There is so much that can be done with mini suspension. Come Labor day I will have been messing with mini handling for 50 years. We got lucky as the basic suspension is very close to right. All that was needed was better shocks, tires and adjustment. Doing complete four corner suspension rebuilds allows me to drive classic minis at their best. Best riding and great handling was a 79 Canadian mini with new rubber springs, Gas Adjust shocks, 6X10 mini-lites, 165/70 Falkens, Hi-Los, fully adjustable suspension. 

Most of my autocross and Vintage Racing has all been on 10s. I set up 85 1000 E with 7.5 s in order to run 10 s if I like. Having bought over 20 Rover 12 inch alloy wheels with tires I have run 12 s now for awhile. Tried 145-12 as well as 165-12. The 145 s ride better and the 165 s give better grip. 

I had a autocross car that was 911 lbs and on 13 X 7 Revs with 10 x 13 X 19.5 slicks. Great deal of time and testing to find a sweet spot for 13 s. 

I have spent the last couple of years working on the handling of a later classic mini. With S Racer Red springs, fully adjustable shocks, KAD alloy front hubs, alloy drive flange, KAD four pot calipers MSC adjustable on car lower arms and tie bars. At the rear we have KAD alloy arms and rear alloy hubs, Super mini fins, KAD rear sway bar and adjustable outer plates. Our street wheel tire combo is 6 X 12 Ultralites with 165 / 12 street tires Yoks. When we get serious we have 5.5 / 12 s with the Yok 048 or what the 12 inch performance tire is. I'm also mounting a set on 6 / 12 s to play with. As soon as the salt washes off the streets I will shake it down, lots of new parts went on over the fall / winter. It will get a ride height, corner weight, and four wheel alignment. 

Does anyone want to talk about rear sway bars on minis? Steve (CTR) 
 

46PSI seems rather high. For normal road used on A032R's I run 30PSI front and 28PSI rear. On the track I've found 26PSI front and 24PSI rear is about right in most cases. Tyre pressure comes up at least 5PSI once tyres are warmed up. Any harder on the track and I find grip is compromised.

As far as ride goes I have 10", 12" & 13" wheeled cars. 10" give the most compliant ride and 12" are not too bad either. Ride on 13" is far more choppy.

I have both. A 10" (daily driver) and 12" (wife's weekender) tire both with hilos and rubber cones. I also have a car with 13" (boy racer)wheels running on s racer blue springs and hilos. All have adjustable dampers. 28-29 psi on the 10" and 12" cars and 30psi on the 13" per vehicle recommendation. The 13" car is by far the most uncomfortable of the three but it is set up much stiffer. I don't feel much difference in the other two. 
Shawn

Actually you want the tire to "lean over some".  What that does is allow the thread to stay on the ground.  To much pressure and when you corner it will lift the inside of the thread off the ground and you will lose contact and cornering ability.

My experience has shown with radials nominal pressure for street, autox and track will run between 25 and 35 psi.  I have 20 years of experience playing with tire pressures on my 911 Porsche.  I've used lots of techniques including tire temp gauges where you measure the tire temp outside, center and inside and vary the pressure to get fairly consistent temp across the tire, outside, center, inside.  

Pressures for the street are for ride comfort and even wear, I run around 28 psi, a couple lbs higher under the engine.  On the track where you have much higher speeds and cornering you generate more heat which raises the tire pressure 3-5 psi ( we used nitrogen years ago in the race cars) I use 32psi.  Autox speeds and time are lower so I run around 34 psi.

28 lbs

I think I know what you’re getting at… It says 46 psi maximum pressure. Which begs the question “What is the recommended pressure?” Or standard pressure? Or for that matter, minimum pressure?

46lb !?

I'm guessing that is the MAX tyre pressure for MAX load.

I've never gone over 38lb on the track. (032)

On one run I dropped it to 24lb (008).  it was grippy still, but the pictures taken of me show my tyres leaning well over.......I might have been scuffing that triangle...lol

Check the tire, again, for that "recommended" pressure. What does it say?

I was running the sidewall recommended 46 psi. I’m currently running 32 on the track and 34 around town. Low speed steering has gotten much harder and I’m sure my mileage has taken a hit with the lower pressures, but the ride is much improved. I expected to see some uneven tire wear w/ the lower pressures, but nothing out of the ordinary so far. 

Rosebud: what pressures were you running, and what are you running now?

I have no experience w/ 12"s & 13"s. I have 10 inchers hung on stiff Delta springs. At the suggestion of my performance driving instructor, I dropped my tire pressure 25% lower than what is recommended on the sidewall of my rather high-profile Yokohama 032's. The ride got considerably more comfortable, not to mention a noticeable increase in grip—I can take tight turns at a higher speed that would occasionally spin me out. Ridewise, I can really feel those tall sidewalls absorbing all but the harshest road surface irregularities. With the tires at full pressure, even tar strips would rattle my fillings. 

I was concerned that running lower pressures would cause the sidewalls to flex too much under hard cornering. My instructor pointed out these little triangles molded into the sidewall (see pic). He said that as long as the triangles aren't being scuffed, the tire pressure is adequate.

I can't profess to a side-by-side comparison, but in previous threads on this subject, those who do know have said that (yes) the higher the sidewall, the more compliant the ride. They also swear the 10" wheels/tire handle better than 12" or 13".

Basically I'm not a fan of the newer cars with their 20" wheel and tire sidewalls only 2" high.  I know on the newer cars they compensate by softening up the suspension, where the older cars used the tire sidewall to soften the ride.  My wife bent a wheel in a chuck hole many years ago.  I took it the the tires shop and asked if they could straighten it.  Quote " Sorry no you have to buy a new wheel, ha ha, I make more money selling wheels now than I ever did selling tires" end quote.

I have the same 13" wheels and tires as you, for me new stock rubber cones, and slightly jacking up the hi/lo's to a more stock ride height made a big difference as long as the car is in it's suspension travel range. I still bottom out but not as often as it did before, and it's still a go cart, in a good way Different coils?

I have 13" wheels and 175 x 50 x 13 tires and coil over suspension.  My car rides like a go kart. Just saw a link where it looked like 10" wheels and something like 70 series tires.  Looks nice, fills the wheel wells, just wondering if there is a significantly smoother ride?