I have a CAI, cat back exhaust and MCS suspension and I am looking for other things to do to my MC. What after market parts. mainly along the lines of performance, offer the best bang for your buck so to speak? Nothing too technical (eg polished heads etc), just bolt on things.

Thanks.

 

I am not sure how the S Sport suspension sway bars are .... but my 19mm H&R rear sway bar is my favorite mod on mine. I did it myself in a little over 1 hour start to finish.

 

+1 the rear sway will totally change the dynamics of your car.

 

+2 on the sway bar. It's one of the least expensive upgrades and make driving the MINI even more fun, which would have seemed impossible

 

+3 on the rear sway. Not much else you can do for power except a ECU tune of some sort. Uni-chip claims about 6-8 horse power.

 

+4 and non run flats if you haven't done that already.

 

BIG BANG @ http://www.autoxcooper.com/tsw_engine_damper.html

 

how does this affect/improve performance?

to OP, rear sway

 

Haha, so ill add rear sway bar to the list. The engine damper kit looks good as well and im saving up for some new shoes for her atm, so i wont get runflats then. In relation to the rear sway bar how easy is it to install, and what is the best rear sway bar to get?

 

RMW tune. Pulley. Sway Bar. Tires.

 

What is the RMW tune? And when you say pulley you mean as in lightened crankshaft pulley.

 

dont worry about the pulley, you have an r50, not an r53.
Most times we refer to the supercharger pulley when they say pulley

 

so if you want it cheap, go to the MCS rear bar, or if you changed bars when you did your MCS suspension, put back the front bar from your Cooper. Next I'd do front camber plates. This will give you better cornering, and much improved tire life. The stock settings for the front wheels are damn near verticle, and if you're "spirited" at all in cornering, you WILL wear out your tires on the front on the outer edge. Swapping them front to back just puts off the inevitable. If you're getting real good tire life without the front camber improvements, you're not driving your car hard, so just save your money and put it in the bank!

FWIW, the RMW tune is an ECU reprogramming, and it will get you more HP and torque, but as of now, you have to be near Jan to do it, or near one of his tuning road trips. RMW = Revolution Mini Works, they are in the vendor directory....

Matt

 

Is it worth it to put the S suspension on an R50?

 

Please see the link for the details and affect of the mod.

 

Its is all I have ever known. When we were buying the car the dealer made the comment that the car has had the cooper S suspension installed. We test drove a MC with regular suspension and the ride is a bit stiffer I think, can not remember though haha. I like the suspension but I think it would look better dropped an inch or so anyway.

 

you'll get a few comments based on our opinions and tastes. i've had 2 rear sway bars in the last month. first was the ireland engineering 22mm and it is a great bar BUT, rattles too much for my tastes. the 19mm h&r sway bar i now have is perfect for me. big improvement, no rattles or squeaks apparantly never needs lubing or greasing.

install for the rear sway should be an hour-ish.

i also have ireland fixed cambers very nice combo.

as far as non run flats- i know not exactly cheap BUT, cheaper than run flats AND it is a maintenance thing that will come around eventually. so when it's time... ditch the run flats. this was IMO the best thing i have done to my R50. it made a night and day difference and i realized right away how rough of a ride the run flats really gave me. the tire you choose is all up to you though and your needs/ budget. i went a little conservative and got some bridgestone potenza G009 high performace all seasons over a high performance summer tire. they grip well and will hopefully last a bit longer than a summer tire. they give me the best combination of price, performance i need and durability.

 

sorry to go offtopic but ive had the tsw brace on for over a year. there is NO improvement to throttle response or shifting... that's pure placebo effect.
does it prevent wear and tear on the stock mounts? questionable.
it does one thing, stops the block from banging around.

im not saying it's a bad investment however i dont think it provides the performance enhancement that people make it out to be.
$100 for a the mount or a used S rear sway for less than $100? my money's on the sway.

 

Yeah the 19 mm rear sway seems like a good option and it isn't overly expensive either which is a plus.

 

it's a PITA to change front sway bars, so you'd be well served to measure the diameter of the front and rear bar. It's easy to change the struts, so it wouldn't be surprising if someone swapped the struts to get stiffer springs that way. I wouldn't assume that the front and rear bar were swapped. If you have S front and rear bars, that's one thing. If you don't, getting a rear bar from an S is a very good move.

Matt

 

Im a bit confused as to why you are talking about front and rear S bars. I have a Mini cooper non s, the R50. It just has the cooper S suspension, which i presume is just the springs and shocks. Are you saying that since I have this suspension i will have to get cooper S sway bars as opposed to the non s sway bars?

 

it would be the struts, springs and sway bars, as they form the "matched set" that defines the dynamic behaviour of the car. So given that you've been told that you have the Cooper S Sport Suspension, it would make sense to check what's really on the car before you start changing things.

Also, there's more than one way to skin a cat. While many like to stiffen things up to reduce body roll, this is really only effective with smooth roads. Check out this thread for some interesting reading....

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=94968

Matt

 

Ah k I get you know. Thanks for that. Ill check with the dealer before I start, just to make sure I know exactly what has been done to the suspension.

 

You probably have the "Sport suspension package" and not the "S"

Even the "S" has a regular suspension package and the Sport version....Bigger sway bars in front, different strut dampening

 

Do a few local auto x's and see from there where you wanna go. You may find that the best mod for the cooper is driver education. If you can learn to drive the r50 at it's limit in a competive environment, you'll find that it's quite a quick car right outta the box.

But if you must. I'd say a rear sway bar first, then mebbe an intake to make it sound faster.