Hi Everyone,

I've got an '07 MCS and I'm looking at doing something to the suspension. My main desire is to lower the car about 1" to get rid of the SUV ride height. Overall I'm pretty happy with the ride and handling. I do plan on adding a rear swaybar regardless of which option I go with.

Because the R56's have been out for less then a year, it's impossible for me to get any long term feedback on suspension options. That's why I've come here.

I'd love to hear anyone and everyones likes, dislikes, reviews, comments, concerns, opinions, suggestion, recommendations, warnings, anything, on what they have done to their R53's suspension wise.

Cheers.

 

I drove an R56 for a week with coilovers (can't remember which ones, but I'm pretty sure they were Bilstein PSS9's that were originally fitted to an R53). They were modified to fit the R56. The car was low and the ride was very tight compared to my stock suspensioned R53. It was also "bouncy" during normal driving. In turns, it was composed and capable. If you're happy with the stock ride feel, I would not go this way. It sounds like you need some basic springs to lower it a bit and retain stock feel.

That said, I've never modded a MINI suspension myself, so the above opinion is basically regurgitated internet wisdom (except for the driving impressions).

mb

 

As for the R53, I’ve had a variety of aftermarket springs & struts, and a set of Leda coilovers with many different rate springs; the stock springs are better suited to real world street driving than any other spring set I used. The OEM engineers worked it all out for height (effective ground clearance), travel, roll resistance, brake dive, lift, correct wind to fit the struts, etc.; although they didn’t plan for increasing negative camber up front by the end user. Even the small distance JCW springs lower affected some end of the performance spectrum negatively. The stock struts were adequate until wearing out, Koni FSDs ok until dying, Ledas failed the Goldilocks street test, after that, Bilstein SP struts handled the job the best, when combined with OEM springs.

 

This thread moved to 2nd generation Suspension forum.

The R56 is quite new so there aren't that many options. Check around with vendors to see what might become available.

JCW suspension is popular for now.

You'd probably have to shop around quite a bit or wait for more options.

Go for a ride in various MINIs to get a feel of the differences with lowering springs vs coilovers. Lowering springs can be rough handling but not always.

 

I have JCW suspension with Mach V springs....love the handling, ride height and just the overall traction.

 

I was specifically asking the R53 people about their experiences with suspension mods. That's why I had this thread in the 1st Gen MINI forum.

This topic is already being kicked around here in more then 1 thread so I think we can just close this down.

 

Sorry my error, it's not always easy to transfer experiences about upgrades from one model to another and the upgrade option selection might be different as well. Over time hopefully more upgrades will appear.

I did suggest to admin to consider moving this back where you had it to see if any other input can be made.

 

No prob, I understand why it would have been moved.

It didn't generate as many replies as I thought it might, so it's probably no big deal. If you want to close this down, that's fine by me. As I said, this topic is being kicked around in a few threads here anyway.

Cheers.