I'm writing this to spread a little more information about the coilover kits and camber plates sold by Cosmo Racing.
This past spring I was trying to piece together some suspension on the cheap. My only past experience with E30 suspension was a GC kit that I had on my 318is with top adjustable konis and GC RSMs. This time around I didnt have the money for a Ground Control setup so I though I'd try something a little different. I settled on Cosmo racing for what I thought might be a similar setup to my ground controls.
What I ended up ordering was:
Bilstein sports from bavauto when they were on sale $417.40
Cosmo “Race” E30 Coilover kit PN: Coile30325R $200.50
Cosmo Camber Kit for coilover applications PN: CAMBE30FC $120.50
Total $738.40
This is basically what H&R race and billy sports costs. And it would seem that your getting much more for your money. I figured worst case scenario was that I sell the the billy sports and take a very small loss on them, and then I'm really only out the $321.00 for the cosmo stuff; and considering that I can reuse the camber plates with my next setup then its like I spent $321 on camber plates (which is still cheaper than ground controls plates). This is the train of thought I went through to justify buying this setup.
It should be noted that I ordered my Cosmo parts directly from Cosmo's website which costs significantly less than on Ebay.
I also added some new control arms, tie rod ends, M3 offset CABs and new RSMs while I was at it.
Installation was as I expected with only one surprise installing the camber plates.
To make the rear adjusters fit snugly over the nubs on the trailing arms I wrapped them with electrical tape, the same was done for the spring hats on the top.
In the front I removed the stock spring perch leaving only a nub around the strut body that the new adjustable spring perch would sit on. The fit of the adjusters on the strut body is good, but not quite as good as with the ground control parts. Once again I wrapped the strut body with a little electrical tape to make sure everything stayed in place snug, although if I remember correctly not much was needed.
To install the camber plates a spacer needed to be placed in between the spring hat and the spherical bearing in the camber plate, this spacer allows the spherical bearing to do its job and allow the strut to pivot about the spherical bearing. Without it the spring hat would sit directly against the camber plate and the suspension would bind.
My spacers were made from aluminum and CNC cut (my friend operates a CNC lathe at work and we joke about them being $100 spacers for what It would have cost to have the shop make them). If this option isn't available to you which I suspect it isn't for most of us, you could probably get away with using a few washers and grinding down the outside until they reach the proper OD to clear the camber plate body. This problem is very obvious and its likely that the cosmo kit is suppored to come with something to solve this problem, although I never bothered to contact customer support so I cant say weather or not this was a fluke and do not know how helpful customer service would have been had I contacted them.
Here are some pictures
The box
Everything was packages nicely and looked professional enough
Whats inside
Installation stuff (most of which I don't think I used)
The camber plates
The rear spring, adjusters and hats
The front springs, adjusters and hats
I purchased the “Racing” coilovers which means 8kg/mm front and 10kg/mm rear spring rates. This translates to 448lb/in front and 560lb/in rear for those of you who are math challenged. The front springs are 6in longs and the rears are 5in long. This means that I can get plenty low on all four corners. At my current height I have room to go at least an inch lower on every corner.
Now its time to drive the car....
Its not nearly as good as what I was hoping for (based on my experience with my ground control setup which rode absolutely perfect after I had the shocks dialed in). With that being said it was still a vast improvement over the super super low cut spring and incredibly blown to pieces stock shocks.
The front end feels too stiff(and/or overdamped) going over bumps and the rear feels a little too soft(and/or underdamped). The same can be said when simply pushing down on the car with your hands. The front rear imbalance is probably attributed just as much to improperly matched shocks as it is to the available spring rates, although with 450lb/in in the front something closer to 650lb/in would have been more appropriate in the rear. It should also be noted that I'm in an M50 powered car so its probably carrying a little extra weight over the front end compared to an M20 car. My intuition would tell me that with a lighter front end the stiff feeling of the front would be even more exaggerated.
I have some other issues from my car that are keeping me from putting too many miles on it, but after a few hundred I've gotten used to the ride and its acceptable. On the plus side it does feel much sportier and more responsive than a stock suspension but what I've given up in ride quality is more than I expected (and much more than I had to give up with the Ground Controls).
At this point I feel that My ride would be greatly improved by:
1.Having my bilstein revalved to match my springs a little better.
Or
2.Getting some top adjustable Koni's again.
Would I recommend these products?
The Camber plates are great value for money and I think given the choice I would buy them again. Even if they wear out in two or three years they are still a great value. No squeaks either.
The coilover kit does not seem like the most balanced rates but the price is pretty good. I think my mistake was taking something cheap and expecting too much from it. If your only going to spend $200 on coilovers and grab some used shocks or KYBs or something I think this would be a great setup. Bilstein sports were not the best shock to choose for this application and I think my money may have been better spend on some GC adjusters and springs paired with some cheaper shocks or maybe going with the H&R race / bilstein combo that everyone seems to like for about the same cost.
Since both the products are new to me I can't say weather my ride issues are from the shocks or the springs or simply the combination of the two. If anyone local want to go for a ride in my car or take me for a ride in theirs with some other suspension so we can come up with a little better comparison let me know.
