I am thinking of lowering my 06 Copper S with M7 or H-Sport springs.

Are camber plates and control arms really necessary when lowering your MINI? Will I get uneven tire wear or weird hadling? I haven't come across a solid statement that they are absolutley needed.

I never had to deal with this issue on my VW, so my knowledge/experience is limited.

Thanks!

 

With just springs....NO. The drop should not be aggressive enough to warrant that. But, like me that is slammed as far as you can go on PSS9's...you do. My camber in the rear is crazy. The fronts...not so bad. I am running Alta upper/lower rear control arms and K-MAC camber plates. I like the setup. Or you can look at it like more is better cause you never know when it will come in handy!

 

Camber plates are not required. Front camber doesn't change much with lowering.

Rear control arms might be required. Lower more than an inch or so, and the rear camber gets pretty crazy.

 

You will see that the rear camber will increase more then the front when you lower the car. It's all on how you want the car to react. I am seeing a lot of MINI owners want more camber in the rear but this will make you understeer. The more front camber you have the less you will understeer as long as the rear doesn't have more camber then the front. Personally I would want the rear to come out first so then you can just throttle your way out of trouble. In that case you want as much as you can get on the front. Too much like more then 3 degrees will give you wheel bearing issues in the long run. Being you will go with a moderate drop you can add the IE fixed camber plates and get around 2-2.5 degrees in the front. Then you can adjust the rear lower control arms to get more or less camber to balance out the car.

If you care more about tire wear and you do mostly highway driving I would suggest you don't get camber plates and decrease the camber in the front to get as close as stock specs as you can with the help of adjustable rear lower control arms.

Hope that helps.
Danny D
MINICORSA
818-994-0338

 

I highly recommend the thread in this forum titled "Lowering=Not Worth It?". THIS IS NOT A CUT AND DRIED SUBJECT. THERE ARE MANY VARIABLES, MOST OF WHICH DEPEND ON WHAT YOU REALLY WANT.

The basic issues are:
> what you can do, realistically, in terms of your budget, but also
> whether you are streeting or tracking the car and
> if it is a street machine,
- what kind of ride are you interested in (willing to tolerate) and
- what is the condition of your roads (which might practically limit how low you can go without risking damage (or at least without having to constantly be conscious of bumps dips and so on).

The trouble is that this is an area in which there are many potential "unintended consequences" that you SHOULD be aware of BEFORE you lower (unless you have unlimited funds and/or time. In the thread I'm recommending, which you should easily find) you will see many perspectives and see many experiences related by several long-time and knowledgable MINI owners who have had mixed experiences with the results of lowering (many different ways to do it, to).

Whether lowering results in your being happier or not-so-pleased will depend on your needs and how you execute the process. There are MANY decisions -- including, but not limited to, whether to use camber plates and/or adjustable control arms.

 

Thanks guys.

My major concerns are tire wear and the increased understeer. My MINI is a street car and will not be tracked (yet). Since I am very happy with the stock hadling, I am mainly looking for looks. I guess I will just go with the springs and monitor my tire wear closley and see how the car handles without the plates and arms first.

This will not be my first lowered car, so I do have an idea of what I am looking for. I have researched here on NAM and have the decided the H-Sports or M7s will be be a good fit.

Thanks again!

 

my car pushed like a beast with hsports and no camber plates/rcr's.

Adding rcr's and camber plates with a good alignment made it better then stock.

I would do all 3 at the same time with a good alignment to keep stock like manners.

 

I did all 3 at the same time with an alignment 2.0 in the front and 1.5 in the back with a 22mm bar set at softest position and have been very pleased on the street and at AX's.

If I need more or less steering, I adjust the tire pressures.

 

NO.