They are 60mm ID... Depending on what you want, we could also hook you up with some trick Swift Springs.

 

Our Swift springs arrived today - man, talk about workmanship. These will be going on a set of tweaked SA AST's on my car very, very soon. I oh-so-look-forward to the testing - the best part!

 

Any new word on the DA setup yet.

 

Yeah - AST can't figure out how to package their normal adjusters in the very, very short front housings!

Since the CV is right in the way, there is very little real estate to work with given their DA adjustment. We just don't think there's enough room... I think we're going to try remotes for the fronts instead, which will provide even better performance and easier adjustment. We're still working with them, but our main guru there has gone on holiday for 6 weeks! Ugh. I expect that we'll get to them as soon as possible after they return. The original e36 DA setup that our buddies are testing also came with remotes - they are KILLER! Their new design doesn't use them, though, but I watched them adjusting for wet conditions a month ago and the performance was astounding... They were near FTD in their STU-prepped e36 M3 on a VERY fast AX circuit on ADVAN AD-07's (take that, Subies and Evos!).

In the meantime, I will be installing the custom valved/Swift sprung SA setup on my car... Just waiting on some swanky new camber plates to arrive, and they'll be on the car lickety split.

 

Thanks for the info. It's great to see a vendor who keeps us updated. Are you getting a new style camber plate we don't know about???????

 

Nope - just a new set of Irelands with the redesigned top plate... the old skool ones we run now don't have the access slot for a top-adjusted strut. The Irelands are cheap and work (my original set has been on my car for 3+ years), and they stand behind their products if you have a problem.

Someone (*cough*) may be designing some camber plates, though.

 

Got the AST SA's with Swift springs installed last night... We're running 6 kgf/mm (336 lb/in) rates all the way around.

The street ride is better than the Ledas, hands down. Cornering performance seems to be the same so far, and the AST's seem to have a larger dampening adjustment range.

IMHO, the feel is that the AST's are much more sophisticated versus the somewhat brutish nature of the Ledas for the street. Track testing will show if they work just as well, comparing baseline Leda data versus what we see with these AST's, though. The Ledas were killer on the track/AX course.

But I have to say, I am completely pleased with the ride and performance so far... I'll keep ya posted!

 

Please keep us posted (*wink*).

 

sounds tasty, good job guys

 

AST is the real deal.

This is the best thing that happened to the Mini.

 

A few updates:

- The AST/Swift combination is still quite awesome. Testing is still in progress. I was skeptical that the Swift springs were worth the extra $, but I kept hearing rave reviews from a huge number of people. So, we figured we'd give them a shot. They're worth the money. If anyone wants a set of AST's with Swifts, just let us know. This adds ~$400 to the base cost of the AST's. It's definitely worth it, IMHO, if you're going to do any track or AX work.

- The AST DA's are in the werks... We're fine tuning the design with AST and our local partners. We're hoping to have a test set in the very near future. Because of packaging limitations, fronts will have remotes.

- Our camber plates are in the werks, too. We hoping to finalize the design in the next few weeks, crank out a proto set and get to testing...

The DA's and camber plates should be complete well in advance of holiday shopping time...

 

Thanks for the updates guy's. It's nice to see a company on top of their game.

 

I can't wait ! Great news guys.

 

Some of you may remember I was one of the original testers of TSW's AST Coilovers. They have been on my Mini since April. If you look back in this thread I've made some reports on how they have been performing. For the most part I've been very happy, there were some shortcomings and I was willing to live with them for the increased feel and handling capabilities. The ride could be better and there were some issues of bottoming the springs over some road imperfections that really should not be issues. The worst was with railroad tracks, and Dallas is littered with them. I'd have to stop and crawl over tracks otherwise the front would crash and bang. I always worried about mushrooming the strut towers.

The guys at TSW listened to what we had to say and sought out a solution. I'm happy to report that one was found. Last Friday I went to TSW World HQ where we installed new springs from Swift. I don't know the specs of them, I'm not much on that stuff, I do know they are a lovely Robins Egg Shell Blue. Contact TSW for details such as the spring rate and cost and all that, I just drive.

