I have the regular suspension and would like to lower my car only about 1 inch. I don't want to go too low, as I think it will sacrifice the ride of the car. Does anybody know of a spring manufacturer who offers lowering springs that only lower the car about .8" to 1" in ride height? I don't want to get a stiff ride. Just want it too look good.

Thanks

 

That's a tough one...I have the Mach V springs, and they dropped the car a perfect amount...about 1"-1.25". The ride is stiffer though, to aid in handling.

 

Unfortunately I can't help, but this is the same setup I have and the exact spring I'm looking for. I was pretty much decided on the H&R springs but I'm really worried that since they lower the car so much, I'll run into all kinds of issues with bottoming out and ride quality. The Mach V springs are out as well since they firm up the ride quite a bit. For my purposes the stock handling is fine and I don't plan to track the car. So I don't want to sacrifice too much comfort strictly for aesthetics, especially since I'll be road tripping quite a lot in my MINI. But the wheel gap...

 

i have the same predicament as you. I would like to lower it for the looks, but ride quality is more important. Don't know which spring is stiffer if the Mach V or the H & R? I know the H & R lowers about 1.4" but if the ride is not too harsh, i guess I could get a lower ride height.

 

Exactly what I'm thinking. Every post I've read on here claims ride with the H&R's is so close to stock that one won't notice a change at all. I've even read a couple NAMers reporting that it results in a BETTER ride then stock. While I do believe that the H&R springs may be just as compliant as stock, I find it quite difficult to wrap my head around the idea of ride staying exactly the same even with significantly less suspension travel. But then again I don't know anything about suspensions, so feel free to educate me. As far as the Mach V's, it seems everyone is in agreement that they create a substantially firmer ride but provide amazing handling.

 

could just cut a coil off the stock springs to lower it but keep same spring rate. I have a set of stock R56 MCS springs sitting at home since I changed my springs if you're so inclined.

 

H-sports = 1" from everything I've heard. I have a set waiting for me to back in town to install with my new rear sway bar being delivered next week.

 

As i understand, if the spring is cut, it results in a stiffer spring. I guess someone would need to come up with a spring that is shorter, but that has about the same coils, so that it would lower the ride and keep it as stiff as the OEM spring? Maybe with thinner coils so that is not so stiff, but shorter in overall length with the same amount of coils?

I can't understand why a spring that lowers 1.4 inches (H & R) is not as stiff as one that lowers only about 1.2 inches (Mach V).

 

Will they fit the 2007 MCS? I see you have the R53 (2006 model)

 

aka "ghetto drop"

 

shortening a spring won't increase the spring rate, just lower the ride height.

 

By decreasing the availible suspension travel by lowering your going to have to stiffen up the spring to keep from bottoming. Particularly with the standard shocks and struts vs. sport suspension.

There's not a ton of travel to play with in the MINI. I would be afraid that just cutting a coil would creat a car that rides soft, but bottoms too easily (you're on the bump stops after a 1-1.5 inch drop, anyway). All that energy is going to be absorbed somewhere if not by the springs/shocks... I would fear you would find yourself blowing shock seals or mushroming the strut towers.

Look for a set of fully adjustable coilovers, instead. They cost a lot more (a LOT more!)... but you will be able to not only tailer the ride height, but adjust the dampning as well.

 

I'm in the same predicament here. Regular (non-sport) suspension and wanting to drop it a bit more for looks then anything. I have 214/45/17's and I've found that my car has settled a bit so I'm down to wanting to lower it 1/2" to 3/4"

For me, springs are out. Mach V's and H&R's drop it too much. Plus I'm not really comfortable with taking out that much suspension travel without fairly significantly stiffening the suspension. I don't want to be bottoming out all over the place.

That leaves me with coilovers or JCW. Coilovers are tricky. First off there is the price. My car is less then 1 year old and to spend atleast $1K on coilovers not to mention a rear swaybar and endlinks (most would end up adding these I think). That kind of sticks in my throat, if you know what I mean. Also I'd want to at least go for a ride in a MCS equiped with coilovers so I'd know what I'm getting. And how many are around ?

The JCW is tempting simply because if I'm going to do something to the suspension, the JCW was fully designed to work with my car so I know there shouldn't be any unforseen problems. There would be no issues with warrenty. Of course the JCW will really stiffen up the ride and only lower it 1/2" which as I said earlier, my car has already settled that much and it's still too high.

And of course it doesn't help looking at all the great cars here that have been dropped and seeing how much better they look !!

 

Now, if Mach V could make another set of springs for those of us who want to drop our cars a max of 1" that would be great.

 

There's also the JCW springs for like a .5" drop....of course they'll be stiffer.

 

are they stiffer than the Mach V springs? I mainly want to find springs that will lower the car and not give me a stiff ride. I know most springs that lower will, but if I can find the one that gives me the LEAST stiff ride, I would get those springs.

 

+1 to that. I do want to reduce the wheel gap, but there's only so much that it would make sense for me to sacrifice strictly for aesthetics.

 

To all of us wondering what to do regarding suspension mods and lowering the car, 2 things;

Depending on what area of the country you live in, it might be wise to wait until spring when there is bound to be more choices out there.

I started a thread in the 1st Gen\Mods\Suspension forum asking the R53 guys to give comments, etc on their suspension mods since they've lived with them for much longer then us R56 people. Might raise some interesting points.

 

good point. I think i will save my pennies and get me an Alta CAI and Turbo Inlet Hose and maybe Boost Tubes first.

 

Sounds like a good plan to me! Those are the first three mods I did (well actually I'm still waiting on the damn turbo inlet hose) and couldn't be happier. I do want springs as well, but more then likely will wait simply because I'd prefer to finish all my engine mods first. Again the standard handling on the MCS is more then good enough for my needs so I'd rather go for POWER. Also by the time I finish up with all the ALTA mods it'll probably be 2008 anyway, by which time there should be a lot more springs out there.

 

I'm not sure if the JCW springs are softer than the Mach V ones before the Mach V ones go into coil bind(since they're progressive). The Mach V springs ARE definitely stiffer at their peak because they're progressive, so under heavy load the coils will touch, making it basically an infinite rate. So JCW ones will be softer.

 

Uh...I don't understand what you are saying. ALL springs have inifinite rate at coil bind. Being progressive doesn't have anything to do with that. The suspension will bottom out before the coils will actually stack on top of each other.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

False. A spring is just a coiled torsion beam. Shortening a given torsion beam will increase the spring rate. Rule of thumb: don't cut your springs unless you REALLY know what you're getting yourself into.

Regarding the topic; I had H&R springs on my R56. They lowered the car about 1.5". This lead the car to using the stock bumpstops much more than stock. That said, despite the reduced compression travel, the ride quality was not significantly hampered on all but the largest speedbumps. If Dan's Mach V springs lower the car less, I'd vote for those, as they'd be pretty much as comfy as stock.

$0.02,
Ryan

 

I was just saying that your springs will go to coil bind much sooner since they are progressive, since coils do touch eachother when the car is at static ride height. Obviously if you coil bound the JCW ones, they would be at the same rate as well, but since they're linear, the coil spacing is greater making is harder to coil bind.

 

I'm not gonna argue or anything about suspension stuff. I work on a race team and specialize in suspension setup, so I have nothing to prove, just a little confused. Cutting a part of a coil or an entire coil won't change the rate. How would it change the rate? You're just changing the spring height, not changing material, not adding a progressive quality to the spring, not changing the distance between coils....only changing the spring height, which will just lower the car, so the same amount of weight is sitting on the spring
And cutting your springs, like you said should be a very last resort...I just threw that option out there since I have a set lying around.