Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the Mini scene. Picked up my MCS about 3 months ago and couldn't help but modify it a bit. I'm debating on the M7 springs. It's my daily driver and I really don't want to change the ride quality much. I can understand why they put Run-Crap's on them but man.. they really suck. I know that simply changing the tires will make a ride quality difference and I'm holding off swapping the tires out until I make up my mind on what 18" wheels to get..

Anyway.. the M7 springs seems to be a good design, being progressive, which shouldn't effect the ride quality much, if any, for normal driving but under corning should give an improvement, not to mention the lowering of the center of gravity. The 1.3" drop has me a little concerned.. I was hoping for a little more like .75-1". Does anyone have any experience with these?.. Thanks for the help!

http://www.m7tuning.com/main.m7/store/10008

 

Scratch That... .. I ended up getting a pretty good deal on some Koni Coilovers.. I'll give those a shot..

Happy Motoring!

 

how do you like the koni' coilovers?

 

Good Question... I've got them.. I'm waiting to have them isntalled by Edge Motorworks when we can align our schedules.. Erik at Edge is great. They installed all my other stuff.

I'll let you know how I like them when I get them installed. I'll probably set them up to be about 1" drop and a little softer than stock. They should still improve cornering because of the lower center of gravity and the higher spring rate when the progressives are pushed in corners. I really didn't want to make the suspension any harsher than stock for everyday driving.

I've come from cars that have very firm, fully-built suspensions and that bleeding edge of performance just doesn't do it for me anymore.

I'll update when they're installed.. Thanks guys!

 

Is your ECU upgrade CA. smog compliant? Did you get a noticable boost in power over your other tweaks?

 

I don't believe any of MTH's stuff has been SMOG certified for any US state. I've seen the actual SMOG certification process and, for the most part, it's nothing but a $ thing to get the Smog Exception #... Technically, the software makes the car and fuel system run more efficiently, as opposed to extremely rich like it comes from the factory. I wouldn't be suprised if I easily passed a SMOG test with the software and my mods.

The car is noticably more powerful. I have the "Tuner" file from MTH which is tuned to my mods. I had mods for about 4 days before I locaded the software and there is healthy improvement.. so says my butt dyno. The nice thing is that I can re-load my "stock" software at anytime. Part of the MTH Tuner package is a year's of free updating which is cool if you don't do all your mods at one time. I plan on adding an exhaust as soon as I can find one that I really like.. and as soon as I do that, I'll be sure to have a new Tuner file created to get the most out of my setup. Supposedly the power increase is a minimum of around 12 hp and as much as 20 hp. Not bad for $300. Anyway, the Mini is running like a champ now!

Happy Motoring!

 

How much is Edge charging you to install the coils? and are they able to do corner weighting too?

 

Hey Logitex,

I've got an appointment for this coming week for the install. Good question about the corner weighting.. I don't believe so. I know that he's installing them, as well as some height adjustment, and an alignment for about $400. I'm not sure if I'll be there.. so a proper corner weighting with my weight won't be possible... but I'm not hugely concerned with an exact setup as I probably won't be doing any autocross events this year. And.. if I do, I'll have the car prepped before I go. I'll update the thread after I get them in and get a chance to break them in..