The install was fun as installs at TSW WOrld HQ almost always are. I learned a lot helping out and being more then the tool gopher role I normally play. TSW again went above and beyond by doing a rear brake pad swap too.

Iinitial impressions from the short drive home were favorable. The ride was lot more comfortable, less jarring over imperfections and dips in the wonderful Dallas shifting roads didn't bottom the front. Ride hight was a bit more then I liked, before I wasn't quite slammed but it was low. I knew it would take a day or so to settle and I may have hastened that by heading to the track the very next day.

The 70 some mile drive to Motorsports Ranch at 5.30 the next morning was great. Found I didn't even have to slow from sensible speeds to cross the RR tracks by my house, bridge transitions that would crash the front end before were traversed with no fuss. The real test would be out on the track.

The Mini is much more composed on track. Motorsports Ranch is 3 tracks in 1, the older 1.7 mile, a newer 1.3 and combined it's a 3.1 16 turn asphalt ribbon of fun. There is a transition from the new to the old section where during the sessions I had the week before the front would bottom out and feel a bit squirrelly in the braking area before the next turn. This was now gone, sure yo could feel the transition but the recovery was much faster with no bottoming to the bump stops. The data logging showed I was able to be smoother on the brakes and carry more speed through the downhill off camber turn located soon after the transition. I also found that I could use the raised curbing to straighten a line. When I tried that before the Swift Springs the car would not settle back quick enough to comfortably transition into the next turn. This was helpful in 3 different places on the track. Overall I dropped approx 4 seconds on a clear lap.

All in all I'm very happy with this latest update the TSW AST Coilovers. I'll be at the track again this weekend running the 1.7 mile circuit. I don't have any previous data for this configuration. My intention this weekend is to get a baseline over 2 sessions then work with the dampening to dial in the best setup for my driving style.

I do recommend these coilovers for those looking for a comfortable street ride along with the adjustability to be a stellar track performer. Thanks TSW for another great product.



The transition from the new to the old track headed towards Ricochet no longer upsets the car, nor the driver. I bounced off the curbing in Rattlesnake and the car settled much faster. The drift on fast sweepers feels more composed.

 

gnatster that sounds great. It sounds much better and 4 sec. is incredible!

 

Thanks Nate.
Just got off the phone with Jeff.
Have the same issue here. On the list for a set of the Swift Springs.
Nice product and very good support

Glad there is a solution but really wish it didn't come with a pretty expensive "early adopter" penalty.

Ahhh the price of speed....

 

We're constantly tweaking to make things better... With the Ledas, we had the luxury of working with a vendor that had more experience with the MINI. We didn't have that luxury this go-round and expected to do some fine tuning.

We did a limited order the first time, and did four installs and testing before we released any other sets. Initially, we rinsed out all the issues we could see right off - but, it wasn't until people started putting some serious miles on their cars and plenty of track days before we realized the issue with the factory AST springs. The fact is, they're just too light for us in the States.

I put the factory AST's on my personal car that I immediately felt they were undersprung from the get-go. Yes, I drove the tester cars, but they were much, much different than mine and I didn't see any issues initially. BUT, on my car, in comparison to what I knew I had before, I immediately knew there was more that could be had from the AST's.

Originally, we didn't have access to a shock dyno and were working with AST on the rates based on their engineering and feedback. To be honest, I'm not sure at this point what they were aiming for, but they slightly missed the mark (to be more accurate, our mark). So, we did a bit of calling around and some email exchanges and settled on the new rates (60 kg/cm all around, which is ~336 lb/in). We have access to a dyno now - and those tests concluded that the valving of the SA dampers could work better with a higher rate with no other changes. Ah, it's nice to have access to a cool new tool... Wish we'd had that before...

Because the MINI is relatively travel-challenged in the front, we went to the source for springs that we know allow more stroke, are lighter, and perform exceptionally (Swift). Also gone were the helper springs with the new setup. We won't be passing TUV certification with single springs, but who cares? It works bettah...

