Hey everybody,

Couple questions....I'm sure this had been asked before so if
It has maybe somebody can direct me to the thread.

1) Does the cooper S sit lower than the cooper? Also, does the JCW sit lower than cooper S?

2) I own a cooper s and am looking for people with experience to give me advice on which springs to buy...and do I need new suspension as well?
Any guides on installation would be awesome.

Any words of advice would be much appreciated. Thanks brothers.

 

1) No. JCW does not sit lower than Cooper S. Only "sport suspension" sits lower, and not much at that. From what I remember about 5mm.


Do an advanced search for springs in the suspension forum. This has been discussed at length by many other users.

 

You really want to figure out what you want from your MINI. Are you tracking it? Just want to eliminate wheel gap? Want it really low?

The MINI does not have a bunch of wheel travel, so if you lower it more than about an inch, you bottom the car frequently with the stock shocks.

Here is how I see it:
1. If you are just lowering a little (like JCW red springs, about 1/2" drop), you can keep the stock shocks.
2. About an inch lowering (TSW, NM, H&R) you should look at aftermarket shocks (Koni Yellows, or others) and potentially different bump stops)
3. Lower than this, you would probably want coil overs.

Like countryboy says above, lots of info on this. Check out the mods:suspension section of the forum as well. You may require a set of rear control arms to align the car properly if you lower it significantly.

Have fun,
Mike

 

I don't believe the sport suspension lowers at all, the JCW lowers slightly...
+1 on NM springs

 

Sweet ride there gerry2153!

I'm in the same boat as the OP, what shocks and springs are you running gerry2153?

I'm considering JCW red springs (Sport suspension springs) with my stock struts, what would be the difference between running Sport suspension and stock suspension with JCW red springs? I'm not looking to lowering it more than 1/2" inch, will I have flatter cornering with less body roll with stiffer springs using the stock strut?

Thanks,
Systemlord.

 

thanks
sport suspension and NM Springs

 

Thanks to everybody that responded to this. Gerry, dude...that is a slick looking JCW, man. Really nice. Mbwicz, that helps a lot. Based on what you said, I think the route for me would just be to get the JCW red springs. I really don't want to have to spend that much on shocks. I am just looking for a bit lower ride. Do you know if you can tell a lot of difference in the handling with those red JCW springs? Thank you again for taking the time to respond.

 

I've never tried the red springs, so I can't comment on the change of handling or ride. I would expect that they will work well on the car, since they were a factory option. My guess is that they would handle similar to the Sport springs, maybe a bit stiffer.

Have fun,
Mike