MINI COOPER REAR SWAY BAR APPLICATION GUIDE

 mini cooper sway bar

The Mini Cooper Rear Sway Bar or more accurately, the 'rear anti-sway bar' is the rear suspension component that is attached between the rear suspension and chassis.  As the name suggests, its primary purpose is to reduce the body roll or 'sway' in the corners.  The sway bar uses its torsional rigidity to limit the amount of body roll.  The larger diameter bar will result in less lean in the corners and improve turn-in response. Sway bar upgrade is one of those rare performance upgrades that has minimal impact on ride quality while improving handling performance.

Most vehicles have a front and rear sway bar, and the difference in stiffness between the two bars affects the handling.  The balance between the two bars determines whether the car will understeer, oversteer, or remain neutral.  The factory suspension is intentionally setup with understeer which is what happens when the car enters a corner too fast - where the car wants to go straight even with the wheels turned.  This is a safety factor which forces the driver to reduce speed in order to navigate the corner.  For the performance oriented driver, the preference is to have a more 'neutral' suspension where the car turns more easily instead of understeer.  A larger rear sway bar will change the balance so the car turns more neutral or even oversteer - as preferred by some performance type driver.  This allows the car to carry higher speeds in the corner and lowers the lap times on the track. 

For the 'track-only' Mini, both the front and rear sway bar can be replaced with larger diameter bars for maximum 'flatness' in corners.

Aside from taking a drivers education event at a track, we recommend the larger rear sway bar as the 'first' suspension upgrade for improved handling.

 

Below is a chart with stock sway bar sizes, followed by our Sway Bar Upgrade Application Guide.

MINI COOPER REAR SWAY BAR STOCK SIZES

 BODY STYLE MODEL YEAR FRONT BAR SIZE
Standard / Sport
REAR BAR SIZE
Standard / Sport
 HARDTOP R50 R53  COOPER 2002-2006   22.5 / 24.0 mm 16.0 / 17.0 mm
COOPER S 24.0 / 24.0 mm 17.0 / 17.0 mm
JCW   24.0 mm 18.5 mm
 CONVERTIBLE R52  COOPER 2005-2008  22.5 / 24.0 mm 16.0 / 17.0 mm
COOPER S 24.0 / 24.0 mm 17.0 / 17.0 mm
     
HARDTOP R56   COOPER 2007-2013   21.5 / 23.5 mm 16.0 / 18.0 mm
COOPER S  22.5 / 23.5 mm 17.0 / 18.0 mm
JCW 24.0 mm 18.5 mm
CLUBMAN R55   COOPER   2008-2014   22.5 / 24.0 mm 16.0 / 17.0 mm
COOPER S  23.5 / 24.0 mm 17.0 / 18.0 mm
JCW 23.5 / 24.0 mm 17.0 mm
CONVERTIBLE R57 COOPER 2009-2015 22.5 / 23.5 mm 16.0 / 17.0 mm
COOPER S 22.5 / 23.5 mm 16.0 / 17.0 mm
JCW 22.5 / 23.5 mm 16.0 / 17.0 mm
COUPE R58 COOPER 2009-2015 21.5 / 22.5 mm 16.0 / 18.0 mm
COOPER S 22.5 mm 18.0 mm
JCW 22.5 mm 18.0 mm
ROADSTER R59 COOPER 2009-2015 21.5 / 22.5 mm 16.0 / 18.0 mm
COOPER S 22.5 mm 18.0 mm
JCW 22.5 mm 18.0 mm
 
COUNTRYMAN R60 COOPER 2011-2016 22.0 / 23.0 mm 16.0 / 17.0 mm
COOPER S 22.0 / 23.0 mm 16.0 / 17.0 mm
JCW 23.0 mm 17.0 mm
PACEMAN R61 COOPER 2013-2016 22.0 / 23.0 mm 16.0 / 17.0 mm
COOPER S 22.0 / 23.0 mm 16.0 / 17.0 mm
JCW 23.0 mm 17.0 mm
 
HARDTOP F56 COOPER 2014+    
COOPER S    
HARDTOP R55 COOPER 2015+    
COOPER S    

 

MINI COOPER REAR SWAY BAR UPGRADE APPLICATION GUIDE

BODY STYLE MODEL YEAR 19mm
H&R
20mm
Whiteline
22mm
NM Engineering
22mm
H&R
23.8mm
Tarrett
25mm
Tarrett
25mm
NM Engineering
DROP LINKS
NM Engineering
HARDTOP R50 COOPER 2002-2006   NMS2007     NMS2050 NMS2051   G2NMS2101
HARDTOP R53 COOPER S
CONVERTIBLE R52 COOPER 2005-2008   NMS2007     NMS2050 NMS2051   G2NMS2101
COOPER S
       
HARDTOP R56 COOPER 2007-2013  G2NMS2134    G2NMS2100 G2NMS2138 G2NMS5000 G2NMS5001   G2NMS2101
COOPER S G2NMS2136 G2NMS2100 G2NMS2138
CLUBMAN R55 COOPER 2008-2014  G2NMS2135    G2NMS2100 G2NMS2138 G2NMS5000 G2NMS5001   G2NMS2101
COOPER S G2NMS2137 G2NMS2100 G2NMS2139
CONVERTIBLE R57 COOPER 2009-2015  G2NMS2136    G2NMS2100 G2NMS2139 G2NMS5000 G2NMS5001   G2NMS2101
COOPER S G2NMS2136 G2NMS2100 G2NMS2139
COUPE R58 COOPER 2012-2015     G2NMS2100   G2NMS5000 G2NMS5001   G2NMS2101
COOPER S
ROADSTER R59 COOPER 2012-2015     G2NMS2100   G2NMS5000 G2NMS5001   G2NMS2101
COOPER S
 
COUNTRYMAN R60   2011-2016     G2NMS2109          
PACEMAN R61   2013-2016      G2NMS2109          
       
HARDTOP F56   2014+     G3NMS2100        G3NMS2101  G3NMS2105 
HARDTOP F55 4-DOOR   2015+