If you want to make your Mini less harsh and bouncy (as do I) then I reckon there are two possibilities:

1. Use coil springs, and experiment with spring and damper rates until it feels right for you. You could start with a coil-over kit, or you could use the coils which fit in the subframe (replacing the rubber cones). As someone said above, if you use the subframe coils you will need to be careful to make sure that they can't come loose with the suspension on full droop.

For my own car I might start playing with coil springs, since I have the ability and patience to fabricate parts until I get it to work.

2. Use the Smooth-Ride kit. If you just want to fit something with no messing around, this is probably the better solution.

My thoughts on rubber cone suspension:

With any rubber cone suspension the shape of the trumpet acting on the rubber cone is critical to the behaviour of the spring. The original Ripspeed Hi-Los have a concave shape which increases the spring rate quite a bit. Most of the Hi-Los made today have a flat shape, which is much cheaper to make than a shaped seat. I guess it would increase the spring rate a little over the original trumpets.

The Smootha-Ride kit uses a new convex trumpet shape which is designed to work with the new springs. The rubber of the springs is softer than the origial, and the front springs are also longer. I expect that the greater length of the new front springs makes them soft over a greater range of suspension movement.

Does anyone have a link to the Smootharide kit on the Minispares site? I've searched and can't find it. Cheers.

Remember that the smoothride is designed by the man that designed the Minis suspension in the first place. (Moulton) He knows what he is doing.

it's your choice of car that's the problem.... they're all rovers with rubber suspension - get an aussie roundnose with Hydro

It's probably just a case of the front rubber cones being worn out -measure the centre of your front wheels to the mudguard lip - it should be about 13". If I was you, I'd be pulling out the rubber cones and replacing them with new ones.... though aussie prices for a single rubber cone is about $100 each, so not much extra for the fancy kit

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

They say that the later rubber springs are not as good as the early ones. The rubber content was changed. (less natural rubber) so the later cars sag quicker than the older cars.

I would just swap them from front to rear. (but I am a tightarse )

or at least pull the rears out of a clubman

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Ha ha. not many Oz roundnoses in the UK though - and anyway I was saying thet the other two were fine


That's pretty much where i'm coming from - by the time i buy new rubber cones and maybe hi-los, i can get the kit for not much more. Still a bit of work to do to convince the missus though - even though i do need a new wiper motor so might make it into a combined order as they're cheaper in UK than here.

dont worry weevel im with ya for a smoothier ride. tinys rubber cone suspension makes the ride so much harsher and the girlfriend wont set foot in the mini because of it or any mini for that matter .

i saw this coil set up in the minimag and wondered how it would go

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oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

Not Minispares. Minisport (UK):
http://www.minisport.com/acatalog/Mini_Sport_Ultimate_Adjusta_Ride_Suspension_and_Kits.html

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