Can someone please walk out to their MCS and report back stock R56 wheel well heights (flat ground to top of wheel well)... preferably someone with 17" wheels.

Gracias ... I can't seem to find it anywhere... (so just as good as the above would be a reference online somewhere).

I did find reports of lowered vehicles being 24.5 - 25... and rakes of 1/8 to 1/4 difference.

(This is all in inches.)

I'm trying to match stock rake on the Cross C/Os just installed.
Thanks..

 

Stock wheel arch height on an R56 [with 195/55-16] is 26.1" front and 26.3" rear. With your factory 17's expect a tenth less than that. Good thing I have that crap memorized!

If you're going for perfect handling I'd recommend setting your ride height about 24.7" front and 24.9" rear. The R56 has a bit of normal rake due to it's slightly changed wheel arches versus the R53 [random trivia]

Cheers,
Ryan

 

24" all around w/18" 40 series tires is golden!

 

Perfect .. thanks.

 

While I agree that 24" is a very attractive ride height in terms of aesthetics, it's getting close to going too low, and that starts diminishing the handling prowess of the car without going into some custom suspension work [namely optimizing the roll-center for the preferred ride height].

In my experience the MINI handles best when the suspension is between 0.75" and 1.5" lower than stock. Going much more than that and you start inducing more understeer at the limit. If you just have a street-driven MINI and don't need max handling though, slam-it!

 

I have 17" stock wheels with the run flat tires.

26" in the rear, and 25 5/8" on the front.

 

I went with 25 in rear and 24.75 in front.

Thanks again for the quick responses folks.

 

Very interesting! My stock ride height measurements came from my no-option R56 MCS with stock 16" wheels/tires. Perhaps your sunroof [and other options?] literally lower the car from the added weight. Or, MINI decided to change the ride height; what build date is yours? Mine was a Feb 07 build.


--->jproz; we need pictures!

 

Mine was built on Aug 24, 2007. I hear the sunroof is heavy, 60 lbs or something, so maybe that helps. I have just about all the other options except power fold mirrors and the PDC. I have the factory sport suspension, maybe that lowered it slightly.

Another factor might be tire pressure. Mine are at 37.

 

Ryan ... just wanted to point you here:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=148520
2009 JCW Stock Ride Height

Note that the Factory JCW height is EXACTLY 1 inch higher on both ends then your recommendation, with the "weak" suspension setup.
Way-to-go man! Just goes to show how good your recommendation was!

(and I know you asked a long time ago for pictures ... still got a couple more things in pipe .. then I'll do a little photo session and post.)

 

Haa haa! Well it's not like I'm just blowing smoke; I have been tinkering with MINI suspension for about 5 years now. I run the Dragon at least twice a year, and try to get to HPDE/track days as much as I can, so after a few years it comes pretty easy to nail down the sweet spot.

Get those other mods finished up and snap those pictures! Hot pics of nicely modded MINIs is always a good time!

 

If you get the cross coilovers you won't be able to ride at stock heights using the front endlinks that come with them. You have to lower ~3/4" (or more) to keep the links from banging into the bar right below them. Hard to explain but you'll see what I mean during the install.
Been there and done that.

When Jan saw my MINI he recommended I go even lower (I didn't because I already scrape coming out of my driveway)

 

That's good news to me, there's no reason to be higher than 1" lower than stock! Now I just need to find out exactly how low the Cross can go by shortening the damper bodies.