1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: What is your suspension setup?

1. 2008
2. MC Clubman (R55)
3. Daily Driver
4. Custom Bilsteins, custom pillowball mounts front and rear
5. No springs, just airbags, 40psi up front 70psi in the rear.
6. Monotube (Inverse and shortened)
7. Ease of Rebuild: Easy as sending them back to bilstein or race shop.
8. Ride height is adjustable from the driver's cockpit at the flick of a switch
9. Price: No idea...
10. How long have you been using this setup for? 2 Years
11. Feedback (the good, the bad, and the ugly!): Absolutely love the comfort and drop. Ugly is the amount of "upkeep" that goes into ensure that it works well and stays in good shape. My favorite suspension setup after 4 or 5 different MINI suspensions over the years. Improved amount of travel so no more bumpstops or bottoming out, unlike the coilovers and konis I've used.
12. Pic of your setup on your MINI!

 

Have you tried using the Garage feature here.....?

Works great for this type of thing.

 

OK, nothing fancy here but 06 MCS JCW, with JCW suspension matched to build, Hotchkis Sport adjustable links on lower rear. The JCW drops about 50mm which is fine for me as any more I would not be able to get out of the driveway. Daily driver from April til first salting of roads and autocross also. I think it was like 650 from MINI of Morristown when I bought it like two years ago and I installed it myself. The ride is tight but not too harsh.

Like I said, nothing fancy but just right for me. Photo's are in my garage.

Cheers
Mr. Jim

 

There may be better pictures in "my garage" ?

http://www.motoringalliance.com/forums/garage/1498

 

Megan with Ebach springs. The set up is very steering sensitive. I do not track just play. Not sure how much I have in the set up. I can not lower as much as would like to for show but they do well for realistic driving habits which is mostly in my "DRIVEWAY"

 

Bilstein PSS9 on '06 JCW. Hotchkins lower control arms. Powerflex control arm bushings. IE adjustable camber plates. Daily driver with past AutoX use and an occasional track use (3-4 times a year).

Not lowered as much as it used to be due to driveway clearance issues. Can't beat Bilstein for quality. More expensive then some other stuff out there, but you get what you pay for. You can probably get coilovers with more adjustability settings, but unless you are a serious track rat that has the inclination, the knowledge and the resources to utilize all the settings as they fit various tracks, I say 9 adjustments are plenty for most weekend warriors. I personally use one setting for the street and another one for the track. That's 2 of 9 that get used.

 

Shop:
What you are realistically going to do with your MINI
Your experience level if you are going to be doing the install
Your allowance on what you want to spend for the project

The opinions are all over the place and unfortunately most have only the stock and the one suspension system change to compare so information can be vague and not so multiple component experienced accurate.
It might behoove you to find a MINI in your area that has suspension upgrades and see if you can hitch a ride or even better a drive to form some basic idea of choices.

 

If your going to track, you might drop Mrsideways a PM and get his advice, with multiple Prosolo, NASA, etc national championships his advice is about as good as it gets! 2cents

 

panaphobic you state that this will be a track MINI than you might go to the sponsor section and contact some fo the vendors that have track only MINI as well as offer great choices in suspension upgrades.
And now that you have narrowed your usage to track the responses will be more in line with that rather then general application.

http://www.motoringalliance.com/forums/vendor/list-by-alpha

 

I have a 06 JCW I got to auto-cross. I do drive the car on the street as well, but I have a truck for bad weather, and when I think something might damage the MINI. I like my doors and do not want them dented at the mall. I have the following changes:
1. TSW tuned KW –V3s with 400 LBs springs
2. Lower control arm poly bushings
3. Fixed camber plates
4. MiniMania lowering spacers for the bottom of the ball joints
5. TSW chassis brace
6. TSW rear bar
7. I made my own sway bar end links and rear trailing arms.
8. TSW engine mount
I am very happy with the results. I do not believe that the stiff springs are too harsh for the street. I generally run the shocks in the middle of the range for driving on the street, and turn them up for auto-crossing. With the shocks cranked up it gets much harsher. I used the word harsh for a reason. The springs are obviously much stiffer than stock, and the ride is stiff. However the stock set up uses very high bump rates on the struts. I think my car has a good balance and the springs are very well controlled, without being harsh, by the struts. The handling is OUTSTANDING. I can get the car to do what I want. I am not a good auto-crosser, this is my first year, but I have an extensive background with racing. I use to have a business where I prepared cars for SCCA racing. We were Zink dealers. You ask about adjustability of the coil overs other than by moving the spring perch. I believe Cross is the only one that does that, but one of the reasons I bought KWs is they attach to the spindle with the maximum amount of the strut sticking out the bottom to allow for as long a strut as possible. KWs are also twin tube as opposed to monotube or gas shocks. Twin tube shocks have more travel than monotube shocks for a given length. All this adds up to more travel, and MINIs do not have enough. You wind up with a lowered car and still have stock travel. A disadvantage to my setup is wheel spacers. On some of the coil overs and the stock setup the spring does not extend below the tread area of the tire. I believe the BC coil overs use barrel shaped springs to keep the springs from coil binding because the spring is so short. On my KWs the spring perch extends down and is along the sidewall of the tire. Without spacers it would hit. I believe I will get 37 MM offset wheels to correct the problem. Pick your poison, long springs do not coil bind, and let you lower the car, but require wheel spacers. Coil overs with the springs above the tire have limited travel and the springs can coil bind. The one area I am not happy about is the car is nosier. The motor mount excites a vibration in the dash board some times, but the biggest issue is the rear trailing arms. At least I believe the rear trailing arms are the source of a droning noise. One of the things I liked best about my MINI was it was quiet. It is not terrible, but I would enjoy the car more if I could get rid of the drone. I plan on getting rid of the rod ends and trying rubber joints.
You ask for pictures and I would do it if I knew how to attach them.
Metalman - thank you for the information, but I still do not know how. I do not understand or can not find the BB Code. the picture is in my garage. I do not have good pictures of the rear.

 

CarlB........... Hope this helps

As I too want to see pics.

http://www.motoringalliance.com/forums/how-do-i/517-images-how-do-i-add-image-post-my-album.html

 

Indeed it is... especially in the flesh. Woodgrain rules.

 

im loving the audi rims on the mini.