Hello all, I have finally narrowed down my decision on coil-overs. I have chosen to go with either the TSW AST Sportline 1 or one of the Koni kits that outmotoring supplies. The Konis that I have narrowed it down to is; http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...ooper_coilover
http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...coilovers.html

All of these kits are about even in my thought. I like the ASTs a little better because of the rear adjustment cable instead of having to remove the strut. Other than that I am indecisive on which kit is the best of these three. I know Gnatster is running the ASTs. So, anyone that is running the ASTs or either of the Konis that I have given a link to please give me your opinion on their ride, quality, adjustment and over all happiness of the product. And if anyone has the spring rates of the two Konis please post those as well, I have been unable to find these.

Here is a link for the ASTs that I am talking about;
http://www.txwerks.com/servlet/Detail?no=116

And if anyone wants to upload pics of their car running on the setup please do, I have seen some of gnatsters pics in the TSW thread, but none of the Konis that I can remeber.

Thank you all for helping.

 

I have the Koni coil-overs and have been pleased with them. They have been reliable, offer a firmer ride than stock and adjusting the shocks has clear affect on the ride. The adjustment of the rear shocks is a con, especially for those who like to change the setting often (autox and such). I got a killer deal on my set (less than $800) and don't need to adjust the setting, but if I was doing this again and looked at spending over $1200 I would try the AST because of the adjustability and the more predictable linear springs... btw the Koni's start with a 1" drop, I'm probably running mine at over 1.5" drop... anyway, just my 2 cents (and a pic of my car)

 

Thanks for the input and the pic. It is much appreciated.
I also just was informed about the Cross suspension and will look into those as well. I think that I am leaning towards the AST, or the Cross if I find that I like them. I really like the rear adjustment option of the AST's and the only thing that I know about the Cross's right now is that they come with camber plates.

 

Well, I have started finding information on the Cross coil-over systems. And man I like what I see so far...except the price. I have realized how ever that if I buy the AST's then, most likely I will purchase camber plates which will make the final cost very close to the cost of the Cross's. So I think I might be looking more towards an option that I originally did not start with, nor thought of. I would still love to hear from everyone about their Koni, AST, and now Cross coil-overs. I am not set yet on what to buy, and I still have to save the money for them, so any input is still very much appreciated and will be taken into consideration.
Thanks, Chris.

 

Nobody else have any experience with any of these?

 

when I looked into this there were very few cars with the Koni coil-overs. And the AST is pretty new...

 

Hey thanks for another reply. I knew that Koni is not used as much with in our community, but I knew that Koni is Koni, and it kind of speaks for itself. The AST's are pretty new to my knowledge as well, but intrigued my options. I think I might be saving up for the Cross coil-overs now, since I also realized the cost of camber plates would almost equal out to the cost of the Cross's. If you have any more info on them I would appreciate that as well.

And your minis set-up looks great. Nice slammed look.

 

I went with the Koni Sport Kit, not the full coil-over system that you linked too, but as for the quality and improved performance, they are fantastic.

30mm drop with the sport kit, though i lost some of that drop because i added the Helix camber plates at the same time.

As you said, Koni is Koni.... they've been doing suspensions as long as just about anyone, and I think it shows in the product. The ride is somewhat stiffer, but nothing horrible or uncomfortable. I'm currently running it with the adjusters set in the middle of the 2-turn adjustment the sport kit has on the struts. Will get a chance to play with it some more come the first auto-x in a couple weeks

I couldn't pass up the deal at $599 that Mini Works was running, and since I'm local, an easy install.

 

I think it totally depends on your end goal - if you want to slam the car, the AST's are not as good an option as the CROSS coilovers (or others), IMHO. The design of the CROSS system allows you to drop the car and somewhat maintain the same suspension travel. I'm not sure how the others out there work in this respect, but people have also been able to achieve fairly low ride heights with PSS9's and m7's, too...

The AST's are designed for a mild to moderate drop and excellent track performance, lap after lap... We've found that lower is not better in the case of the Ledas or AST's, as a function of handling dynamics, body length, stroke, and lap times. We've toyed with ride heights quite a bit, and have found that with a 1-1.5" drop, the laptimes were signficantly better than either stock ride height or anything greater than 1.5" of drop with the Ledas and AST's. And by significant, we're talking 0.5-1 seconds faster a lap, which is well beyond the bounds of statistical error. They both most definitely have a sweet spot!

AST is not a new company by any means, but they are relatively new to the MINI and BMW market here in the States. As I've stated in other posts, we're extremely pleased with their quality and maintainability - a site visit by our partners confirmed this, where race sets were coming back after years of punishment on EU tracks (instead of 1-2 times a year or more). The internals still looked new after years of punishment.

So again - it depends on your goal. Honestly, if you're after asthetics I don't recommend the AST setup as it will not serve your purposes as well as other products out there (say what?!? - we're just being honest). If you're after all out performance, though, that's where we're focused squarely (not to discount other offerings on the basis of performance, mind you, but we're aimed 100% solely at suspension performance, asthetics be darned!).

 

I am after the best performance I can get. I like it when people pull-off great looking slammed cars, but I like it to be functional more than non. So- txwerks, how would you compare the AST's to the Cross's performance wise? Because I think although Koni is great I am between the Cross and AST set up.

 

I cannot comment on the CROSS coilovers, as I have only seen them and haven't been on them at the track. Don (DMH Motorsports) might have better insight, as he has worked with both, although he's worked with the AST factory Sportlines (ours have different rates and springs).