Hurry

 

That is the biggest complaint people have with "drive by wire" throttle systems all the cars are going to now. And supercharged/turbocharged MINIs are some of the worst offenders. That is why people love how good these work. It doesn't look like they have one for the R60 yet. I'd imagine that our "sport" button changes the drive by wire map so that may be an issue in developing one for the R60. If they come out with one then I'll probably try it. FYI, if you're planning on getting an aftermarket tune then don't get a Sprint Booster because they both adjust the drive by wire similarly, and if you do both it will be "over-adjusted" for lack of a better term, and it won't work correctly.

It's going to look good lowered. And I think your car would look killer if you had the plastic fender arches painted white to match the car... like the white car below with black wheels. If you post a good daylight photo of your car maybe some who is good with Photoshop can make the arches white and post the photo.

White fender arches photo... http://www.flickr.com/photos/duell_a...in/photostream

 

Thanks, Greg. Yeah, I was considering the SprintBooster until I decided to go for a tune, which should take care of the problem, as you say. Though, I do think a fair bit of R60 owners have SprintBoosters and use them without incident.

Funny you mention the white fenders. I am getting the headlight and tail light rings "whited out" to match the body color. (I am blacking out the belt line and grille surround.) I was thinking about whiting out the scuttle to match the body color. Had not considered going with white fenders, too, but that could be tight. I would definitely need to see a photoshopped pic first, though.

 

Do they use the one that fits the other MINIs, because they don't show one fitting the R60 on their website? I guess I'll have to take a look in the engine section of NAM.

 

The regular sprint booster will fit the R60... I have it on mine and I really don't see the point. If you want to go faster just push the pedal down farther. My dad wanted to get it and afterwards he realizes that all it does is make it really easy to fry the clutch around town. If you want to get better throttle response with more power, get a tune.

Just my 2 cents

Kyle

 

Those Oz Superturismos are

 

Anyone know if this car is just lowered on springs??

 

I'm sure it is and looks super awesome.

 

The stock shocks would barely have any travel if you lowered it that much with just springs, you'd practically be riding on the bump stops. Most likely it's their coilovers.

 

KW V3's are the only coilovers offered for the Countryman in the US correct? Anyone know if any other companies like H&R are going to make them?

 

Not for now WantAvant. Im going to probably buy those KW's here shortly. Ill do a writeup soon.

 

Awesome! Then you can give us a comparative analysis of the NM Springs and KW Coils!

 

Well the KW's are shipping.. After doing a lot of research online and calling KW, these are going to be amazing.. One thing to note, These 2 applications are very very different. One is meant for real world daily driving, and the other is meant for track/spirited driving.

This is what I wrote up for another member:

KW drop amount: How low can you go? One thing to note.. No matter what you do, you can't get super low due to the design of the vehicle. The NM springs go 1.6 realistically they are a 1.8 and 2.0 on my car. Looking under, I have 2" +/- of wheel travel due to the space inside the wheel well. Buying the KW's will not allow you to go lower due to wheel well space. So I guess decide on your tire and wheel size then go from there.. I bet if you go to 17's with 30's series tires you can get really low, but do you want to go that route?

Realism of KW coil overs: Well it depends on what your after. Are you going to auto cross this or are you going to daily drive? One thing to note, the shocks are cheap at $2k+ its the cost of adjustments to the rebound, responsive rate, etc.. that will get super pricey to pay someone to film, adjust, and see again. Also the setup for spirited driving is going to be different than daily driving. My suggestion is that you just go with a coil setup for your 90% driving experience. HR and NM make good springs. Eibach makes good ones as well, but according to them they will not build any till there is more demand. I think you can buy these kw's and be somewhat satisfied, but if not, it will not be due to the "factory" setting but more in the fine tuning of each shock and the weight of the corner of the vehicle.

