Has anyone gone with pairing a standard MC front sway bar with an MCS rear bar on either an MC or MCS? Just imagining that the MCS or "Plus" rear bar and the standard front bar might combine to produce relatively neutral handling, but I'm no engineer.

I've got an MC with standard suspension and was guessing there might be a lot of real cheap MCS rear bars available, given all the sick mod puppies out there.

Any experiences or advice on this swap would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

I've put the MCS rear sway on my Cooper and I do not notice a huge difference, the understeer can be dialed out with tire pressures just as effectively (on the autocross course). The problem is not many people pay much attention to the tire pressures and even fewer use trial and error of pressures to find a neutral set-up. The larger rear bar, or smaller front, would be a good way to have a 'fix and forget' neutral handling car. In addition, the tire pressures required to dial out understeer may be all wrong for the street and/or adversly effect tire wear. The Cooper Sport Suspension Plus rear sway bar is the same part number as the MCS rear sway, so there should be a plethora of MCS rear sways available.
There is also approx. 12 different spring part numbers between the MCS and Cooper. If you want stiffer, but not too stiff, springs try to find springs off of a loaded S w/sunroof and put them on your Cooper.
Good Luck

 

Great advice. Tire pressures make a world of difference, and depending on the tires and suspension you have, it takes a lot of figuring to get it right - and there are lots of different thoughts too!

The rear bar on the S is 17.2, as opposed to the 16mm bar on the Cooper standard. That will make a small difference, but not enough to give you a truly neutral handling car without tweaking something else - spring rates, tire pressures, camber, etc. It is a step in the right direction, and for stock classes, is the only real option.

Hope that helps! (PS, I have a stock S bar here...)

Randy

 

Randy-
What would be a fair price for a used stock S rear swaybar? Give me a range without shipping.
Thanks. you can PM me.