8-Port Final Set Up

The final setting up of the Mini was accomplished over the Easter holiday and in April I played around with the different Konis and ended up with Koni sports as supplied new, set soft on the rear, with the Monte specials set fairly hard on the front to stop the tramping effect (throttle steer). I found the standard Konis set at the hardest setting also worked well on the front but just a shade too hard ride wise. The Koni sports were similar to the Monte Konis, but needed to be set hard giving a harsher ride. I settled on using the Monte Konis. The front was left hard for testing at Chobham test track where it would be beneficial but could be softened more for ordinary road use.
The car's height kept changing as the suspension cones kept settling and the wheels were fouling the fibreglass wheel extensions. I decided to raise the ride height and get all four corners of the car to the same height before changing castor angles and checking camber angles. So that the wheels ended up clearing the front arches under any circumstances, the castor angle had to be set at 2.20° which is within the tolerances allowed. I had never used such a low setting before although it is fairly common with people using limited slip differentials or 13" wheels.
This left the camber angle at 1 ° negative on the left hand side and 1/3° negative on the drivers side. The camber angles had obviously changed a little from the original settings by fitting the alloy top mounting to the subframe turret instead of the rubber where the subframe had been straightened up. The car handled very well even with different camber angles, so the following conclusions are how any road car can be made to handle better by the ordinary enthusiast.                                                                                                                                                                                                               If you wish, fit a set of the new type easyadjustment Hilo's as used by us, but get ride heights correct. Change shock absorbers.
If lowering the car, ensure you get the correct type of shock absorbers ie. for lowered fitments. Either fit adjustable tie rods and new, slightly harder bushes or take the car to Fast Fit for their electric sensored alignment check. The benefit of fitting tie bars first is that Fast Fit can then adjust the castor angle to 3° either side rather than have to take the car back again which will cost you double, which is about the cost of the parts anyway. The computerised print out will also tell you the camber angles. Beware on this point if changing the lower arms because as I found out when taking off the originals and putting on new negative camber type the tolerances are far different. ie. if you have 1 re ° positive and fit a new arm which is 1 re ° negative, it should read zero, but because of different drillings it does not necessarily work. Therefore change the arms before the Fast Fit visit if you are contemplating a change. Our arms are fairly accurate as they are machined from new forgings, crack tested and hardened. Because of the problems on our car with different settings either side I am having made separate arms at re ° and 1 ° extra negative camber to eradicate this problem. The odd arms will obviously be more expensive, but will give you nearly perfect settings.
The Fast Fit print out will also inform you of the toe in and toe out. Get the toe out on the front set at 1/16" if not already this figure. On the rear you ideally want 1/8" toe in, but this is not adjustable without packing out the rear brackets on the subframe, or them being changed or modified. The
same applies to camber on the rear but none of this is as crucial as the front.
This concludes the article on our project Mini and judging by all the articles in leading motoring magazines Fast Car, Cars and Car Conversions and Mini World, I have arrived at the objective desired-A car which looks standard in road height, bodywork except slightly wider arches and smart looking wheels. Interior changes very subtle by way of seat change and wooden dash.
The biggest aim however, was to have a car that was quiet, suitable for heavy town driving, country lane and fast motorway use but had lots of torque and power. A real wolf in sheeps clothing, with no bad habits and every criteria was achieved. Rather than resting on our laurels, development work is still being carried out by way of chamber and port shapes plus gas flowing. Different camshafts are also being tried and developed even though the 286 Kent profile seems adequate. Also the old cast iron 8-Port head is being looked at again for a Japanese company. Although I have access to the original drawings, the head has disadvantages especially for hot or humid climates such as Japan. Cast iron heads are harder to get made as there are fewer foundries capable of this type of work. The iron head was prone to cracking and overheating which the alloy 8-Port alleviates. Special
Tuning bought 200 alloy heads from Jim Whitehouse to replace the iron 8-Port, so we can only see the production as a backward step, but it still looks like a small batch of iron heads will be made. On a final note, thanks to Keith Calver for hours of labour on the design and electrics, Glyn Swift for
dyno time and help, M.B.E on the LC.U, Tom Seal on the head production and Mike Parry for gas flow and plenum designs.
Keith Dodd