Boy oh boy is this fun to drive. I just picked up a 2010 Cooper S with a dealer installed JCW kit and I love it!! It has so much more power than the 2010 Cooper I fell in love with. I know I screwed up in terms of autocross classing but hey I'm just in that for fun and improving my driving skills. My question is when I pull up to a stop is it better on the clutch to put the car in neutral and let the clutch out or is it OK to wait for the green with the car in first gear and the clutch pedal pushed in? And if I redline it for a short time will I kill the engine?
Nice. Enjoying all that power? And probably more noise, too. Put the car in neutral and let the clutch out. When the car is in gear and the clutch is depressed, you're riding on the throwout bearing, which isn't the strongest part of the transmission. And once the car is broken in, you can red line it all you want. Frequent (5000-7500 miles) oil changes will protect the engine if you plan on doing this often. Try to stay off the rev limiter as it's harsh on the engine when it's most vulnerable, but it's not a terrible thing. But just go drive the car! =)
Thanks for the welcomes and the replies on the tech side. I grew up driving a clutch but never had one in a MINI. I'm seriously looking forward to this weekends autocross. I know nothing about posting pictures so where, how and what do I have to do to pass on some details in the left box, the garage??? Did I mention I'm excited about the race?
I'm still in the midst of updating the Help for Garage as we just installed a new update and making sure it all works correctly. In a nutshell just click on this to open the Garage editor.