South Florida AX events - General AX discussion

[Jims5543]

Actually the belt trick worked perfectly. I twisted the seat belt 3-4X before plugging it in, it locked me in the seat like the 2 point harness I had in my RX7 did.

I may add the lap portion of a 4 point harness (turning it into a 2 point harness) to this Mini so I can lock myself into the seat.

[Jims5543]

Dan has been giving me a ton of info about how to set up this Mini for AX. I wanted to put it here so I can refer back easily.

If anyone wants to correct my bad memory or has a suggestion, feel free to chime in.

Tire pressure, IIRC  30PSI in the front and 27PSI in the rear.

Lug nut torque 45 ftlbs

Camber - 1.2-1.5 front  1.0-1.2 rear
Toe - 1/8" out front   Rear -0.5° 1/16" toe in  (I used to run a slight tow in on the rear of my RX7 I am sure that does not apply here)

I am not sure you can adjust front caster on these cars and TBH not really important for AX maybe for road racing.


Edited per Dans input

[94touring]

You have a couple things to correct. Rear camber negative 0.50° with 1/16" toe in.

[94touring]

Those adjustable tie rods will let you change caster.  But, I always just set them to the stock length and take advantage of the bar being heavy duty. The stock tie rods bend like aluminum foil. You can play with tire pressure and see what you like. I've been running 30-32psi on the street.  But you could go a bit lower for autoX with good results most likely. Particularly the rear on that car which weights virtually nothing.

[94touring]

Another thing while I'm thinking.. I chatted with one of the mini racers at hallet and he said he actually improved his lap times with 0 to some toe out on the rear. Which surprised me, because when blue was new to me, the rear end was jacked up and had toe out. It was very squirrelly to unstable feeling to me.  The way the subframes are setup, it should just be fixed at about 1/16 toe in.

[MiniDave]

A racecar will benefit from the rear end being "loose" so it will rotate, as these cars are prone to understeer, it lets the race car get it's back end around. But yes, it can feel a little squirrelly on the street.....

[Jims5543]

I just realized I never looked at the shifter on the car after all the Bs with the rear bearing, I will drive it up on Ramps Saturday and take a look. I have a box of Mini Spares Parts arriving tomorrow.   

[Jims5543]

Next Event is 19 January 2025

https://www.erscc.com/

I missed the December event, I was going to take either the M5 or the wifes Mini, then decided to skip it.

I wish I hadn't, my niece and her husband went with their JCW Mini.  There were also some really cool cars there that were really fast including a 1974 Camaro.

A Tesla Model 3 was there, he was 4th fastest there, which I was surprised by, I hope he is there next month, I want to put my eyes on that car and see what he has done to it.

I also bit the bullet the purchased 4 new racing tires for the Mini.

[MiniDave]

Looks like some pretty high dollar high performance stuff out there - I'd love to see your Mini kick their collective asses! 

What class do they have you in with your sticky tires?

[Jims5543]

With the streets I was in SMF - Street Modified Front

I have no idea what class it will be in with the race tires.

I really do not care about competing in a class, I am just trying to get this little monster set up to go after the top time.

When I ran with the PCA they had an "X"- Class which all the instructors and some others would run in, it was a doesn't count class so as to not mess up the people fighting for the $5 trophies.

This car club does not have a points system or season points or trophies. Its like a cars and coffee where everyone gets in their car and beats the snot out of it.

[MiniDave]

Sounds like fun on a bun!

[Jims5543]

I finally had time to attend another event. I am so damn rusty it is pissing me off, once again after 5 runs, I had one clean one. Not my style, I usually have 5 clean runs and just keep getting faster. I am struggling changing my mindset from a high HP RWD car to a low HP momentum FWD car.

I also have to get used to not being an apex predator anymore. My RX7 was a car that scored top time of the day (TTOD) at every event, people traveled to my home AX to try me.

When I traveled to other clubs events, they knew, the announcer would get on the PA and tell people that I was about to crush the TTOD.

Now it is painful for me to sit to the side, be a mid pack car and watch the Tesla3's, Cayman GT4's and BMW M2 Comps duke it out, knowing I will be 8 seconds a run slower. Especially a course like this past weekend where high HP was rewarded. I would lie if I said this is not bothering me.

I am so damn rusty I am making stupid mistakes. While I am having a blast, it still bothers me after the dust settles.

I saw a quote, "When your heart rate is up, life's problems seem to take a back seat"  So true, when I am at these events, I can honestly say, I am not thinking work or other stresses at all.

Moving on, the rear sway bar + the sticky sponge like tires eliminated all understeer. The car turns so hard it bend your mind, people commented to me that when the Mini changes direction, it does not make sense. LOL!

I had a lot of fun.

This was my second event with this car club and I am feeling like I am a teenager getting away with something bad with my friends. It seems they are having a string of bad luck, in the last 5 events there have been 3 significant wrecks. 2 of them were Corvettes, one went so far off course it jumped a curb smashed a fence and ended up in a ditch.

The last one before this one, we lost the parking lot due to another Corvette hitting his gas at the finish instead of the brake, he ended up running through 2 fences and ended up on a helicopter pad for the County EMS. They decided to toss us out back on an ovel track.

After a couple of runs I felt the finish line was dicey, I was also amazed to be in 3rd gear hitting 65 MPH. They are somewhat reckless and I have to admit, I love it!!

A Miata overcooked the finish, after a Mustang almost took out the timing gear, after a 350Z lost it at the finish and almost hit the cars in the starting line, some in the starting line saw him getting sideway and took off for the grass just in case he made it that far, he didn't.

This Miata hit the equipment trailer in and a light pole.




Happier things, I met another Mini there.



My BIL came out in his F56 Mini to watch some runs.





I forgot to slam my door shut, here is a side cam view, I did one pointing back too, I will upload tomorrow and share. It was very interesting.

Here is a helmet cam view, I need to trim down my dash cam video it is 8 minutes long, lesson learned pull the power cord before and after the run to trim in real life. I am struggling to find a decent video editor (Or I am just a retard) that I can trim it down easily. I tried two today and none are working for my stupid brain.

The understeer is just about gone, Dan was right the larger steering wheel it better, the tires are insane, more that tomorrow.  Now I just need to learn how to drive this car, I think it I can be in the top 10 with it or better once I come to grips with it.

I will not lie, I was amazed how freaking fast the Tesla Model 3's are, there was one guy there that has his set up perfectly and it nipping at the heals of a Porsche Cayman GT4 and a BMW M2 Comp. I was impressed, if I had to pick the 3 though, the M2 would hands down be my pick.

More tomorrow, I am slammed busy at work and home and I am amazed I was able to burn a day playing car.