Tanabe Just Did Something Few Tuners Dare — Lower the Car Without Punishing You
The NF210 kit drops the second-gen Delica Mini by 18 mm up front and 23 mm at the rear. Spring rate rises less than 10%. Tanabe insists the daily comfort survives.
Lowering a car without killing the comfort is exactly the task that breaks most suspension tuning the second it starts. Tanabe claims it has cracked the recipe. The Japanese brand has extended its SUSTEC NF210 lowering spring lineup and added a kit for the Mitsubishi Delica Mini in BA1A generation — the very one that rolled onto the assembly line back in October 2025. This isn’t an angry track build. This is careful work for owners who think the factory stance sits a bit too tall.
The whole point of the NF210 is to break the familiar trade-off — lower means harsher. Tanabe calls the series Normal Feeling: the springs have to visually drop the car while keeping its everyday softness intact. For the Delica Mini, the drop is rated at 18 mm at the front and 23 mm at the rear. The springs are cold-formed.
The maker leans hard on sag resistance, elasticity and linear suspension response. Spring rate, according to Tanabe, goes up by less than 10%. That means the car shouldn’t morph into a stiff urban stool. And for the Delica Mini, that’s critical. People buy it not just for looks but for practicality — compact dimensions, high seating, ease in dense city traffic are baked into its character.
A stiff suspension would gut the whole point of a car like this. Especially on broken asphalt and short daily commutes. A four-spring kit — two front, two rear — costs 247 dollars with tax. You can also buy them individually: front at 69 dollars, rear at 54.
The visual effect of the NF210 is moderate. The car sits lower and looks tighter, the wheel arches read as more filled in — but without trying to dress the Delica Mini up as a hot hatch. The mood is closer to a factory upgrade for owners who feel the stock silhouette stands a little too high.
The real question is how this rides in the real world. If Tanabe truly kept the comfort, the NF210 could be a rare animal in the tuning market — a drop you don’t pay for on every single bump.