I know I'm a bit of an "Old Fart" compared to most contributors to this site, but that doesn't stop me driving my Mini enthusiastically! Since fitting the new springs, the ride comfort has improved immensely, without sacrificing much in the way of handling. If anything, cornering grip seems to have improved somewhat as the car no-longer "skips" round the corners. I'm going to leave it for a week or two after which I'll be looking to get it properly set-up on one of those fancy jigs - the car also has adjustable bottom arms, tie rods, etc so the castor, camber, wheel aligment will all need checking. I've kept the ride height standard as that makes negotiating speed bumps less problematic.
As for the conversion, the back springs were easy to fit, apart from the old rubber springs were siezed to the trumpets and required a fair bit of "persuading". The front springs however were a pain in the neck as it required the top suspension arm to be removed - not an easy job when you've got fingers like sausages! Interestingly, the Minitastic kit appears to have a longer stroke than some of the alternatives on the market, yet doesn't require a suspension compressor (as used on the rubber springs) if it ever requires any maintenance.
Yosuke (at Minitastic) was very helpful at the point of sale and even let me have a go of his imported demonstrator. It was that which convinced me that coil springs was the way to go - for my particular requirement - I'm built for comfort, not speed!
I'll let you know if there are any significant developments in the coming weeks, but so far I'm very impressed by the improvement achieved.
Cheers,
Kwack
Edited by kwacktastic, 29 November 2007 - 08:22 PM.