Gen 3 F56 Strut braces or Chassis braces

[McMs]

I am planning on buying the front strut brace from Racing Dynamics and I want to ask if I should prioritize getting strut braces for my car first or chassis braces first. Thank you in advance!

[1975_mini]

17 hours ago, McMs said:

I am planning on buying the front strut brace from Racing Dynamics and I want to ask if I should prioritize getting strut braces for my car first or chassis braces first. Thank you in advance!

 

It depends on what you goals are for your MINI.

 

IMO, nether will have a noticeable effect of handling unless you are autocrossing or doing track days. If you are doing the are other upgrades that will have a larger effect on handling. 

 

What are your goals for using your MINI? Is it your daily driver, fun back road driving or coursed course (autoX, track days, etc...)

 

Once we know we could recommend the most handling gain for your buck and goals

[McMs]

1 minute ago, 1975_mini said:

 

It depends on what you goals are for your MINI.

 

IMO, nether will have a noticeable effect of handling unless you are autocrossing or doing track days. If you are doing the are other upgrades that will have a larger effect on handling. 

 

What are your goals for using your MINI? Is it your daily driver, fun back road driving or coursed course (autoX, track days, etc...)

 

Once we know we could recommend the most handling gain for your buck and goals

I see, my MINI is mainly for daily driving and backroad driving with some occasional track days (once every few months). Thank you in advance for your recommendations!

[1975_mini]

BLUF: First handling upgrade I recommend to most people are upgrade tires and brake when they a due for replacement and a stiffer rear sway bar. It increases handling without sacrificing daily driving comfort.

 

The MINI platform is very stiff as is so until you have done most of the upgrades below you will not be stressing the chasis enough to get the benefits of a front strut bar or chassis braces. The strut bar does provide an appearance gain for some, and if it has full strut tower caps it would help prevent tower deformation from the nasty pot holes in the area.

 

So here are the biggest bang for you buck in my opinion, so take with a grain of salt.

 

- Tires: plan/budget to upgrade when when they wear out. If you are on run flats, upgrading to a quality performance tire (all-seasons are fine if you do not have to sets). Just buy a space saver spare for if you have a flat. 

***I personally run Michelin Pilot Sport 4S A/S as my dailies, and switch sets for days at the track

 

- Brakes: again a ware item so just when they a due to be replaced look at upgrading pads/ rotors. EBC and Hawk tend to be the two top brands folks use, just make sure you select the pad in their ranges that truly meets your driving. Putting full ceramic race pads, will just result in lots of noise, and not great performance as you likely will not have them up to temp most of the time  

*** I use Hawk HPS+ with drilled and slotted rotors

 

Ok now for the good stuff in order you should look at doing them:

 

- rear sway bar: this is probably the biggest upgrade for the money. Going to a large rear sway bar, helps to eliminate that pesky understeer in MINIs. You can get them for around $250 and there are several quality options out there. The install is a bit more that on most cars as the sway bar runs between the body and subframe. I would estimate part, install w/ an alignment you would be a shade under $1000. Best part about this upgrade is there is no sacrifice of daily ride quality

*** I have a Hotchkis 25mm hollow rear sway bar.

 

- coilovers /springs/struts: This is another honestly assess your goals or you can waste a lot of money on things you will never use. Do you need height adjustment and full rebound/ dampening adjustment? If so look at coilover setups, but remember you get what you pay for in this world. If you are looking for a stiffer ride you improve you may be able to meet you need upgrade springs or struts. If changing ride height or you want more adjustment to your alignment adjustable rear lower control arms are a good more also. 

*** I retained my JCW springs and updated struts to KONI yellow adjustable

 

- Others: after all the above you can then look at upgrading to poly bushings, chassis stiffeners, etc..

[McMs]

Oh wow, thank you so much! I did not expect it to be this detailed. 

