Mini Handling Improvements

Handling is a Classic Mini highlight – in the first of a new series, we look at the number of ways it can be improved further.

The Mini’s handling is legendary, but there are still any number of ways that this can be improved and there is a dazzling array of bits and pieces ranging from a few pounds to thousands, all of which can improve or indeed worsen the driving characteristics of your car. Before we get into all the technical ins and outs though, it’s worth taking a step back to understand how a car handles and to work out what we want to achieve.

The Mini was never designed to be a racing giant killer and rally legend, it was built for normal people, not motorsport Gods. Issigonis had a lot of competition experience but this new little car had to be easy and safe to drive for people with even the most basic skills.

A nice safe car to drive rides over bumps nicely, is nice and predictable, easy to control if you do end up in a dangerous situation, and ideally doesn’t get into a dangerous situation at all.

One of the principles of a car setup is understeer and oversteer. You’ve probably heard these terms before. When you experience understeer, you are turning the steering wheel more than the car is actually turning. So the nose of the car is pushing to the outside of the corner and the car starts to slide. When a car oversteers, the back end starts to slide and the car starts turning sharper than the corner. In this situation, if you don’t do anything to correct it, the car will spin.

LIFTING OFF

When a car starts sliding, most drivers will lift off the pedals and perhaps brake. If you are understeering, this will shift the weight of the car toward the front and thereby giving the front of the car more grip and hopefully giving the tyres enough bite for the car to turn in enough to get you around the corner.