I hope this was helpful to someone and that I didn't waste my time typing it up.
This past spring I was trying to piece together some suspension on the cheap. My only past experience with E30 suspension was a GC kit that I had on my 318is with top adjustable konis and GC RSMs. This time around I didnt have the money for a Ground Control setup so I though I'd try something a little different. I settled on Cosmo racing for what I thought might be a similar setup to my ground controls.
What I ended up ordering was:
Bilstein sports from bavauto when they were on sale $417.40
Cosmo “Race” E30 Coilover kit PN: Coile30325R $200.50
Cosmo Camber Kit for coilover applications PN: CAMBE30FC $120.50
Total $738.40
This is basically what H&R race and billy sports costs. And it would seem that your getting much more for your money. I figured worst case scenario was that I sell the the billy sports and take a very small loss on them, and then I'm really only out the $321.00 for the cosmo stuff; and considering that I can reuse the camber plates with my next setup then its like I spent $321 on camber plates (which is still cheaper than ground controls plates). This is the train of thought I went through to justify buying this setup.
It should be noted that I ordered my Cosmo parts directly from Cosmo's website which costs significantly less than on Ebay.
I also added some new control arms, tie rod ends, M3 offset CABs and new RSMs while I was at it.
Installation was as I expected with only one surprise installing the camber plates.
To make the rear adjusters fit snugly over the nubs on the trailing arms I wrapped them with electrical tape, the same was done for the spring hats on the top.
In the front I removed the stock spring perch leaving only a nub around the strut body that the new adjustable spring perch would sit on. The fit of the adjusters on the strut body is good, but not quite as good as with the ground control parts. Once again I wrapped the strut body with a little electrical tape to make sure everything stayed in place snug, although if I remember correctly not much was needed.
To install the camber plates a spacer needed to be placed in between the spring hat and the spherical bearing in the camber plate, this spacer allows the spherical bearing to do its job and allow the strut to pivot about the spherical bearing. Without it the spring hat would sit directly against the camber plate and the suspension would bind.
My spacers were made from aluminum and CNC cut (my friend operates a CNC lathe at work and we joke about them being $100 spacers for what It would have cost to have the shop make them). If this option isn't available to you which I suspect it isn't for most of us, you could probably get away with using a few washers and grinding down the outside until they reach the proper OD to clear the camber plate body. This problem is very obvious and its likely that the cosmo kit is suppored to come with something to solve this problem, although I never bothered to contact customer support so I cant say weather or not this was a fluke and do not know how helpful customer service would have been had I contacted them.
Here are some pictures
The box
Everything was packages nicely and looked professional enough
Whats inside
Installation stuff (most of which I don't think I used)
The camber plates
The rear spring, adjusters and hats
The front springs, adjusters and hats
I purchased the “Racing” coilovers which means 8kg/mm front and 10kg/mm rear spring rates. This translates to 448lb/in front and 560lb/in rear for those of you who are math challenged. The front springs are 6in longs and the rears are 5in long. This means that I can get plenty low on all four corners. At my current height I have room to go at least an inch lower on every corner.
Now its time to drive the car....
Its not nearly as good as what I was hoping for (based on my experience with my ground control setup which rode absolutely perfect after I had the shocks dialed in). With that being said it was still a vast improvement over the super super low cut spring and incredibly blown to pieces stock shocks.
The front end feels too stiff(and/or overdamped) going over bumps and the rear feels a little too soft(and/or underdamped). The same can be said when simply pushing down on the car with your hands. The front rear imbalance is probably attributed just as much to improperly matched shocks as it is to the available spring rates, although with 450lb/in in the front something closer to 650lb/in would have been more appropriate in the rear. It should also be noted that I'm in an M50 powered car so its probably carrying a little extra weight over the front end compared to an M20 car. My intuition would tell me that with a lighter front end the stiff feeling of the front would be even more exaggerated.
I have some other issues from my car that are keeping me from putting too many miles on it, but after a few hundred I've gotten used to the ride and its acceptable. On the plus side it does feel much sportier and more responsive than a stock suspension but what I've given up in ride quality is more than I expected (and much more than I had to give up with the Ground Controls).
At this point I feel that My ride would be greatly improved by:
1.Having my bilstein revalved to match my springs a little better.
Or
2.Getting some top adjustable Koni's again.
Would I recommend these products?
The Camber plates are great value for money and I think given the choice I would buy them again. Even if they wear out in two or three years they are still a great value. No squeaks either.
The coilover kit does not seem like the most balanced rates but the price is pretty good. I think my mistake was taking something cheap and expecting too much from it. If your only going to spend $200 on coilovers and grab some used shocks or KYBs or something I think this would be a great setup. Bilstein sports were not the best shock to choose for this application and I think my money may have been better spend on some GC adjusters and springs paired with some cheaper shocks or maybe going with the H&R race / bilstein combo that everyone seems to like for about the same cost.
Since both the products are new to me I can't say weather my ride issues are from the shocks or the springs or simply the combination of the two. If anyone local want to go for a ride in my car or take me for a ride in theirs with some other suspension so we can come up with a little better comparison let me know.
I hope this was helpful to someone and that I didn't waste my time typing it up.
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