Hey guys-

The stock non-sport suspenion in my r56 is blown.

Putting in Bilstein shocks, TSW Springs, and poly FCAB's and RTAB's. Looking for a stiff sporty daily driver / fun car for spirited driving.

Unfortunately my car has the non-sport sway bars too (22.5mm/17mm) and they both have to go. Body roll is pretty bad.

So.... Recommendations?

Eibach has a kit with a 26mm front and 20mm rear, but NOBODY seems to own a set and I can't find a review anywhere. Are these good? Not good?

What about a JCW Front bar (24mm), and aftermarket Rear (~20mm)? Is there a reason why a smaller (24mm) front bar would be better than the 26mm eibach? Is there such thing as too big? The JCW uses 24/18.5 so the eibach 26/20 are about 2mm thicker front and back (which seems to make sense). Is there a downside to thicker bars?

Basically I am inexperienced when it comes to sway bar upgrades on the r56, so... could anyone who has played around with sway bar sizes recommend one for sporty DD use??

Any advice would be great!!

 

I just put a 22 mm rear bar on my JCW vert. I am Gen1 body vs your Gen2 body but for the rears, there is not much difference in set ups. At the middle setting my car is about neutral in handling. I just got back from a tour on the Blue Ridge Parkway and was in the twistie group. Let me just say that unless you live in an area with "dragon" like roads, the stock mini handles quite well. In fact, there were both Gen3 clubman along with countryman in our group and I was amazed at how well they handled. They "aint" no slouches.

 

Too big in the front will just give you more understeer and wheel spin.
Probably don't want to go any larger than stock in the front.
A really big bar in the back can make it a little tail happy, which can get you
into trouble, but as long as you don't put a very large bar on the back on its
stiffest settings, you'll likely be ok. I'd recommend a 22 solid or 25.5 hollow
bar max on the back, probably on the least stiff or the middle position holes.

 

Going too big of a swaybar in the rear can cause snap oversteer. For someone not experienced with this, they can find themselves going backwards in the middle of a corner.

The JCW front (23.5mm) and rear sway (18.5 mm) bars would be a great upgrade. Personal experience-the sports suspension sway bars resulted in much flatter cornering and reduced understeer compared to the S suspension. The JCW bars are even stiffer and would be better yet.

The 26 and 20 mm bars would be an even better setup for the street, especially with the stock springs and the Bilstein B8 sports shocks. There is a thread documenting a NAM'ers use of them; I'll see if I can find it.

I am running a 27mm front bar and a 25mm hollow rear bar. Great on the track; a bit stiff on the road.

However, sway bars are only half the story. MINIs really need more front camber to reduce the understeer. A set to IE fixed camber plates make for an ideal street setup with the sway bar change.

 

If you are tracking the car the understeer comes more into play as you would be carrying more speed/mass into the turn. On a road course a Mini can wear out front tires real fast if the camber is not correct. For normal driving or a twistee road, the understeer does not come into play as much.

You can also address handling with tire pressure as just a couple of pounds make a major difference.

Where are you located?

 

Here is a thread with a lot of good discussion about sway bars, camber plates, etc.
Ultimately the OP went with the 26 and 20 mm sway bars and other stuff.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...g-monster.html

 

I'm running Koni's sports with TSW springs and a 22mm rear bar on the softest setting. The only thing I would like to change is more camber in the front but man she handles great as is.

 

do a couple autocrosses if you get a big rear bar so you can dial it in and get used to it too much = spin

I would not touch the front bar at all, but camber plates help a ton up there

 

I'm currently in my 3rd season of autocross with our local club. I used to have a lot of understeer with the MINI with stock alignment and an old 21mm rear sway bar. I installed a Hotchkis 25.5 rear hollow sway bar this spring and had the car aligned -2.0 front (camber plates) and -1.5 rear (lower control arms) camber .

My turn in is now so much better but I have to be careful because the rear wants to kick out sometimes (oversteer) on sharper turns. I have the rear sway bar set at medium (middle) stiffness. I'm actually thinking of running the next event with the sway bar set on the softest setting to see if I can reduce some of the oversteer.

Like others have said, forget about the bigger front sway bar. You'll just get more understeer out of it that'll you'll have to compensate for.

 

I would first remeasure your front bar as I've never seen an S with a 22.5mm front bar. Likely you have a 23.5mm or 24mm.

Either way I would go with the rear Hsport bar as it has proven over the years to be the ideal bar for these cars. Start on the middle setting and go from there that way you can soften or stiffen it up. Then later decide if you want to even bother upgrading the front bar. So save your money for now and just the rear.
If your doing front control arm bushings we have the powerflex prepressed for you to make it easy.

 

I found that the stock FSB suited my needs well enough. I enjoy my Hsport RSB on the middle setting. I wouldn't go any larger than it since it barely fit.

 

Excellent advice, guys. Thanks for saving me time and money!! I guess I'll leave my FSB alone for now and just do the RSB. I can always upgrade later!

 

Like WayMotorWorks said, get a rear H sport 19mm rear bar only. Don't mess with the front bar it will negate the thicker rear bar's effect. If you get too thick of a bar the car wants to oversteer/swap ends in the turns. I had the 19mm on my 2007 MCS and it was sweet. Got it from Way $300 installed.