I have built full blown race cars for both on/offroad.. Getting things finely tuned is an expensive setup. KW cannot cross platform all drivers and driving styles. They come from the factory as a good middle ground, but if your planning on buying these for the sake of daily driving, they are over kill. Meaning this, I don't think you will know the real difference between getting a set of good coils and mini/bmw struts and the KW's.. Now for fine tuning you can't get anything on the market right now other than KW's.

Just make sure you list out what you want and buy accordingly. If your expecting that $2k+ shocks to fix just the harshness of your ride is going to solve your problem, plan on spending another $1k with someone that will fine tune your suspension based on how you drive and your intentions for your mini

These are only my opinions based off 60 years of family history of racing cars and off road race trucks. My last build was a $1.5 million trophy truck: Shocks on this mother is $4k ea and you need 8 shocks total. To get them tuned like you are floating on air going over 3-4 ft ruts costs us $10k.. Glad I was apart of a race team, but you get the point..

For my last on road car: It was a stillen race car.. The shocks again on this were 8 shocks totaling $20k.. all KW, to fine tune= $8k

Btw, All fine tuned shocks for your application makes the world of difference: Great handling = Poor ride quality and vice versa

My 2 Cents of course.

 

Thanks for the in-depth reply, frstrtdmac. Based on what you and MotoGreg said, I pulled the trigger on the NM Springs. You're right that coil overs would be overkill for a daily driver. I may someday slap on some Koni Yellows if they ever come out with them, but I don't like the idea of having to tune the suspension. It was hard enough for me to do on a mountain bike back when I used to race. I don't need the headache with my car!

 

So now that work has calmed down a bit, I thought I would get around to posting up some more pictures of the wheels.

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to do them justice, as they have proven EXTREMELY hard to photograph. Through trial and error, it seems my best bet is to photograph them at a severe angle, otherwise you lose the detail. I tried to do it at different times of day to see if the lighting made a difference. It was tough!

As far as ride impressions, I don't notice the sluggishness at all any more, so I have definitely gotten used to it. To me, this just confirms that it was very, very subtle; otherwise, it would still probably be bugging the you-know-what out of me.

The tires are so much better than the run flats, it's ridiculous. They are much quieter, smoother, and grip very, very well. I am noticing a lot more "road dust" on the lower part of the front doors near the front wheel wells. I don't know if this is because the tires are "shedding" a bit more rubber particles, or if I am getting more road dust because they stick out of the fenders a bit. I'm wondering if it might be time to invest in some mud flaps?

Otherwise, I am very satisfied with the tires. I get a lot of compliments on the wheels, too, though I'll admit that I am still not 100% sold on them. Probably like 99%.

One thing is for sure: I need to ditch the Beyern center cap and go with something darker. I don't like the blue and white checker on there.

In any event, I can't wait to get the NM springs and lower it.

 

One more pic to get the reverse angle.

 

Hujan,

Do you mind posting a pic from the back to front and/or front to back to I can see how much the wheel/tire is pushed out of the fender?

 

Is the third photo in this post what you're looking for?

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...53-post93.html

 

Something I've noticed since getting the new wheels and tires is a whole lot of extra road crud on the front doors near the wheel wells. You can see it pretty clearly in the pic.

I never really noticed much of this before, but now it is quite significant. The best I can guess is that it is because the tires are wider and sticking out a bit more, so they are throwing road dust, dirt, mud, etc. up on the door.

This is making me think I might need to slap on some mud flaps. I'm not sure how I feel about that, as I really trying to get away from the "rugged SUV" look and go more towards the sporty look. I am afraid the mud flaps might spoil that.

In addition, I was actually thinking about adding on most or all of the JCW body kit. From other posts (for example, this thread) it looks like the JCW body kit and mud flaps don't mix.

Anyone have any thoughts? Any chance this is just some goop they put on new tires that will soon pass?

 

Ya, You'll get more spray from the road due to wider tires and a bigger offset. Comes with the territory.

