Will be driving around a go-kart track soon, just for fun, maybe some time trials.

What are the best 2 handling mods for a stock mcs?
cheers

 

Tires and rear sway bar

 

Polyurethane control arm bushings and camber plates.

(you took the good ones, Autoxcooper)

 

springs and shocks to take 5th and 6th

 

tires +1

 

I agree on tires and rear sway bar. Immediately after, camber plates and poly bushings.

 

"Best" as to price/performance would be the OEM Cabrio diagonal braces for $50.

The important one that no-one mentioned so far would be lightweight wheels - like 11 lbs./16", such as the SSR Type C from TireRack. If you are driving on bumpy public roads, these help keep the tires connected to the road...

 

...its old school,but the tire will make or break ya.The last few weeks prove it to me.khumo spt(solid) to yoko sdrive(mush,sorry) to dunlop z1(stellar).Felt like 3 different cars!...choose wisely.

 

If you're only talking suspension - camber plates and a rear swaybar.

If you don't have tires, tires and a rear swaybar.

 

Driving Instructor

The nut behind the wheel usually needs the most adjustment.


Alan

 

this nut's gonna be learning as much as he can from the seasoned folks, but wants to improve the ride.
only bought the car a couple of months ago and it looks like the tires are fairly new, at least they're not run-flats but kumho ecsta asx, so i'm not going to buy tires until the spring when i pick up some lighter wheels (maybe konig feather in 15")
so it looks like swaybar is next on the list, any recommendations for a reasonable bar for reasonable money??
bear in mind it's the wife's daily driver so i don't want it to get twitchy in the mid west winters.

 

^ I love my H-Sport 19mm...I would recommend it to anybody. Its quiet, and has 3 adjustment points. Slightly stiffer, noticeably stiffer, and stiffer. Plus it has zerk fittings for grease if it ever does make noise 40k miles down the road. And, you could have it on full stiff and your wife wont even notice...unless she drives crazy

Others will mention Alta, and H&R as they are the two other most popular 19mm's...I didn't choose Alta because it couldn't get quite as stiff as the H-Sport (subtract 100% from Alta's #'s). I didn't choose H&R because there are only 2 adjustments and I think it was more expensive then H-Sport.

The Webb bar would be the ultimate, but is overkill for many.

 

I've got the Alta 22mm bar, and its stiffness can be adjusted too. Anyway, I don't have particular problems with it but considering this is your wife's daily driver a 19mm might be better.

 

1. Alta 19mm Rear Sway Bar
2. TSW springs
3. Tires (I run Kumho ASX on my 15 inch wheels, love em! 17 inch wheels got Hankook RS-2 which are also excellent!)
4. Driving Lessons and track time
5. OMP lower brace or equivalent

That is the order in which I would prepare my car to handle better. Start with the sway bar, it is the best bang for buck mod period for a cooper.

 

All these years playing with MINI's, my single best handling mod is the Mini-Madness tubular chrome-moly front control arms with spherical rear bearing. The arms are very nice, but it's the spherical bearing that makes it the telepathic miracle it is. No, these arms won't make the car handle objectively better, but that isn't always the point. No matter how amazing the car handles, I have to want to drive the car, and this bit of kit cranks the happiness-behind-the-wheel **** up to 11.

If we're trying to improve the car across the board, then a good set of coil-overs [like Cross] will solve many things at once. It'll improve handling balance with a stiffer rear spring [which makes the car handle more neutral without the snap oversteer of a stiff rear swaybar], the dampers will not only improve handling transitions but feel relaxing in cruising, and the built-in camber plates help dial-in the alignment to perfection.

$0.02,
Ryan

 

Depends on your budget.

Rear sway bar is fairly cheap and you can do it yourself. Helps anytime you are doing cornering at higher speeds. Get one that has three holes and for the MCS a 19m bar will work fine.

Sticky Max or Extreme Performance Summer tires (costs less than R Compound tires)- see Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec as a good example and on a smaller budget Hankook Ventus Rs2 is good. You can even keep your stock wheels and just add the tires. Since these are street tires you can drive on them to get to the event and home again. But they do wear quicker for any street use.

Coilovers and many of the other good suggestions mentioned do vary in price and labor cost plus alignment.

 

x2

 

1. Driving Lessons and track time
2. Driving Lessons and track time
3. track time
4. track time
5. track time

That will make the biggest difference, not that you shouldn't mod your car. I, myself added braces and bars and ripped out my rear seats before my first track session, and if your trying to stick to a budget and keep the car a daily driver, use the money on track tires and keep them one one set of wheels so you can just switch them out for the day so you don't tear up you street tires, + you get the extra performance on the track

 

.

 

Another



Camber plates really are da bomb on these cars.... no matter what tires you have, more front camber makes them work bettererer.

 

if you dont want to have to own a different set and dont mind tearing up your daily tires (not recommended, but i did at first) my goodyear eagle F1's work great. not the best tires in the world, but awesome for the price (tire rack is your best friend)

 

I don't remember the OP saying there was a budget involved so just go ahead and get the cross coilovers and be done.

well, tires will help with any type suspension.

So cross coilovers + good tires = nothing else needed for handling.

 

+1 on good tires and rear sway bar.
Also, agree with an HPDE...driver improvement trumps any suspension mods.

 

Well, of course good coilovers can change the handling completely especially with good tires. However, I think the best bang for the bucks suspension wise is the rear sway bar. You can reduce understeer dramaticay with one of those, if it is big enough, like 22mm

And of course driver improvement is key in taking the best out of your suspension setup...

 

I agree fully however everyone was giving the most cost smart solutions.

The title of the thread was "Single best handling mod?" - didn't say cost mattered so I was surprised at the low number of coilover suggestions.