7 replies to this topic

[minilee94]

Bit of a silly question but I don't know how they work out on a mini I was thinking of fitting coil overs on my mini

Is there any point or not

At the moment I have hi Los , new front cones and rear spax shocks

But does the coilovers get rid of cones etc

[Cooperman]

It would be hard to beat the original rubber cone springs for all the reasons that have been gone into in some depth on here in the past.

The rubber spring cone is a true rising-rate, with the rate itself increasing with deflection and that is exactly what the Mini needs for use on the road or for rallying.

For a pure racing, i.e. track use only, an ultra-high fixed rate spring will reduce initial spring deflection thus enabling a lower ride height, but it only works on totally smooth surfaces as found on tracks. 

[Big_Adam]

Coilovers or coil conversions?

 

The coil conversions tend to replace the rubber cones. Pretty much a straight swap, but there are some REALLY iffy coil kits out there.

 

Coilovers reaplce the cones and the dampers. They also tend to need a few extra bits of metal to beef up the body and arms as they aren't really designed from the off for the new loads put on them.

 

I think you can do more setup with coilovers (rebound, diffrent springs, change ride hights when you like), but its danged costly.

[minilee94]

Right okay so I might as well stay with my setup I have ayy and I did mean coilover set up not coil spring kit

[Cooperman]

On a road car there is no advantage and possible a lot of disadvantage with coil-overs.

The classic Mini was partly so successful because it had such superb suspension. Look at its record in competition and all on rubber cone springs.

It's important to understand what you are trying to achieve when doing any modification and the engineering and performance issues involved.

[minilee94]

There a nothing wrong with the normal mini setup just that I was thinking of buying coilovers as most performance car has coil overs

[Cooperman]

There a nothing wrong with the normal mini setup just that I was thinking of buying coilovers as most performance car has coil overs

 

Other performance cars are designed to have coil springs and the addition of coil-overs is a means of setting the suspension to allow for raising or lowering the ride height and arriving at different spring rates for different use.

You do this on a Mini by fitting different specification rubber spring cones, e.g. competition ones, standard ones or 'Smootha-Ride' ones. Final adjustment is done with Hi-Lo's and adjustable dampers.

To fit coil-overs to the front of a Mini requires substantial modification to the top mounting to take full dynamic suspension loads as well as damper loads and a stronger pin in the top arm.

Still can't see what the advantage would be unless it is a pure track car with ultra-high initial spring rate to reduce roll on initial turn-in.

[minilee94]

Ohh right I won't bother with that idea then I don't want to start modifying my car even more lol il just stick with what iv got cheers for the help and info cooper man