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!