakart]

You'll love it! I can't see why you would think otherwise. Get a day booked.

[PKZ4M]

O

FlyingTrotter said:

I've seen a few on track going quite well - I have one and when the weather is bad have been tempted to give it a go instead of the Atom but I still have the nasty run flats on it and might need to swap to something a bit more suitable to take on track - would be interested to hear what others have to saŷ

I

Used to have a MINI JCW that I tracked several times..... I swapped the runflats for some Yokohama tyres and it was brilliant!

[tobyb]

Do it! Even with runflat tyres it is still great fun on track.

[blue al]

not to shabby

look at car 29, then look at the list to see who is faster


http://www.howfast.co.uk/leaderboard.aspx

or look any evo mag for lap times

i think you might be surprised

[darren9]

I took it for a run today. It's a checkmate so has an LSD I haven't bonded with the car before now hence my reluctance to take it on track. I have to say it was very enjoyable today. I'm even more tempted to take it on track now.

[Woolfie]

you won't regret it might find that you will want to modify the hell out of it. its a great car on the track. Ours is now track only after one year of being a commuter. Standard its still a great car on the track, as we ran it standard for a while before going all in

[Defcon5]

blue al said:

not to shabby

look at car 29, then look at the list to see who is faster


http://www.howfast.co.uk/leaderboard.aspx

or look any evo mag for lap times

i think you might be surprised

That car is massively modified though

[blue al]

i know the car and driver and yes its modified, but just about any thing faster on this list is an atom or a GTR or full on track car

their are a few other fast minis about

it is possible to have fun without throwing lots Of money at these cars, or massively modifing them

[Silent1]

a standard mini will suffer from the intercooler being crap and will start hitting intake temps of 56C quickly and start clipping the timing and pinking like a bd.

[darren9]

Silent1 said:

a standard mini will suffer from the intercooler being crap and will start hitting intake temps of 56C quickly and start clipping the timing and pinking like a bd.

Well, that doesn't sound good. I'd like to modify it but it's the wife's work wheels and therefore off limits.

[Silent1]

darren9 said:

Silent1 said:

a standard mini will suffer from the intercooler being crap and will start hitting intake temps of 56C quickly and start clipping the timing and pinking like a bd.

Well, that doesn't sound good. I'd like to modify it but it's the wife's work wheels and therefore off limits.

Ooh actually, hold on i was thinking it was a supercharged one for some reason, if it's a turbo one it'll be fine on track, the suspension isn't as good as the R53 but the R56 should be fine on track for some fun.

[darren9]

It is the supercharged one.

[Silent1]

In that case, is it a company car or owned by you?
If you own it, the simple thing of fitting a GRS intercooler (or the intercooler from a GP if you want to keep it looking standard as it's just the intercooler with 4 extra rows) will sort out most of the intercooling problems for very little outlay and is returnable to standard with 6 bolts.

In fact even if it's a company car you could still do it as it's impossible to tell onces it's changed back and GRS intercoolers hold their money quite well.
Or in fact the GP intercooler would be almost undetectable to anyone but a mini enthusiast.

[darren9]

It's ours. Well, the wife's. she won't let me modify it. Apparently I ruin cars when I do that (I suppose she has a point, I have in the past)