Hey folks - dont know much about wheel offsets etc.. so i was hoping to get some help on this.

im planning to get 18" rims on my MCS.
looking at dropping the rear end 2inches, and the front 1.5 inch.

What type of wheel offset etc would i need for this?
Does anyone know of any springs that lower the car by 2 inches?

Thanks in advance.

 

I don't even know if it is physically possible to lower a mini 2 inches. I do know that lowering a car 2" is generally going to make the car handle pretty badly. The most you usually want to lower a car is 1.25 inches, any more and you lose the required geometry that makes the suspension work correctly.

That said, the lowest that I know of is 30mm, which is the Vogtlands.

 

Hes going for the "pimp my ride" look. Could care less about handling. Heres how you drop the car two inches.

1. Properly place a jack under one of the rear corners of the car and take off the wheel.

2. Remove the large bolt at the bottom of the strut.

3. Remove the bolt that holds the end link to the strut.

4. Remove the bolts at the top of the strut.

5. Remove the strut from the car.

6. Take off the nut from the top of the strut while a fat friend leans on it so that the thing doesnt shoot up and hit you in your face.

7. Once this nut is off, you should be able to remove the top of the strut and get to the spring.

8. Since I already told you to take all this crap apart, walk to OSH and buy a saw capable of cutting though a spring.

9. Walk home wondering why you ever even read this.

10. Measure two inches from the top of the spring and start cutting it.

11. Run into a wall head first.

12. Are you still f*ckin reading? Come on... seriously... did you even consider this for a second? If so, refer to step 11.

 

Ortho, thanks for the info.


Jcampos ur honestly so so funny.
Seriously whats with idiots like you, no one is asking you to agree/like/support the idea.If you dont like it, thats cool just keep it to yourself.. if u dont have useful information for questions like this pack ur bags and move on ya dingbat. Its a wonder why mods dont ban folks like you.

 

youre the one who wants to drop the car two inches and throw bigger wheels under it. Im just pointing out in a subtle way that its a stupid idea. Welcome to NAM

 

Stupid according to whom exactly? idiots like yourself?

Listen champ, its nothing against u personally, but u just cant go around telling every man and his dog that they're idea or styling of a car is 'stupid' just because it doesnt coincide with your taste or the general taste of the area which your from.

At the end of the day everyone has their own taste, and honestly what are u going to achieve by bad mouthing someone elses?

Whats "hot" to one person is "ugly" to another - the point? its all subjective.

To further demonstrate this point, refer to the following link.
Obviously there are others who dont think the idea is 'stupid'.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=48167

Like i said, if you dont have anything useful to contribute just move on to the next thread instead of sitting there acting like a lame keyboard warrior that you are.

Peace.

PS. Thanks for the invite. NAM is great, with the exception for a few morons that ive recently become aware of.

 

K well have fun rubbing tires and bending rims.

 

Okay men, and I use that term loosely...

Skuzy,

If your goals are the pursuit of great handling, JCampos is well, spot on. If your goals are for appearance only, then carry on. You may need to carry a lot of extra negative camber in the rear to keep the tires from rubbing. You can also trim portions of the fender liners, but try not to remove these; they protect important parts from road stuff. Keep lots of air in your tires.

This set-up is possibly dangerous at anything above boulevard speeds, however. Seriously! I beleive in form follows function. The link you provided, does not apparently subscribe to that philosophy.

Yes, you should be guided and perhaps judged - like it or not - by your goals. Advice, despite its delivery, can always be beneficial. Good luck.

 

Skuzy, I agree with j that the idea is stupid. J, I could throw a wrench towords you for suggesting he chop springs, even if you were joking.

I'm not sure what the exact stock travel on these mini's is but 2" is going to leave you with what, 1/2" of shock travel?? You'll be running 3 degrees of negative camber without the use of an adjustabel control arm, and it still won't be drivable.

I'm devolping a theory that the Vogtlands need high pressure gas to really work properly. Without that they may be a little too low for everyday driving. I would go with those unless you can find a credable company that makes a spring that lowers the car more, which I doubt you'll find.

 

If you are talking about the cars pictured....none of them are even running the stock dampers. Those cars are all using coilovers which will atleast give you more travel when lowered.

With that being said, im afraid the other guys are right (although they could be a bit classier in their portrayal of their opinions )

The mini just really isnt set up to be lowered that much. I understand the desire to get that "low" "slammed" look....but honestly even when dropping an MCS's rear one inch with h-sports you can tuck 17 inch wheels. If you look into M7 springs you may find the exact look you are looking for, i just think you over exaggerated your numbers. The M7's drop about 1.2 inches and with 18's and the proper tires you should be looking at a low ride with nice tucked tires which seems to be what you desire No need to go all the way to 2 full inches.

