I just finished doing a spring swap on my cross coilovers this weekend with a set of Swift springs and WOW am I glad I did. These may be just about the most accurate spring you can get your hands on. Swift uses less coils in the same length of spring to get the job done. For instance, in the rears, the stock cross springs have about 7 coilds, where as the Swifts use 6. I would have to double check to be sure, but you get my point. More spring travel before the spring is binding on itself. Not that I know of this being an issue with the crosses, but I understand it is with BC/Megan. Overall, what I wanted was a slightly softer ride, besides I get bored and like to try out new things. I purchased these from forum member Ninjlao, and while I really can't comment on anything ofther than daily driving comfort so far (It's only been 2 day now) I can tell you that the crosses set up this way make for a noticeably more comfy, compliant daily ride, with plenty of room to frim it up with the damper adjuster. I opted to go with slightly different spring rate than what comes stock with the crosses. Stock cross set up is 8kg front 7kg rear. I went with 8kg front 6kg rear for the Swift.

A little required reading....

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...gs-dynoed.html

 

I believe TSW's will only drop you ~1". H&R's will get you closer @ 1.4"

 

No I haven't. You can't adjust actual damper stroke, that's fixed. If anyone out there that has Cross coilovers can use a tape measure, please measure total possible stroke [full compression to full droop]

 

The coilovers not the springs.

Thanks
Barry

 

I really don't think they drop a full inch... my car still looks suvlike lol. Then again I have camber plates.

 

That is what I found on mine as well (when I had my TSWs).

 

How do you like your konis by comparison?

 

I'm pretty sure you meant KW... the simple answer is "I love them". I feel like they are the best of both worlds.. looks and ride quality (based on the four suspensions I've had in my car to date). Their dampers are super high quality and should last longer than my ownership of the car. Plus, I can recoup some of the investment when it comes time to sell the car (I kept my OEM struts/springs).

 

Yeah, meant KWs. Been a long week. Sweet review. I think the TSWs are going to stay on my car- I can finally clear speedbumps without hurting my car. We'll see if they stay that long though.

 

im slightly confused i travel nyc streets and would like to lower my car but stock is killer around here in terms of comfort very harsh. im as intrested in lowering as comfort so what to do? so from what i understand the vmaxx or kws are my best option?

 

First of all, nice MINI. Secondly, how low do you want to go? All suspension modifications are generally a trade off in one way or another. KW and Cross are the two main ones I'd consider as I don't know as much about the VMAXX ones. I went with KW because I have never heard much of a complaint from anyone and they were half the money of the Cross. Also, ask yourself if you really want 100 different settings to tweak or if you're looking for something that's turn-key with minimal setup (install, adjust height, and roll). If I had the money to burn, I would have dropped $2K on Cross. Then again, the tweaker in me would have been adjusting them every weekend.

 

Anyone know if there's any difference between the KW's for an R56 and R53 besides the rear bushings?

 

BlackSapphire: you have the KW V1's?