Anyone know of a race dedicated suspension for the mini, more hardcore then the M7?
I found these in germany
http://www.mth-minipower.de/index.ph...hrwerk&lang=en
Apparently this mini was really fast around the Nurburgring!
they actually look similar to the M7

 

DMS 50mm Tarmac. Serious roadracing kit

 

Moton?

 

no...they don't list an application. Koni has some serious double adjustable coilovers as well (racing parts, not the consumer parts we're familiar with). There's also Ohlins and JRZ, but I'm not 100% positive they have bolt-on solutions.

 

How about the Leda setup used at TSW?

 

 

Moton and JRZ have bolt in systems. I'm running JRZ in my racecar. Don't 'think' that Olin has anything ready for the Mini.

 

It depends on your definition of 'hardcore'. A single adjustable setup can be hardcore, or you can pay to play with DA's, triples, or quads. A single setup can get people around the track very quickly, assuming a good alignment, corner weighting, good rubber, etc. A very serious club racer, an exceptionally serious track junkie, or a pro would want something more 'hardcore' (referring to spring rates, valving and adjustability).

Now that Leda is back in business, we can get them once again but delivery is somewhat spotty. They were acquired by epm, and are now producing their bits once again. Leda's already got solutions for Track (SA, remote gas), Race (DA's, remote gas) and Pro (3-way, remote gas) setups for the MINI. We normally spec the Sports and find those work for the vast majority of people, but can get the Track, Race or Pro variants for those who want them. Dr. Mike and I have personally beat the crap out of two sets of Ledas, with several thousand track miles, hundreds of AX runs, and I daily drove mine for 30K miles...

However, I am thoroughly impressed with the set of AST's that I just put on the test Cooper... We like the AST's because they're made ridiculously well, they deliver when we order (hah!), and they have a great price point. Between the valving in the AST's and the Swift springs, they're pretty daggone killer. Yeah, they're only singles, but that's pretty much all that 99.99% of people out there really need. You can hose a DA setup very quickly, wonder why your car isn't handling, and spend a lot of time chasing the issue if you don't know what you're doing. And triples and quads, well, let's not even start talking about how tricky those can be to dial in...

We're still attempting to devise an AST-based solution to the DA setup. It'll be cheaper than other DA's out there, but we will NOT sell them until we can get them fully dialed in, get some good baseline setups to share with people buying them, etc. I don't want to sell DA's just to sell them and have people riding around with a whacked out suspension. Even so, even DA's are overkill for all but the 0.01% that really want/need them. The vast majority of people don't need them - whether they want them or not. We want them for our track mules, but I'd say that we're in the 0.01%...

The other thing about the single v. DA, triple, quad argument is pricing - DA's will normally be 50-100% more expensive than singles, and triples and quads are even more... You can easily get into the $2500-3500 range for DA's, $6K+ for triples and $9K+ for quads. Depends on the manufacturer, but you get the idea. There are very few people in the MINI community willing to pay more than $2K for a set of coilovers, and even fewer that would want to pay $4K+. I do expect this to change somewhat as our cars age, warranties drop off, and values

We talked to Ohlins about making something for the MINI... First off, they wanted our car for a couple months and a HUGE R&D fee. Second, they would have been prohibitively expensive for all but the very serious club racer or pro...

JRZ's now got a bolt in solution? That'd be very, very nice (albeit expensive). The Motons are great, provided that you're willing to do the extra work to make 'bolt in'. Again, an expensive solution, but if you want a lot of adjustability you gotta pay to play!

In summary - it all depends on the application, your experience level, and how much you want to pay. As I said, a good set of singles can get you around the track really, really fast and is the ticket for the vast majority of people. A good set of DA's should be a bit faster, assuming that you can figure out how to dial them in... We want a set of DA's ourselves just for that purpose, as we'll be able to change settings with more sophistication for different tracks and conditions.

 

WTF! I'd have the baby of someone who could put that much into the suspension of a car. If I got a ride in it, of course!

 

Check out Webb Motorsports Leda Coilovers:
http://store.webbmotorsports.com/ind...products_id=56