Just trying to help....if you wanna go for the full 2 inches good luck....let us know how it turns out

 

there's your two inch drop. Makes the car worthless to drive but if it floats your boat, have at it.

No company in its right mind would sell parts that lower the car that much, so you're going to have to make or mod your own. An old school way to lower the car is to heat up the spring until it sags. Sure, the spring will break eventually as a result, but obviously one who's into "looks only" won't care about that.

Better yet, remove the springs and shocks and run hydraulics. That would be, uh, cool.

 

shizowned

 

Agreed with everyones comments, i guess from a technical and practical perspective, Jcampos was correct - however i still disagree on they he acted( and continues to act -ya bloody doink)

Thanks for the useful info.. if coilovers are the way to go, then i might look into them.. otherwise eibach springs are the answer.

-Cheers.

 

I think those are 19s on that hideous orange thing. They look just like the stock wheels on my M3... those being 19s.

Anyway, I still think 18s + dropping the car two inches is stupid. Do one or the other. If you really want your car low, put it on 15s. If you wanted a bling bling mobile, you should have gotten a different car.

 

im thinking of getting 18's and either eibach/m7 springs, or minimania springs which are 1.5"

havent heard much about mini mania springs b4.. do u know if they are any good? or should just pick b/w eibach/m7

 

What wheels are you getting? Depending on the size of the wheels and the drop the springs you get, you may need to get control arms for the back as well to adjust the camber.

The fact is, mini's werent meant to have 18" wheels stuck under them and then have the car lowered. Its a front wheel drive car with narrow wheel wells and fenders you can roll or flare.

 

Given that the JCW wheels are 18" and do not rub even at full compression travel, it's a safe bet that using the same tire size and offset would result in no rubbing no matter how low *provided* you don't cut the stock bumpstops.

Since the bumpstops can provide over 1000lb/inch variable rate and would already be partially compressed with such a drop, it would be reasonable to get the stiffest adjustable struts you can get and adjust them full hard.

 

iam planning for 18 inch rims.

For tyres - well ill get whatever it takes to fit those tims -provided the offset doesnt result in rubbing.

adjustable control arms - i agree, but i think its a case where u can only know if u need them or not.

Springs - looking at either m7 or eibach, theres enough threads out tehre covering this topc i think ill just read those instead of starting another one.

Thanks again for the help... ill post what the car looks like after i get the wheels, springs etc.

cheers!

 

You're refering to the Koni adjustables I assume. How is adjusting the rebound going to help the compression?

 

give the guy a break. i don't know about the 18s, but i can sympathsize with the drop he wants. i lowered my 2003 mcs 1.1" in font and 1.3" in back with eibachs. i still have stock 17" s lights.

at first i thought this was all the drop i wanted, but after seeing some cars with the edge of the tire even with the fender lip, i think i could go to 2" front and rear. the stock cars now look like paris-dakar high water waders to me.

since i removed weight from the back (seats, belts, battery, tools) and never carry heavy things in back, my car still sits a little too high in the back.

and don't hypothesize about lowering ruining the handling. (and yes, i've read the posts about the roll center movement. but note in those posts that the spring rates also effect how much roll you will get.) there's no question mine handles better now. if i go further, i'll go with coilovers, since i have doubts about how stiff the springs will have to be to get a 2" drop.

 

this is totally do able! PM ryephile for more information he should be able to tell you! Ask about what he calls the "Ryesprings"! And if you knew ryephile you would know that he only does modifications if they add to performance! I personally know of two cars with this setup and they handle BETTER than stock, not worse like people are saying! Hope this helps,
Ben

 

It would be pretty hard to have lowering springs that are ACTUALLY worse than stock. At the very least you are lowering the center of gravity and most likely increasing the rate. You may lose a lot of suspension travel and have undesirable handling characteristics....but it would still "handle" better than stock.

 

not according to him, when he says pretty badly i interpret that as worse than stock!

 

Well at least it would control the motion in one direction; there would not be a lot of travel left for compression anyway. Just trying to point out that in order to reasonably control such an unobviously high effective rate, you'd need really hard shocks.

As for handling "better," a super-low car with hard suspension (yes, even with struts) would handle fine on a glass-smooth road, better than stock even. But if there is any bumpiness the car would "skate" sideways over them like a rock skipping over water as the tires lose contact with the ground. Whether this Kart-like handling is "better" or not is completely up to the driver. I personally am not willing to sacrifice bumpy-road handling for better smooth-road handling but feel there is no reason to call someone who thinks otherwise names.

 

Well, to make the car street drivable it would probably need a digressive rate with the perfect compression curve so that you don't bottom out when you hit a hole but you don't lose contact with the ground either at a high piston speed. Then you need a low speed that will keep the car off the bump stops (if you aren't already on them at rest) but get enough travel to handle correctly. That's how I'd do it anyway.