Struggling with the Mini - Any tips?

[Greitone]

I haven't driven FWD cars for a while, and I'm struggling to find the feeling with the mini, or even to understand the car.

The car seems to either oversteer or understeer massively, trying to keep on the race line gives me worse times than oversteering on corner entry and trying to not understeer nor oversteer mid-corner and on corner exit, which also causes massive front tyre overheat, which I don't think should be happening that much. I'm pretty sure this is not how I should be driving the car, but anything else doesn't seem to improve my times. Increasing tyre pressure does nothing to lower temps but reduces grip. Despite the rear tyres being very cold, decreasing pressure to get to ideal tyre temperature just causes even more massive oversteer on throttle release on corner entry, and does not improve anything at all mid-corner or on corner exit.

Also, the AI is quite a lot faster than me (2-3 seconds), even at 100%, and I usually practice at 105%, so I'm expecting to be very off the pace on online races. Despite having a 75/25 brake distribution, the car usually locks the rear tyres on hard breaks which does not bode well with the oversteer on corner entry thingie, usually resulting in long drifts and spins, which I don't like to do on online races because, well, accidents. Brake pressure doesn't seem to be doing much about it, nor does increasing the rear wing degrees (decreasing the rear wing is faster anyways). Dunno if something can be done about that with the setup given the limited options on this car.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I just have no clue about it. ¿any tips?

 

[Warren Schembri]

Do you have ABS on for these cars?
They are supposed to be driven with ABS set to Low and you can then move the brake pressure to 100%

 

[Greitone]

Yep, enabled on car setup

 

[AussieDucker]

Are you giving it a little throttle through turns to keep the car balanced?

 

[tpw]

And a little bit of lift off oversteer to get the back end of the car to come around tight turns.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I just have no clue about it. ¿any tips?

Join us on Teamspeak for the next MINI race and we can have a look at the technique you are using to corner the mini.

Apart from the ABS that needs to be set to low you can try to trailbrake a little with this car to make the corner entry and mid corner speed a bit more stable. Try to apply 10% throttle while you are braking and going into the corner.

 

[Slalom823]

Here is my two cents: I would suggest doing the primary braking while straight, then trailbrake into the corner entry. While trailbraking you can control the rotation and then just before the apex (or sooner) get on the throttle. I would also suggest to drive the car a little easier. Perhaps start off slow enough that there is very little slip angle and you aren't fully working the tires. Then slowly increase the speed. With fast fwd cars they are generally setup to be quite loose and you allow a slight bit of rotation in corner entry and to get on the gas as soon as possible. I would also remember to use all the track and focus on slow in, fast out. On tight turns take a later apex so you can get on the power sooner with less understeer. Just my thoughts, I hope it is helpful.

I would definitely take up Bram on his offer with teamspeak!

 

[P*Funk]

I can race a Formula car at a decent pace for being the shockingly dreadful amateur that I am but have no pace at all in these Minis. I detest them. I loath them. They make no sense to me. Why anyone would want such a vehicle is beyond me. If I were to look for a race car that doesn't make sense for racing but you wanna race anyway it'd be the Super truck. These things are like... every RWD instinct you got you have to work overtime to ignore.

But damn if it doesn't annoy the hell out of me that I can't be fast in them.

 

[Slalom823]

FWD is just like a Porsche! Lift off and they spin, get on the gas and you don't. Plus they can both have serious power on understeer. As a bonus, FWD going backwards is just like a RR driveline.

 

[Arne Dopudja]

P*Funk, i think you just have the inner hate for FWD. FWD cars only become fun when on the limit, especially the likes of Mini.
As others have said, balance and smoothness is of utmost importance with short cars. I often go a couple of laps at a slower pace to get the feel for the front wheels and dial that in with what settings are avaliable, then start to gradually stiffen the rear to make it tighter and on the edge. The feeling I go for is so that the rear is slipping slightly towards the apex and carefully balance the position with throttle and brake. Has to be very smooth and quite a bit of time invested in it.

 

[xnorb]

Join an online race - preferrable the Mini Friday endurance race.

It always takes me a few laps behind a fast driver to understand what i'm doing wrong.
Sadly i can't remember what my biggest error was with the Minis, but of course you want to accelerate as soon as possible - but that's a general rule for all low-power cars.

 

[Arne Dopudja]

Join an online race - preferrable the Mini Friday endurance race.

It always takes me a few laps behind a fast driver to understand what i'm doing wrong.
Sadly i can't remember what my biggest error was with the Minis, but of course you want to accelerate as soon as possible - but that's a general rule for all low-power cars.

The accelerate asap is the general rule of racing. For low powered cars the rule is to keep up the momentum and brake as little as possible. Thats why setting them slightly oversteery is preffered as it slows down the car and turns it at the same time, reducing forces to the front tires so it allows them to grip and accelerate earlier.

 

[xnorb]

You got me there
Really should put more time in phrasing my posts here

 

[Greitone]

Thanks a lot guys. I'll be joining both on friday and sunday races

I'll be practicing this afternoon what you've told me today. Probably I'm being too rough with my pedal inputs, I'll try some trailbraking too.

Thanks for the offer Bram, I'll be there on friday!

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Probably I'm being too rough with my pedal inputs

That's more a concern for rear wheel drive cars. A front wheel driven car the input can be very aggressive without too much consequences.

Do you have situations where the rear of the car breaks out while being in a corner (oversteer)? If so, see it like this that the rear of the car wants to overtake the front end and by neutralizing that effect you need to speed up the front of the car to get the vehicle leveled again. You can do that but just going full throttle and let the front overtake the rear again.

Rear wheel drive car, oversteer = get off the throttle
Front wheel drive car, oversteer = get on the throttle

 

[Slalom823]

The driving will be the most important part by far, but I think you could likely lower the air pressure in the rear tires around 10-15% and that may help a small amount.