My car had less than 150 miles on it and already I knew that the stock run-flats had to go. So I got the Michelin's on and what a difference! The ride, while still hard, is nowhere near as harsh as it was with the run-flats. The car feels much more damped.

Size was 215/45x17

One downside is that I notice that when accelerating out of a corner, there is now more torque steer. I'm wondering if I need to do an alignment with the new tires. You would think not though.

I have had a loaner MCS with the 16" wheel setup for the last couple of days. I must say that the 16's are MUCH better riding. The car does not feel as sporty with the 16's but that may be because I'm equating a hard ride with sporty. I'm thinking I should do something with the suspension, either coil over's for the street, or rear sway bar and HR/Eibach lowering springs with Koni/Bilstein shocks next to improve handling and help the ride out a bit more.

 

Well, I am still undecided if I will stay with just the Bilstein HD's and stock S springs, or if the springs are still too stiff to keep the tires on the ground over bumpy roads. I still have the 16 inch Conti runflats. The shocks made a really big difference, but I am not fully happy yet. I don't want to lower it, or I would get NM springs.

 

How much did it set you back to replace all 4 tires? Where did you buy them?

 

Darn it TheLex...you bought the tires I want.
Nice to hear good feedback on them. I just put on Bilstein struts and NM springs and WOW what a difference! Thought I was driving a different mini.....I can only imagine what it will feel like after I get rid of the runflats.

 

I ended up buying them from Tires America locally. I wanted to buy them from Tirerack but since I'm only here at my vacation home for this one week this month, it would have been impractical to go the mail order route. I paid something like $800 OTD.

 

Interesting......someone else posted that they posted they used the Eibach springs and Bilsteins and got good results also. Am I correct in that the NM's have less of a drop than the Eibach's? I don't want to go too low. 0.75-1.0" would be best.

And what about Bilstein vs Koni shocks? What's the diff in ride and handling?

 

I don't want to go too low either. That is why I did not buy springs first. Maybe it is time for tires. Now to find the perfect wheel. That would be 16 x 7 at about 40mm offset or less to get the same or more rear clearance, and really light. Enki maybe. I don't want to run spacers as it kind of defeates of the light wheel. Then I could jump to the bigger 215/55-16. At 2.5% larger, it would make the speedo pretty close.

 

The NM springs are supposed to give a drop of about 1.2". Right now I am sitting at about 1" lower. I didn't want anything lower than that. I think either Bilsteins or Konis are good struts. I have used Bilsteins on many cars and have been very happy with the results.....that is why I went with Bilstein, plus I found the Bilsteins on sale and shipped for about $413.80.

 

Wow, much better price than I paid. Still happy though.

 

I am very happy too tvrgeek. I was surprised when I found them on sale with free shipping for that price.
Well worth the money!

Now to save up for the tires.

 

One thing I've been noticing with the new tires, is that there is now much more pronounced torque steer coming out of corners. The self-centering of the steering is mostly gone. If I hit the throttle moderately hard coming out of a corner, I'd better be holding on to the steering wheel tightly otherwise the car will want to pull to the side.

Is the increased torque steer a function of the JCW kit, the slightly wider tires, or do I have an alignment issue?

 

I doubt it's an alignment issue....probably a combination of the JCW kit and the tire. I believe the car suffers from torque steer in general anyhow, correct?

 

Result of much more grip. The wider you go and the stickier you go, the more of a handful it becomes.

I find no torque steer in normal driving. Not like my Sonnet. Under light load it will go dead straight. They tune the stiffness of the axles to fix this. What we DO have is way too much horse power for one-wheel-drive. Jump on it and the rear weight transfer lifts the front and it is a real handful. This is what Audi went to the Quattro when their cars got much over 170 HP.

Add caster.
Add toe.
Unfortunately, negative camber is good for cornering, but bad for self centering.
So, put the cell phone down and use both hands. Easiest solution.

 

Troof!

I'm usually a one handed casual driver. With the new tires and JCW kit, I find that I'm now consciously using both hands on the wheel in the corners "just in case".

I never get on the cell when I'm driving though. Too hard to concentrate.