R

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2002 Darksilver/Black Cooper S
Pres, PDX MINI Cooper Club

 

R,

Looks very nice! The drop is similar but a little more than the H&R it seems from the measurements you took.

I like the way that yellow looooks through the wheels

Randy

 

Yes, mucho pleased am I with the color.

The green HR are nice, but with the Madness sway it seems like it would be the holidays all year long.

R

 

[snip]Total front drop = 1.10" Total rear drop = 1.65" [/snip]

just for comparison, with H&R the drop is 3/4" front and 1.0" rear

One more thing I found interesting

Errr, seems like the KW advertizing department isn't talking with the manufacturing department (total real world drop looks to be more than an inch on KW's own "evaluation" springs).

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For what it's worth, I'm not riding on the bump stops at all. Just a very firm ride.

And to add to the marketing fun they put out...most, if not all of the BMW springs they make are shown to be 40/20mm front/rear. But if you convert my drop, you get 42/27 ...essentially a close, but backwards. Hmm....

Can't argue with the look or the ride..well, the ride can be snappy since on bumps in the road...but what lowered car this firm doesn't??

I'm going to double check my numbers, but it all seems right. Time will tell. I've only lived with the springs for a day now. I'll report back after I've had a chance to experience the new ride daily.

And hey, they are eval springs. George may decide to have KW "relook" the drop. He's on vacation, so I can't say. Will let you know when possible.

R

_________________


2002 Darksilver/Black Cooper S
Pres, PDX MINI Cooper Club

 

Ryan,

I love the way the KW's look on your car. From what I have seen with the H&R's I can see you wouldn't be riding on the bump stops. It's just funny to me that KW corporate seems a little disconnected (marketing/manufacturing).

Actually part of the reason I'd like to go with coilovers soon is to even out the drop a little more and get back to the original rake. The H&R's springs dropped 3/4" front, and 1" rear. In order to get more even wheel gap I think the front needs to go down a little more.

Dave

 

>>Actually part of the reason I'd like to go with coilovers soon is to even out the drop a little more and get back to the original rake. The H&R's springs dropped 3/4" front, and 1" rear. In order to get more even wheel gap I think the front needs to go down a little more.
>>

This is precisely why I'll be checking with George about changing the rear springs to be more of a 1.2-1.3" drop vs the current 1.6" drop compared to the front's 1.10" drop.

But you can't deny that the slammed look is really sexy on this car!!

R

 

Yeah baby! Yeah! Very SEXY baby! GRRR!

 

I've got some monster speed bumps in my neighborhood.... =/ Any trouble with those?

 

Grinder: my MINI is on H&R springs (3/4" drop front, 1" drop rear) and I have not had problems with speedbumps.

However now that the car is lowered it can be a little more difficult to jack. With Randy's floor jack it hasn't been a problem. My floor jack sits just enough higher that I need to get one set of wheels up on 2X4's in order to get the final critical clearance to slip the jack under the car. Other than that, I haven't really had any clearance problems.

Dave

 

The big hump style bumps are nothing. As you come down off it you can get a slight jar, but no biggie. The small, brutally high bastard ones do necessitate some careful driving. You really have to slow down for these, as the stiff suspension is really thrown by the "sleeping policeman".

R

 

We have H&R springs rather than KW, but I assume the same caution applies to both sets of lowering springs-- speed bumps aren't so much the issue as the steep driveways that we encounter around here sometimes. This is especially true with the deeper front bumper piece that is part of the optional aero body kit (which we have). On some driveways we have to creep down at a 45 degree angle until the aero kit is just about to hit and then peg the throttle to make the front end lift on acceleration.

SUVs behind us must think we're nuts... especially with the large number of Hummer H2s around here these days-- jeez, what DO these people need or want these things for... if you want to off-road, buy a Jeep Wrangler and go play in the dirt like I used to... if you need to carry a bunch of people... buy two MINIs

 

I think I will be ordering a set of H&R's or Eibach's for my Mini Cooper S. I can not afford to go to low and do not want to get coilovers just yet. Plus this car will be my Daily driver (About 17k miles a year easy). I want my mini!!!!!

