I've just sold my 2003 Cooper S and am getting an '06 JCW MCS and wanted to get input from people in the DC area about the JCW Suspension Kit.

I've done a lot of reading about it both here and on MINI2, and almost everything seems positive...a good mix of increased handling without being overly harsh. So I'm pretty much sold, but I just wanted to get input from any owners that have actually driven on DC area roads and in our snow.

Does the car with run flats (I'm not comfortable having my wife use the car regularly with no spare and no run flats) become overly harsh on city streets (I live in town)? I'm used to an '03 S, so I don't need it particularly cushy, but this is primarily a street car and not for the track.

Also, how does the car handle snow with this suspension? I'll be using snow tires on smaller wheels, but does the lowering cause issues with clearance? The '03 is fantastic in snow with Blizzaks, but I gather this rides a little lower. I won't have the aero kit, so the only lowering vs. a stock S would be from the suspension.

Thanks for the help,
Ware

 

I have an 05 JCW MCS with the JCW suspension, and no aero kit, just like you are considering.

I love it. Drives great, handles great, no problems with clearance (it's a VERY small drop), and the car did wonderfully in the snow, also using snow tires (not Blizzaks though). Don't even think twice about it, the JCW suspension is an excellent setup for a "street-driven" MCS, DC included!

Incidentally, on a side note, I don't think Blizzaks are a good match for DC, we don't get enough snow here, and Blizzaks are not good on dry pavement, plus they wear out too fast. I chose the Pirelli Winter 240 SnowSports, simply because they are FAR superior to Blizzaks on dry pavement, and they don't wear out so darn fast. They are almost as good as Blizzaks in the snow... close enough that for DC use, they make more sense. They are available in both runflat and regular... I chose runflat.

Incidentally, are you getting the factory-installed JCW? If you are, be aware that you won't really be able to use smaller wheels, because the JCW brakes require larger wheels. There are only a very selective few 16" wheels that will properly clear the JCW front brakes... although ALL of the 17" OEM wheels will clear them without a problem.

Even though "smaller and narrower is better" for snow use, again, for DC purposes, it won't matter enough since we don't drive in snow every day. I ended up putting the aforementioned Pirelli SnowSports on standard heavy 17" S-lites for my winter use. Snow tire size was the same as factory - 205/45R17. Worked wonderfully, I was driving in the left lane of the beltway in the middle of that last heavy snowstorm (the one on Saturday night). The car didn't even twitch!

 

Thanks for the first hand account. That seems to be the consensus.

In general I agree with you, and after having Blizzaks as my first snow tires I got the Pirellis as my next set a few years ago (can't recall the exact model) for your reasons. However, my garage opens to an alley that doesn't get plowed and is relatively skinny. It collects a lot of snow and represents the toughest part of my drive...just getting out to the street. Once there the Pirellis were fine, but getting there was a bit of an adventure...they just didn't have enough heavy snow ability.

That's what I had read. Since I was going to get spare wheels anyway, I figured I'd at least get 16s. However, after reading here that the Tire Rack has the JCW brake kit in their system for sizing replacement wheels I checked them out. Their site claims that a few 15" wheels will fit which seemed tough to believe. I called to confirm, and they swear by it. They pointed out that it was a small subset of race wheels that had a lot of room for brakes and would fit. I'm still pretty skeptical, but the Tire Rack has always been great in my experience, and they did post here specifically that they had test fitted a JCW kit with the larger brakes.

Thanks a lot for the help,
Ware

 

They certainly were of ZERO use this year! Mine went on in Dec and will come off as soon as I can get out the pressure washer to clean the wheel wells of the winter's grime (like this weekend). The one big snow of the year melted off by the next day.

The Blizzaks tend to cause me a tad of understeer, so I move the rear sway bar one adjustment notch when they go on. But they do pretty well in the dry if I run the pressure up to ~35 PSI.