4 replies to this topic

[Philcooper]

Anyone who's interested really, I have just changed my 16" alloys with Run flat Tyres off my R50 cooper and put on 15" with 175/65/15 Tyres. The ride quality is much better!! Not sure what to do about a spare though, might just sling one in the boot or a can of Tyre foam!

[mab01uk]

Here are a couple of links with photos on how I fitted to a spacesaver spare on an R50 MINI One/Cooper (except for Cooper S):

http://forum.minicoo...at-tyres?t=9726

 

http://www.mini2.com...pare-wheel.html

 

Ride quality is much improved when you change to conventional tyres, especially if of a higher profile.

 

 

 

Edited by mab01uk, 20 July 2014 - 10:59 AM.

[HarrysMini]

I changed the 205 45 r17 run flats on our Cooper S for 215 45 r17 non run flats and the difference really is like night and day. Not only is the ride comfort improved, but the road holding and handling is just immense. In hindsight, I should've gone for the slightly lower profile 215 40 r17 tyres as the wider tyre now has a slightly higher profile, so they rub with more than two people in the car. 

 

You can see in the picture how close to the arch the tyre is, and this is fully standard unloaded suspension.

[humph]

Glad to hear you're happy with the ride now, but going from 16" to 15" is a bit extreme to achieve it . The first gen new MINI was developed by Rover using 16" wheels and none runflats, so this has always been considered as the best combination of comfort & handling as the suspension was set up for it.  The use of runflats, making the ride hard, was a last minute change that BMW insisted on.  First thing I've done on all my MINIs (with the exception of the current Countryman) is remove the runflats, transforms the car.

[mab01uk]

Quote from a former Rover Engineer who worked on the R50 MINI development:-

'It was very hard to package a steering pump on the Mini engine. It's extraordinarily tight under the bonnet. We had to re-write the rule book on tyre and component clearances. In fact we threw the rule book away. There's meant to be 15mm clearance for tyres. Now there is actually a benign foul in extreme circumstances. It was a packaging nightmare – or miracle – and only got done thanks to computer-aided design. We needed a lot of suspension travel to cope with bumps and the 17 inch wheels on the Cooper S were an absolute nightmare to accommodate. I think the sweetest handling Mini was one with smallest tyres – it's a pity the run-flat tyres were added late in the day'.

http://www.theminifo...1997/?p=1297947

Edited by mab01uk, 20 July 2014 - 07:06 PM.