Run-flats on the Mini Cooper S

[Jimmy_Russells]

No they didn't with the MINI's. I notice you have R53 in your signature so you would not likely wear out your lower ball joint and control arm busing as owners of MCS R56's.

Might want to check that again . I don't own a Mini, although my sister has had two of them.

 

[NitroM3]

Might want to check that again . I don't own a Mini, although my sister has had two of them.

looked like R53 now I see it is RS3 when you are using a cell phone everything is small and as you were commenting information about a MINI it was an easy to see how I read the signature! never the less your responses having to do with a BMW/MINI was inaccurate!!

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

looked like R53 now I see it is RS3 when you are using a cell phone everything is small and as you were commenting information about a MINI it was an easy to see how I read the signature! never the less your responses having to do with a BMW/MINI was inaccurate!!

They design the car around the run flats... That is absolutely true.

If someone wants to take them off, that fine, but the car will absolutely feel differently. I would also wager, being cars that are somewhat popular to modify that a great deal of them have lowering/stiffer springs which help offset the difference.

Me personally in a sporty car I can easily feel a 3-4 psi difference in tire pressure, or the differences between two different tires. Having previously worked in the tire industry for roughly a decade I know that the difference in the construction and overall stiffness of a run flat tire and a regular tire is huge.

 

[NitroM3]

They design the car around the run flats... That is absolutely true.

If someone wants to take them off, that fine, but the car will absolutely feel differently. I would also wager, being cars that are somewhat popular to modify that a great deal of them have lowering/stiffer springs which help offset the difference.

Me personally in a sporty car I can easily feel a 3-4 psi difference in tire pressure, or the differences between two different tires. Having previously worked in the tire industry for roughly a decade I know that the difference in the construction and overall stiffness of a run flat tire and a regular tire is huge.

LOL no they didn't please tell me where you ever read that. Now you want to argue without any facts to back up your statement?
Even you can go to the internet and find hundreds of complaints about the lower control arm problem's production production period 2001-2009 MCS R56. Most were directly because of the pounding that runs flats caused on the suspension parts.


One of the problem with the early BMW/MINI was the lower control arm bushing wearing out prematurely. Please don't tell me that one of the causes was run flats because I was involved helping to solve (through one of my businesses then Motion Minis) an aftermarket solution waaaay back in 2002-2004. Moog a suspension company also at the time ahead of the game with also working on an alternative to the OEM lower control arm assembly. Geeez really dude. Your responses are just inaccurate and now bugging the hell out of me because you keep repeating your self with bad information. LOL So please submit the info, dude, where did you read your technical engineering information that BMW/MINI designed their suspension MCS R56 around the use of run flats?
Look I realize some of you JIMMY think they know things but I don't know your name from any technical thread conversations on a couple and specifically one forum that is still one of the largest MINI forums in the world. If not still one of the largest car forums? LOL So when you want to debate ,argue or flat call my information wrong you had better "show me the facts" LOL . Among other parts I engineer and develop was having to do with the prematurely wearing lower control arm parts was also a ball joint steering geometry correction spacer.
I see you are up in Washington if you like I can put touch with the MINI club or a couple of shops and they can better educate you on some of the down falls in the early development issues regarding the MCS, R56 BMW/MINI's?
LOL

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

LOL no they didn't please tell me where you ever read that. Now you want to argue without any facts to back up your statement?
Even you can go to the internet and find hundreds of complaints about the lower control arm problem's production production period 2001-2009 MCS R56. Most were directly because of the pounding that runs flats caused on the suspension parts.


One of the problem with the early BMW/MINI was the lower control arm bushing wearing out prematurely. Please don't tell me that one of the causes was run flats because I was involved helping to solve (through one of my businesses then Motion Minis) an aftermarket solution waaaay back in 2002-2004. Moog a suspension company also at the time ahead of the game with also working on an alternative to the OEM lower control arm assembly. Geeez really dude. Your responses are just inaccurate and now bugging the hell out of me because you keep repeating your self with bad information. LOL So please submit the info, dude, where did you read your technical engineering information that BMW/MINI designed their suspension MCS R56 around the use of run flats?
Look I realize some of you JIMMY think they know things but I don't know your name from any technical thread conversations on a couple and specifically one forum that is still one of the largest MINI forums in the world. If not still one of the largest car forums? LOL So when you want to debate ,argue or flat call my information wrong you had better "show me the facts" LOL . Among other parts I engineer and develop was having to do with the prematurely wearing lower control arm parts was also a ball joint steering geometry correction spacer.
I see you are up in Washington if you like I can put touch with the MINI club or a couple of shops and they can better educate you on some of the down falls in the early development issues regarding the MCS, R56 BMW/MINI's?
LOL

I didn't effing read it anywhere. I went to a Bridgestone/BMW seminar specifically for the suspension changes they designed into the cars and how the tire and suspension are designed to work together. This was in about 2008.

You keep posturing like I am somehow offending you, then go on to mention cars dating all the way back to 2001, the cars didn't even start coming with runflats until what... 2007 or later? I'm not sure exactly but it wasn't much earlier than that. So no, clearly those early cars were not designed with run flats in mind because they didn't exist at the time. A car that is designed with run-flats in mind, the later cars, absolutely was.

So if you want to argue the early cars weren't designed around them, be my guest, that seems obvious. The fact the cars destroyed bushings (it is a BMW, after all) before those tires even existed seems to me had little to do with tire choice and more with design/materials chosen.

Additionally you keep talking about bushings and I am talking about spring rates and overall suspension design.

Also no, I am not in Washington.

 

[930.engineering]

Come on boys, let's calm down.

Before we talk about R56 control arms we all should know that BMW/Mini decided to use a ball joint in the front position. Only the rear bushing is rubber.
Of course it's noticeable when you ditch the runflats, of course the stiff sidewalls provide some benefits in handling and stability. However they do so only on the smothest pavement imaginable, not so on real-world surfaces. And the ride with runflats is still hard to bear on many roads. I gladly give up some percent steering quickness and high-speed stability for that huge gain in every-day ride comfort. Choose a top-league UHP summer tire and you won't feel you lost anything worth keeping. There are hundreds of users on NAM who went to conventional tires. Virtually none of them ever went back to runflats.

 

[vavavroom]

This is the trunk space I have to work with. There is a total of six tie-down anchors. I can get a full-size spare in there but I'll lose much of the cargo space.

Whole trunk


Large cubby with wheel change kit:


Small cubby:


Small cubby tray removed