£1K to spend on mods
Discussion
Suspension wise, you probably want to go for HiLo's, and lowered adjustable dampers. I use Spax, but hear good things also about Koni and KYB.
Stage 1 kit for a carb car is about £150 or so. Lots of people rate the RC40 exhaust, I went for a single box Maniflow and I'm happy with it.
You can get a nice set of drilled and grooved Pagid discs for about £90 I think, and some EBC Greenstuff pads for fast road use. I'm not convinced about the merits of MiniFin rear drums unless you really push it hard.
Another nice upgrade is some uprated bushes and suspension / subframe mounts. Having just spoken to my brother about his experience this afternoon, steer well clear of alledged "quick release" engine mounts.
Nice set of alloys? Bit of chrome?
Stage 1 kit for a carb car is about £150 or so. Lots of people rate the RC40 exhaust, I went for a single box Maniflow and I'm happy with it.
You can get a nice set of drilled and grooved Pagid discs for about £90 I think, and some EBC Greenstuff pads for fast road use. I'm not convinced about the merits of MiniFin rear drums unless you really push it hard.
Another nice upgrade is some uprated bushes and suspension / subframe mounts. Having just spoken to my brother about his experience this afternoon, steer well clear of alledged "quick release" engine mounts.
Nice set of alloys? Bit of chrome?
Yes, do all the suspension/braking system work before touching the engine. In my humble opinion, the front sub-frame mountings are the first thing to do. Go for all-solid mountings with poly bushes in the lower suspension arms and use adjustable tie-rods. The difference is amazing compared to the vague feeling when trying to corner at speed with rubber mounted front sub-frame.
Then set all the rear dimensions, making absolutely sure you have no positive camber on the rear wheels and between 1/8" and 3/16" toe-in on the rear wheels and zero toe-out on the front. To do this you file out the rad-arm bracket and weld a big washer in place when it's correct. Miniman has an article I did on suspension settings on his web site ( I think it's there, James?).
I do like SPAX dampers, but don't set them too hard - about 3 clicks on the front and 2 on the back. Settings are much more important than ride height and I don't like really low Minis. The standard ride height is normally fine for road use, particularly on bumpy roads. Don't go for 13" wheels, they really spoil the handling.
Once you get all that right, look at what you want from the engine.
Then set all the rear dimensions, making absolutely sure you have no positive camber on the rear wheels and between 1/8" and 3/16" toe-in on the rear wheels and zero toe-out on the front. To do this you file out the rad-arm bracket and weld a big washer in place when it's correct. Miniman has an article I did on suspension settings on his web site ( I think it's there, James?).
I do like SPAX dampers, but don't set them too hard - about 3 clicks on the front and 2 on the back. Settings are much more important than ride height and I don't like really low Minis. The standard ride height is normally fine for road use, particularly on bumpy roads. Don't go for 13" wheels, they really spoil the handling.
Once you get all that right, look at what you want from the engine.
The castor is the angle the line through the centre of the top and bottom swivel hub pins makes with the vertical. It should be between 2.75 degrees and 3 degrees leaning forward. You may have bent the tie-bar lug on the front sub-frame, but if you have don't panic. Just buy a pair of adjustable tie rods from Mini Shop, Mini Spares or one of the others, fit them, using new front rubbers, and take the car to a local tyre shop with a 4-way tracking and alignment rig. They can set it all up for you by simply adjusting the tie-bar lengths.
Set the front tracking to absolutely straight ahead.
For the rear it's a little more complicated, but not too difficult. You can set the rear wheel camber with a truly square block of plywood about 18" along each side. Then find an absolutely flat surface to park on. Place the board against each rear tyre in turn across the centre of the wheel using a spirit level to ensue that the board is vertical. Then measure from the edge of the board to the wheel rim at the top and the bottom. The dimension at the top must be equal to or slightly greater than the dimension at the bottom. i.e zero to slightly minus wheel camber. To adjust this you file the hole in the outer radius arm bracket oval and keep on checking the dimensions. It's a bit laborious, but it works. Once correct you re-fit the bracket, let the car down to take up the slack and MIG weld a large thick (0.080") washer in place to hold the camber.
