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gowest · Dec 24th, 2002, 02:16 PM

I was shoping for some lowering springs yesterday about this time and called Helix, none in stock

but had a good conversation and before getting off the phone ended up ordering a set of the KW version 1 generation 2 coilovers. These are the non rebounded adj. ones, the rebound adj. version is not expected for another month or so. To my surprise I look out the front door about an hour ago and their on my front porch.

Great service from Helix and UPS. These will be on the car as soon as my co-driver gets the time to put them on, probably in the next week, but I thought I'd post some tech info on them.

The front main springs are marked 50-170, 170 mm being the lenght with an inside dia. of 60 mm. This is a linear rate spring with a rate of 50 newtons. If I understand this, 10 newtons = 1 kg. or 55.88 lbs., so they are 279 lb. sprrings. The struts come assembled and the front has a tender / hepler spring on top the main spring, this is marked 10-60-80. 80 mm being the length.

The rear spring is marked 40-200, with a 200 mm lenght and spring rate of 40 newtons or 223 lbs. and no tender spring.

New bump stops are included and the shocks are a non painted gold / brass color, sorry no camera, the springs are yellow and the top and bottom spring perchs are purple, very nice. A spanner wrench to adj. ride ht. is included also.

Parts curently in my house waiting to be put on, 15x7.5 SSR comps, Quaife and the above coilovers. On order adj. rear bar and control arms. Haven't decided on any specific power mods yet.

Edit, Took a few more measurements of the KW's.
Fronts weigh 8-8.5 lbs. complete and are just over 2" in diameter, probably 52 mm, in the critical will the tire rub the strut area but max lowering will put the spring perch and maybe the spring into that area as well so wheel spacers or wheels with less than 48 mm offset may be needed to clear everything if you want to slam the car. I'll post again once they are on the car and I have more measurements. Stock fronts weigh 12 lbs.

Rears weigh 7-7.5 lbs.
Stock rears weigh 6-7 lbs.

Edit to Diameter from under 2" to over.
added Stock coilover weights
ride comments and clearance issues
spring rate and camber plate info added

OK, I've had these on the car for a few days now and I must say I'm very impressed with the ride. The car is lowered 1.375" in front and 1.5" in rear. I've had 2 different sets of coilovers on my Subaru and driven several other cars with coilovers, the KW's on my MCS ride better than all of them and WAY better than most. I haven't been able to push it much to check the handling yet as we ended up rushing through the end of the install and alignment and ended up with my corner weights way off. Left front needs to come down 1/8" and left rear needs to go up 1/8" so the corner weights kind of took a double hit ASSUMEING they were close from the factory. They are made to lower an MC 30-60 mm or an MCS 20-50 mm but there needs to be some kind of a foot note on this as without spacers on the front I was only ably to lower it about 3/4" with the OEM 16's but I had some 3 mm spacers with me and with them I could probably go down another 1/8" to -1.5" total, if I wanted but I wanted to leave room for a proper corner weighting later. Get some 5 mm H&R spacers or some wheels with less than +45 mm offset if you want to go lower than this.

Just found out KW has camber plates to fit all versions of their MINI coilovers; V1, V2 still in production, V3 and their 2 way race coilovers. These last two are bump and rebound adj. but the V3 is a more streetable version. Other spring rates are available also, in 10 newton increments.

Dec 24th, 2002, 02:16 PM	#1
gowest MINI2 Regular Join Date: May 2002 Location: Va. Local Time: 06:10 AM Posts: 208 Offline	KW coilovers I was shoping for some lowering springs yesterday about this time and called Helix, none in stock but had a good conversation and before getting off the phone ended up ordering a set of the KW version 1 generation 2 coilovers. These are the non rebounded adj. ones, the rebound adj. version is not expected for another month or so. To my surprise I look out the front door about an hour ago and their on my front porch. Great service from Helix and UPS. These will be on the car as soon as my co-driver gets the time to put them on, probably in the next week, but I thought I'd post some tech info on them. The front main springs are marked 50-170, 170 mm being the lenght with an inside dia. of 60 mm. This is a linear rate spring with a rate of 50 newtons. If I understand this, 10 newtons = 1 kg. or 55.88 lbs., so they are 279 lb. sprrings. The struts come assembled and the front has a tender / hepler spring on top the main spring, this is marked 10-60-80. 80 mm being the length. The rear spring is marked 40-200, with a 200 mm lenght and spring rate of 40 newtons or 223 lbs. and no tender spring. New bump stops are included and the shocks are a non painted gold / brass color, sorry no camera, the springs are yellow and the top and bottom spring perchs are purple, very nice. A spanner wrench to adj. ride ht. is included also. Parts curently in my house waiting to be put on, 15x7.5 SSR comps, Quaife and the above coilovers. On order adj. rear bar and control arms. Haven't decided on any specific power mods yet. Edit, Took a few more measurements of the KW's. Fronts weigh 8-8.5 lbs. complete and are just over 2" in diameter, probably 52 mm, in the critical will the tire rub the strut area but max lowering will put the spring perch and maybe the spring into that area as well so wheel spacers or wheels with less than 48 mm offset may be needed to clear everything if you want to slam the car. I'll post again once they are on the car and I have more measurements. Stock fronts weigh 12 lbs. Rears weigh 7-7.5 lbs. Stock rears weigh 6-7 lbs. Edit to Diameter from under 2" to over. added Stock coilover weights ride comments and clearance issues spring rate and camber plate info added OK, I've had these on the car for a few days now and I must say I'm very impressed with the ride. The car is lowered 1.375" in front and 1.5" in rear. I've had 2 different sets of coilovers on my Subaru and driven several other cars with coilovers, the KW's on my MCS ride better than all of them and WAY better than most. I haven't been able to push it much to check the handling yet as we ended up rushing through the end of the install and alignment and ended up with my corner weights way off. Left front needs to come down 1/8" and left rear needs to go up 1/8" so the corner weights kind of took a double hit ASSUMEING they were close from the factory. They are made to lower an MC 30-60 mm or an MCS 20-50 mm but there needs to be some kind of a foot note on this as without spacers on the front I was only ably to lower it about 3/4" with the OEM 16's but I had some 3 mm spacers with me and with them I could probably go down another 1/8" to -1.5" total, if I wanted but I wanted to leave room for a proper corner weighting later. Get some 5 mm H&R spacers or some wheels with less than +45 mm offset if you want to go lower than this. Just found out KW has camber plates to fit all versions of their MINI coilovers; V1, V2 still in production, V3 and their 2 way race coilovers. These last two are bump and rebound adj. but the V3 is a more streetable version. Other spring rates are available also, in 10 newton increments. 2001 & 2002 SCCA, STS Pro Solo National Champion. 2003 SCCA, Solo2 Nationals 8th, co-driver (Courtney) 2nd in 03 & 04 2003 JCW 210, London Stainless Headers, custom cat back with 5" SuperTrapp, 15x7.5 SSR's and 16x8 ce28n's, Quaife, KW Comp 2 Ways Last edited by gowest : Jan 6th, 2003 at 10:24 PM.