I am going to buy a set of H-sport springs soon, and I know that the spring rates are tuned to make the car more neutral through the corners. I'm also interested in the H-sport Comp. rear sway, which, as said by many people here, makes quite a big difference in curing understeer. My question is...if the springs already make the car more neutral, is the rear sway bar necessary? I mostly do street driving, and may be once of twice a year I might go to a auto-X just for fun.
Thanks.

 

Springs only: More neutral. Note, the use of "more". Not neutral, but certainly headed in the right direction.

From all of my research, the rear swaybar needs to be there to get low speed oversteer and highspeed understeer. This is supposed to be sheer bliss. Of course, not as blissful as coilovers, but hey, for under 450 with that much of an improvement in handling, it's awesome.

If you had to buy one or the other, get the sway bar first rather than the springs ( unless you prefer dropping the car more than improving handling ).

 

Aftermarket rear swaybar is a must-have item to finish the setup. :smile:

 

I recently had the H Sport springs installed on my '04 MCS with Konig Imagines and Parada Spec 2's but stock rear sway stayed. Then went to a BMW driving school and talked to a couple of other MCS drivers with the sway bars installed. They indicated that the car seemed to 'turn-in' right below the shifter and overall balance was greatly improved. After the pulley is installed on Monday it will be my next mod.

 

On my 2003 I had the H sport springs and RDR rear bar. With the adjustability of the bar, I could tune the car to the conditions.

Without the bar, I felt I still had too much understeer.

I'm actually thinking of doing the bar only on my next MINI (which I hope to have late this summer!)