Apologies for the image quality!! They're just from my phone, will take some better pics when I get my digital camera back
I've just had KW v2 coilovers fitted (thanks to RedUn
), and I've had them on a week (along with Eibach rear anti roll bar), and what can I say - the setup is amazing. It's really transformed the car - much more planted, I've yet to lose grip while cornering - the faster you go, they just sort of "dig in" and hold the road so well.
The car also feels much "flatter" and composed - it feels much more stable at speed, and much tighter while cornering at speed which much less bodyroll, and understeer is greatly reduced.
The ride "hardness" on the v2's is adjustable, and I've currently got the fronts set at 80% and the rears at 50%, which seems the perfect setup for me and a good compromise between handling and comfort.
Yes, they are harder than stock (and stock shocks with eibachs as I had before), but not too much so. The only downside is that on rough road surfaces, you tend to constantly bump quickly around, but this is just down to the quality of the coilovers and their responsiveness and sensitivity - you feel really in touch with the road, and have total confidence in the car. During normal driving over the odd large pothole and bumps etc., the hardness isn't all that much worse. As I said it's just mainly on motorways on uneven/bad roadsurfaces that you tend to have an unsmooth drive and really feel all the minor bumps in the road. But once onto anything but "bad" roads, it's as smooth and normal as stock for the most part.
The other thing is the responsiveness and sharpness of the car has really improved - turning the wheel just slightly at most speeds really makes the car react much quicker and tighter than it used to do, making it even more "go-kart" like.
The ride height seems perfect for me - I think the rears are lowered approx 60mm and the fronts 45-50mm (not really sure though!!) and I've yet to scrape the front lip on a speed bump, strangely!! From looking at the car from the sides and especially the front, it looks like it'll scrape on anything as it looks stupidly low, but even at "medium" speeds (not stupidly slow) speed bumps and speed ramps have been fine. The only minor incidents have been while entering or exiting steep ramps, or steep roads. I've had it scrape gently a couple of times, but if you go slow enough it's really no problem.
As far as looks go, it's also the perfect height for me - I didn't want all of the rear tyre squashed up in the arch, but I did want a low, aggressive look, and also wanted to flatten the car out to get rid of the rake (the reason the rears are set lower than the fronts). Anyway, tell me what you think to the pics
I also went to a BMW dealer today and was suprised at how high all of the MINIs seemed - you really do get used to it and take it for granted!
Not sure on the improvement from the anti roll bar as I had it fitted at the same time, but I'm sure it's helped to balance the car out and improve the stability and handling, although while slalomming extremely quickly (ie. jamming the wheel sharp left and sharp right at high speed, on the motorway for instance) the back end does seem a bit less "stable" and I don't feel too happy about doing this, although I can't think of an instance where I'd need to do such extreme movements (apart from in an emergency!) so I don't see this as a problem, and I guess it's to be expected.
The final chassis/suspension
mod is going on in a couple of weeks -
JCW strut brace I've just bought 2nd hand. Hopefully this will make the steering a bit heavier and more responsive, improve turn in, and tighten the front end of the car up a bit (which I feel it needs).
I'll stop rambling now!!
May 11th, 2006, 05:13 PM
but looks good...
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...thanks.
