i bought a countryman s all4 and my dad likes it so much he bought one too!

mine was ordered, his is a used dealer loaner/demo s all4

mine is white over black w/ white wheels, his black (w/sunroof) over white w/ black wheels

mine stick, sport suspension, 18" summer tires and his auto, std suspension, 17" all seasons

after driving both i can say i am very happy i got the sport suspension, 18" wheels and summer tires.

his is fun to drive, mine is insane, where his gets into understeer when pushed, mine it still neutral until finally going into throttle oversteer, if i stay on the power, there just is no understeer, amazing!

between the taller sidewall tires, stock suspension and the weight of the sunroof, his car is a step behind mine

the auto trans is a lot of fun, playing F1 driver, but as i tend to keep vehicles a loooonnnnnggggg time, i am glad i got the stick (last vehicle 1997 gmc sonoma v6 5 speed stick 4x4 with 287,000 miles)

another difference, mine has flat load option, his does not

i will continue to post about our 2 cars as we drive them more

scott

 

Pics of the two side-by-side??

 

my sister took some, but has not sent them to me yet

btw, she has a 2009 mini cooper s

scott

 

Yes the sport suspension does make a big difference... Good luck with both cars! Always nice to have a MINI family

Kyle

 

I'm glad too that I have the sport suspension. Just need to get rid of the runflats!

 

jason,

have you tried upping the tire pressure to 38psi?

the OM lists 2 different pressures, 32 psi for all loads up to 100 MPH and 38 psi for all loads and all speeds

i upped the pressure to 38 psi and the difference is like night and day, ALL the harshness is GONE!

my buddies riding to dinner asked if i had gotten rid of the RF tires, like i had said i was

turn in is better too and i am sure MPG is up, but not going back to 32 PSI to check

i will not be buying more RF tires due to their greater cost, but the OEM RF tires are OK now at 38 PSI

scott

 

Raising the pressure on my RF's harshens the ride. I can't see how higher pressure could ever smooth out a harsh ride.

Mark

 

^^

 

mark,

i suspect that the 32 psi on the pirellis is too low, causing the tire to "ride on the sidewalls" and upping the pressure has me riding on the full tread

all i know is on the pirellis it works

i let the sales manager, who has heard endless complaints re the harsh ride, drive my car and he has been calling customers to advise them to raise the pressure. he even took the car to the service dept to show them as they get lots of complaints too

my buddies thought i had replaced the RFs with nonRFs

i cannot comment on other brands, but this absolutly made a huge difference on my CMS all4 with pirelli cinturato p7 RF 225/45-18s

scott

 

Maybe with the 18's, the fact that higher pressure keeps you off the short sidewalls. I have the 17's and I run 36PSI as a max. Any higher and it feels like I'm riding on concrete tires.

By the way, I also ordered the sport suspension after driving a std suspension demo. The body roll is improved with the sport suspension.

Mark

 

I just upped my tire pressure and yes I did notice a big difference and also seemed to get better gas mileage.
MsBrit

 

MsBrit

what pressure did you use?

scott

 

38 psi

 

MsBrit ... an amazing differance isn't it!

more tire nonsense ... re my dad's CMS All4

dad's car, the black over white, had silver 17" wheels with Continental 205/55-17 RF all-seasons and he wanted black wheels to complete the look.

dealer had no problem making the change, but asked if we could bring the car back mon (purchased on tues) for the swap due to shop being busy.

so for a week we had the continentals, the black wheels had pirelli cinturato p7 all-season RFs, 205/55-17s

i drove the car to/from the dealer for the wheel swap

the differance is again amazing, the pirellis are far better than the continentals

ride better, handle better, it's like a different car (remember, dad's CMS All4 is stock suspension with 17" wheels)

i have been a continental bigot for years.....hmmmmm....

2 out of 2 pirellis have amazed me

i doubt i will be buying RFs as my next tire, but i am looking at the pirelli options in 18" and even for my winter tires

OTHER NEWS FOR COUNTRYMAN DRIVERS!!!!!!

i emailed minifini about a rear spare carrier for the countryman and here is the reply:

"We are getting a Countryman in the shop this Friday that will help us wrap up our mods so our Spare-Link can be used on the Countryman.

Stay tuned!

John"

i wonder if i can buy 1 wheel/tire that i could use with both my summer and winter tires as a spare? ..... time to email Alex@tirerack

scott