 

Too bad. Guess mudflaps are in my future. Now I need to find out if they will fit with the JCW body kit, perhaps with some modifications?

 

My car came with mud flaps behind the front wheels...no problems for me with that!

Still can't make up my mind, but I'm now thinking to go with the NM RSe14's again. I'm trying so hard to stick with an 18" wheel, but other than the TSW Nurburgring, I'm not liking how the Beyern looks on the car ( might be because I don't like how it looks in black though). I also dont like how much they are sticking outof the fender. Im looking for a flush look. The Interlagos won't look much different. I'm also looking for the strongest and lightest wheel I can find. Trying to stick with a wheel that has a forging process in the production of the wheel. You really don't know how bad the roads in NY are, it's really ridiculous. Most bumps I hit, the rear suspension is hitting the bump stop almost every time, it's real annoying. I'm leaning more towards an anthracite wheel over a black faced wheel. Lastly, I just hit 1000 miles on my car and decided that I really hate the stock Pirelli P7 tires that came on my 17" stock wheels. Sloppy handling tire, IMO. I gotta get me some wheels already!

Oh, and FWIW, TSW's wheel fitment guide is now fully operational.

 

I think the NM RSe14 wheels are a good choice. I like the Bavarias, but occasionally wonder if I wouldn't have liked the NM RSe14s better. I personally think the R60 looks better with wheels that have more spokes in them, whether a multi-spoke wheel like the OZ wheels, a mesh-type wheel like the NM RSe14, or particularly "thick" spokes on a 10-spoke wheel like MotoGreg and KConner's Elbrus wheels.

The black doesn't bother me, though; black wheels (or dark anthracite) were a must for me with the white body and black roof.

I'm thinking (hoping) that I'll like things more when I lower the car. My NM springs arrived today and the SPC lower control arms are on their way. Now I just gotta find a place to install them . . .

 

Shoof, the NM wheels are also my favorite on the CM...plan to order them in gunmetal when I switch the 18" turbofans that came with our car to winter tires. (I'll use the NM's 3 seasons a year with summer tires). I've been contemplating for 6 months what aftermarket wheels to buy (all the way back to before we ordered the car in early April), and when I first saw Flyer 53's photos of his NM gunmetal wheels I fell in love with them. I've looked far and wide, but I have yet to see any other wheels that I think look as good on the CM. Flyer lives in Fairfield County (and I live in North Jersey) so both of us have similar road damage issues as you do. Flyer has 235 40 non RFT tires on his and has had no wheel damage issues. I've thought about buying 245 40's non RFT's as JohnJohn did (to get more sidewall to protect the rims, and I like how the larger tires fill up the wheel wells) but I'm a bit concerned about the rubbing he reported.

 

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence! I got my Hyundai a year ago this week and put the wheels on the first week. After a year with them I've found myself looking at machined finish wheels (my wheels are grey). Don't laugh, but I've been thinking of keeping my wheels on side of the car and running something completely different looking (but same size and offset) on the other side. Two cars in one.

I was in the same boat with our R60. We drove it home from the dealer and instantly put the wheels/tires on that I had ordered earlier. I wasn't really feeling it. The low profile tires made it look goofy with the big fender gap and the wheels also stuck out a bit. For a few weeks I was second guessing myself, but once I lowered it then it was a whole new car. It looked drastically better and when the wheels moved up (lowered car) they also moved inward a bit so they don't stick out. Just wait, it will look so much better lowered.

If you get into a bind, and can't find a reputable place that you trust without spending an arm and a leg, then I'll do it for you for $100. I'm on a two year break from work to enjoy life (mid-life crisis I guess) so I can't align it for you, but I can put on the springs and arms at home.

I have the same size tire, 245/40/19 and I have wider wheels than his so mine are even closer to the plastic fender arches. I have to tell you, rubbing isn't really an issue at all. Sometimes things get blown out of proportion on message boards.