Auto-x/track M3 wheels/tires/suspension survey

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Please chime in if you have (or had) an M3 or E36 3-series with coilovers for auto-x or track duty! Marcus, Jimmy, Eric H, etc, looking for input.

Springs/perches - brand, rates, spring height
Shocks - brand, shortened?, valving
Camber plates - brand, comments
Bushings - front ctrl arm and RTAB brand/material
Sways - brand and settings
Tires
Wheels - size, brand, weight
Changes you're considering
Comments

Thanks!

MarcusMcRae · **Posted:** Thu May 24, 2007 1:24 pm

Shocks- Koni single adj. from GC

Springs- 450lbF 550lbR from GC

Shock mounts- Front swapped new stock. Rear GC

Stock sways

Wheels- Voxx 17x9 22lbs $115 each from the Jebster. Mark called them "complete crap."

Tires- 255/40 Victos

Ride height- 13.5inF 12.25R Rear height is very sensitive to how much gas I have in the car??

Alignment- -2.8F 0 toe -1.7R 1/8in total toe

EDIT: And an X brace.

I wish I had gotten the GC kit with the shrotened front housing because I sometimes feel the bump stops when pushing hard in sweepers and hit a bump. I will probably never get camber plates unless I get new shocks and they are included.

I also replaced the front control arm bushings and RTAB with new stock peices. My trans mounts are UUC red and I plan on replacing the motor mounts with UUC peices and eventually the diff bushings.

Right now the car is handling really well. I can't think of anything that I would like to change except for bushings.

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Thu May 24, 2007 1:51 pm

MarcusMcRae wrote:

Right now the car is handling really well.

The rest of SM could tell. My ass still hurts.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Thu May 24, 2007 2:05 pm

Mike, what about just buying whatever the guys in ITS E36s were running? Or were they using something exotic? I believe remote resevoir shocks are illegal in IT.

JimmyVerVaecke · **Joined:** Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:58 pm **Posts:** 20

Shocks: Bilstein
Springs: 450/600 on GC adjusters
Front strut hats are swapped 96+
Stock front bar, no rear bar.
Powerflex bushings most of the way around.

Call James at Bimmerworld, they'll have a setup for almost anything you want to do. He's the one that recommended this particular setup to Matt. I'm pretty sure they have a list of standard stuff that they've tests and works for any given application.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Thanks for the input so far guys. Here's what I'm leaning towards:

Springs/perches - GC 500F/650R
Shocks - Non-shortened Koni SA front, TCKline Kino SA rear (on the car now)
Camber plates - GS or Vorshalg - mainly for the increased travel w/ nonshort shocks
Bushings - Delrin front ctrl arm and Powerflex RTAB
Sways - stock
Tires - 245-45-17 V710s for BSP/SM or 255-40-17 RT615 if I go to STU
Wheels - really want the 17lb D-force LTW5 17x9 at $259 each but considering the Voxx

Suspension would be about $1200, plus $2k or so for the "good" wheel and tire package.

MarcusMcRae · **Posted:** Thu May 24, 2007 6:32 pm

If you want to go with the V710's you might want to get an 18x9 or 18x8.5 wheels and get the 245/35 18 tire. It is .6in shorter than the 245/45 17.

The price on the 245/35 18 just went up quite a bit though. :shock:

$270

Have you considered the Hankook Z214 245/40 17? $199

Jeb Brookshire · **Posted:** Thu May 24, 2007 7:58 pm

MarcusMcRae wrote:

Wheels- Voxx 17x9 22lbs $115 each from the Jebster. Mark called them "complete crap."

I wonder why that is? Was it because he didn't sell them? Voxx has been in our line-up for a while and other than one wheel design, that developed loose trim rings because they were pressed on, I have never had any issues with them.

MarcusMcRae · **Posted:** Thu May 24, 2007 8:03 pm

Jeb Brookshire wrote:

MarcusMcRae wrote:

Wheels- Voxx 17x9 22lbs $115 each from the Jebster. Mark called them "complete crap."

I wonder why that is? Was it because he didn't sell them? Voxx has been in our line-up for a while and other than one wheel design, that developed loose trim rings because they were pressed on, I have never had any issues with them.

