Suspension Brakes Most liked posts in thread: Sway bar/anti-roll bar

Skip changing out the front bar to something bigger on a MINI, it's not needed....

 

The issue with MINIs is, from the factory, they have more understeer than is optimal for performance driving (like pretty much any factory car).
Two ways to address it: intentionally add oversteer (via rear swaybar), or actually fix the understeer (add negative camber in the front via camber plates).

Ideally the car can use BOTH - the swaybar is the easiest and cheapest... but the camber plates actually do more to address the handling issue.

I'm a big fan of H-sport sway bars, due to their zerk fittings to lube the poly bushings (which need frequent lubrication).

 

This is what you want from Hotchkis and you only want the rear bar. A front bar is not needed. I have the Competition (22mm) bar but you can also get the Sport (19mm).

MINI Cooper Rear Swaybar by Hotchkis

 

I thought about upgrading my rear sway bar the same time I did my shocks & springs, but ended up doing what Rawhyde suggested and just going with shocks/springs first to see how I liked that before making any other changes. I was afraid that if I threw in the RSB on top of that, I'd be a little overwhelmed. This way I can see what each little incremental change is doing to my MINI.

That being said...even though the shocks/springs did improve my little Bug Eater considerably, I still want the RSB. Now I just need to find a slave that will install it for me for some beer & pizza, since I just spent a buttload of $$$ on my exhaust.

 

The important thing is to research all of the options and learn all you can.

Sway bars are a suspension tuning aid. The rest of your setup and your driving style along with your intentions are the key factors.

On other cars, I've owned over the years, most of them got a set of aftermarket sway bars. Most cars (particularly domestic and asian makes) have sloppy mushy suspensions with WAY too much lean. Bigger is better.

A MINI on the other hand is a good handling car right out of the box even in its most basic trim. I had a 2005 Cooper S with the factory suspension, and I thought I'd spend a quick $200 and make a vast improvement by slapping on an R-Speed adjustable rear bar. WRONG!

On some sloppy domestic car, slapping on bigger bars makes a night and day improvement. On the MINI, there was a difference, but it was very subtle. It helped grip and cornering speeds, but not by a whole lot. For the first time, (I'd done this at least a half dozen times on other cars over the years) there was an unintended side effect. If you lifted off the throttle mid corner, the rear would step out about a foot to eighteen inches until some of the speed was bled off.

I could drive the car safely in the dry, but it made me a little nervous in the rain for several weeks. I also was VERY apprehensive about letting ANYONE else drive it, and the few who did got an extensive warning about what it'd do upon lifting the throttle.


I almost removed it and went back to stock, but I really didn't want to go through the rigamarole of swapping it back and winding up with the car back like it came from the dealer.

Lucky for me, I found a dealership selling JCW Suspension and Brake Kits for a deep discount. I bought both, and spent an afternoon tinkering. When I was finished, I had a car that handled considerably better than stock. I can still rotate the car with lift throttle, but now it's much more controllable, and I was able to go to the sway bar's middle setting. (The lightest setting was too much for an otherwise stock Cooper S.)

Do your springs and shocks first. See what is needed, and tailor your sway bar purchases to tune it to your needs then. I did mine bass-ackwards. I finally wound up with better handling, and I got rid of the excessive understeer like I wanted to, but I did it backwards and drove a temperamental beast for a couple of weeks.

Get an old muscle car, hang a set of fat bars underneath, and you'll feel like you just discovered a secret law of physics. Try the same tactic with a MINI, and you'll have to chase a proper setup.

I hung a set of Si bars under a cheap Civic, and the improvement was unbelievable. To add sauce to the goose, the whole cost was ~$250. On a MINI, the same expenditure will net you about a 5% difference....they really are for fine tuning.

 

Atleast 85% of the people on here will say to add a rear sway bar as your first performance mod. Maybe half go Full Stiff on it and the other half go to the Middle notch on stiffness and they all love it, and will say it makes a big difference. Do you have to have a bigger sway bar to go quick NO, if you are a top notch driver you can drive a bone stock MINI "quicker" then a bunch of us with modded MINIs. Happens to me at every Auto-x, guy there runs in the stock class, BUT he has been top 6 at the Nationals the past few years, so he wears me out on track.. As rule of thumb you never lift mid corner driving/riding anything at anything close to "full tilt" if your just riding to work no big deal, do it everyday myself because of traffic etc.. I have the 19mm solid bar on Full Stiff for the last 7 years.. amongst other suspension mods..

 

Hotchkis 22mm competition rear sway bar FTW.

 

Back then, I was driving a 1994 Impala SS. It was a fun car, but when I changed jobs, it was killing me on fuel. (After all, premium was going for about $1.30 per gallon)

I wanted a BMW 330Ci, but I got cajoled into a test drive in a MINI. The MINI really exceeded my expectations. I loved the instant responsiveness of the car.

At the time, I was a caregiver to my mother with MS. The deciding factor was how much easier it was to load her and her wheelchair into the MINI vs the 330.

There just aren't many cars that are as enjoyable to drive as a MINI.

 

Only you can make the call on if lowering your car is a good idea. Lowering your car will lose you suspension travel. My car is lowered about 1/2 inch & there are times I miss that 1/2 inch of ground clearance.

 

One issue with coilovers...they are not as tuff as the stock spring/strut setup...
Be prepared for a failure...on smooth roads they do fine...but they tend to have PHYSICAL failures due to POTHOLES...remeber they are RACE BREED....and no potholes on a racetrack....
The roads I drove on in Kenai/Soldonta area WERE pretty good when I lived up there...but the washboard gravel side streets and "breakup" might be an MAJOR issue if you lower. Good luck....
Me I would stick with the stock height...maybe Koni FSD's, and spend the $$ on a set of extra rims....
You can have some crazy fun with a near stock suspension and a bigger rear swaybar with good tires....heck...I bet 90% of drivers cannot use 100% of what their car can do....

 

19mm Hotchkiss bar here. Went from middle to soft setting last year. Ok call Me a softie.....

 

Lots of great info on here. I think one of the things that makes me most apprehensive is the fact that I would equate the Mini to my vast years tinkering with Hondas, in that your basic Civic CX/DX/LX/EX cannot compare to the Si in any way shape or form. Enter the Type R. This car is so finely and perfectly tuned from the factory, that any amount of modification can actually significantly REDUCE your performance, if it isn't done with the correct parts at the correct level of tuning. The Mini's seem to be very similar...they are already a very finely tuned machine straight out of the box, so you really want to do your homework on parts/procedures, and don't be too proud to take the advice from those who know/have been there.

 

Check with CapCity Minis...it may not cost you beer and pizza though. They may charge you a set of Lambo door hinges and a neon underbody kit ut:

 

I'd be happy to install it for you, but you'd spend a ton on gas to get the Bug Eater to my shop.

 

I'm not an expert on coil-overs or coil-unders & don't play one on M/A. That being said I just have to stick my .02 in here.

Yes rally cars use quite sophisticated coil over set ups. I'd guess one corners worth would be worth more than my MINI. I don't think any off the shelf affordable coil-over is any where near tough enough for rough road use. One other thing is using a coil-over in the corroding winter conditions will make them un-adjustable in short order.

OP paid someone $150 to fix a loose screw on his airbox. Don't think he's going to be under his MINI cleaning coil-overs to keep them adjustable. I may be wrong, but that is my take.

 

I still have my oem sway bars.... Didn't change them...

Went with front camber plates and rear adjustable camber bars, and replaced the 4 oem springs with units made by Swift. The springs lowered the MINI by about 1-1/2". Still have the oem dampers.... MINI handles great...