If I had a choice between your Countryman and the New Version, I’d take yours every time (bearing in mind I’ve had 4 Countryman’s). PS Love the dungarees, Very Nintendo Super Mario or is it Super Marek . I m fascinated by your watch ⌚️choice on each video so it’s about time you did a review on Mareks Watches.
Thanks. I was aiming mechanic, rather than Super Mario, but I'll take it :) I just realised this is a 3-watch episode, featuring the "Arabic Seiko" (SNKP21J1), Casio G-Shock GWX-5600C-4, and a quartz Seamaster from about 10 years ago. Wait till you spot my self-assembled Patolex in one of the episodes.
Excellent excellent video! I want to love Mini but the ride never fails to crack my teeth. It seems you fixed that. Well done you and happy you’re happy with it.
Yes, I wish there was an option to test drive the same car, but with 3-4 different suspension setups. Not adaptive suspension. Just different shocks and possibly different height. Whatever BMW/MINI puts in as stock is a compromise between driving characteristics, comfort and cost. My shocks cost about 120 euro apiece retail, so they probably cost no more than 50 euro wholesale, and even less for OEM. I dare not wonder, how much the original MINI shocks cost BMW, and what compromises had to be made :)
So funny a couple of videos ago that I mentioned that I think the Countryman should be more lifted, beefer looking. This is great upgrade Marek!! Lifting it more would require maybe making the wheels and tires a little bigger which leads to all sorts of issues with speedo, odometer etc.
BMW's xDrive isn't designed to take on much bigger load, than factory spec. There are long forum threads about people having to change whole sets of tires, because there's a couple of millimeters difference in wear between front and rear. The original plan with the x-raid kit would include much knobbier tires on 16" rims with beadlock. www.x-raid.de/en/vehicles/countryman-powered-by-x-raid/ But I'm happy with the current setup. Ultimately maybe I can find some all terrains all season tires, because mine are strictly summer. Any moisture on a colder day and they loose lateral grip. I'm on winter tires for a month now.
There's an off road screen buried in the F60 Countryman menu, which shows the car transform from a regular Countryman into this Big Foot. It's connected to the on-board inclinometer and accelerometer, so as you drive up and down some hills, the car grows. Basically you feel like an off road god having crossed some puddles :)
There's no more suspension travel, because there's no bigger springs or longer arms, just spacers above shocks on the front and above springs on the back, bump stops are at the same place, it's just Bilstein shocks are tuned differently. You can make yours Countryman a bit higher if you put 225/60 R17 (I guess now you have 225/55 R17), there won't be any rubbing on stock rims. I've got 235/55 R18 on my F60 with 3 cm lift and it rubs inner fender a bit on full lock, though it has 15mm spacers, I guess it can be fit 235/60 R18, but it will definitely rub somewhere, I'm yet not sure if I want to try fitting this size :)
When I go through the current sets of summer all terrains and regular winter tires, I want to go for BFGoodrich All Terrain T/A KO2 225/65 R17, because they are all-season. That will give me extra 2 cm. But I'll also have to recalibrate the speedo.
I see you are running on Cooper ATs. What do you think of them? I'm looking at Yokohama Geolandar, BF goodridge or those Coopers. How are they on and off road?
I haven't tried other models. Coopers were the only ones available in this size, so I bought them. I drive mainly on tarmac, and they are OK (noisy though), as long as it doesn't rain. In the wet they lose any lateral grip, so I have to switch to winter tires in early autumn.
12:15 I can tell you are satisfied by your smile and your tone. Enjoy your car, Marek!
Thanks!
I was happy with the car from the start, but this really made it even better.
I love it! 🎉 Greetz from a german F60 owner...
It's nice to drive a German car wearing British bodywork, isn't it? :)
If I had a choice between your Countryman and the New Version, I’d take yours every time (bearing in mind I’ve had 4 Countryman’s).
PS Love the dungarees, Very Nintendo Super Mario or is it Super Marek .
I m fascinated by your watch ⌚️choice on each video so it’s about time you did a review on Mareks Watches.