We did 'Dodgy Dave's car a while back and it seemed fine, although it had slightly positive camber to begin with. Nothing f***s up the handling of a Mini so much as positive rear wheel camber.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you need further help with this. The handling and suspension settings are the most important performance work you'll ever do on any Mini.
Peter
Set the front tracking to absolutely straight ahead.
For the rear it's a little more complicated, but not too difficult. You can set the rear wheel camber with a truly square block of plywood about 18" along each side. Then find an absolutely flat surface to park on. Place the board against each rear tyre in turn across the centre of the wheel using a spirit level to ensue that the board is vertical. Then measure from the edge of the board to the wheel rim at the top and the bottom. The dimension at the top must be equal to or slightly greater than the dimension at the bottom. i.e zero to slightly minus wheel camber. To adjust this you file the hole in the outer radius arm bracket oval and keep on checking the dimensions. It's a bit laborious, but it works. Once correct you re-fit the bracket, let the car down to take up the slack and MIG weld a large thick (0.080") washer in place to hold the camber.
We did 'Dodgy Dave's car a while back and it seemed fine, although it had slightly positive camber to begin with. Nothing f***s up the handling of a Mini so much as positive rear wheel camber.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you need further help with this. The handling and suspension settings are the most important performance work you'll ever do on any Mini.
Peter
Someone mention my name!!!
Cooperman is so right, couldnt believe the difference!
I had mine set tooo low and tooo hard thinking that was the route to a good handling car but hell was i wrong.
Maybe you could buy and fit all components yourself get it set-up so it will drive in a relative straight line and then meet me and Peter (If you ask him nicely
) at a place in Hitchen (Chris's) and we can help set-up your car!
I'm going to be going up there myself soon to see if there is anything I can do about my fast rusting shell!!!
>> Edited by Dodgy Dave on Thursday 15th April 09:06
Cooperman is so right, couldnt believe the difference!
I had mine set tooo low and tooo hard thinking that was the route to a good handling car but hell was i wrong.
Maybe you could buy and fit all components yourself get it set-up so it will drive in a relative straight line and then meet me and Peter (If you ask him nicely
) at a place in Hitchen (Chris's) and we can help set-up your car! I'm going to be going up there myself soon to see if there is anything I can do about my fast rusting shell!!!
>> Edited by Dodgy Dave on Thursday 15th April 09:06
£1000
Safety considerations aside.
Coil overs front, coil overs and beam rear. That should run about £500 all in.
Metro Turbo front hubs and 4 pots, pagid grooved cross drilled and vented discs and pads for the front and Kad read discs should run you another £500.
Theres your £1000 and a car that goes around corners and stops really rather well...
Safety considerations aside.
Coil overs front, coil overs and beam rear. That should run about £500 all in.
Metro Turbo front hubs and 4 pots, pagid grooved cross drilled and vented discs and pads for the front and Kad read discs should run you another £500.
Theres your £1000 and a car that goes around corners and stops really rather well...
quite an interesting question this. What ever you end up fitting to the suspension you need to get it set up right. I always had my rear suspension too stiff and too low, what that does is increase the grip at the back, but you actually want to reduce the grip there because a standard mini understeers. A roll cage really improves the handling, and a well handling car is so much fun to drive. Although a standard 998 engine definately needs more go, so a stage 1 kit for definate, a decent stage 3 head and cam will achieve respectable horsepower and an engine that loves to rev.
I'm running coil overs at the front and cones at the rear (though this will change significantly soon 
)
The difference is amazing.
Turn in much sharper and more confident. You feel a lot more planted.
Obviously the downside is on rough surfaces and speed bumps the quality of ride is drastically reduced.
) The difference is amazing.
Turn in much sharper and more confident. You feel a lot more planted.
Obviously the downside is on rough surfaces and speed bumps the quality of ride is drastically reduced.
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