Hi all,

Question for the people who have lowered the r56. I am looking at getting some nm sport springs with some koni yellow shocks. On wmw website, they talk about needing lower control arms due to the camber from lowering the car. My main question is, does this really create an issue since I am only lowering the car about an inch, inch and a half?

 

Pretty much all vendors and independent MINI shops will tell you the same thing. I'd recommend going that route too. I'm doing the control arms with the Shocks/Springs combo.

 

Are you doing them all the way around or only in the rear?

 

Sorry was talking and typing at the same time. Lol I meant to say are you doing upper and lower or only the rear lower?

 

rear lower control arms, that's all you need.

 

Thanks for the info and help. I'll probably be prdering the h sport ones when I order the shocks and springs later this week!

 

Good choice, I'm going with the same when I finish my suspension in the winter.

 

Just another data point: I put NM springs on when I got my MCS last year, but chanced it on sticking with the stock control arms. Now 25k miles later, I've had no unusual tire wear. There is a bit more rear camber than stock, pretty slight though, here's a photo I just took.

 

Could you take a picture of the wheel gap? I know there will still be some but just curious as to how much it truly helps with the look. And thank you for the data point.

 

Wheel gap photo? Sure. Those are stock 205/45-17s...

 

Thank you! That is exactly what I am looking for. I would love to go lower but I live in Pittsburgh and the roads/hills are terrible around here

 

ljmattox, how long did you wait to get your car aligned after putting the springs on?

 

Should I admit I never had it aligned? Ok...so I never have. I'm pretty sensitive to such, and I never felt anything unusual (my springs went on when I had just 700 miles on the car, IIRC) so I haven't had it done. It's probably due, now, with a year and 25k miles travelled. Oh, and the independent BMW/MINI shop that did the install said it likely wasn't necessary, in their experience, unless they or I noticed something that needed addressing.

 

That's the perfect amount of wheel gap.

I've seen a kit at ECS where you get JCW springs and shocks.
Would this accomplish the same thing? Meaning not having to replace
control arms.

 

ljmattox, you never had unusual tire wear? Only asking cause the first time I ever lowered a car with coilovers I got it aligned. Then I raised it for winter and had all sorts of tire wear since the specs were all different

 

No, nothing out of the ordinary at all. I ran the OEM Conti RFTs for 16k miles with no issues, then had Blizzak snows mounted for another 8k or so. No weird wear, or in particular no special wear of that inside tread on the rears. I do rotate F/B at oil changes (6k-7k miles, I do an extra one between ones that are done as part of the MINI maintenance plan).

 

The mini lowered looks great! How is the ride with the NM springs?

 

Thanks! I was just trying to get rid of some of the factory wheel gap, nothing extreme, and I'd looked at other posts with NM's to settle on choosing them.

Ride is...not bad at all. Thankfully, my commute here is mostly smooth roads / freeway, so I didn't notice much of a change (from stock MINI sport suspension springs). Once you get much beyond that: yes, they're stiffer, and noticeable. Sudden dips, frost heaves, and broken pavement for example. But it's still not *bang*/harsh, just really "firm" over such.

 

I didn't see that your question was answered. What I've read (here) is that the JCW springs lower it "just a little" (15mm comes to mind...someone will know) so not as much as the NMs. And consequently, your stock control arms would suffice.

An advantage would be if you think you have autocross in your future: the JCW stuff is factory optional and allowed (so I've read) in stock class(es), where the NMs are NOT, and having them would bump you to some type of modified class.