I am planning to do some suspension mods after X-mas. Hopefully if Santa brings me everything on my list, I should be adding a Alta 22mm RSB, H&R green springs, Alta real control arms, and thanks to this thread I must add the Ireland fixed plates.

After replenishing the bank account, I plan on getting some Koni FSD's.

I have 2 questions-

SInce I am adding the fixed camber plates now, should I opt for the 19mm RSB versus the 22mm? I am a little concerned now with being "tail happy", or should I just go for the 22mm, start on the soft setting and "grow into" stiffer settings on the rear?

Also, after the installation when I have the alignment done, what should my rear camber be set at? and is there an optimum toe setting?

I will be driving mainly on the street, both city and highway. I will be doing some auto-x and plan on an occasional track day.

Tire wear is a concern for me.

Thanks in advance for your help, this thread has been killer!, but now it looks like Santa's elves need to get back to work!!!

 

for a street driven car, 19mm.

 

meb is probably right, if you are only going to occasionally autocross or track the car and are more concerned with spirited motoring on the street, 19 mm is the way to go. I have an alta 22 mm on my car set to full soft, the car isn't overly tail happy most of the time if I'm careful....but if I start to push it real hard on the street it does demand 100% full concentration....it's not very forgiving at all.

Jason

 

I too have an Alta 22mm, but I have it set to the middle and I find that it is not tail happy. I am a spirited driver and don't track/AutoX, but do like my twisties, which I drive often. I guess it all depends on feel.

 

But I don't see camber plates in JustJAY's sig, and that does makes a difference. With camber plates in front, you need less rear swaybar. And if you have a LSD, you need less rear sway bar than you'd need if you don't have the LSD. Alignment can also affect your swaybar decisions also.

It's all a matter of balance. If bigger was always better, we wouldn't have bought a Mini.

Sure it's possible to "grow into a bigger bar", but it's also possible smash-up your car like the folks from Grass Roots Motorsports did after they went to a bigger bar on their project Mini. Fortunately, they were on a track, where bystanders are not likely to get injured when one gets a bit "over-enthusiastic".

Bottomline: Meb's advice is good advice.

 

You are correct, I don't have them yet. I am getting them more for protection of the strut towers and less for the camber. Talking of Ireland, I just saw a 10% off for MC2 subscribers ad in MC2 on the 3rd to last back page. It states the price for the fixed are $180, which is the normal price. I guess they will take it off at the end of the order.

 

Thanks for the advice everybody.
When shopping for a swaybar the camber plates were not yet considered.
Now I think about putting all the pieces together the 22mm might be a little much for my motoring.

Back to the second part of my question, should I just set toe at 0 degrees?
I am concerned about tire wear, but so want stick and turn in..

Thanks for the replies.

Nikki

 

So, yesterday my camber plates arrived and I put them into my car right away.

With my KW - 2 coilovers set to -40mm I get a camber of little more than 2° Really nice... but I did not have time to adjust toe because I finished at 6pm.

About adjusting toe, I talked to some serious motor-sport-expercerts here and the all said, that I should run toe in of about 0°26'. So, the outer side of the tire will get warmer and therefore also heat up like the inner side, making a perfect grip and usage of the tire. Also, the car will be very stable at high-speed (which we have a lot in Germany, especially on the Autobahn ).

I'm sorry, but can anyone tell me how much my 0°26' is in inch so I can compare to your adjustments ? What would you adjust for everyday driving and why ?

 

I had an alignment performed with a very accurate Beissbarth machine recently. On JCW springs with modified IE fixed camber plates I have -1.3 degrees camber up front; those of you with lowering springs and the regular fixed plates will get numbers beyond -1.25 degrees by a good margin. As luck would have it the disparity between left & right camber up front has been eliminated.

I set toe in at +0.15 degrees for the fronts, and +0.22 degrees for the rears plus -1.75 degrees camber. I’m also using a very moderate 18mm rear bar on the lighter of the two positions. With these settings I get lots of stick, straight line & sweeper mid corner stability, and there’s not much penalty in tight corners or turn in. I’ve also removed some movement from the control arms (camber/toe links & front wishbone bushings), so the elasto-engineered-under-steer inherent in compliant suspension components combined with running more camber in the rear than front has been reduced; slight under-steer has been good to me on the street. More than half my mileage is on interstate hwy so straight line stability and controlled maneuvering while passing have equal importance with curve hugging needs.

