hi guys,
today i visited my local service to check to noise comes from right side of the car, after a quick check we saw that the front right side strut was blown and making that noise. so, i decided to upgrade my suspension. i am not experienced with the coilovers, but as i read from the posts drivers like me (road oriented) had chosen KW v1's, but on the other hand i am also thinking about the JCW's also because the local service gave me a real good quote about them. i have the Alta rear sway bar (19 mm) and both the front and rear endlinks which will come and installed next week. so what would you recommend KW's or JCW?
thanks

 

I'd go with the JCW if you are looking for road manners. They'll give you the least problems and since they were meant for the car, I think it will be the most balanced choice. Besides, you can keep the ALTA bar and sell the JCW on eBay or something!

 

The KW's aren't "meant" for the MINI?

The JCW and KW V1 are similar handling, but with different altitude goals. The JCW will probably handle very nice and safe, but the KW will look fantastic since it's designed to ride 1.6" lower than stock. They both have similar total stroke [unless the JCW has less than stock] so ride quality should be similar.

Admittedly, I haven't driven the R56 JCW suspension, however I have driven the R53 JCW suspension on a GP. If they're similar, than the JCW is a nice but minor handling upgrade from stock. Since I own the KW V1 on my R56, I can say it's a "fast street" coilover, in that it's not meant for track [like the JCW], but maintains reasonable ride comfort while torque steer and handling feel are improved from the lowered ride height.

The bottom line is they're very similar in overall feel, ride, and handling. The big differentiation between them is ride height; do you want the car to have massive ground clearance like stock or have a proper stance with the wheels aligned in the wheel arches?

 

is stroke the same as wheel travel? I don't see how springs that drop the car 1.6" could have as much travel as the JCW suspension. Some coilovers yes, but springs?

 

On the MINI, stroke and wheel travel are reasonably synonymous. The front motion ratio is ~0.99:1, and the rear motion ratio is ~0.875:1, by my measurements. This means the rear damper can have 4.5" of stroke and the wheel will end up having ~5.1" of stroke. [which is about right for stock, KW, and V-Maxx, FYI].

KW Variant 1 coilovers have identical damper stroke as standard suspension MINI [both R53 and R56 use the same stroke dampers]. The KW's keep the stroke by using a similar damper [tuned differently] with a mounting point that is shifted to offer an inherently lower ride height.

We're not talking about lowering springs, but nevertheless, lowering springs do not reduce overall wheel travel or suspension stroke, however they do offer their ride height reduction by reducing compression travel and increasing rebound travel.