Understood.....I just don't need the "track" aspect of them.

 

Yes but if you like a good handling car, be it off ramps or twisty roads, then you'll love them.

 

Thanks for that offer ra2fanatic I just might take you up on that… Since we are neighbors, is there a shop that you can recommend to set these Ohlins up the right way?
Rims, tires and Big brakes are also on my list of upgrades at this same time…

 

Yeah this guy :D

Ivan Madrigal @ Strasse Sport in Covina. Swapped out my Ohlin coilover springs to Hyperco springs in less than a hour :D

 

Thanks again ra2fanatic…. I found Ivan on Facebook and will contact him when all the parts come in…. On my next round of upgrades we need to talk about that awesome turbo set-up you have on your Mini….

 

any time. shoot me a pm and I'll be down to meet up anytime next week. except Wednesday, I'll be at Disneyland :-P

 

Installed Ohlins R&T on my R56S over the weekend. A couple of questions for you guys who have been running Ohlins for a while:

1) what do you find is the optimum damping setting for daily driver? I'm at -7 clicks (from full stiff) both front and rear at the moment, probably going to soften it a bit.

2) The spec sheet says about an 18mm drop from stock. I set everything up following the recommended settings, I see the drop in front but the rear is unchanged. What has your experience been with height adjustment?

3) what do you find is optimum setting for track? I'm looking forward to another day at Laguna Seca and trying out the new suspension.

thanks!

 

No responses so here is an update on my questions:

1) I ran for about a week at -10, felt better but a little bouncy at times. Today I turned it down to -15. So far for a daily driver it feels great!

2) Originally I set the rears up according to the recommended settings: starting from a 200mm spring length, preload 10mm to 190mm, leaving 26mm of threads showing on the height adjustment. That gave me only about 1/8 inch of drop. So today I turned down the lower spring stop 5 turns which equals 10mm of drop, but reduces the pre-load. That resulted in about 25mm (1") of drop. I think what's happening is the weight of the car is now compressing the spring by what used to be the pre-load amount, that plus the 10mm on the lower spring stop is getting me the total drop. Also now I have noticeable rear camber, getting the car aligned this week.

I need to live with it for a week or so after the alignment to see what further tweaks are needed.

3) looking at the calendar to figure out which track day to sign up for - Laguna Seca or Thunderhill? Decisions...

 

Go for MRLS~ and bring some onboard vids, so that I can compare with my Laguna Seca onboards I got last year with stock suspension.
I also ordered ohlins(with hyperco, vorshlag) can't wait..but need to wait.. it's on back order. :(

 

Got it aligned last week. -2 degrees camber front and rear and very slight toe in front and rear as recommended by Bruce at BR Racing for a compromise between mostly daily driver with occasional track days. With the Ohlins, Vorshlag camber plates, 22mm RSB, and the alignment, the handling is now ridiculous. Not a trace of understeer and I don't even have to think about slowing down for corners. With the Ohlins set to -15 the ride is much improved on nasty bumps that would rattle my teeth with the stock suspension, but has incredible feel on fast corners. Damn this car is fun!

 

I'm surprised you didn't want a bit more aggressive fronts than rears, that's how I'm normally set up. You want more grip up front than the rears in these cars...

 

For a dedicated track toy I would definitely have more front camber, but since 99% of my miles are street I didn't want the extra tire wear.

 

My MINI isn't a dedicated track toy either, but I normally aim for around -3 to -3.1 camber up front and -2.4 to -2.6 rears.

 

Everything I have read says more than 1.8 - 2 degrees camber starts to wear the inside edges of the tires excessively - what has your experience been? What tires do you run?

 

as long as your toe settings are as close to 0 degrees in the front as you can get it, your tire wear will be ok. i used to run -3.0 front and -2.5 rear, and had very minimal inside tire wear on my street tires.

 

Experience? Hmmm....well I have 17" wheels on G-Force Rivals for track and the CCW's on 18" Falken 453 tires. I'm not really a good example for an experience with tires because I run rather aggressive on the street and wear has never bothered me. I rotate and flip my tires to even out the wear over time though, but I can't say I've gone to the wear bars on any of the tires I've had since I end up selling my wheels waaaaaay before I even get to see how even or uneven the wear is.

Pretty similar to what you have.

 

LOL well I'll have to get used to the new setup and keep an eye on the tire wear. I'm almost done with the stock Continental runflats and will be replacing with Michelin PSS when the time comes.

 

Make sure you have a good alignment before running the pilot super sports. I ate up my first set, then did the alignment. Second set is lasting.

 

Great Brake!

 

^Thanks! They stop great too! :D

 

I'll jump in here just to say that I've seen ra2fanatics R56 in person and it's badass! I too will be running öhlins next year along with Vorshlag camber plates. Where's the best place to order? I'm in Canada.

 

When did you see my MINI???? Battle Tuning can probably take the order for you.

 

They make great stuff for Bikes too.

 

Nekky - For the Ohlins definitely shop around, there is huge variation in pricing. I ordered through coilover-store.com, they don't list applications for the R56 on their website but when I inquired via email they responded quickly with a very attractive price. They direct shipped from Ohlins. Apparently I got the last set in the USA at the time, the next batch doesn't arrive until October.

Vorshlag camber plates are the same pricing everywhere, so pick your favorite vendor to order or go direct to Vorshlag. They get built to order and shipped direct from Vorshlag. I ordered through outmotoring.com, great customer service, 5% NAM discounts, and free shipping to lower 48 for orders over $195.

I also ordered new "hats" for the rear along with Powerflex shock mount bushings from ECS Tuning. That makes the install really easy as you can put together the whole assembly on the workbench and then just swap. No dealing with a spring compressor to re-use the mount and bushing.

 

i think -2.5 f, -1.5 r, 0 toe front, tiny bit of negative toe in the rear would be a good street setup. as long as u don't go crazy with toe, you'll be fine with tire wear.