I hit a really bad pothole a little while back, so I decided to rebuild my suspension. I figured while I was in there, I might as well upgrade a few parts. Here's the breakdown of what I did (including pictures).


Starting at the top, I made adjustable camber top plates.


I also added a strut tower brace; & fixed the mushroomed towers. The camber plates & the tower brace plates assure this will not happen again.


Moving down below, Koni FSD shocks, all new ball joints & tie-rod ends, Powerflex offset lower rear control arm bushings (for increased caster), NM Engineering adjustable sway bar links, & a Hotchkis 27mm anti sway bar (softest setting). My car is a JCW, so I kept my stock JCW springs.


In the rear, I made adjustable upper & lower control arms. All pivot points are either heim joints or Powerflex urethane bushings.


Koni FSD shocks, & a Hotchkis 25.5mm anti-sway bar (middle setting).


And to top it all off, I found a set of JCW GP brakes; 316mm in the front...


...& 280mm in the rear. Drilled & sloted rotors with ceramic pads & braided steel brake lines rounds out the upgrades.

I'm heading to the alignment shop tomorrow, I'm looking for input as to the best camber & toe settings for optimum handling. Keep in mind this is a daily driven street car; which may occasionally participate in track days. I'm thinking -0.75° camber in the front & -2.5° camber in the rear; & 0.3° toe-in for both axles.

 

Nice. Did you trim the hole for the chamber plates?

 

Looks like a nice suspension refresh!

For a daily driver, I would try to get -1.5 degrees camber all around, 1/32” toe in at each corner.

 

Yes, I had to in order to get at the lock screws on my adjusters.

 

Here's where I ended up.

Front Left
Toe: 0.15°
Camber:-0.50°
Caster: 5.4°

Front Right:
Toe: 0.14
Camber:-0.80°
Caster: 5.8°

Rear Left:
Toe: 0.16°
Camber:-1.80°

Rear Right:
Toe: 0.18°
Camber:-1.75°


Total Front Toe: 0.29°
Total Rear Toe: 0.41°
Rear Thrust: 0.04°

Front sway bar on soft setting, rear sway bar on middle setting.

The thing handles like a dream! Very precise! I am going to go to the stiff setting on the front bar tomorrow; then tune from there. What I am most impressed with is the brakes; it stops on a dime, & gives you nine cents change! Very powerful & no fade.

 

Alignment looks good, but I would have tried for more front camber, especially since you went with adjustable front plates.

 

Sweeeeet !
i wish I had those calipers...can you fit a 15in rim you think with your caliper and rotor setup ?
These cars brakes suck , by far the weak point I think but I really really like my rim and tire setup so it limits me ..
Did you use those strut tower support things that bolt onto them to reinforce them ?
And I see you like all the adjustable stuff , do you track your car ????

 

i don’t think so. The JCW brakes are 294mm, and there’s a pretty limited list of 15 inch rims that’ll fit over them, some requiring spacers, or even a little grinding.

 

Absolutely not! These are the JCW GP brakes, they are 316mm in front. They barely fit inside the 17" wheels, & even then, only after fitting a 20mm spacer.

I still have my original JCW calipers for sale; they're 295mm.

Yes there is a strut tower support plate on top of the tower. the adjustable camber plate is underneath.

 

The original JCW brakes are 295mm, these are 316mm JCW GP brakes.

 

Big brakes Looks clean,

 

Thank you.

 

Funnily enough, I'm jealous of your rear brakes, not the front. I went with Powerstop rebuilt R56S calipers up front to do the Poor Man's JCW brakes and it was not only to have slightly bigger brakes, but also to get rid of the stupid euro design with the half support and spring. Didn't know the GP had that design... now I'll have to find me some GP rear brakes.

 

Most cars...including the Mini, DO NOT need a lot of rear camber (it's a front/center mass car, or little weight in the back). Just isn't a requirement for keeping the tire tread flat on the ground. Unless you just want to look cool..!?
I put -.75° in the back and -.90° in the front, then took a trip up the local canyon road. The tire scrub looked very good in the back, but could use a little more in the front, so I'll be going to -1.25° in the front, and leaving the rear at -.75°.

Remember, ALL you are looking to do is keep the tire tread flat on the pavement during hard cornering. This means just like it sounds...look closely at the tread after some spirited driving ( few miles, lotsa corners). The tread should look the same all the way across. The tire corners should have the same amount of scrub on both of the corners, inside and out, all four tires.
If the outside corners have no fresh marks,(scrubbing or road contact marks), then you have too much negative camber. If the inside corners have no road contact marks, then you need a little more... negative camber.
Each car and each driver may need something different than another Mini and another driver. Depends on the exact car and the way it's driven.

Mike

 

I'm definitely not trying to look cool.

I am a mechanical engineer, & I have designed many suspension systems. The method you describe to ascertain correct camber is similar the method I have used for over 35 years. I drive hard on a skid pad, then using a temp probe, I check that the temps are even across the tread; too hot on the inside=too much negative camber. The opposite is also true, if the outside is too hot=too much positive camber. You're looking for even temps all the way across the tread. A word of warning, you MUST have your tire pressure set correctly before you test in order for this method to work.

I came up with those proposed figures myself; based on my knowledge of suspensions & how different types move through their arc. Interesting enough, I found Mini's JCW alignment specs, & they closely corroborate mine.

Anyway, it seems like a good place to start. I'll report back after I test.

 

Here is a picture of both the front & rear wheels. You can see how close the caliper is on the front; they barely fit inside the stock 17" wheel. No way would they ever fit in a 15"


Front wheel with JCW GP 316mm caliper.


Rear wheel with JCW GP 280mm caliper.

 

I would love to drive your car just to feel how much it would hug the road .
imo the weak point on these are for sure the brakes. Maybe down the road I will upgrade my brakes but that's going to be much more expensive as I would have to replace my rims then.. and imo I think these minis look best with smaller rims . I'm running 15x7 rpf1's..

 

Come on by, I'll take you for a spin.

 

I put the front sway bar on the stiff setting, I REALLY like it! (The rear bar is still in the middle setting.)

 

Both front & rear bars are now at their stiffest settings; I love the way this car handles!

 

Looks awesome, the JCW R53 should've had this setup stock