I went with h-sports because of their solid construction and because their blue finish matches my laser blue mini quite nicely

 

Installed mine today, will get a alignment tomorrow. Feeling good so far. I dropped it about 1.2 in the front and 1.6 in the rear, so it's sitting level.

Question, the rear dampers adjust with solid clicks using their tool, the fronts have a slotted head screw on top that doesn't feel like it's doing anything. Normal?

 

Teh adjustment for front dampening is on the bottom. I don't know what that slotted thing at top is for.


Had mine installed today and the alignment is just finishing up. I get to drive it soon!

 

Woot! Had my coilovers installed yesterday and got a four wheel alignment.

I didn't do an extreme drop - only about 3/4". There are a couple issues you can run into if you don't do a big drop. On the front the swaybar was touching the main arm that holds the wheel to the car with only a 1/2" drop. With the little extra drop I gave it there is only a 1/8" gap between the sway bar and arm. If the new control rods that come with the coilovers were 1/4" shorter this wouldn't be a problem.

In the back you won't be able to put the brake line into the bracket that is welded onto the coilover unless you do at least a 1" drop. My brake line isn't attached to anything right now (seems ok).

They are beautiful to look at but once installed you can barely see them.

The install took about 3 hours including adjusting for height. The alignment took an hour. Had everything done professionally for about $325.

Stiffness - I was running the sports suspension so I was used to fairly bumpy to start with. The JIC is stiffer BUT as other people pointed out that doesn't tell the whole story. In a way it feels smoother than before while being stiffer. I know it doesn't make sense - I guess it's better to say it is different (in a much better way). Current dampening settings are 4 clicks from soft up front and 5 from soft in the rear. Track days I'll stiffen up the front (and probably drop another ~ inch in front and back). We did not install the rear adjusting cables as I have amps/signal processors in the locations those would have gone.

Body roll - I have the stock sway bars and body roll has just about been eliminated even on a 70mph slalom.

Corners - There is one 270 degree offramp that I normally take about 50 mph. 50 was pushing it a little. With the new coilovers I took it at 57mph and it didn't even feel close to the edge. I'm sure I could have gone faster but I was worried about the grip my runflats have. Just because the car is flat doesn't mean the tires aren't near the limits.

My alignment settings in case anyone is interested:

Front camber: -1.5
Front toe : -0.06 out (1/16th out)
rear camber: -1.3
rear toe : +0.06 in (1/16th in)
(thank MINIHUNE for the suggestions)

I'll take a pic and post it in a little while.

 

You need more camber frt and rear if you track or autoX.
Just my opinion.

 

Yes, alot of people with Crosses and even non-Cross run an average of 2.25 degrees up front.

I took my car to Auto-x first time this past weekend. Actually it was for SCCA Level 1 and Level 2 school. I had my coilovers set about half way. But after the Level 1 class, realized that I could go ALOT stiffer up front. So now I'm about 3 clicks from full stiff. In the back I am still in the middle. After doing that, body roll was minimized, but I was able to isolate the weakness in my tires as they felt really squishy.

I didn't bother to readjust the fronts for the ride home, and honestly, I didn't feel a huge difference in ride quality. Dunno why that is.

 

-1.5 camber is my street setting. I can easily adjust it at the track.

 

Alignment I'm running is:

-2.5 Front Camber
1/16th Toe Out Front
-1.5 Rear Camber
0 Toe Rear

Stock Caster.


If you run more camber in front than rear, the back end comes around a bit in the corners. Really helps on the track... it makes your car feel more neutral, so it doesn't understeer like a pig anymore.
Enjoy them!

 

ORLY? How is that? One thing that Cross set is not good for is adjusting the front camber while installed. Did you have the shock towers cut out?

 

I was wondering the same thing...adjusting the front was a biatch for my mechanic. Does the R56 have larger holes than the R53?

 

Have you kept your stock rear contol arms, at least for the moment?

If you lower you car further, e.g., for the track, do you think you'll have to install adjustable rear control arms?

 

--->MotorMouth; thanks for sharing your install and driving impressions! I have a few questions that might be tough for you.

1) Do you know how much overall damper travel the Cross coilovers have?

2) Do you know how much you could shorten the damper body to get maximum lowering? Basically, if you wanted to slam it, how low could you go?

Thanks!
Ryan

 

nope, for track use I'd do an easy fix. The 3 holes at top for the 3 bolts are large enough to move the strut tower a full degree (I know because I did that with stock suspension to get -1 camber). When they were installed the bolts were tightened down at the outermost position and then the alignment was set. I can loosen the 3 nuts and push the shock tower inwards and after the race I can push it back out to exactly were it was.
I can reach the camber lock bolts as I had them put into holes that are accessible. I won't be doing it that way as it seems easier to just use the method I mentioned for adjsutment.

yes.
I don't know.
The kit came with the front ones as the stock ones are much too short to work. Too bad the front ones are a little bit too long if you want a minimal drop. Maybe Jan or someone who has slammed their MINI can answer the qustion about the back ones.

you're right - they are tougher than I can handle.
1) no idea.
2) I didn't go for a huge drop but they advertise up to a 2.5" drop without losing wheel travel. I can believe it. It seems like they'd be happier if I dropped it more. You wouldn't have to worry about the front sway bar touching anything and you'd be able to put the brake line into the bracket where it is supposed to be.

 

some taken during install:

side view of back


view of the fronts. I should have taken another angle so you could see how close the sway bar is to the big arm under it.






as you can see below the brake line won't reach down to the bracket. another inch of drop and it should.



man - that thing sits close to the tire!





.OK HAVE ONE OF THE MINI: (looks like I need to drop the back another 1/4" or so)
The front lowest air dam is just barely over 2" from the ground.

 

What are your wheel specs up front? Width/offset?

 

stock.

 

ohh ok cool Wasn't sure if you had aftermarket wheels installed in that pic of the front suspension.

So 16x6.5 et48

Was just curious because that looks to be about as close to the coilover as you would want to go.

 

stock wheels on a lowered car with coilovers is ALWAYS tight. Mine were too.

Q for you - which vendor did you buy the Cross from and which version? There were two for the R53 and I think also an R56 version.

 

Yah....but plug those measurements in and it looks like wheels such as Konky's would be tight as well. I was just curious for when it came down to fitting wide with these coils

 

7.5ET45 is as high as I'd go. The wheels need to go out, not in from there.

 

yah...with 17's there isnt much "going out from there" once you reach his width and offset though... 8et35. It's the perfect amount of poke for 8's and as you said, not much room for going wider on the inside.

This car is just made for staggered setups there's so much more room in the rear

 

Looks like the rear spring could use a helper? It also looks like these use a 60mm spring, which would explain why you can fit your stock wheels without spacers. Can anyone confirm the spring ID?

It does look like the front drop link is simply too long. Even if you lower the car it's not going to change the relationship between the drop link and the knuckle/damper mount. Hmmm I'd have to see it in person.

It also looks like there's tons of room to shorten the dampers to lower the ride height without messing with droop/compression travel. Das good!

 

those are beautiful motormouth.

 

I was thinking the same thing....very nice indeed. Of course I find out about it after I finally find someone to work with on my custom shortened struts

 

Jan at RMW. The box had a stamp (or writing) that said R56. I don't know of any specifics on a version number or spring rates. I just told Jan what I plan on doing and to send me what he thought was best.