H&R coil overs installed

[LiLReD1]

Finally! The ONE mod I wanted to do before anything else, and I finally got them installed. Prolly not everyone's cup of tea, but I LOVE the look! The ride is just fine too! And the best part, it stays FLAT on the ground unless yer taking a very hard corner. Not much sacrifice in the ride either. Not choppy at all, but definitely the lowered ride feel, which is an upgrade to me. Drove it 125 miles back to base last night, and it was just right. My opinion may not mean much, but I've broken my back before, so if I'm not hurtin', then that's sayin' something.

Here's 2 pictures I took after I cleaned LiL red up a bit with my phone. Will get better pictures ASAP with a real cam.

[MiniManiac]

Very nice. I went with the H&R springs. It was much easier than I initially thought it would be. I am going to upgrade to coil overs at some point. I think I am going to go with the KW V1s.

[LiLReD1]

A good choice that would be. I've had good luck with them on other vehicles on the past. I got the H&R's for just a bit cheaper, so decided to try them out. Pretty much the same thing though from what I can tell.

[toeknee]

It looks really good. We're considering doing the same thing to ours, and knowing that it does not make the ride worse is pretty important. The ride is rough enough to begin with and I do not think I could take it being any rough.

[LiLReD1]

Well it is, it's "worse" than stock. But I can live with it. Don't get me wrong, a choppy road does make it a choppy ride, but that can be said for a stock MINI's suspension as well. There's a few roads I can think of that I'd steer clear of in KC, and even out here on base, lol. But the look (IMO), and the gain you get in handling on a nice back road, and for me, the transit back and forth from Ft Riley to KC every weekend (smooth KS turnpike hwy, or 24 hwy back roads), it's definitely worth it.

If anyone is considering coil overs for their ride, and have never been in a car that's gone from stock to coil overs, I'd be glad to give them a ride in my car so you can see what the difference will be. It's definitely an investment worth the research considering it's over $1k as opposed to a couple $100 for springs.

[Punk_Mini]

Would you know the spring rates of the springs on the coilovers? The leading problem with off the shelf systems is the consistency of spring rate to match the overall dampener valving. So if the springs don't match the valving it will throw the whole dynamics of the setup out of wack causing bottoming out, overly stiff, etc. I know that swapping springs with a extremely good quality linear rate spring like Swift or Hypercoil that they can make a considerable change in ride and performance for the better.

[LiLReD1]

Yer right, and no I don't know. There are several different kinds of coil overs for the MINI's from H&R with different springs rates and ride quality. I do know these do have more spring rate than the other styles they sell.

Well I'll let the site do the talking. Here's the link. http://www.hrsprings.com/products/coil-overs/ I have the RSS

[ksminiman]

Looks awesome TIm! I would love to take a ride in that guy cause that was the first thing I noticed I didnt like about the newer minis vs my 06. Glad to hear it went well. wold you say it rides like the older gen stock suspension?

[LiLReD1]

Better, flatter, bit stiffer on choppy roads. If you thought a new MINI was on rails before....

[MiniManiac]

Springs or coil overs make such a huge difference on the ride of the R56. I went cheap and added the H&R springs to the sports suspension and it drives like a different car. It even took away some of the torque steer!

[LiLReD1]

Right on! I wonder what the diff is in ride b/w the 2.

[MiniManiac]

I would imagine that the coil overs have better travel. Although, my ride isn't bad at all.

[LiLReD1]

I'd say yers would ride better but I don't know. I'm prolly gonna raise mine up a bit to see how the ride is, and what it does.