I have a 09 JCW with sport suspension. Im considering changing the suspension to the JCW full strut/ coil suspension. Has anyone done this and if so what is the comparision. IE: ride, handling and height difference. The kit comes with the JCW sway bars as well from Morristown. They say it lowers the car 1/2" or so. ?????

thanks in advance
ed

 

There aren't too many folks out there who spend the $$ on the JCW suspension namely because you can get a nice set of aftermarket adjustable coilovers for the same price and be able to adjust the ride height and dampening.

 

Thanks OXY
any comparisons/ comments re: Cross coil overs?

 

if you are looking at cross coilovers save yourself 1000+ dollars and buy bc racing coilovers,same coilover design and better quality and less money.

 

There are PLENTY of people that go with the JCW suspension. I am one of them. I was new to modding cars and do not really know that much about suspensions. So going the JCW route was a safe, easy and warrantied way of changing the stock suspension.

To the OP. I did it last year after driving my JCW with the sport suspension for about 2 months. The car corners better and handles better. The ride is harsher with the run flat tires (hey, its subjective and this car is not a Caddy or a Lincoln...right??) But since I got rid of the run flats the ride is still firm but is definitely bearable/livable as a daily driver.

Last month I replaced the JCW 18.5mm rear sway bar with the H-Sport 25mm comp bar which is hollow so it compares to a 22mm bar that is solid. Now the car corners even better than before.

If I had to do it over, I would go the aftermarket route and get NM or TSW springs with an undecided manufacture for shocks perhaps Koni.

Check out the NM Engineering site. I like their customer service and products. http://www.nm-eng.com/

Read through the posts on NAM. There are tons of discussions on this very subject.

 

No offense but BC Racing builds trash. There is no such thing as a quality "budget" coilover.

 

This is true.

 

Bc makes coilovers for many companys HKS,APEXI,MEGAN( maybe Cross ) and many more.

Cross looks just like a BC

BC has better Dampers than Cross

BC is also 1300 dollars less than Cross

 

None of those are brands I would put on a car I owned and certainly not on something I tracked. Any shock dynos I've seen of them were absolute trash.

 

I think Bc is a good product for the price.

would I install Bc on my GT3 ,NO.

 

The sport suspension isn't much of an upgrade (1mm thicker sway bars front and rear, which sort of cancel each other out btw). I think you'll notice the JCW suspension right away. But a lot of people go aftermarket. There's suspension thread down lower, you might want to go there with questions about aftermarket. All I did was a 19mm rear sway bar and I noticed it right away (less understeer). The thicker you go the more prone the car is to swapping ends in a corner, so watch that depending your skills. The sport suspension you have doesn't lower the car. The JCW only lowers it about 1/2", and many aftermarket springs lower it about an inch. Some people like that, some run into problems bottoming out, so be aware of that. If you only lower it a little you probably won't have alignment issues and possible need camber plates, but if you lower it a lot you could run into those problems. I'm not a big expert, I just read a lot.

 

I personally went with H&R RSS Coilovers. I was going to get JCW suspension but the tiny wheel gap was the reason I didn't.

If you are planning to spend that kinda money on JCW suspension... there is so so so many options for that kinda price range.

 

another reason for going with the jcw suspension is for those trying to stay in the stock class for auto-x

 

If this is the intention, I think one would be better off getting the JCW springs (since springs have to stay stock) and Koni yellows, that way you have adjustability in your shocks.

 

the konis are better than the jcw's?

 

That depends upon your definition of "better" and your intended goals. For autocross, definitely. They're adjustable which allows your to tailor your setup for differing surfaces and they're generally better damped than the JCW suspension.

Depending upon how you set them up, the ride could be harsher on the street with the Koni's although I can't say for certain because I've never ridden in a car with either of them. Personally, I went from my factory suspension to TC Kline d/a coilovers, which are based on Koni shocks (not yellows), and the difference was night and day.

 

Is that the suspension base Minis in HS tend to go with as well? I've been looking into Minis these days after taking a close look at my wallet...

 

My 09 JCW is set up for Stock class autocross and I have the factory sport (red) springs and Koni Yellows. On full soft or close to full soft I could hardy tell the difference from the standard shocks. If anything, I felt the ride quality may have been slightly better with the Koni's.

Koni yellows imo really are the best bang for the buck shocks that can be used dual purpose. Full stiff on a Yellow is pretty damn stiff and works well for autocross. The only annoying thing is that the rears have to be pulled in order to adjust them

 

I do believe most HS minis run Koni's with the stiffest stock springs they're allowed. The justa is very competitive in HS, it might be worth checking out sccaforums.com if you have more specific questions.