MINI Mania released some control arm spacers for the first gen's but never offered the tie-rod spacers that ought to be teamed with any control arms spacers. I've looked all over the usual vendors but haven't found anything for the second gen. Do any of the suspension vendors have any interest in offering something along these lines to help fix front geometry on lowered cars? The second gen control arm hub ball joints look much more like the setups I'm used to seeing on VW's and Subies compared to the ones found on the R53, so it seems like hooking up some balljoint extenders should be pretty easy. The second gen also doesn't have the large bolt head on the bottom that caused fitment issues with 16" wheels which is nice. Or perhaps someone knows of an option already out there for our cars? Are these balljoints all similar among cars so that we could find our necessary sizes among already existing kits? Based on looking at my suspension, it seems like we'd be looking for something along these lines for the second gen's as opposed to the previous spacer system used on the first gen's.
Best I can remember Ryan (Ryephile) made some drop spindles for his R53, but never went commercial. That seems like the best of all possible worlds. It was a 1" drop if I remember correctly. One of the guys up in Portland (John Petrich) did the ball joint stuff and some bump-steer corrections for the R53. He posts a lot on the Portland BMW forum. Anyway, he did the bump steer stuff from some BMW aftermarket parts. This is a great idea, the problem is that there aren't that many Minis. And even fewer that use them close enough to the "edge" to really appreciate what things like this have to offer. If going to other volume parts bins means that one could put a kit together that didn't cost much, you may have a winner here. If it's expensive, I don't know that there would be enough customers to really justify the effort. Matt
Yah, unfortunately another case of insufficient demand, probably. I'm hoping that ball joint sizes are somewhat standardized and shared among different makes. It'd be nice to dip into a pool where the demand is high with heavily tracked cars like subarus or evos. They've got all sorts of kits available. Thanks for the tip on Petrich's project, I'll have to check it out.
I think most of his posts are on the Portland BMWCCA forum, but I might be wrong about that. he's a good guy and very helpfull. Matt
Bumping this in case anyone had come up with an idea or if any of the new members had anything to lend to the discussion. I've been looking around a bunch without much luck. I'd love to make this a winter project if we can think of a solution or find a part to fit the new r56's.
Just in case any one else on here is searching for these like I have been, there are prototypes being tested in Japan by one of the race groups over there. Should be available for production shortly. R56????????????AJ&???AJ??????????MINI Garden??????? ??????????
Love the drop spindles on my truck... seems it would be a lot simpler solution (if there's room etc). As far as capital investment, I'd think they'd sell more mini drop spindles than they do for 40+ year old trucks. And with modern CAD techniques & tooling it doesn't seem that big a deal.