R56 For those w/o MCS sports suspension... any unhappy campers?
I was disappointed with the amount of body roll and ride height of the sport suspension. I put lowering springs and a much stiffer rear sway bar on. I wasn't happy with the lowering springs. They dropped the car down too low for my taste and the road quality here, and also I felt like the shocks just weren't up to the handling characteristics of a lowered car with stiff progressive springs. This was a VERY costly experiment since I paid a mechanic to do two spring swaps and paid for two alignments. OOPS! The sway bar stayed though and I'm extremely happy with the results.
Great input. To clarify, did you put our original springs back on your Mini? It sounds like the sway bar might be a good first step for tweaking the suspension. Just wondering, which sway bar did you go with?
6th Gear
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,980
Likes: 1
From: PA
I was disappointed with the amount of body roll and ride height of the sport suspension. I put lowering springs and a much stiffer rear sway bar on. I wasn't happy with the lowering springs. They dropped the car down too low for my taste and the road quality here, and also I felt like the shocks just weren't up to the handling characteristics of a lowered car with stiff progressive springs. This was a VERY costly experiment since I paid a mechanic to do two spring swaps and paid for two alignments. OOPS! The sway bar stayed though and I'm extremely happy with the results.
I see you have the 22mm, I have a 19mm ALTA rear sway bar and am also quite impressed with its results. IMO it's by far the best, and should be the first, thing one can do to improve their MINI's handling.
4th Gear
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 322
Likes: 1
I ordered with SS without test driving SS first.
I agree with the posts that the difference is subtle as far as handling. Where I _really_ notice a difference is in two places...
Anytime the road surface changes I feel it a lot more. It makes pebbles feel like rocks and rocks feel like boulders. Ok, thats a slight exaggeration, but it is a little stiffer so I just feel everything more then the standard suspension.
I also feel the suspension recovers faster. When I hit rough road on the standard suspension the steering got lite and stayed lite until the car calmed down. While I never felt the car was in any danger of losing it and flying out of the corner it seemed as if it needed to find smooth pavement again before everything went back to normal. With the SS you feel all the bumps and humps in the rough road but the steering never gets lite. The car stays completely planted to the asphalt. In fact the other day I hit a bump in the road and damn near came out of my seat. The car never felt like and the tires were never felt any less connected to the pavement. I give a thumbs up to the SS as long as you don't care about ride comfort.
Would I get it again? Probably not. I plan to do the JCW suspension at some point. I was unsure when I'd have the budget to get this when I ordered the car so went SS. It now looks like I might be able to do the JCW within 18 months. I should have saved the money and went straight from standard to JCW.
I agree with the posts that the difference is subtle as far as handling. Where I _really_ notice a difference is in two places...
Anytime the road surface changes I feel it a lot more. It makes pebbles feel like rocks and rocks feel like boulders. Ok, thats a slight exaggeration, but it is a little stiffer so I just feel everything more then the standard suspension.
I also feel the suspension recovers faster. When I hit rough road on the standard suspension the steering got lite and stayed lite until the car calmed down. While I never felt the car was in any danger of losing it and flying out of the corner it seemed as if it needed to find smooth pavement again before everything went back to normal. With the SS you feel all the bumps and humps in the rough road but the steering never gets lite. The car stays completely planted to the asphalt. In fact the other day I hit a bump in the road and damn near came out of my seat. The car never felt like and the tires were never felt any less connected to the pavement. I give a thumbs up to the SS as long as you don't care about ride comfort.
Would I get it again? Probably not. I plan to do the JCW suspension at some point. I was unsure when I'd have the budget to get this when I ordered the car so went SS. It now looks like I might be able to do the JCW within 18 months. I should have saved the money and went straight from standard to JCW.
3rd Gear
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 201
Likes: 0
From: Pickens, SC/ Vermillion, SD
I didn't get the sport suspension, but did swap in a 22mm rear sway at about 2k miles (15k now) and I'm pretty pleased with the set-up. Basically waiting on the run-flats to wear out or to run into some $ then I'm swapping rims and tires for non-RFs.
Before I bought my MINI (16 inchers, non-SS), I drove every suspension option with every wheel combo both with and without LSD. From my experience with the car, the SS suspension really does not provide any objective improvement in terms of handling. The thing that really convinced me was going directly from the SS (with 17s) car to the non-SS (with 16s) car. While the non-SS cars roll slightly more than the SS cars, absolute grip levels are higher (I am not the only one who believes this... check TopGear Magazine's comparison).
Yeah I could beat an R53 on slicks in the stock R56 w/o LSD on some decent perf road tires. Of course some is driver skill but the handling has to be good for me to manage that. Its a seriously fun and well balanced car, you don't even need sway bar upgrades unless you just have the modding bug.You made a fine choice you wont be disappointed with the stock suspension.
4th Gear
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 476
Likes: 0
From: Corona, CA
I didn't get the SS, I was going to but decided to save the $500, also my MA advised me not to. I got the rear 19mm sway bar and lowering springs instead and will have that installed this month. I think is a much better value. The SS doesn't lower the ride and from what I heard only adds 1mm thicker front and rear sway bar.
