Or in the NY metro area

 

Ah, the track reports are coming in!

Over the next few weeks, the three test cars will be hitting the track (at least 3-4 HPDE weekends), autocrosses, and the Dragon (driving from the D/FW area to MOTD). Product testing like that is FUN!

 

I should also mention... We've got cable adjusters coming in to test fit for the rears, and extended adjustment ***** to clear camber plates in the front. All 3 test cars will have these installed soon enough!

 

Looking forward to more reports - one car spent last weekend at the track, and two of the three are on their way to MOTD right now. Autocross this weekend, too!

Look up GoodFinder (Steve) in his gorgeous GP or Gnatster (Nathan) in his unable-to-be-missed GNAT to check out the AST's in person @ MOTD...

 

After putting another 2834.5 miles on GNAT in the past 6 days it's time for another report. Of that mileage only about 1900 was highway to and from The Dragon. I also drove the Cherohala Skyway and some local roads on Sunday. I did 12 full "laps" on The Dragon. Lets just leave it that I was fairly aggressive in my style and mostly had clear passes by running early in the morning Friday.

For the drive out the Mini was loaded down with a good bit of beer, TSW parts and other stuff. It would have been nice to be able to adjust the coilovers to compensate. I had some rubbing in the rear with bigger bumps on the highway. This adjustability will be coming soon I am told by TSW. The ride was firm yet comfortable. The front hit the bumpstops a few times on some monster sized potholes and poorly graded transitions in the road. Having checked over the wheels I find no damage was done.

I did one pass of the Dragon with the car fully loaded. The extra weight could be felt out back with the tail wagging a bit under trailbraking.

After clearing out the car of all the "stuff" I was able to do another lap. There was very little body roll in the quick transitions making it very confidence inspiring to go a little deeper. This road is all low speed left right transitions with some longer, still low speed, sweepers. The Mini always felt composed and ready to leap to the next corner. What to me was most gratifing was how easy it is to rotate the Mini in tight spaces. not one did I feel I the need to leave my lane to complete a corner. A quick lift or stab of the throttle would bring the Mini where I needed it and quickly ready for the next corner. No wagging about just firm and composed.

Out cabin was some 30 miles away from the main site. The road there is mixed, with some very tight stuff and some very wide open sweeping turns where it opened to 4 lanes with a median. Traffic was always very light in not totally nonexistent. The Mini did quite well on these roads as well, including one very high speed run on the wide 4 lane section. Transitions at speed are very nicely composed.

One area I'm sure that was not intended to be tested but was, is the off road ability. Our cabin was off the beaten track, up the side of a mountain on a gravel road with switchbacks. The trick was to shut of DSC and go for it letting the wheels spin. After a day I was zipping up and down the hill tossing the Mini wide and reining it back with handbrake turns. This was truly a washboard surface and you felt it. Going to fast made the front end act like a pogo stick. But then again, these are not set up for rally use and the Rally Mini has been retired.

The drive back had a lot less weight in the boot. The ride was very comfortable and not once did the Mini scrape the rear tires.

I'm very impressed with this suspension setup, and am looking forward to adding in the adjusters. Kudos to TSW for a job well done.

Maybe these pictures help to show how the suspension is working...

You can see the angle the car takes in hard cornering. We were two up in these pics. The passenger was also a decent sized guy.

 

The car looked great in person. These are still very high on a short list of options.

 

We've got single adjustable sets on order at the moment after plenty of road testing, track testing, and autocrossing... One set was custom ordered with stiffer spring rates for a single-adjustable, very much more track-oriented setup.

Last weekend, we had the chance to speak with one of AST's lead engineers at the races - he'd flown over to teach our local partners all about re-valving for custom sets on their spankin' new shock dyno. He was a wealth of information and addressed all of our questions... A company that flies one of their lead engineers over to teach you how to customize and rebuild? Yeah, that's dedication.

More development on the MINI coilovers will be forthcoming, including a fine tuned track/AX-oriented single adjustable setup, a dual-adjustable setup, and triple adjustables for those who really want them. The singles will be more than adequate for all but the most dedicated track/AX junkie or racer - or someone that wants to spend more time fussing with setup.

As soon as they arrive, they'll be on the website!

 

Wondering about pricing for these new coilover sets? Didn't see it on your site. Are they available at this point, or would there be lag time on an order?

Thanks
Fabian

 

Not quite there yet - just a few more days before we go live with the new components.

 

Any ideas on when the double and triple adjustment coilovers will be in and tested?
Thanks

 

I've enquired about the DA set, which Dr. Mike would be testing in his time trial efforts on the West Coast... We should know pricing on the DA's soon, but it will be sometime later this Summer before we'd be able to release anything. It's a matter of getting our hands on a set of first-development DA's, tuning them on the shock dyno with a chosen spring rate, and then rinsing them out... I just want to make sure that we truly work out any bugs before we release anything to the hardcore track junkie MINI masses out there...

 

Thanks for the update. The end of summer would be fine if you ring them out.

 

We also want to pass on the shock settings that work for different situations, just as a starting point. Double- and triple-adjustable shocks can be difficult to baseline without some help!

