The rear in that picture is PERFECT. The front might be a tad too low, actually. I don't want any rake at all.

The fact that I can get the ride height to almost exactly where I would want it, coupled with the factory warranty/installation at the dealer for a reasonable price, just might have me sold.

 

You've had these a while now. Was curious if your impresdions are the same ? Still seems expensive to me compared to springs as they look from the pucs at least to sit a descent amount higher than mine. There is an on ramp that I take daily in both my car and new stock cars, i can take it mine at 80mph with no issues, around 90mph my tires are loosing contact at points. Stock car with the Dunlops Summer 60mph it starts getting loose. But I also have wider and softer compound tires so its not apples to apples.

 

I would run them with the stock wheels for a day or two and see how it feels. Wider and lighter wheels do make a difference.

 

There's more to "worth" than stance. Lowering springs reduce the compression travel that makes a well designed suspension worth owning. Based on all the comments I've read here I can tell you're either relatively young or perhaps not that experienced with what makes a good overall suspension package. I'm not trying to be harsh, but making exaggerations that you're able to take a ramp 50% faster is simply not believable. Put simply, even if lowering springs were free, they would not end up on my car because they ruin the ride. As such, they're not worth anything to me.

I'm betting your on-ramp is smooth. As such, a grippier tire with a higher wheel rate [because lowering springs are inherently more bumpstop active] will of course be quicker. If your on-ramp was a 3rd world catastrophe of "pavement", then a lowering spring car would not be able to corner quicker than a stock suspension because it would skip across the pavement into the bushes.

This is where having adequate suspension stroke matters with a rational wheel rate for the tire being used. If you need some comparison, consider all the cars that have knocked out impressive Nurburgring lap times so the manufacturer car brag about it. One of the quickest ones is the Viper ACR. The Viper has over 9 inches of suspension stroke, NINE! The R53 MINI has about 4.5, and the F56 about 5.5". There's been one major improvement that OEM's have learned by tracking their cars at Nurburgring; you need suspension stroke to cover ground quickly. Lowering springs eliminate that precious compression travel, leaving the chassis with very little ability to cope with bumps, especially mid-corner.


There's a big difference between a car feeling fast and actually lapping quickly. Lowering springs fake out the driver by providing lightning fast weight transfer because the wheel rates are too high for the tire grip. It should be clear by now that lowering springs are a cheap compromise to get stance and grip on smooth roads, but they're not a good overall solution.


Of the 4 suspensions I've driven on the F56; standard, sport, DDC, and JCW Pro, the latter is the most fitting for the term "hot hatch". The DDC and standard are soft enough to appease the most troubled back pains, and Sport kind of reminds me of "firm for normal people" but not actually sporting.

Of course I still recommend the JCW Pro's to anyone that wants appropriate wheel rate and damping for the term "hot hatch", which to me translates into "daily driver that isn't boring".

 

Thinking about this more, I understand there are a few factors at play. Not everyone can afford, or chooses to rationalize, spending 4 figures on suspension. Those that are relatively new to the game will undoubtedly have an unabashed exuberance towards "new things they've discovered", and unfortunately that enthusiasm is often over-amplified by financial circumstances and subsequent comments like the ones Jamesdean said, on the point that they spent very little for allegedly very big results. Such "discoveries", while thrilling, definitely do not have the wisdom built from years of trial and error and cubic dollars can afford to create experiences.

I know it sounds harsh, but that is a portion of the reality to the situation. Being naive is a fact of being human; none of us can specialize in everything, let alone a few things. We all also learn best by learning the hard way, which is exactly what these forums try to avoid, by sharing knowledge and experiences. It's all for not if we don't say things like "hey I tried that and it doesn't work, here's why." Look back on page 1 where I showed my suspension stroke measurements, please. You can't lower the F56 on stock dampers more than 1.0" before starting to compress the bumpstops. This is not a smart solution. It was similar with the R53, and R56. Those platforms had even less compression travel from the factory, so a lowering spring was even less wise. There was a point in my past where I literally removed the springs from my R53, just to see how low it would go. It didn't sit any lower, because the springs I had in there didn't have any useful pre-load. Bouncing down the road on compressed bumpstops is perfectly fine for a Stanced show-car, but it's not how you build a quick sports car.

 

Ryephile, now that you got the suspension installed and driven on it for a bit, have you found that you need to try to stiffen up the chassis as well? I am looking at the same kit for mine. I like my S drive ability in normal operations but it feels like it needs something more to keep it planted when I want to throw it into the corners. The car feels tight in a straight line and minor corners but wallows around a bit much for my liking when I really throw it into a corner.

 

I just made a comment in the "big pair" thread that addresses this, but it's worth repeating. Any streetable suspension is magnitudes softer than the chassis rigidity of most fixed roof cars. The wheel rate of a stock MINI is about 4.5 NM/inch, whereas the published figure for the R53's chassis torsional rigidity is 24,500 NM/degree of flex. This isn't a realistic comparison, but you'd need over five thousand inches of suspension travel to twist the body one degree. In reality it's much less because there are bumpstops that have an exponentially infinite spring rate with usually about 2 or so inches of travel. The net effect is you'd have to slam your car at speed into a curb to achieve any measurable chassis flex.