 

Davbret,DID,Randy,
Davbret...car does look hot....
What I am wondering is what I have achieved with going to
a slightly wider tire?? I can understand lowering and the
advantages of it but I'd like to see g numbers of different cars
with different setups. I know going from the 205.17 Pirelli to
the 215.17 Yokohama tire has made a significant difference
in the handling but to quantify it is difficult. I think I am going
to call Grassroots and see if I can get them to run my car over
the same track they ran their Cooper S with the same driver and
see some numbers. BTW for you later time zones the MCS is
on Motorweek today on PBS...cute story but not real informative.
It was on 10AM EST here. Check your local listings...interesting
the host bought a Cooper!
Michael

 

"Rennie wound up turning a 133.5 at Roebling on the stock Goodyear Run-Flat tires, his times with the Kumhos were over 3 seconds faster per lap."
Quote form GRM.

 

Which Kumhos exactly?

 

>>Which Kumhos exactly?

Click here.... You can
read the article under Projct Cars ...then click...Mini Cooper S.
Kumho ECSTA V700s but I prefer the Yokohoma AVES 100s.

 

I would recommend the H&R's for daily driving, since the drop is only 3/4" to 1"

BTW, I'm just catching up with things after having been out of town for a couple days.

Dave

 

Dave - congrats on the 1000th post! You'll catch 2minis in no time

The Kuhmos are considerably stickier than a lot of the other DOT tires out there. They also aren't a good choice for the street if you want to drive the car! They are a GREAT track tire though.

Check out the Falken Azenis tires for a good dual purpose tire. I just drove a car with these and it is a great tire. They are also around $100 each for 215/45-16s, so you can afford to burn through them a little more than other options (but they will last considerably longer than the Kuhmos and other "DOT" race/street tires).

If anyone wants the springs - I have them. I'm not biased, as I have both the H&R and KW. They both seem to be good - the KWs lower the car more and look trick 'cause they're yellow, the H&R are a little more reaonable drop and have a ton of engineering behind them.

Randy
randy@mini-motorsport.com

 

anyone know about H&R coilovers?

 

jlm,

They should be available in mid-January. They are "in the country" now and just have to be shipped. If you like, you can drop me an e-mail and I would be glad to let you know when they are here.

They offer adjustable ride height from .7"-1.5" drop in the front and .6"-1.5" in the rear.



Randy
randy@mini-motorsport.com

 

Ok. I have some questions since I'm taking delivery of my new Mini Cooper S in about two weeks. I have ordered 16X7 Konei Rated R wheels plus Yokamhama ES100 sized 205-50-16 tires. I will drive on the street only with no racing or autoX. Here are my questions. 1. What are the advantages of coil-overs versus lowering springs? 2. What do you think of my tire/wheel selection? 3. Is is easy to install the rear Mini-Madness sway bar if you have just basic mechanical skills & tools? Thanks in advance for your reply. Jeff

 

>>>>Which Kumhos exactly?
>>
>>Click here.... You can
>>read the article under Projct Cars ...then click...Mini Cooper S.
>>Kumho ECSTA V700s but I prefer the Yokohoma AVES 100s.
>>
This topic ties in with a topic on the Tirerack forum...will 215s fit on a lowered MINI. The Grassroots article indicates that he is running 215s on his S with H&R springs. Does anyone else have this setup? I think Randy said he was going to try to put those 215 Falkens on his lowered S to see if they fit. Any progress?

 

We have yet to try the 215 Falkens on Randy's car but it will happen soon.

I think the important thing to remember is the offset of the wheel and the tire brand.

A 215 might fit a lowered car with a specific wheel and offset and in another senario (different offset or tire brand) might not fit at all.

It seems like there is a thought process out there that says "if one 215 fits then all will". This of course is not the case due to all the variables involved. :smile:

We are going to try a 215/45/16 Falken Azenis Sport on a 40mm offset 16x7 wheel and we will report back soon.

 

hi, i picked up my mcs last week and i've only done 500km so far. I got some hamann 17 x 8 wheels (HM4) & 215/45/17 AVS-048 R compound tires......the ride is now very bumpy but the grip is awesome......the orig. run flat tires are the worst tires i've ever had......

i'd like to know if anyone on this forum tried the kw or h & r coilover coz i'm about to place my order.

any comments???

tks.
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