5 replies to this topic

[Taymini30]

Hi has anyone got any good pictures of a tdk rear beam fitted to a mini and what are they like to live with.

[cradley-heathen]

myself and a friend fitted one to the back of a mini for a customer, and my honest opinion is, its really not great.

it has no holes/brackets etc to fix it to your car with, if you want to use your existing heel board holes, you have to drill the frame yourself.

there is no "cut out" in the centre inline with the tunnel down the centre of the car for the exhaust to pass through. this means you either have to run your exhaust very low, or cut a large section out of the frame, then weld a flange back in to keep the strength.

the other thing is kind of cosmetic (i hope you can follow my description here) the beam is basically a big rectangle, and the heel board is like a rectangle with the bottom corners cut off at a 45degree angle. when you bolt the frame up, the bottom corners of the beam stick out awkwardly beyond the angle of the sills, it looks pretty naff!

maybe they have changed the design since then, but if they havnt, its still poor, but thats only my opinion.

[Taymini30]

Hi thats for your opinion its really valuable to get advice from people who have done stuff before. Based on what you have said i dont think i will be fitting the beam anymore ive also heard they cause the damper mounting turrets to crack. Cheers.

[Cooperman]

They are really good for racing where the tracks are super-smooth. Not much point on the road as the original is just about ideal with true parallel radius arms, independant and excellent rising-rate rubber cone springs.

[tiger99]

Yes, and if you do use one on the road you will need to reinforce the damper mounts and surrounding area as they will be carrying several times the load that they were designed for. A lot of these expensive mods are not improvements at all, designed by people who just do not understand why Issigonis did things the way he did.

[Cooperman]

Yes, and if you do use one on the road you will need to reinforce the damper mounts and surrounding area as they will be carrying several times the load that they were designed for. A lot of these expensive mods are not improvements at all, designed by people who just do not understand why Issigonis did things the way he did.

The problem seems to be that parts designed just for racing, which has a quite specific suspension requiremement, have been seen as, shall we say, a 'commercial opportunity' by certain manufacturers who seem to feel that they can make a profit from selling parts which are not really suitable for normal road use (as these are 'competition only' items). There are simply loads of examples and loads of people to buy them. I guess once a person has spent a large wad of cash on a part, they are not going to admit to anyone else that they've wasted it.
Anyone want to start the list of items which cost a lot but don't improve the driveability of the car on the road at all? After you, Tiger

Edited by Cooperman, 28 December 2012 - 04:25 PM.