Mini wheel spin prob

My new Mini has no LSD and spins wheel during cornering at ax. Not going to put a LSD on, so what are the options to solve or minimize this. Thanks.

Stickier tires and tightening the loose nut behind the wheel.

In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac: Got the tires.

I once had this issue with a CRX. At the time I was running Tokico shocks and stock front sway bar. I changed to Koni shocks, which had more travel (and are just plain better in every way), and a lighter front sway bar. This made a dramatic improvement in reducing understeer and providing more overall grip in the corners, including reducing wheel spin. This information may or may not help with a Mini. You can also play with tire pressures to see if that helps.
A driving technique that helped me greatly and should work well with most front wheel drive cars is to saw the wheel during cornering. While this sounds counterproductive, what it does is loads and unloads the front tires cyclically thru the turn. If done at the proper frequency, it doesn't allow the tires to lose grip, because just as they start to, you unwind the wheel slightly. I learned this technique (which is easier shown than explained) from Bob Smith, a former national champion in a CRX. The day he showed me this, I did a fun run and immediately went 1+ seconds faster, soley because the technique allowed me to go thru the corners faster without losing grip.

Suspension upgrades to maintain good tire contact? The more they touch the ground the more power they'll need to spin.

What's so bad about an LSD though? A viscous-liquid diff is pretty tame and will keep one wheel from silly-spinning so easily.

GameboyRMH wrote: Suspension upgrades to maintain good tire contact? The more they touch the ground the more power they'll need to spin. What's so bad about an LSD though? A viscous-liquid diff is pretty tame and will keep one wheel from silly-spinning so easily.

I'm guessing not legal for his class.

Buying the mini wheels that are sitting in my shed would probably help.

a stiffer rear bar can help. After years od driving FWD cars in all kinds of conditions. The best way to reduce inner wheels spin is learning to drive the car to it's idiosynchrasies. Closed throttle- oversteer. full throttle -understeer. Learning to roll on the throttle instead of matting it helps. Only go full throttle when the wheels are pointed straight ahead. I learned a lot from ice racing in the unstudded class.

Much stiffer anti-roll on the rear is a great general suspension setup rule for FWD cars.

Heavier rear bar and feathering the throttle. Disabling the front bar helps even further but it will make you sick in a slalom. I tested this with and without a front bar and was a little faster on a particular course without. But I would give up Ax if I had to do that all the time.

Back in the days before the LSD was an option, the hot MINI set-up was to install the lighter front bar from the European MINI One. This would allow the inside wheel to droop more during corner exit. I'm not sure if this is an option for the Clubman (looking at the OP's profile).

I would try adjustable Koni's with the fronts fairly soft and the rear's much stiffer.

Driving technique, too. Much earlier turn-in and late apexing so you can get back on the power with the wheels closer to straight with a level attitude.

I've also been told by a couple of National-level HS MINI drivers that they actually leave the traction control ON, for this reason. Basically - when if kicks in, it means they're driving wrong.

When I ran our Cooper 'vert in HS on Star Specs, I rarely had traction problems.

Or move out of Stock to STF where you can fiddle with the suspension more...

My 'rolla came with only a rear bar from the factory...no problem with stiffer suspension. I've been thinking of installing the GTS-model factory front bar and getting a stiffer aftermarket rear bar to reduce body roll further without having to set the springs truly concrete-hard. I figure the relatively much stiffer anti-roll on the rear is the ticket rather than the total lack of a front bar.

Light left foot braking will equalize traction as well.

Remove the front sway bar entirely. Worked wonders on my CRX, just be ready for interesting action under heavy braking.

Thanks everyone. Will try some of these things Sat at next AX. Will have Star Specs on for 1st time.

I removed the front sway on my GTI also, real heavy rear sway from autotech and it was pretty good.

While removing or softening a front bar on a FWD strut car will help one thing, it hurts in several other areas. Your time through faster, offset sections will be much slower.

A) keep the front bar stock (I'd recommend the sport 24mm)

B) Do you have good shocks? double adjustable (bump and rebound) rears can help prevent the rear from squatting--helping the fronts stay 'down'

C) realize that to some extent, it's part of the beast and a slightly spinning Hoosier is faster than one that isn't. And yes, that means Money = Smoke.