 

anyone can educate me alittle bit on adjustables or fixed plate like this one? im looking to getting some 18" wheels, possibly with wide and beefy tires, like some 225/40, will adjustable plates and coilovers help with a really lowered setup? or camber plate won't make a difference if i rub or not because of the height i'm looking for?

 

Another ? for all of you guys.. How does lowering effect the amount of camber? Specifically thinking of the 1.3" drop the M7 springs give..

 

Redskunk - lowering the car increases negative camber, or it pushes the bottom edges of your tires outwards and the top edges inwards.

mb

 

Danke.

 

So mine arrived this week, along with a new JCW suspension to replace what I was running as it rubbed something awful.

2006 MCS, cam,header, pulley, etc

I do race about 6 times a year, so I wanted to get a little more camber up front.

Here is my old setup:

Stock SS+ struts with H Sports
Alta 22mm sway
RDR upper and lower rear control arms

Street: (Lots of rub)
Wed Sports 17x7 +38mm
Goodyear F1 215/45/17

Track: (still rubbed)
Drag DR17 17x7 ET42
Falken Azenis RT 615

Front
Camber -.5 / -.67
Toe 0

Rear -1.25 / -1.25
Toe 0

Having just installed these tonight, the rear has about 0 camber, and the fronts you can see they have about as much camber as the rear had before. Even without an alignment the car feels great. I am going to give it a week or 2 and then get it realigned. The car is very loose, as it was before, but I like it! Sway is set on the softer of the settings.

As they say, loose is fast! but its nice to have some bite from the front end now!

 

So, yesterday me and a friend did the realignment.

KW V2 Coilover, dropped 1,6", OZ Superleggera 17" with 215/40 Bridgestones, H&R sway-bar set on hard

Front axle
Left camber: -1°50'
Left toe: +0°02'
Right camber: -1°50'
Right toe: +0°02'

Rear axle
Left camber: -2°05'
Left toe: +0°08'
Right camber: -2°05'
Right toe: +0°08'

I was very surprised that on the front and rear camber is totally identical, since I have heard that many have little different camber. But I am totally happy !

Driving makes a lot more fun, the camber plates are really the best for allday driving and some auto-x...

 

Could someone post a picture of these installed from the top of the strut tower? I have a hunch a shop may have installed these on a friend's MINI the wrong way and actually gave him positive camber. They raised his front end a very noticeable amount also...about an inch or so. He has H&R springs and it had very little gap prior to these being installed, but now he has a significant gap. Thanks.

Edit: Are the mounts supposed to be closer together or further apart? His are further apart...moved more to the outside of the car away from the engine.

 

i bet they switched the left one with the right one , switch them and it should give you negative camber.

 

That is what I am thinking. I am just looking for confirmation on how they should look. The height raise and the way everything looked just seemed odd. He had more wheel gap than I do with JCW suspension and he has H&R springs.

 

I don’t think the fixed plates can be reversed because of the outer profile’s incompatibility with the underside of the tower, but then I didn’t try it backwards. When looking from the top, the strut nut will be closer to the engine if correctly fitted. One possibility https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=63196 , another possibility is miss-fitment of the spring hat, but that would be hard to do even in the dark.

 

I thought the strut nut was supposed to be closer to the engine. It was definetly further away from the engine though. Something is not right.

Thanks Keith.

 

just switch them around , i had it wrong the first time as well

 

GJ stepping up to the plate and proving that it can be done.

 

Were the springs rubbing?...I have the jcw suspension
and I am thinking about getting the IE fixed camber plates.
I am wondering if the modification that IE made to your camber plates would be helpful to all MINI's or is it something unique to the welds on your car.

Thanks

 

There is a reinforcement rib on the driver’s side (U.S.) that can get in the way; look at post#4 for the before and post#27 for the after. The only way you will know for sure if there will be interference on your vehicle is to do the install and compress the strut. The chances are better that you won’t have a problem than likely you will.

 

was the problem alignment or rubbing?