He was just complaining for some reason. I think mainly because we couldn't fit the wheel weights inside the spokes and he thought they were heavy.

Jeb Brookshire · **Posted:** Thu May 24, 2007 8:05 pm

MarcusMcRae wrote:

Jeb Brookshire wrote:

MarcusMcRae wrote:

Wheels- Voxx 17x9 22lbs $115 each from the Jebster. Mark called them "complete crap."

I wonder why that is? Was it because he didn't sell them? Voxx has been in our line-up for a while and other than one wheel design, that developed loose trim rings because they were pressed on, I have never had any issues with them.

He was just complaining for some reason. I think mainly because we couldn't fit the wheel weights inside the spokes and he thought they were heavy.

Ahh. I remember you saying he had a hard time with the balancing...

MarcusMcRae · **Posted:** Thu May 24, 2007 11:02 pm

Jeb Brookshire wrote:

MarcusMcRae wrote:

Jeb Brookshire wrote:

MarcusMcRae wrote:

Wheels- Voxx 17x9 22lbs $115 each from the Jebster. Mark called them "complete crap."

I wonder why that is? Was it because he didn't sell them? Voxx has been in our line-up for a while and other than one wheel design, that developed loose trim rings because they were pressed on, I have never had any issues with them.

He was just complaining for some reason. I think mainly because we couldn't fit the wheel weights inside the spokes and he thought they were heavy.

Ahh. I remember you saying he had a hard time with the balancing...

Yeah, I like them though. I would get another set.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Fri May 25, 2007 8:14 pm

For what it's worth, I was talking to Chip Stabler about his IP E36 race car. He was reporting spring rates over 1000 pounds, with the heavier ones on the front. I know he's running JRZ dampers, so this is probably too exotic for a track day car Mike, but if you want, I can get the setup from him.

DanDurusky · **Joined:** Sun Apr 10, 2005 7:31 pm **Posts:** 686

I had:

A) Bilstein Sports and H&R Sport springs with swapped '96+ strut hats.

I felt these were too damn stiff for a daily driven car. I felt like the shock travel was suffering and i was bottoming out. Was tight on a nice surface.

B) Added TMS sway bars.

tweaked and tweaked and settled on full stiff fornt, full soft rear. Big improvement in steering response and roll control

C) Switched to GC street/track coilovers which are the SA konis in shorted housings and 450/550# springs. kept TMS swaybars

I loved this setup. The car road like a caddy in comparison in daily driving. I actually had suspension travel w/ the shortened struts, yay! Plus Konis (as you all know i'm sure) are much softer in compression than the Bilstein Sports. I played w/ swaybar settings a bit, but went back to the old full stiff front, soft rear. I ran GC's recommended ride heights and rake. i forgot now what that was. K&E did the balance and has some good E36 tech

The car stuck like glue and i just couldnt complain about anything on street, autox, or track.

The car had new OEM control arm bushings and OEM rear trailing arm bushings w/ the delrin inserts. I've only played w/ the delrin control arm bushings on the E30, but i honestly didnt think they added much NVH at all.

I ran Kosei K1s. 17x8.5"et40 w/ 255s all around

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

New plan:

AST Coilovers, 515F/680R (maybe 570F/730R)
Vorshlag camber plates
Poly rear shock mounts
STOCK front ctrl arm bushings
RTAB limiters
GC tubular front swaybar, stock rear
D-Force 17x9 wheels
255 Kumho Victoracer V700s
Camber -3.5F -2.5R

AST are somewhat of an unknown, but would be interesting to try. Damn, I'm going to be spending some money here....

MarcusMcRae · **Posted:** Wed Jul 18, 2007 11:54 am

MikeWhitney wrote:

New plan:

AST Coilovers, 515F/680R (maybe 570F/730R)
Vorshlag camber plates
Poly rear shock mounts
STOCK front ctrl arm bushings
RTAB limiters
GC tubular front swaybar, stock rear
D-Force 17x9 wheels
255 Kumho Victoracer V700s
Camber -3.5F -2.5R

AST are somewhat of an unknown, but would be interesting to try. Damn, I'm going to be spending some money here....

Victo's??

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