 

More info! Huzzah!

I'll post pics of the cable adjusters for the rear in a bit, but they do NOT require you to drill a very big hole at all to pass the cable through... Very nice!

We've finished wringing out issues with the first sets we received. We have a shipment on the way! We'll also be testing a more track-oriented setup on the single-adjustables. Price for the coilovers will go up very slightly, so that we can supply the cable adjusters for the rear and extended adjusters for the fronts...

The DA's will be coming as quick as we can get them for testing - we had to guide AST through a small design change to make their DA setup work, but I think we got it hammered out. Dr. Mike will be beating on them by the end of the Summer, I hope.

 

So far the single adjustables sound like they might be a good option for me if the price is not too much higher than your initial estimate.

Looking forward to more reviews once the production units become available.

 

The capable TSW guys installed the cable adjusters today at the TSW World HQ.

The front's were a breeze to install with the IE Camber Plates, plenty of room. The black knurled extension grasp the shock adusment location and a short post from the top with silver set screws. A larger diameter orange anodized **** with ingraved arrows for Hard and S graces the top. The overall height is lower then the M7 Strut bar so does not touch the bonnet insulation.





The rear is a bit more work. The extension is 18" or so long. The rear coilovers needed to come off, on a new install you would do this before installing the unit. Some of the interior rear trim needs to be removed. A hole slightly larger then 3/8" was drilled into the frame rail and rustproofed. Thwe adjuster was afixed to the top of the shock and fished through the new hole when reinstalled. The same orange **** used in the fronts is then affixed. We decided at this tiome to access the adjuster via the panels located in the rear. Just pop em off, adjust and back in. I'm going to scout around for other locations.

Sonce the intial install everything has been set at 7 of 12. We turned the adjustment back by 3 and test drove. Much nicer ride. Still easy to drive, but less jarring and over all smoother. Haven't put many miles on it like this yet and track is still 2 weeks off. Will add more after tracking.

 

Notice the gap under that M7 product…

 

The dreaded mushroom??

 

We have several sets on the way from Holland, shipping Tuesday...

Among them is a more track-oriented set for a local client, with different spring rates and valving (still single adjustables). We'll be installing them and corner-balancing, and then he'll be rinsing them out for us. We have the capability to re-valve locally now, so we'll fine tune them if needed.

We're also still working on the DA setup - the MINI's short strut body up front presents a design opportunity (hah!) to get AST's DA setup to work within the constraints of the bodies... When we overcome the issue, we'll get a set made and Dr. Mike will pound on them around SoCal's tracks.

 

Just saw this thread. I have put on many miles since these were installed. Probably 7-8000 miles. TSW has been very good throughout the process and the install went great. I had a DE this past weekend and the AST's performed flawlessly. You can just throw the car into a corner and expected it do exactly what you want. It holds your line very well. I have seen no need to play with the adjustible dampners, the middle setting seem to work pefect. I may start experimenting with the fronts at the next auto x. The pictures ive posted are not the best, but they do show how low the car is. Oh and those tires are not standard size. They are 225/45/15.

 

We have a custom valved, SA set that just arrived with our last shipment, which is more track oriented than the Sportline setup. Beefier rates up front and in back.... This set has single front springs, as opposed to the helper/main spring setup on the production Sportline sets. This set is going on a true track junkie's car...

We have a few sets of Sportline coilovers in stock now... We can provide any rate you want with the correct valving (hurray! shock dynos!). The price, with adjusters, is $1440, with custom sets running $175 more. The standard Sportline sets have the helper spring to keep the fronts quiet on the street.

I'll be swapping my Ledas out for these very soon, and they'll get plenty more rinsing out on the track... Personally, I cannot wait to get a set on my car and do some more fine tuning. The Sportline setup, right out of the box, has already been proven at tracks throughout Texas, abroad, and at Road Atlanta... The SA's are a fine choice for motorsports enthusiasts...

We're still working with AST on the DA's, which will be overkill for the majority of drivers out there.

 

Sets are now available on our website... We have a limited number in stock at the moment, but will be getting more soon.

Also, we ordered the Swift springs that we chose for our more hardcore single-adjustable setup. Testing will ensue as soon as they come in!

If you would like a custom single-adjustable setup, just give us a ring and specify the spring rates you would like. Re-valving adds $175 to the base price of $1440...

 

Hey guys. You need to post your site URL in your profile so getting there is just a click on your user name.

Also do the rear adjutment cables come with a grommet for the hole?
I'd like to prevent chaffing issues.

 

Thanks - we added it to our profile...

We don't provide a grommet for the hole that you have to drill, because you'd have to drill a larger hole... You could do so if you wanted, but the cable adjusters have a pretty thick sleeve on them and are wickedly flexible. To date, we've been drilling the hole, cleaning it up with a rat-tail file, and hitting it with a bit of spray paint... Once installed, the cable doesn't move about.

 

thanks

What's the diameter of the front springs? (not coil thickness).
I'm looking to pick up more negative camber so anything less than OEM will be a good thing.

Currently running RDR camber plates.