Ive just lowerd my car and wounderd if i should leave the rear slightly higher than the front.This set up will be for street use mostly.Also i have adjustable rear lower arms.Should my rear wheels have less camber than the front.Will it handle better on street with less rear camber?

 

If you used coil-overs, you should adjust the fron first where you want it. After you set the front, roll the mini for about 15-30 feet and you will see the carbody drop about another 1/2 inch, depending on whos kit you used. THEN adjust your rear to be only about 1/4 to 1/2 inch higher than the front. The rear should not be lower than the front, whiah sometimes happens when you use lowering springs, rather than coil-overs. Hope this helps, bryce, 949-725-7983

 

It really depends wether you want it to look slammed, or if you want it to handle better, or tune it to handle where your driving.

 

why is that?

 

In a vacuum, A lower front potentially cause a greater roll moment up front allowing the car to tuck-in a little faster, despite what may be a lower roll center. Basically, there is less roll resistance up front...softer springs up front = less roll resistance...smaller front bar = less roll resistance, narrower front track = less roll resistance.

One key factor that will affect the degree to which this works is geometry. Sometimes a lowered front end provides a different swing arm and therefore a different camber curve. Lowering may enhance the camber curve and it may make it worse. The point here is even thought tuck-in is the goal, the front tires may actually have better leverage after lowering. I don't know if this is true with repsect to the mini, You just have to try it.

The rear of my mini is about 1/4" higher than the front.

 

Not to mention headlight aiming will be off, if you care about not blinding people and passing inspection!

 

Well, just do it right......Most lowered MINI's look like crap because they drop the back too far. Just keep the wheel well gaps consistent! and it will look sharp, if not it just looks like an hack job......here is a good example of what NOT to do. Unfortunately the galleries are full of bad lowering jobs

 

I think both driver's side front and rear control arms have a mechanism for leveling lights...But, nothing worse than being blinded by lights pointing directly in to one's eyes, rendering high beams useless.

 

this is clearly this guys OPINION and is not a fact. keep that in mind.

 

My car is about 10mm lower at the front than the back when measuring from the centre of the wheel to the lower top of the wheel arch.You can basicaly fit nearly one finger betwwen the front tyre and arch and about nearly 2 fingers at the rear.I have HSport rear lower camber arms and reduced the negative camber by 1 1/4 turns .This pretty much keeps the camber looking nearly stock.By the way these are KW v2' s and the fronts are only 2 threads down from the highest position. but KW have told me they are very race inoriantated with there setups they offer so they are low to begin with.
But i think ive got it pretty much how i like it but just wanted to check if i was way off on the rake issue.The only down side with having lower suspension is my front aero bumper now and again if i go over a speed bump or hit some dips in the road.These bumpers have a realy low bottom edge which i think could be trimmed to gain a little more clearance.Mind you it sounds worse from the car than it actualy is when you inspect the bottom edge its hardly scuffed as it flexes.

 

you can't use consistent wheel gap for proper lowering since the rear wheel well is cut a bit lower... your car must look like a hack job too then...

lets be honest, very few set up a car specifically for performance only; most are looking for some kind of compromise between performance and looks, and looks for sure are a personal thing, like an opinion... like your comment...

 

Right now your warning that you're close to bottoming out is the horrible noise from that strip of plastic under the nose. A very cheap part of the car that's designed to make that noise without suffering any damage.

If you lower the rear end more than the front, something big and metal at the back end of the car will provide your too-low screech.

 

The underbody part with the spoiler (trim panel is what MINI calls it) may be cheap but when it drags it can also rip up and ruin the front plastic piece. The two together add up. I speak from experience on this, having just replaced both parts on Friday due to my MINI being a tad too low to clear a certain drive I pass through regularly.

I'm probably going to trim about 1/2 the lip off the lower spoiler to minimize the problem. I also have raised my suspension (the excellent Texas Speedwerks "Sport" coilovers) up about 5/8" inch - the car now sits at about the same height as a MINI with the JCW suspension, perhaps 1/4" lower.

 

The lower trim part we are speaking about is in fact part of the front aero bumper (the sort of right angle piece that connects to the lower part of the front pannel)As far the the lowering goes ,your saying the centre of the wheel to arch isnt acurate for rake.So do i use the front and rear jack point to get the rake.I wont be going lower on the front but didnt know if the back should come down slightly.The front jack point is about 1 1/2" lower than the rear but when measuing fron wheel centre to arch theres only 10mm in it.So which is best to go by?I dont want it in the weeds but would like the handleing to be the best i can get it with what ive got.

 

how do you control the drop of lowering springs?
one would have to cut springs to control the height (not recommended btw) unless they have coilovers. coilovers are controllable in height but not springs alone...
most cars in the gallery that are lowered have purchased springs specifically for the MINI. i have yet to see any lowering springs on the market that lower the front end tighter than the rear.

 

The picture you posted looked like the car was dropped on springs. Correct me if I'm wrong. My car is dropped on H-sport springs and they drop the car an inch front and back so my car as well as most on springs look much the same. The front of the mini has a bigger wheel arch opening than the rears which would make it look like the back is droped more then the front. I believe that people with coilovers can correct that "look" but I don't think it would make the car perform better so it would only be for looks. I think most Mini owners want performance a bit over looks (not all) and I know I'm very happy with the performance of my springs and I'm very happy with the look.

 

double post

 

Mine looks pretty much the same as yours but my front is a tad lower.I can get 1 finger between the front tyre and arch and abot 1 1/2 at the rear.
My front end of my side skirt mesures 10.5cm and my rear mesures 14.5 cm
im not going any lower and will fully test the handleing this weekend.

 

I was always told that when setting up a suspension, NOT to use any body part as a reference. I was told to always use a suspension point.

Place the car on a flat, level surface (alignment rack?) and then measure height from the rack to some point on the undercarriage. I've only done this on one car (an old Porsche with torsion bar front suspension). I measured in my driveway (it was all I had at the time) and set the torsion bars so that the undercarriage was equidistant from the ground on both sides.

I'm guessing you should have weight in the driver seat also to help even things out.

I guess it depends if whether your priority is to have the suspension even on the car or to have the tire/fender gap even.

 

If you have H-sport springs with 18 inch wheels with 215/35/18 tires then the difference in gap would come from tire differences most likely.

 

Any major suspension type bolt that ties a control arm to the body is a great point - inner control arm bolts/nuts, but not ball joint or outter control arm joints.