Thanks. I was aiming mechanic, rather than Super Mario, but I'll take it :)
I just realised this is a 3-watch episode, featuring the "Arabic Seiko" (SNKP21J1), Casio G-Shock GWX-5600C-4, and a quartz Seamaster from about 10 years ago.
Wait till you spot my self-assembled Patolex in one of the episodes.
A lot of fun, thanks for this special project video! :)
Excellent excellent video! I want to love Mini but the ride never fails to crack my teeth. It seems you fixed that. Well done you and happy you’re happy with it.
Yes, I wish there was an option to test drive the same car, but with 3-4 different suspension setups. Not adaptive suspension. Just different shocks and possibly different height. Whatever BMW/MINI puts in as stock is a compromise between driving characteristics, comfort and cost. My shocks cost about 120 euro apiece retail, so they probably cost no more than 50 euro wholesale, and even less for OEM. I dare not wonder, how much the original MINI shocks cost BMW, and what compromises had to be made :)
The proportions definitely look better to me now.
Very nice Marek!
So funny a couple of videos ago that I mentioned that I think the Countryman should be more lifted, beefer looking. This is great upgrade Marek!! Lifting it more would require maybe making the wheels and tires a little bigger which leads to all sorts of issues with speedo, odometer etc.
BMW's xDrive isn't designed to take on much bigger load, than factory spec. There are long forum threads about people having to change whole sets of tires, because there's a couple of millimeters difference in wear between front and rear.
The original plan with the x-raid kit would include much knobbier tires on 16" rims with beadlock.
www.x-raid.de/en/vehicles/countryman-powered-by-x-raid/
But I'm happy with the current setup. Ultimately maybe I can find some all terrains all season tires, because mine are strictly summer. Any moisture on a colder day and they loose lateral grip. I'm on winter tires for a month now.
Insightful! Keen to do something similar to mine soon! Had my eye on the X-Raid kit too but difficult to ship to AU.
What about the M7 kit from the US?
I would say, it looks now as it should have looked from factory to justify Countryman name.
I feel fooled by the thumbnail ;) :D
There's an off road screen buried in the F60 Countryman menu, which shows the car transform from a regular Countryman into this Big Foot. It's connected to the on-board inclinometer and accelerometer, so as you drive up and down some hills, the car grows. Basically you feel like an off road god having crossed some puddles :)
@@MarekDrivesENG Hahaha... "I'm invincible....." XD
There's no more suspension travel, because there's no bigger springs or longer arms, just spacers above shocks on the front and above springs on the back, bump stops are at the same place, it's just Bilstein shocks are tuned differently. You can make yours Countryman a bit higher if you put 225/60 R17 (I guess now you have 225/55 R17), there won't be any rubbing on stock rims. I've got 235/55 R18 on my F60 with 3 cm lift and it rubs inner fender a bit on full lock, though it has 15mm spacers, I guess it can be fit 235/60 R18, but it will definitely rub somewhere, I'm yet not sure if I want to try fitting this size :)
When I go through the current sets of summer all terrains and regular winter tires, I want to go for BFGoodrich All Terrain T/A KO2 225/65 R17, because they are all-season. That will give me extra 2 cm. But I'll also have to recalibrate the speedo.
@ in my case the speedo was lying on stock size, when I fitted larger tires it had leveled with gps speed 🤷🏻♂️
Now that’s what you call a “Countryman”, literally says it in the name of the car. But that ended up being used as a city car lol.
Looks nice! Is this lift kit compatible with adaptive suspension on F60?
F60 doesn't have adaptive suspension.
Nice!
I see you are running on Cooper ATs. What do you think of them? I'm looking at Yokohama Geolandar, BF goodridge or those Coopers. How are they on and off road?
I haven't tried other models. Coopers were the only ones available in this size, so I bought them. I drive mainly on tarmac, and they are OK (noisy though), as long as it doesn't rain. In the wet they lose any lateral grip, so I have to switch to winter tires in early autumn.
You should check your yearly consumption. The difference might not be that big...
Since new I used 8.4 L/100 km. I'll check back in a year, and we'll see.
@@MarekDrivesENG
We'll wait for a new report then!