I installed the Alta 22 mm rear bar this weekend on my MCS. I can't believe how much flatter it corners and how much more enjoyable the car is. Lets face it, we love the car for its handling. This one thing greatly improves the cornering. I put it on a par with the pulley mod in terms of impact on driving. There's really no downside. It was pretty straight forward as installs go. Just don't let the car drop on you.

 

I'm happy to hear you enjoy the new bar! :smile:

 

Steve S,

I've got the same bar due to arrive this week from Randy and to be installed soon after. Glad to hear your positive review !

Which of the three mounting holes did you use for your initial install?

Steve

 

My bar was Alta which has 2 holes. I used softer (outer) setting. I'd rather have a little understeer on the street than have oversteer which I can't catch in time. Also, I'm planning on going to an autocross driving school this weekend and thought I'd see how the softer setup works before going hardcore. My 89 Mustang used to plow like a pig during autocross until I learned to go into turns slow and power out. Then it wasn't bad. A fast driver took me out in his and I couldn't believe how fast that pig could go with stock suspension. I trust the MINI will be a revelation. I'm going to find out how to drive this MINI without putting the car or someone else at risk.

The H-sport I think has 3 holes. I didn't get it because I wanted the stealth/black look. I don't want the multicolored suspension, though I wouldn't mind the red painted calipers (my car is red/white)

 

I just received my 22mm Alta sway bar today and I'm stoked about dropping it in. Did you have any touble installing it? I also bought the rear end links to go with the sway bar.

 

Biggest problem is how to jack up the car. There is no how to. Researching afterwards I found this picture below which cleared the air somewhat.

Starting out I was in quandry about how to jack up the car. I had 3 stands and a cheapo jack. I wanted to rotate tires front to back so just driving car up onto rhinoramps for the front end to be up would not work. (By the way, Rhino Ramps are really terriffic.) Plus did not know where else to jack car other than the plastic blocks which factory jack fits into. Ultimately lifted one side at plastic factory block behind front tires to rotate tires, then lowered car onto jack stand at back and rhino ramp at front. Did other side, and left jack under front block and jack stand under rear block.
Unbolting everything was straightforward except on passenger side I started out by tightening the lower strut bolt. Damn thing was on Hard!. Finally figured out I was cranking on it the wrong way. (Duh!).

Randy's instructions were slightly unclear as to subframe bolts. Alta's cleared air somewhat. The issue is the second subframe bolt. You see it here, at left side of picture.

I had thought that the two bolts were next to each other, looking at the how-to.

After unbolting as instructions show, I only needed a little help from my son who helped guide the bar thru. One side of the rear subframe only had to be pried about an inch or so, using wood handle of a hammer to get the old bar out and new bar in. I was slowed at the end because I tightened up the rear subframe before I tightened the sway bar mount bolts. That forced me to use open ended wrench instead of socket wrench, which makes the job slower.
One thing I did was put a big gob of synthetic (amsoil) grease in the sway bar bushings before tightening them up, cause I didn't think the little tube supplied was enough. The most important thing I did was not let the car fall on me!

Good luck, be safe.

 

Sorry, put pictures in wrong order.

 

>>Biggest problem is how to jack up the car. There is no how to. Researching afterwards I found this picture below which cleared the air somewhat.

So, how long did it take you afterall? I'm waiting for my H-sport bar from Randy. I've been thinking if I should try installing it myself, or take it to a local shop and let them sweat it. I've got an autocross race this sunday, so I'm looking forward to the "real testing."

cheers,

kazu.

 

Sorry I didn't see your response before Sunday. Hope you found out it was not over 2 hrs to install, even if you're "mechanically challenged".

I attended an "autocross School" this weekend, was terriffic fun. Saturday we practiced on 4 setups. A skidpad, a chicane, a slalom (4 - 5 cones in sequence with turnaround at end, and a mini course. Sunday we ran a 65 - 80 sec. course. Probably got in 15 runs. Terriffic fun. Randy recommended the 16" runflats at 36 lbs. front, 37 lbs. rear. I set them at this Fri. Evening and didn't check all weekend. They rolled the outside edge of fronts just a little. I was pleased with the fairly even wear, even though I still plowed a lot. The plowing had more to do withstyle of driving than car setup. If you overcook the turn or early apex or don't get set up for late apex correctly, you're likely to get into an understeer situation, which I did some of. It was a real kick.

The car has more than enough power. Those who have written that the best improvement you can make is driver training are correct. I was pleased to get within a half a second of my instructor's time. I was very pleased with this mod. I was thinking - Must do camber plates. Now I don't think so, so long as I keep the hard rubber. With softer, more sticky rubber, I thinkthe car would lean more and the outer edge of the tire would wear out too fast.

 

>>I attended an "autocross School" this weekend, was terriffic fun. Sunday we ran a 65 - 80 sec. course. Probably got in 15 runs. Terriffic fun.

I'm British Racing "green" with envy. We finished our season here in SLC and won't be able to autox till March.

Anyhow, I'm also getting H-sport bar + Springs from Randy. Will post the pictures after the installation.

kazu.

 

>>I installed the Alta 22 mm rear bar this weekend on my MCS. I can't believe how much flatter it corners and how much more enjoyable the car is. Lets face it, we love the car for its handling. This one thing greatly improves the cornering. I put it on a par with the pulley mod in terms of impact on driving. There's really no downside. It was pretty straight forward as installs go. Just don't let the car drop on you.

How about a front bar?? It seems like such a radical change to the rear only would really change the cars handling. We installed H&R front & rear bar set on both of our Cooper "S"'s the improvement was unbelievable. I'm not even sure what such a large bar only in the rear would feel like?

Your right about the pulley, our blue car is running a 19% overdrive pulley. The difference is like night & day!

 

I had too much understeer, hence the rear bar. I think the theory is that you stiffen the rear so rear tires are loaded more. I think loading front tires more, as stiffer front bar would do, might lessen the reduction in understeer. Someone who has gone from rear bar only to rear and front bar only (no spring changes) would have to comment. It would probably help put power down by keeping front tires flatter on the ground, but I really don't have that problem on the autocross track, at least at my skill level. Maybe when I get stickier tires and car tilts more, the front bar may be more useful.

 

HMMM, I think I may go get this as well now...

 

>>HMMM, I think I may go get this as well now...


It's not unusual for the front bar of a front-wheel drive car to actually be properly sized for performance driving. This is because an undersized rear bar induces understeer, which is much better for Joe Sixpack and Mary Housecoat to deal with. The Corvair was assualted because it had an oversteer tendency that resulted in people driving backend first. If you put too much rear bar on a car, you'll end up having to perform the rear fog mod just to see where you're going. The objective with the bars is to balance the car, getting the rear to remain as flat as the front, and vice versa. If a manufacturer only reccommends installation of their rear bar with their front bar, they probably created their rear bar too stiff.

Note that it is possible to have the balanced but still have too much bar. Since the bar links the motion of the one side to the moton on the other, independent motion suffers as the bar will offer resistive forces. If the bar is too big, these forces begin to counter the springs and not allow them to do their job. Only consider getting a front bar if you're going to substantially increase your spring rates.

 

I was trying to follow one of Ryephile's postings on sway bar setups recently, and found this fairly straightforeward discussion about how sway bars work.