Suspension Brakes 1st Gen Most liked posts in thread: Eibach Pro Street Coilover Setup Help?

i know a few things about suspension set ups (you should see my mini in gt4!) but am by no means an expert in real life however i would recommend you get in contact TSW (texas speedwerks) as they seem to have quite a bit of knowledge when comes to minis and set ups. give em a holla and if they cant help i'm sure they can point you in the direction of someone who can

 

yeah, i hope someone chimes in also as i will be installing my coilovers in the near future and am in the same boat as you as to what i want out of my suspension

 

they're two way right? preload and height adjustments are one and the same.

how does the car ride? the MINI is stroke challenged....slamming on a two way design means you'll have very little travel to work with. It may 'feel' fast but likely is not. quite a few factors at play....the lack of travel, the alignment from being overly lowered, the suspension itself working at the end of it's intended range, etc.

I just set the ride height on the Ohlins DFV on my STI today....1/2" lower than stock. All the 'stance' guys will say <fail> but the STI is similar to the MINI with a short stroke suspension design...too low = too slow.

 

To set ride height, you'll have to measure the total stroke of the coilovers and where it's located in suspension ride height. Typically you center the ride height in the middle of suspension stroke, however the MINI does respond favorably to having more droop than compression travel. From the factory the suspension runs something to the effect of 2/3rds droop and 1/3rd compression travel. [5" total stroke = 3.3" droop travel and 1.7" compression travel, for example]

That should give you a basic good start. Let us know what kind of total stroke and where in the suspension ride height it is. [from the axle center to the bottom of the wheel arch apex, stock is something like 14.0" front and 13.5" rear for an R53, depending on options]

Cheers,
Ryan

 

You're correct that droop can be considered rebound travel. The only differentiation to me is that droop implies from ride height and rebound implies motion after a bump or articulation; perhaps that's just a minor technicality.

The only reason I can think of is that lots of droop travel keeps the tires on the road during at-limit cornering even with an undulating surface. As McLaren refuses to learn this year in Formula1, you need to keep the tires on the road to go quick. Lotus uses a 50/50 droop/compression travel philosophy with the current Elise/Exige, but it also has carefully positioned roll centers that you can only manage with proper SLA suspension. Since the MINI uses a McPherson strut front end, the roll centers move around much more, so perhaps more droop is a band-aid for that instead of having the car pivot tidily around the center of it's overall travel.

Ok my brain is empty now, LOL
Cheers,
Ryan

 

I apologize in advance for the hijack.

So, what is your impressions of the DFV setup?

I've had a set on my MINI for a while now and have gotten them feeling pretty good - for me anyway.

Ryan, FYI, I went back with the stock springs.

/hijack
+1 for what PGT and Ryan have posted.

 

:lol: good explanation though

On my STI, I have maybe 75/25 droop/compression. Being a rally-inspired suspension, I thought there would be more compression ability actually, but having the ability to track the surface over very rough stuff makes sense too.

Whatever the engineers did, it works. It's just as much fun to drive as my MINI was on Cross coilovers and has HUGE levels of grip compared to the old STI models (room for tires helps....295's will fit with a bit of persuasion).

 

what rates are you running? Diff cars I know but also wonder how the dampening plots might compare.

I drove a friends STI with DFV's and 9kF/8kR (500lb/450lb). I swapped on 7kF/8kR Eibach ERS springs...based on that experience and experience with 8k/8k in my Legacy (similar setup as the new STI).

The ride is firm, but very rarely harsh. Once in awhile, you can feel the car is 2x as stiff as stock, but the dampers really, really shine. I'm set 1/2" lower than stock (NOT low) and use them at about 50% stiff (12 clicks out of 25). I feel like it's less bouncy than my MINI was on Cross...part of that is a longer wheelbase for sure but the dampers also are clearly top-notch.

I'm getting my alignment on Monday and it's been raining here, so, I haven't really pushed the car yet to be able to comment on how the DFV's control body motion.

My friend with the other set let his buddy drive his STI at NJMP two weekends ago (he was driving his 911 GT3 RS). Stage II car (reflash and turbo-back), Ohlins DFV on Neova's and an aggressive alignment (too much actually). He was passing all manner of higher performance cars...obviously experience > hardware but they both said they were impressed with the platform and how the DFV's did at the track (new STI's have a fair amount of body roll....not that it hurts grip much but it's disconcerting for those of us used to a MINI or 911).

 

They come with a 6kg/mm front and 5kg/mm rear. I had tried to go up (7k) on the fronts, but decided to go back the original setup after running them a while.
I may step up f and r to 7k, 6k resp. later, but that might be a while. Gotta do a clutch/flywheel, so that is taking my mod money.

I'm about the same drop. They say that it's a 20mm and 25mm drop f to r, but I think I'm a little more than that - going on my heavy car (sunroof, etc). That's one reason I wanted to up the rates. Like you said the dampers really shine.
I've got mine set right in the middle (12 of 24) for my daily commute, but I ran MotD at 8 from full hard and it was a blast. The only thing that I noticed was that it was tad slow in responding to some of the larger compression-to-droop changes. Mainly on Hellbender, but some of the Dragon too. Backed them off to 10 and cruised. Again, like you stated, firm, but never harsh.

 

what's the cost for the DFV set for the MINI and who sells them? The STI ones cost me $2900 but were complete bolt-ins, front and rear tophats included, fully assembled and ready to go.

 

the springs for my app are 7" I think. If you want to play around with 8k and 9k, just cover shipping and you can borrow mine. They're brand new, unused.

 

I'm going to start a new thread with all of the relevant info. Thanks to the others for the hijack.