I just purchased my '08 MCS with sport pack last Saturday and was thinking of getting some Eibachs; primarily for cosmetic reasons. Reading the various posts here has since made me reconsider getting lowering springs. Plan B is purchase some 18" black Ultraleggeras (sp?) and mount up Toyo Proxes 4, 205/40/18 tires; which should fill in the wheel gap about an inch or so over stock. At the Mini Dealer there is new '07 with JCW Aero Kit and factory JCW 18's, which from the front/side looks ok. I'm figuring the Ultra's should be lighter than either my stock 17's or the JCW 18's, plus the Toyo's should be lighter than the 18" Dunlop runflats, so my ride quality and handling should stay pretty close to the way it is now...Excellent. Comments?

I will post some pic's of the '07 MCS with JCW kit and wheels.

 

Getting bigger wheels wont change the gap between the fender. It might actually make it larger. Only smaller wheels will get you less ground clearance but the height will stay. If the spring size doesn't change, neither will the gap.

 

I was thinking the one inch greater diameter of the 205/40/18 compared to the stock 205/45/17 might decrease the wheel gap a smidge? Pic's attached of the '07 MCS with Aero and 18's.

 

Here's what happened when I put 17's on my Merc before lower springs. Original Wheels size was 15.


Dont forget if the wheel raises 1" on the top near the fender it will also do the same making your car 1" higher. That will reduce stability at highway speeds by letting more air under the car.

Also if the spring rates stay the same any the tire is closer to the well, it will rub on bumps and ditches.

 

going to a larger diameter wheel/tire combo will reduce the gap, but it'll also reduce your acceleration, braking (longer to stop), and your ability to corner. It may even lead to rubbing over bumps & when turning lock to lock ...
better to just lower it slightly

Like the guys were saying, if you do manage to close the gap a bit, you'll also be raising the car an equal amount, raising the center of gravity and giving you that ghetto hoopty look

 

Uh...the diameter of those two tires is almost the same. (205/45R17 = 24.3" diameter, 205/40R18 = 24.5" diameter.) The WHEEL is getting taller, but the tire is getting shorter. So the overall diameter is very close.

Yes, there will be a 0.1" reduction in your wheel gap, but that's going to be hard to notice. And as mentioned, the appearance will actually somewhat worse, at least in terms of the ratio of GAP to tire sidewall, since the tire sidewall is getting smaller by a half inch, while the gap is staying about the same. So the car will look a little bit "lifted" unless you lower it.

There's an excellent tire size calculator over at Miata.net. A general rule of thumb is that you don't want your tire diameter to change more than 2% compared to stock, to maintain speedometer calibration, factory gearing, and clearance with the fenderwells and such.

--Dan
Mach V

 

what posts have made you reconsider the springs?

I would definitely lower it... the handling and cosmetic benefits are amazing!

my Mach V springs are awesome!

 

You are absolutely correct about the minute difference in diameter. I looked at the wrong spec when I was on the Toyo Tire website

 

With the installation of lowering springs, several posts mentioned decrease in travel, bumpstop contact and shock compression preload. I'm all for lowering, but, I do not want to compromise the handling in a situation where the suspension is loaded up; such as in a curve, and riding over a mid-corner expansion joint or bump will cause the vehicle to hop off line. I want a suspension that will work on all kinds of road surfaces. I will look into Mach V springs. Thanks. Vic

 

Lowering the car 1 inch has side effects. Try to pull this off, you will be happy. I have the full JCW suspension and love it. The springs are ordered by vin # and call a dealer and say you ordered the kit but did not realize it came without springs. for 400.00 dollars you will have springs that lower the car about a half inch. The car will still work fine on stock struts but clean up the look.

 

Are the JCW springs linear or progressive? Any idea what the JCW spring rate(s) is compared to stock sport spring? Thanks. Vic

 

of course lowering springs will reduce your travel....

The thing about the MINI shocks, and most modern suspension systems, from what i read is that the bumpstops are an integral part of the suspension system meaning that they are actually part of the stroke unlike old bumpstops which are there solely to prevent damage to the struts. Bumpstop contact is not necessarily a bad thing.

Keep in mind lowering springs are typically stiffer than the stock, even sport suspension springs. Expansion gaps dont really pose a problem as in my experience, you still have enough travel to not worry about them. Just dont hit a speedbump too fast.

if you lived in sacramento i would be more than happy to take you for a ride.

 

Also keep in mind that in a hard corner with sidewalls so short, you run the risk of de-beading the tire from the rim. I have some pics of people here that put Ultaleggras on their minis and didnt lower them....it wasnt pretty. the wheel gap is still there, only now you've got wheel gap. and a bike tire!, and it looks like it's riding higher.
Lower your car, it's cheaper. UL's are quite expensive and bigger rims put the center of mass further away from the disk, increasing the amount of kinetic energy they store, making it harder to stop. get a big brake kit if you get much bigger rims. that's the whole point of bigger rims anyway,

just my 2 cents

 

if one was to do the opposite of what was mentioned above and go with a smaller wheel/tire combo (decreasing total diameter) is there a way to recalibrate the ECU/speedometer to recognize that as the new size?

 

I suspect someone's been reading the First Gen forums instead of the applicable R56/2nd gen forums.
The earlier cars sat about 1.5" lower and had about 1.5" less travel, lowering an R56 really isn't putting you in the same sort of bottoming out risk as the R50/53's

Don't look at swapping in some professional lowering springs as slamming your ride, so much, as correcting a bureaucratic alteration of the Mini's original design

 

This is NOT the case. Properly inflated, no tire will "de-bead" from its wheel under any cornering force, no matter how high. This can only happen if the tire is damaged or severely underinflated.

--Dan
Mach V

 

Otherwise Formula1 would be "unpossible" to quote Tuls

 

Not true, according to measurements in this thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=95275

 

Agreed! haa haa

The R56 having greater suspension travel than the R53 was a rumor started before the R56 came out. I've measured both chassis and guess what? They have the same amount of total travel, similar compression travel and similar rebound travel. Go figure.

 

Linear, stiffer yes, not to bad