Has anyone replaced the factory coilovers on their GP2, or perhaps considering doing so? If so, I'd be interested in buying your OEM GP2 suspension. Have a little project in mind

Edit: No longer looking, have moved on to a different car.

 

Some people have ran it and really like it. This is what the full kit looks like.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...n-install.html





Good luck on the search.

 

You might want to think twice about installing the GP2 Bilstiens on your car because they seem to fail easily. I've had the fronts replaced twice under warranty by 35,000 miles. I'm starting to look for something more robust now that I've passed the service warranty on wear items.

 

Agreed. Plus it won't work as I had planned (in an R55) due to differences in spring rates.

 

Wow twice in 35k miles?! How did you know they had failed BTW? Just based off feel or during service/maintenance at the dealer?

Any other GP2 owners experienced suspension failure like this?

 

Failure was evident by sound. The front struts started to sound kind of clunky. Initial diagnosis was that maybe the top mount had become loose. Further inspection and strut removal revealed lateral play in the strut.

Cause? Potholes/rough pavement? Design/construction flaw? No clear answer yet.

 

I recently listened to a podcast interview with Matt Davis about shocks and suspension setup. Look for Autocross Talk March 23. Matt used to work for Bilstein.

He mentioned one thing that could be a factor in some of the GP2 front strut failures that we've been hearing about. (Paraphrasing a bit) He said that often struts are mounted upside down because they are stronger that way and can resist braking loads better.

Hmmmmm, I thought. The GP2, with it's six pot Brembo brakes generates much greater braking loads on the front struts than your typical MINI, especially when driven on a track. Looks like a connection to me.

If this is the case, it might mean that the engineers who selected the components didn't do a thorough enough job of calculating the stresses and specifying the right parts. Thoughts?

 

why would you want it to resist braking loads, the key to getting these mini's to turn is to get the weight on the front wheels via braking and then trail braking to the apex

 

Sorry for the confusion. Maybe what I should have said it differently. Under braking loads, the front struts are asked to transfer some of that load to the chassis. If I understand it correctly, this puts some amount of bending stress on the struts. If so, I am speculating that the bigger GP brakes put more bending load on the struts than they can handle.

 

size of brakes does not matter at all

The tires and pad type matters as that is what creates the torque, if you have slicks and hawk dtc-60's you have a LOT of braking power. If you are on street tires you have very little, the ABS will assist you quickly

 

My fronts went out at 18K. Dealer replaced under warranty.