Most liked posts in thread: Thoughts on Ireland Engineering Adjustable Camberplates for Autocross?

We stopped selling the IE adjustable plates because we found they fell apart in a year or two and needed rebuilding if you could get them back apart without destroying the parts.. We never recommend the fixed camber plates cause no MINI has the same camber side to side some times it can be a full deg off!...and i have done a lot of alignments. You want to have the same amount of camber on both sides for many different reasons. if you're really ready to autocross, send the money and by the quality parts.

Chad
Detroit Tuned

 

Vorschlags are the answer to everything. I love mine, in an almost awkward way.

 

I had both the IE fixed plates on my R53 (when it had the stock shocks and TSW springs) and the Vorshlag adjustables (when it had coilovers). If you just do the occasional auto-x or aggressive street driving with the occasional track weekend, the fixed plates will be just fine.

 

The IE fixed camber plates are built around a robust BMW OEM strut bearing hat... I believe it's used on the Z4 if I remember.... It gives additional negative camber, more than stock but less than hard core. Kind of a happy medium.... The bearing is captured by a significantly larger rubber cushion that mitigates the transfer of harsh road noise to the body....

Probably my best mod that improved the handling of my MINI....

When it's time to move onward to adjustable camber plates, these are not difficult to sell...

 

I bought my IE fixed camber plates used. Money well spent for me, love em.

 

I have the adj plates and after 8 yrs they are still performing great.

PS....you want to be careful about the class restrictions for camber plates, may bump you up into a modified class.

 

yeah the tiny spacer as he puts it also caves the top of the spring plate till the camber plate is sitting on to of it..now you need new spring plates ..I've seen the rubber come off from the body, the bolts for the top plate lock them self in place then you have to drill them out and replace...and if you you use heat..the rubber burns and again you need parts..so many draws with extra parts...

 

I would say skip the IE Adj's and just go with the Vorschlags since you see many people having issues with them.

In this case like other's cost ='s quality and reliability.

A better question would be is anyone having issues with the Vorschlags? If you are going to spend the money wouldn't you want to spend it once and be done with it?

 

You have to run the spacer with the IE unit for it to work...which in turn makes it fail..i say skip the unit all together and go with the Vorschlag units. a bit more but trouble free operation and much more heavy duty to take the awesome roads we all have..tracks days are smooth and easy, it's street driving a race car that tears things up.

Vorshlag Camber Plates mini Cooper

 

Yes, the "spacer" is an issue unless you do it right. Note there are TWO spacers necessary, and I was only talking about the first one and forgot to mention the second one!

1. One within the bearing housing itself to make the bearing not click - this is minor and very thin, unnecessary in most installations and advised in others, due to manufacturing tolerances and variability in the IE product itself. This is internal to the IE spherical bearing housing.

2. One "spacer" (washer) below the camber plate to space the spring cap to the spherical bearing. On the OE strut bearing this is appx a 1.25" diameter Grade8 washer with a grease shield on top, to spread the load of the car over a larger area of the spring cap. the IE top-mount is only 1" diameter, resulting in high stress loads on the center of the spring cap. This is where some creativity is necessary when running the IE product. My solution is to use the IE pyramidal cone-shaped washer (the 1" dia one) AND a larger thick Grade8 heavy duty washer (the OE one) to spread the load further over the spring plate - to avoid (postpone?) the spring plate "cave-in" that Detroit Tuned mentions above. In this way I have identical stress distribution to stock (disregarding the ability of the rubber OE bearing housing to absorb some shock), but did add 1/8" to my ride height, which I've compensated for in other areas.

The IE's definitely have their drawbacks in design, so I've had to engineer around them.
- Anti-seize the hell out of the mounting bolts and check 'em every season, renewing the anti-seize where necessary.
- Add a Grade8 load-distribution washer below the IE-supplied custom pyramid/cone washer, to distribute the shock load over more of the OE spring plate. Doing so mimics the OE load distribution and Must. Be. Done.
- Lubricate the spherical bearing thoroughly, it is a Maintenance Item, every oil change. There is a zerk for this purpose.

Again, for the cost (low cost, used) they work for me. I certainly recognize that, in my case, the couple degrees of negative camber came at the cost of a couple degrees of complexity in maintenance.

And, using my belt-and-suspenders approach, I also have a set of OE strut bearings (and spring caps!) as a backup.

the thrilling conclusion:
- Given that IE plates are becoming rare, and expensive, go with the Vorschlags. I don't even know if the IE's are avilable "new", but if they are, for the minimal cost diff I'd go Vorschlag.
- IF (and only if) you find that your side-to-side camber is Very Close on your specific car, then fixed camber plates *may* work well, but definitely check for any inherent camber changes necessary on your specific car before going "fixed". Also note that stock wide springs may contact the strut tower if you go too far.
- If, like me, you're OK with the drawbacks, get a good price on IE's, and can work around the drawbacks, then go IE.

Whichever way you go, do so with "eyes open" - and remember, you can only buy so much speed. the most cost-effective vehicle improvement lies in improving the interface between the seat and steering wheel.

 

I seem to remember reading that they had issues.... Thinking it had to do with the bearing... Not sure, but it may have been resolved....

Other's may pipe up on this...

I have the IE fixed camber plates and love them....

 

I agree with the above because the IE fixed plates are exactly what I have on my MCS...Dragonslayer, daily driver and occasional track car.

 

I also remember posts of the IE Adjustable having issues. Also the IE adjustable raises the front end height about 3/16-1/4". Unless you really want adjustable I would suggest the IE fixed plates. If you really want adjustable I would look at the Hotchkis adjustable plates because they do not raise the front end height (unless you have coil-overs and can adjust the height back down).
I have adjustable because the fixed were not available when I purchased adjustable. I Auto-X but I do not adjust the camber more negative for Auto-X because it changes the Toe-In quite a bit and I do not have an easy way to adjust toe every time I adjust camber. I just have the alignment shop set the camber to -2.0 and I leave it that way for street and Auto-X. The adjustable plates also add more noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH). If I was to purchase camber plates now, I would get IE fixed. The two advantages of adjustable is that you can adjust more negative than fixed and can adjust to exactly the camber you want and make up for any OEM differences side to side but that is really not that big of a benefit to put up with the NVH unless you are very serious about Auto-X and want to adjust to -3.0 just for Auto-X then back to -1.5 for street.

 

Yes.

 

I have Helix adj. camber plates but you cannot get them anymore. The 2 above are great adj. camber plates also.

 

+1 to what Chad said...
I inherited and currently run a set of IE adjustables, modified them to make 'em work & last.
- The bearing tends to need a spacer so it doesn't rattle (tiny, tiny spacer washer... and a &^%$ circlip...)
- Spherical bearings need lube. Often. Mine has a zerk, but this requires dropping the shock top (which I now do during oil changes, seems about the right interval).
- Alignment: Hmmm, my "patience, level garage floor, carpenter's level, a T-square, and two parallel strings" method actually works well here. Indeed the one shock top had to be 1/8" further from the center of the shock hole than the other to get the camber correct, supporting what Chad said on Minis not necessarily being perfectly aligned from the factory
- Springs: Stock springs are wide, too wide for any more than about 2 degrees negative camber without contacting the inner shock tower (R53, even with the "stress rib relief" mod). You'll need something narrower, preferably coilovers, but may then have to contend with "spring bind" on full compression.

Net net, I love the IE's I have, got 'em inexpensively and I know the drawbacks and can live with them. If I had it to do again with unlimited funds, Vorschlags and coilovers. With limited funds... well, that's where I am now!