And then, the testing - after the new springs installed on my car, it was night and day different. Not only did the car ride better on the street, the performance at the limit showed MUCH improvement over the baseline. We immediately called all the original beta-testers and offered them a deal on the Swift Springs - and personally installed the springs for them, re-cornerweighted the cars, and checked the alignments. We're offering the same deal on the spring upgrade to other initial buyers, too - a couple have said they like the current setup and don't want to change, however.

Now, we've decided that we will ONLY sell the SA AST's with this combination of valving and spring rate, else a custom valved set with a customer-specified rate (tested ON the dyno, by us). Since we believe most of our customers are going to the track, the new standard SA AST sets will only be shipped with Swift springs. There's no substitute for getting it right - and this is right.

Working with other vendors can be tough and take some rinsing out - especially ones with ideas on what they think works based on their experience. And more so when that vendor is more than a short drive away... It would have been great to pre-test on a dyno, install, test, tweak, repeat, etc. until we nailed it - and we can do that now, but couldn't before. In this case, they may have had the right setup for EU customers, but they ended up not being where we wanted them to be... Now, they are.

Suspension engineering is part science, to be sure, and you can have all kinds of fancy gadgets to tell you where to go and what to do - but it's also part art. For that bit, it takes pounding on something for awhile and road testing to get it finally tuned. You can simulate dynamics all you want on a fancy machine - but it doesn't match rinsing something out at speed.

When the DA's come out, those will get setup differently than the SA's. We're working to get the first set of DA's very soon, and Dr. Mike will be pounding on them for us. First, they'll hit the dyno though for baselining and matched up with a rate that Dr. Mike prescribes. Then, they'll be fine tuned from there. In the case of the DA's, Dr. Mike intends to do that testing with both science and art.

We want to offer the absolute best setups, period, and we're wholly dedicated to our suspension programs. To be sure, we won't take someone else's word for it ever again - just so we're clear, this isn't a slap in the face for AST, but we obviously had different aims. And, to be honest, this setup might not be what everyone's looking for although it's pretty kick a**. I ditched my TSW/Leda Softcore setup for it (this is even better), and many people know just how well that worked (it ROCKED). This is now an out-of-the-box setup that's pretty freakin' amazing.

It's our sincere hope that as the MINI community continues to gain insight into what they're looking for that we start getting requests for different rates and valving to match up with exactly what people want for their car... It might be something right out of a box, but it might not. We won't stop striving for perfection, and we hope that everyone else out there does the same for their car...

 

OK. Now one has to ask. What will be the price for the new setup?
AST + Swift.

 

We've got plans! Once the DA's are installed, we will show them no mercy, in the interest of science, of course! I will be looking for set-up numbers, for different spring rates, different driving styles, and so on. We want you to have a good idea of where the clickers should be set for you and for your MINI. With twin settings on each damper, having a good baseline is the difference between going fast and getting lost!

 

Helloooo??

 

It's on their site, the Swift Springs are now standard.

 

$1895, IIRC... AST's prices went up, like many other suppliers we have due to increased fuel costs - ugh! The shipping on our next shipment of OEM replacement rotors is INSANE! Soon, we'll be offering them with our own camber plates for a complete setup, price is yet TBD since the plates are in R&D right now (oooooo, they're gonna be soooooo freakin' sweet!).

 

And sorry for not gettingn back sooner - we were out racing yesterday. Oktoberfest, the national BMWCCA meet up is in Fort Worth this year, and Jeff and I are on the Lone Star Chapter's AX committee. We were out running the event and taking some laps!

The Cooper Test Mule (aka Winston), on the AST/Swift setup and Toyo T1-R's was 9th fastest out of 38 cars - the 8 in front of us were highly modded 3-series (e36, e46 and M3's) on r-comps! FTD was taken by Vorshlag Motorsports LS-1 powered e36 318, featuring ridiculous 315 series Hoosiers - we were a mere 6 seconds off their pace.

BTW, Toyo T1-R's are great on the street - not so sticky for AX. I kinda miss the RS-2's... with RS-2's, I think we'd have been in the top 5, and on top tier r-comps, I'd wager it'd have been in the top 3.

 

Oh man, I'd love to see that - a Cooper out in the hunt with the more powerful rwd Bimmers.

 

How is the ride quality compaired to stock with the ast/swift setup?

thanks
Jonathan