There are cars out there with poor chassis flex [the 1st gen Miata and the Lamborghini Countach are perfect examples], where anything you do for bracing is a positive help. With the MINI, it's pretty much just pretty things that might change some acoustics or NVH, but they're not the low-hanging fruit for improving the suspension.

The float effect the F56 has is primarily due to the very soft damping curves. Simply switching to something like a Koni Yellow would offer a dramatic improvement in body control. The float is largely eliminated with the JCW Pro coilovers, thanks to more appropriate damper curves for the given spring rates.

The other factor is alignment; what makes for a quick lap time isn't always what is the most confidence inspiring, ironically. To venture further off topic; as I've learned over the years: you have have great steering feel, or great mechanical grip. Choose one.

 

Awesome reply Ryephile, thank you. I understand this much better now.

 

Not that I can say this is the best diagram
But where is the adjustment here, if it's on a cam bolt how much is available?

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=33_1862

Has anyone adjusted the camber on a stock height car yet ?
If so Please point me in the right direction to a set of suggested alignment specs,

I'm struggling to find any specs, that are for enhanced handling, unless toe and castor should stay the same as factory
Going for -.75 front with the poweflex bushes

Front wheels are 7.5 x 17 with et 43 and 215/45/17 Goodyear F1 asymmetric2
DDC dampers, and a possible upgraded ss oem rear swaybar to come

 

Thanks again Ryan for your amazing write-up. It convinced me to install the JCW Pro suspension, and my installation tech used your write-up as a reference during the install. I love the way the car sits now. I haven't had a chance to really get a feel for handling changes since it was a 35 mile straight shot down the highway home, but, at least I realized that the ride isn't much rougher than the standard sports suspension.

 

Here's a shot immediately after the install and before the alignment. Feel like it's settled a bit more after the drive home yesterday.

 

This thread definitely convinced me to go with the JCW Pro Suspension as well. This picture is from delivery at the dealership. I've got a little over 300 miles on the car now, and it's settled in nicely. Literally feels like a Go-Kart.....the handling is AMAZING and the stance is perfect.

 

Yeah - your stance looks very much like mine. I was there for the install, and it looks like we could have lowered it quite a bit more given the amount of thread still available, but I like where we landed.

 

Mine is all the way down in the rear (30mm) and the front is dropped to match the factory rake. I didn't want the front lower than the rear.....my R56 had H&R springs and the front was lower than the rear, and it bugged me the entire time I had the car. I feel like this is the perfect stance. I just hope it doesn't settle unevenly. So far so good though.....

PS: Are you running any spacers?

 

shot of the front - picture is sideways (sorry)

 

Not sure of the measurements on mine - I think we decided it dropped it about an inch. I remember my installer telling me that we didn't want the front lower than the rear like on the publicity photo Ryan posted of the JCW Pro accessory car on the 2nd page of this thread.

 

@ryephile

Read the whole thread, and thanks. I just got one of these babies. I have a few questions.

1. Now that you have put on a few miles, how do you still like it? Is the ride still really nice as you stated when first installed? Has this kit created any added noise, vibrations, creaks etc?
2. Have you got this out to a track or AX? That is what I will be doing with my car. I am going to do the first one in stock format to gain a baseline. I assume my first upgrade will be this suspension and then new wheels/tires for track purposes.

Thanks

 

I honestly haven't measured the camber range of the eccentric, but it'll allow for most rational camber angles at reasonable ride heights (stock to perhaps 1.5" lower). There is no "ideal" alignment, just whatever either gives you good driver confidence, low lap times, or even tire wear. I'm currently running about -2 deg, which is more than most need, but my tire wear seems even so far. Slower pace in the corners would need less camber.

I'm super glad you guys are enjoying it! You're welcome.



I still love the JCW Pro coilovers. I still firmly believe they should've been installed at the factory on the JCW. NVH is unchanged, which is expected given the rubber insulated springs and the OEM mounting hats.

I haven't tracked my MINI because I have another dedicated track car for that. The JCW is my DD. That said, I attended the Miles Ahead school with their '15 JCW's, and I've definitely put my car through its paces on twisty back roads and reference on-ramps. I was able to gain a solid 3 MPH on my reference on-ramp with the same tires and pressures, stock to JCW Pro. That's a tangible improvement in matching tire grip to spring rate and possibly the slight CoG improvement. The steady state cornering speed is right there with where my Lotus Elise (2005 with LSS) was.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

looks very close to the height on the prototype mule car.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...th-prices.html

 

Here's a picture of mine with the KW v1 coilovers installed, which are more or less the same as the JCW Pro coilovers to my knowledge. I told the shop installing them just to drop it about halfway down, and it rides no harsher than the sport suspension in my opinion.

 

My tech noted that the JCW Pro appeared to be identical to the KW v1s he's installed. Mine sits about like yours. I'm going to drive it around for a couple more days, and then they told me to bring it back in to check and make sure the alignment and everything is spot on. I found the ride to be fine.

 

I'm toying with the idea of using the ss springs on my VDC setup to stiffen things up a bit

Any thoughts if this idea has any legs,

Their must be a bucket load of old ss floating around ?

 

Sport suspension springs ?

 

That's my thinking

 

Worth a try, wonder if the suspension would be just a bit tighter. I but sport suspension on my non sport Cooper , and i could feel the change in ride and response.