Good day everyone. i'm coming close to make some suspension mods in my 2010 MCS. My questions are geared more towards the strut support plates and stress bars. Would you recommend either one of these on my 2010? I live in New Hampshire and some of the roads around here can be pretty beat up. I don't want to spend money if it's not really needed. I am leaning towards a sway bar as well. Which brands would you recommend? same goes with the strut plates and stress bars. which would be more recommended over the next? Thanks in advance.

 

Not sure you will need strut braces as a dd.

Generally, you can stiffen up the chassis more with the lower braces than with the strut braces.

I would go with camber plates and perhaps a 20 mm rear sway bar from Whiteline. I had a 19 mm and found that sometimes I wanted a little more stiffness and when I moved to a 22 mm, I found that it hard to move beyond full soft. So 20 mm may give you a good adjustability range.

What other suspension mods are you thinking of?

 

as far as suspension mods go, i was only thinking sway bar for now. money is a huge factor. with many posts on strut mounts mushrooming, i ordered 2 sets of of the M7 strut reinforcement plates for my wife's car and mine. With the M7 i will have the option to add a cross bar down the road if i choose too. i just feel that i should go with something that will prevent trouble over something that will improve handling for now. i've nailed a few good potholes humming down the highway at good speeds and i'd hate to cause problems. i haven't looked into any camber plates or anything. as i said, i'm pretty much leaning towards a sway bar next and then.... i'm really not sure.

thanks.

 

The TSW undercar brace and a great improvent in stress reduction on the car, but something like a H-sport adjustable rear sway bar is propably the better of the two from a cost perspective.

 

Mushrooming is not a problem on the Gen 2 cars, only on some Gen 1 cars.

Why don't you drive your car for a while and decide what part of the handling you want to improve.

 

i know for sure that i want less body roll when i'm hammering around corners so a sway bar is definately in order. i will take your advice on the 20mm sway bar. thx...

 

Not trying to give you a hard time.

The Mini is severely front camber challenged, which shows up as understeer. When taking corners at speed, it tends to plough and track straight even though you are telling it to turn.

Think about Camber plates as well. It is a handling system you should be trying to tune. If you cannot turn, there is no need for a roll bar. When you are in a turn, roll bar works.

Consider the IE fixed plate, quite inexpensive. You have to factor in an alignment as well. You really do not need Strut plates on a R55-57.

 

i'm not taking your comments as a hard time. i'm taking the advice as it comes and researching from there. my car is maybe 5 months old and i have a room full of items that i've been collecting throughout the cold months just waiting for warm weather to start putting everything together...

i appreciate all the insight.

 

It is easy to make the OEM suspension work better but it hard to make it work great. It is a time consuming trial and error based on experimentation combined with your driving preferences and skills. I have been tuning my suspension for two years now and hope I am getting closer. But my car is quite track enabled and is also a DD so that makes it harder.

All the best to you.

 

I have the 20mm Whiteline rear sway bar and the Ireland fixed camber plate and love the setup. With this set up, the car is a freekin' go cart. These are the 2 least expensive mods you can make to the car and get a really noticable (a jump) improvement in handling without affecting the current ride. I am running the sway bar on the softest setting for now. Also, the IE camber plates, because of the way that they are made, actually double as an anti-mushroom plate. I also have the strut tower brace, my initial reaction to it was that it cut down on the body shake a little. But, would I do it again if money was an issue? Probably not.

 

Eddie,

You should probably go to the middle setting on your swaybar. Just be a little careful the first few turns. The back will just follow your front in a turn, just like they are so connected. That little bit more of an oversteer will seem to make the car a little more neutral in simple (vs connected) turns.

What F&R camber do you run now?

 

I really hadn't thought about changing the sway bar. It would be a thought as it still plows in hard corners. Camber - front with the IE plates is at -1.6 deg and the rear is stock (-0.5 on one side and 0.9 on the other). The front could do with some more but that is not going to happen without a custom IE camber plate.

 

You did pull the plastic pin right.

Next is to lower the car!

You are doing pretty good at -1.6 on front camber. Anywhere from -1.6 to -2.0 is good for a street/track car.

I wound try a middle setting on the rear sway bar. When I see you at WGI, we can talk more.