fronts you can change with the bonnet open, since the adjuster is on top of the strut, peeks right through the strut tower hole. the rear struts have no access to the top of the strut, unless you drill a hole through the body, which ill assume you don't want to do.


the fronts you may want in the midrange depending on the roads. the front also have more influence on the ride quality than the rear

 

You can do front if it's in budget.
It won't make a difference if you just do two front/two rear at seperate times unless you're looking for better handling overall.
Where you apply new struts is where you feel the benefit but if it's not financially viable then waiting to do the other set is not a big deal.

 

That's a good point. Will the ko I yellows raise or lower ride height? Or can I use the stock springs and keep what I've got? Idk if that's a thing or just wishful thinking

 

You won't notice any change in height really with stock springs. But it will improve the feeling in similar ways to lowering your car. Springs are what will cause your height change. If you ran your car without them it would be slammed on the ground like the boso cars in Japan.

 

struts will only change height if the springs are worn and struts are very worn, in which case will increase your height

 

All good info! I may need to get a notebook lol, thus is a complete 180 from the classic cars I grew up working on lol.

 

Well you might think it's different because it's a new car but what suspension does hasn't changed in principal much. The real focus now is just how it's done. No matter what struts won't change your height unless the strut itself is shorter and struts won't hold the weight of a car without springs.
Its just the placement, function, and style of these two components merging in latter years to come up with what we have now.

 

I get that, but everything me and pop have done has been on 40+ year old vehicles lol. Alot has changed. To get traction in the f100 I just throw sandbags in the back and go haam with it lol. It's a learning curve but I'm getting the concepts easily, its just the finances that are holding everything up.... Sounds like everything else in life haha

 

that's one of the advantages of rwd, need more traction? add more weight to the rear. unless you can hide some weight up front, nothing you can do =)

 

It's funny you mention that.
I just got a 12g steel skid plate from race skids and installed it.....
It was super heavy but I noticed improvements in cornering and straight accel
Perhaps op this might be a cheap solution once you sort out tires and suspension

 

Koni sports have a shorter shaft...they are used if you are planning on lowering the car...
Koni yellows are the Basicly similar to the oems, just upgraded....
Issue iscif you use lowering springs on stock length struts, the valves fail pretty rapidly since they are not working at the optimum position....so just get what matches your needs...
In my case, I went with koni FSD'S...a cross between comfort and performance for a daily driver...very wife/girlfriend friendly ride, still stiffens up when you want it.
If you struts are very bad, even very cheap ones will likely help...but koni springs on a MINI are popular cause they fit well, offer lifetime warranties, and perform better than the OEM Delphi units.

 

The gen1 MINI has a near ideal 50-50% weight distribution....that's one of the reasons the battery was moved to the trunk...
Adding weight to go faster....hmm...
First step on any track car is to gut it...removing every ounce you can...less weight, same rubber, equals more performance, better turning....
Pickups are very different....rwd, with near zero weight over the rear axle...
But don't think I ever had anybody anywhere say adding a skidplate would make you go faster...

 

I agree.....adding weight to the front of your car to get it to hook up only helps when you spin the tires.....as soon as it hooks up, all of that extra weight you just added is doing nothing but slowing you down. Lighter is better.....less weight to accelerate, less weight to brake, less weight to turn.....

 

Considering you or IQ don't know my setup or what I've changed you would note that I upset my balance long ago. In fact the skid plate still has me slightly offset twards rear being higher when tested on corner blancing.
The sggestion wasn't to add a skid plate to go faster
It was to add some weight to the front like he was mentioning with sandbags. No where did I say it went faster
I said it helped cornering because it did....not much .007g but it's noted.
The feel its what I described as being better.
And to both of you
Adding weight to the front of some vehicles does help
Look at any professional drag FWD team......everything is up front.
Perhaps you two should crack a book on racing design and theory like I did many years ago in engineering school
Your finite answers spread a plauge of misinformation across the net.

 

Spencer, I know you are new to the NAM forums…..but this isn’t the place to push your “holier than thou” attitude. You seem to love to post all of your credentials, but then you say stuff like adding extra weight your car made "improvements in cornering and straight accel "……..it’s got me wondering if your experience that you seem to constantly push down people’s throats is all that you claim it to be. There are plenty of other forums out there where you can go and tell everyone how great you are, and how ignorant everyone else is……but the NAM forums isn’t the place for it.

We all get it…..you have owned dozens of minis, you have a 1000hp EVO that you’ve built and tuned yourself, you’ve got 3 decades of tuning experience, you’ve logged more hours on a track than anyone else, you’ve got an engineering degree in Mini R53’s, you’ve got a pet unicorn, and you’ve made Chuck Norris cry, ……congratulations, you’ve won the internet.

 

I don't flaunt credentials for no reason

Heres a very basic explanation of how adding weight to the front of a car can benifit using things you seen on production sports cars

A diffuser up front (found on all performance vehicles) might have a relatively low static weight but its knetic wieght is exponentially greater
The reason?
Lift
Without the weight added by aerodynamics the car could not go faster
Any f1 car is light until aero grossly inflates vehicle weight and weight distribution with a major bias twards front on accel.
This is a very basic and common practice.
Anyone saying "no one will say adding weight to the front of a vehicle will make it go faster" is completely wrong
There are serveral psysical examples of this anyone with basic knowledge could have interjected with after that comment was made.

I also dont feel its right to insult my accomplishments or abilities when you yourelf recently asked how to change toe on a mini and if you could do it properly at home

This also is very basic stuff man

 

We're talking about a daily driver mini cooper here Spence....not an F1 race car. Apples and Oranges.

 

The statement was exactly as I stated before
We left talking about minis when generalities were used to insult my opinion
I'm posting generally...just like you and zippy did

 

.....yep, ok

 

You can disagree entirely but the reason I noticed a difference in my daily driver mini is this

since changing suspension components my setup has had a major bias twards rear. The plate improved this quite a bit. I don't reach knetic speeds to justify a splitter.
If I feel the plate is slowing me down I can do what a lot of the tuning crowd does when faced with a mod that is necessary but adds weight. Tune it to get more power to continue the same power to weight.
101 dude

 

OK...you keep adding weight and adding power to compensate for the weight......the rest of us are going to remove weight and add power...let's see who ends up being faster.
101 Dude

Your "logic" is not logical.

 

Frasping at straws is no way to win an argument you've lost long ago
I never stated the above.
My mini is my mini im happy with its weight, it's speed, and the comforts. Im not going to strip my car down because I added a skid plate. I'm going to tune it. That's what I'm doing on my car...just my car
Allow me to pone you further.
Throughout racing additonal saftey measures and regulations have added more weight to racing cars. Some of which are carbon monocoque and the lightest a car could be without the equipment. When those regulations happen they usually add hp since the car cannot become lighter. My car doesn't need any more stuff removed in my eyes so I will do what has been done.
Ive stripped many cars down to nothing and been told to add this and that throughout racing. Sure some stuff can be lighter but I'll still need more power for what I can't take away in added safety weight

With a name like raceworks you'd think you know
How racing works...

 

So now you're back to talking about race cars??

I see a pattern here....

This thread has gone full bananas.....I'm out, I have a job I have to get back to.

 

My response was an analogy to my situation.

Analogies are another basic concept

And I have this time to educate you on these things because I was successful enough at my racing career to be able to afford taking this Friday and many other days off.

 

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