I'm curious about heat-soak with the factory intercooler. Anyone?

 

I'm curious about what suspension will work best. I have sport but have not bought the coilovers yet. I passed on the JCW stuff because of the labor cost involved. I would like to lower car which may require installing the coilovers, unless there is a low profile 225/235 tire that would fit and lower the car over stock. Plan to run everything else factory spec, except for installation of harness bar and 5pt belts.

 

soon very soon!

 

We just got our JCW and I am not happy with the suspension...I do not like the body roll for one. I may not have noticed it but all our cars have coil overs and we have zero body roll and it really makes the diffrence (to me) in judging the limits of the car. The suspension on our JCW does not seem like anything special to me. I will give a suspension review after we install the new coil overs this week.

 

I assume you got the stock JCW suspension and then installed the coil-overs? I was planning to install either the JCW coil-overs, or the Bilsteins that a lot of the guys have. Both should lower the car and minimize body roll...it did on the MCS I tested. I probably will go with the JCW coil-overs as then I can stay in a stock class without problems (per our club rules).

 

The factory JCW car should come standard with the JCW suspension. Otherwise, the car is compromised from a performance standpoint.

 

I only track one or two weekends a year, but I use my JCW as a daily driver and for 5000+ miles of road trips a year. I have the standard factory suspension and don't really want something stiffer, even if it means being a little slower at the track.

 

Noone was able to answer a question I posted a few months ago where I asked "what's the best damper valving for the MINI... linear, progressive or digressive". I'd still love to know if anyone's done experimentation as my buddy who make my kit for my C43/55 did when he settled on digressive/digressive valving for the Penske 8100s.

 

It is; I'll agree. But the flip side of that is some of us will want Cross, or KW Stage II or III. So the money we had to put in to get the JCW Suspension from the factory will be money wasted if we can't sell it on the 2nd-ary market to someone w/a stock R56(S) for close to what we paid for it in the up-charge... I think it's the single most "replaceable" performance upgraded item out of all the upgraded components we got with the JCW; for that reason I'm glad we didn't have to get it as I'd likely want to upgrade it from that level.

 

Suspension won't help a darn if the driver is doesn't know how to use it!
my .02

Back before I got into this r56 mcs jcw, I had an '05 r50 with a bunch of power mods and a sway bar and HR's... and I passed '06 factory jcw car and other S's at bmw cca event at mid ohio and putnam park. He was a great driver. but,
well.
hope you get my drift !! (no suspension pun intended )

 

sometimes, the right driver with the "wrong"* suspension can be quicker than the "wrong" driver with the *"right" suspension.

If I had the money, mm, might go JCW or some cross coil overs, but for right now I have the normal stock suspension and am going with springs and a sway bar...

 

Just an update......i went to the track and this car is a HOOT! The intercooler could be more efficient but did not suffer from soak as my Audi's have before. Overall, she did very well once I adjusted the tire pressures to get her to rotate a little easier. the Run Flat's have to go though, soon.

 

thanx for sharing. What pressure front & back did you settle on?

 

36/42..allowed me to stick it into the corners and use throttle-lift oversteer to keep up with the bimmers. they were not pleased