12 hours ago, 1975_mini said:

- Tires: plan/budget to upgrade when when they wear out. If you are on run flats, upgrading to a quality performance tire (all-seasons are fine if you do not have to sets). Just buy a space saver spare for if you have a flat. 

***I personally run Michelin Pilot Sport 4S A/S as my dailies, and switch sets for days at the track

 

For tires, I just got a new set of Kumho Ecsta 4X II a few months ago to replace the original run flats and I felt an immediate improvement to the driving experience. However, I don't think the tires that I have gotten are performance-level tires, and will look to replace them with a better set when they wear out. 

 

12 hours ago, 1975_mini said:

- Brakes: again a ware item so just when they a due to be replaced look at upgrading pads/ rotors. EBC and Hawk tend to be the two top brands folks use, just make sure you select the pad in their ranges that truly meets your driving. Putting full ceramic race pads, will just result in lots of noise, and not great performance as you likely will not have them up to temp most of the time  

*** I use Hawk HPS+ with drilled and slotted rotors

With brakes, I have also been looking at them recently and I want to get the JCW Brake Kit but I am currently running a new set of 16" wheels. It would cost me way too much to get an entire new set of 17" for the brake kit. Moreover, I want to get a whole new set of rotors and pads for my F56 but I'm afraid that I might get something that is worse than OE and underperform since I don't know that much about brakes. I checked Hawk HPS+ out but they don't seem to have options for 3rd gen.

 

12 hours ago, 1975_mini said:

- rear sway bar: this is probably the biggest upgrade for the money. Going to a large rear sway bar, helps to eliminate that pesky understeer in MINIs. You can get them for around $250 and there are several quality options out there. The install is a bit more that on most cars as the sway bar runs between the body and subframe. I would estimate part, install w/ an alignment you would be a shade under $1000. Best part about this upgrade is there is no sacrifice of daily ride quality

*** I have a Hotchkis 25mm hollow rear sway bar.

 

- coilovers /springs/struts: This is another honestly assess your goals or you can waste a lot of money on things you will never use. Do you need height adjustment and full rebound/ dampening adjustment? If so look at coilover setups, but remember you get what you pay for in this world. If you are looking for a stiffer ride you improve you may be able to meet you need upgrade springs or struts. If changing ride height or you want more adjustment to your alignment adjustable rear lower control arms are a good more also. 

*** I retained my JCW springs and updated struts to KONI yellow adjustable

 

 

For the rear sway bar, I didn't know it would be that efficient against understeer since the initial reason that I was looking at strut and chassis braces was to eliminate understeer. The price point is a bit high for me atm but I will definitely get them sooner or later. With the suspension part, do you think lowering springs would be a bad idea since I only look to lower it a tiny bit (about an inch lower than OE)?

 

Lastly, do you mind if I contact you directly later on if I have any specific questions? Promise I won't barrage you with questions. Once again, thank you so much for the recommendation!!!
 

[1975_mini]

On 10/19/2023 at 9:22 PM, McMs said:

For the rear sway bar, I didn't know it would be that efficient against understeer since the initial reason that I was looking at strut and chassis braces was to eliminate understeer. The price point is a bit high for me atm but I will definitely get them sooner or later. With the suspension part, do you think lowering springs would be a bad idea since I only look to lower it a tiny bit (about an inch lower than OE)?

 

Lastly, do you mind if I contact you directly later on if I have any specific questions? Promise I won't barrage you with questions. Once again, thank you so much for the recommendation!!!
 

 

It can seem a bit counter intuitive,  a rear sway bar prevents weight transfer to the outside rear on turns, this results in a more even weight maintained across the front drive wheel, allow then to pull you through the corner. Currently your understeer is most likely a result of the unloading of the front inside side wheel on a turn. 

 

There also some driving style mods to lessen understeer, we hosted a autocross school last spring that I believe helper a lot of folks in the club better understand the handling of the MINIs. 

 

Shoot me a message anytime!!