OVERDRIVE
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5,602
Likes: 107
From: Arizona
My friend just got a 328 and I have no SS and 17" rf's (I think he has rf's too, but I don't remember what size). Driving his feels like a softer ride compared to mine, but the car's bigger and heavier, so to me it's like apples and oranges. Remember that the harshness of the ride mostly has to do with the RFs, not the sport suspension. I don't thing the SS rides any differently that the standard. The springs/dampers are probably the same, even though people claim the part numbers are different. I never heard anyone claim a difference in the ride harshness/stiffness.
3rd Gear
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 215
Likes: 0
Lighten UP
The observations made by MPowerF1 earlier in this thread are relevant and right on target, in my view. The standard, non SS suspension is very competent in terms of handling, while being relatively comfortable to boot. It should be noted that most OEM wheels and runflat combinations delivered with the MCS are woefully heavy. Replacing OEM wheels and runflats with lightweight aftermarket wheels (16" is said to be optimum) and grippy non-runflats makes a very perceptible improvement in suspension performance with the non-SS, as lowering the unsprung weight and rotatating mass (I dropped 14 lbs. per corner) leaves less mass for the non-SS to damp. Damping thus effectively seems heavier and more controlled, while the ride is more compliant. The non-SS suspension with a lightweight wheel/tire combination is an excellent setup which can be further enhanced by a low-cost sway bar.
5th Gear
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 686
Likes: 0
From: RI
My two cents ... for about the same $$$, get front and rear strut tower brace sinstead of thicker sway bars. I haven't done it on my Mini (haven't had it a whole month yet), but I put a front brace on a PT Cruiser, and it made a noticeable difference in feel and responsiveness. I can only imagine what kind of improvement it will make on the Mini. There are a few threads in the Suspension Upgrades section on strut braces, all very positive. From what I've seen here, it's a bigger bang for your buck and definitely on my short list of mods.
Happy motoring ...
Ed
Happy motoring ...
Ed
4th Gear
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 318
Likes: 0
From: Sarasota, FL
Sorry for the long rant......
The info on the Mini website is pretty weak regarding their description of the sports suspension. It really only mentions a stiffer sway bar. Others, on this forum, indicate that the SS also comes with stiffer springs as well.
I tried to add SS to my order but was told I was too late as my car just went into production. While on the phone w/ the dealer, I asked what was included with the SS. The sales manager pulled out a book and all it listed was the upgraded sway bar. Confused again as many from this forum said the part numbers for most of the major suspension components were different for SS vs. standard suspension.
I think Mini has done a poor job of marketing the sports suspension config. Maybe it only includes the larger sway bar? Maybe not..... Either way, a consumer shouldn't be confused about this.
I know I can always add after market suspension stuff to my Mini but I don't want to go too stiff w/ springs or make it too low if I do. I was going to go with the stiffer sway bar anyway. My original thought was to stay standard suspension and just upgrade the sway so I didn't waste any money as I thought the springs were the same in both packages.
For the folks with the MCS standard suspension, any regrets? Do you plan to upgrade later?
BTW, my dealer only had the standard suspension cars available for a test drive so I couldn't compare them. Also, I enjoy twisty mountain roads and I plan to investigate autocross events in the future. Also, I plan to look into DE events at my local track as well. (VIR)
Otherwise, I am looking forward to my MCS arrival sometime in early/mid February.
Thanks.
The info on the Mini website is pretty weak regarding their description of the sports suspension. It really only mentions a stiffer sway bar. Others, on this forum, indicate that the SS also comes with stiffer springs as well.
I tried to add SS to my order but was told I was too late as my car just went into production. While on the phone w/ the dealer, I asked what was included with the SS. The sales manager pulled out a book and all it listed was the upgraded sway bar. Confused again as many from this forum said the part numbers for most of the major suspension components were different for SS vs. standard suspension.
I think Mini has done a poor job of marketing the sports suspension config. Maybe it only includes the larger sway bar? Maybe not..... Either way, a consumer shouldn't be confused about this.
I know I can always add after market suspension stuff to my Mini but I don't want to go too stiff w/ springs or make it too low if I do. I was going to go with the stiffer sway bar anyway. My original thought was to stay standard suspension and just upgrade the sway so I didn't waste any money as I thought the springs were the same in both packages.
For the folks with the MCS standard suspension, any regrets? Do you plan to upgrade later?
BTW, my dealer only had the standard suspension cars available for a test drive so I couldn't compare them. Also, I enjoy twisty mountain roads and I plan to investigate autocross events in the future. Also, I plan to look into DE events at my local track as well. (VIR)
Otherwise, I am looking forward to my MCS arrival sometime in early/mid February.
Thanks.
2nd Gear
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 125
Likes: 0
Agree completely which is why I went with the standard 16s despite their relatively unattractive appearance.
1st Gear
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 24
Likes: 0
I drove my 2004 MCS with SS for about 6 months before adding Dinan SS and front sway bar. I had much more control and almost zero roll, but the ride was extremely stiff and bouncy. I thought the car would break in half when hitting some of the uneven pavement on the 405, but I had a very good time putting 81,000 canyon carving miles on that car.
On my 2007, I didn't get SS. The handling doesn't come close in comparison to the 2004, but overall I like it better for comfort.
On my 2007, I didn't get SS. The handling doesn't come close in comparison to the 2004, but overall I like it better for comfort.
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