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@hikingmike: I would bet it has always been there. Now that you hit something and were worried, you were paying extra attention to how it handled. Now that you noticed it, you can't unnotice it.

You want some torque steer, drive a Mini Cooper S model (turbo). It wants to pull the wheel out of your hands!

 

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I actually drove my wife's Mini Cooper (non-S) while my car was at the dealer - which can still really dig in with the 6 gears - and didn't notice the torque-steer as much. It's like the wheel does get pulled a little here and there but it's not as predictable as my box. Maybe the non-S is different.

Coincidentally, I just bought my daughter a non-S Cooper last night (2008) with a manual trans and it doesn't have any torque-steer. My wife has a Clubman S with an automatic transmission with lots of torque-steer. I doubt the auto vs. manual has much to do with it, so I assume it's the extra power.

 

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@hikingmike I may have something for you to try, but it isn't the cheapest mod I've seen.

In reading through a Mini Cooper forum on the most common mods everyone says to buy a torque damper. The benefits they see are smoother shifting of manual transmissions since the engine/trans isn't moving back and forth pulling on the shift linkage and REDUCED TORQUE-STEER. Now they say that the factory damper under the engine is too squishy and they replace it with a stiffer aftermarket one for about $60. I don't know if it would have the same effect on our xB's and the only ones I found after a quick google search are like $180.

I don't know if it will help, but thought I'd pass the info along so you could decide for yourself.