I'm re-thinking my suspension and thought I'd see what thoughts are out there. My car is 99% a daily driver but I do enjoy the occasional track/autocross day and I enjoy driving in the mountains and curvy roads. I currently have Stock springs with koni FSD shocks and stock front shock mounts on my car. As well as a 19mm rear sway bar. I have IE fixed camber plates, but took them off because I'm not going to be on track for a while and wanted to wear my tires more evenly while driving on the roads. Anyways, I digress... My shocks are about done so I'm looking at replacements, and I"m wanting more camber adjustments as well. I like the option to adjust the koni yellow, and the vorshlag camber plates look pretty good. I'd really like to stay with the stock springs just because I want to preserve as much ride quality and ride height as possible for rough and sometimes snowy roads.

My questions are, has anybody tried koni yellows with stock springs? Koni says they're compatible, but it seems like an unorthodox combination. the other question is are there any coilovers at about the same prince $1,500 that would have camber plates and comparable ride quality to the stock setup? Or maybe even up to $2,000?

 

I have driven a R53 with stock springs and Koni yellows. It drove well, no complaints. The Yellow's work well with a range of springs. I am currently running yellows with the TSW springs that are maybe 10% stiffer than stock and they are a great street (and occasional track day) combination. Unfortunately, Way is currently out of stock on the TSW springs. Before that I ran the yellows with Swift springs. That combination was excellent on track, but harsh if you hit a pot hole on the street. (My wife's description was "brutal". She much prefers the TSW & yellows.)

In the distant past I ran FSD's (like you have) with the red JCW springs, but the FSDs let them bottom-out too easily. Because of such limited suspension travel on the Mini, the FSD's seem to work best with stock-height springs.

You mentioned IE fixed plates. They work well year-round, do put them back on! Before the plates, I wore-out the outsides of my tires first. With the plates (and normal rotation) wear was quite even across the tires, and the front-end "sticks" a lot better, and lap times improved. Toe does change when you install the plates, so you'll need an alignment. I prefer zero toe-in in front for a street car (0˚ to 0.05˚ total toe-in). I set the Koni's
@ ¼ turn from soft in back, ¾ turn in front for street (more in front for track day).

 

I just removed a pair of custom-valved Koni yellows from the R50. They were set up with JCW springs, really a great setup. Rear shocks were leaking and too rusty to consider rebuild. I had a spare set of like-new Bilsteins that went on the car. The struts have a bit of rust, but should be rebuildable. Free for cost of shipping if anyone wants them to play with.