It's quite possible that the roof height of that car would be the same as a stock R56.

 

oh my damn!

 

Here's an amusing story from the attics of corner balancing. They guy that does my alignment work also does tons of high end cars. Turns out that several Ferraris come over here higher than in Europe because of our buper height regulations, so one of the most comon mods is to lower the car to "euro spec". The guy wanted a corner balance as well, and weighed well over 300 lbs (yes, he needed every cylinder that there was under the hood). So they put 300 lbs of weights in the driver area and set the ride heights. The guy came to pick up his car and it was riding over 1/2" higher on the driver side when no one was in the car! He thought it was a mistake!

There is some validity in the "no-corner balance" camp, as our cars are pretty good, even without scales. When I put my Ledas on (and I bought them used from a racer who had them low, low, low) I got about 49.8%/50.2% diagonal wieghting just by eye. The ride height wasn't quite on, so the corner balance got me the correct overall ride height, and a 50/50 diagonal weighting. I'd had the front a bit low so I reduced the front end bottoming with a bit of lift in the front.....

And one correction to the original poster, I didn't write that most lowering was done for looks. I did write that if you're going for a look over performance, than I didn't have much to offer.......

Matt

 

...and adding to Doc's comments; if you do corner balance your car, great! I did it anbd loved it. But as soon as you ask a passenger along for a ride, it's out of balance. It's not a perfect world

 

It hasn't fallen off yet.

 

That's what Ryephile determined too...he's sold his modded R56 in favor of another R53...

 

wow...really? I must have missed that.

 

i would not trade my R53 for a R56.

 

How about for 3 gallons of Hydro?

 

the power is nice on the new cars, but I sold my 330hp LGT for a reason....the R53 is as fun to drive as my old CRX.

 

Yes it is...and I know from experience...look at the date...

 

yes....every time you post that pic, I :drool: Mine was a '91 SI...last of the breed. Sold mine in '04 to buy our MCS Cabrio. Pics I took the day I drove it to Philly to give to it's new owner:

 

Very clean...Mine was 86...and you wouldn't believe the inside of mine if I had a picture of it...let's just say it was a learning experience mixed with too much influence from Groupe B rally cars...

 

I miss that Momo wheel. <sigh> Stupid airbags.

 

'Tis true. The unstoppable on-track domination of the R56 didn't sway my distaste of its on-road ambiguity and insulation. The primary motivator is I spend 95% of my time behind the wheel on the street! The R53 is most definitely my cup of visceral tea.

Lowering? LOL, yea, I'll be lowering my R53 well over 2". The Doc will be amused to hear my suspension geometry will be similar to an R53 that had been lowered about 1" from stock, which means my roll centers will rock!

 

We don't need no stinkin' airbags... with apoligies to the SNL Killer Bee's

 

Nice wheel gnatster! Whose adapter are you using? [gets notpad ready to save info for the future! LOL]

 

looks like the standard Momo collapsible one like I had for my CRX

 

I got the info here...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...0&postcount=11

Pictures are gone, might want to contact orginal author to see if he'll repost.

 

What's up? doing the FWD equivalane of drop spindles (actually, I was looking at packaging space and there's well over an inch of space where either a longer body shock could fit, or one could do a hub carrier that had the wheel up an inch relative to current location without the drive mechanics bumping into anything.... Or is this more of relocating contact points on the control arms? Please do tell......

Matt

 

roll center adjusters?

 

You got it Matt. I've fabbed up "dropped spindles" while keeping the outer ball joint located in the same position, as well as raising the inner ball joint to not only raise the roll center but add anti-dive. All this gets the ride height I'm looking for and the control arm positioning I prefer. I don't have the car back together yet, but it's looking awesome so far. I'll actually have some free up-travel! I'll post pics in a new thread when I'm all done next week.

Side tidbit; I found out that a bone-stock R53 MCS has only a 1/4" of free up-travel before getting into bump-stop, yikes! In retrospect, it's a big "duh" why my old R53 rode like it had tie-rods for dampers; I was smashing 'stops the whole way down the road :-P.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

Ryephile,

The mini is a bumpstop active car. The bumpstops are designed to to work in conjunction with the springs and dampers - they must contact the top of the damper if the system is to work as designed. These are not garden variety bumptstops as I found out a while back.

One of the chief reasons other companies may be having problems designing kits for this car may be due to a lack of understanding of the basic operation of the stock setup. Any company using standard rubber bumpstops must pay close attention to suspension travel since these will not act like the stock units.

Very interesting work you are on to. You, Matt and John P. appear to going well beyond the aftermarket

 

Ryan,

Interesting idea. Keep up the good work. Do you have any photos that you could post? Or, could you provide a verbal description that will help at least me understand what you are up to?

I've, been experimenting with restoring the front roll center in my lowered MINI by restoring the front control arm geometry back to essentially the stock angle. I raised the inner ball joint mounting points 3/8" with shims and lowered the outer ball joint mounting point on the steering knuckle with a machined 3/8" spacer. Modifiying the suspension in this manner results in no change in strut travel, but, and a big "but", these changes introduce bumpsteer into the suspension geometry, where none was present before. Correction of the bump steer geometry requires some expensive components originally designed for the BMW Z-3 sports car by Bimmerworld.

That said, what exactly are you up to? I'd be interested in knowing.

Regards,
John Petrich in Seattle

 

but I just talk a pretty good game. I haven't done the hardware for the contact points. But who knows, I always jones for the well engineered way of skinning the cat......

I'm just happy I can guess what someone with a machine shop to play with would do.....

Way to go Ryan!

And the Mini bump stops are REAL soft at first, look inside, it's just a flexy shell, firming at fiull compression: a progressive rate bump stop!

Matt

And John, is the bump steer from not moving the rack, or having the rear contact point stay at the same plane? I was thinking about the ball joint mod you did and wonder what the effect of the changed front control arm angle (front back, not in out) is on your driving experience? In the Mustang world, the parts aren't as expensive, and there are excentric rack bushing to move the rack. But it's placed in front of the front K-member, not on top of a sub frame..... Hmmmmm