Best E30 Rally Suspension Setup

[MasterOfPuppets]

Learned/verified a few things while fooling around with the suspension swap the last few days:

1.) No anti-roll bars + soft stock springs = uncontrollable
2.) Stock rear springs + lowered front eibachs = killer rake
3.) Sam + corroded bolt = broken bolt

Right now the car is sitting on stock springs and Bilstein HDs. Seems to work OK on gravel, but needs much more testing :D. Probably will still upgrade to E36 springs for some more ride height since there's not much room for upward tire movement and not much ground clearance now.

[iamsam]

Forgot to post this before, but here's the difference betwixt 'regular E30 tire' and 'gravel E30 rally tire'...

What are the tire sizes?

[SlapDash]

The rally tire is 170/650 R15

Regular tire is 195/60 R14

[MasterOfPuppets]

I've pretty much decided that coilovers of some kind are going to be the way to go. Ground Control makes this conversion kit. Seem like it would work well, especially if they can substitute some longer springs. I could then attach the threaded collar onto the strut tube at a slightly lower than intended spot and get more articulation out of the system. Only hitch would be finding some longer shocks with more travel, but I'm sure they exist for some application.

Sound like a decent plan?

[Bimmerman325i]

Call up Chris at SCR or any of the Vorshlag guys-- AST makes rally-specific coilovers.

So does TEIN.

[KennyT]

Call up Chris at SCR or any of the Vorshlag guys-- AST makes rally-specific coilovers.

So does TEIN.

Both of which are better than stock, in durability and maybe travel. If you want to be competitive then I would go for them, but if you just want to have fun and keep things cheap for now just use what you have.

Odds are this car will not make it through 10 events before it is totaled, nature of the sport.

Do not put a GC kit on a rally car. It is a very bad idea.

[Bimmerman325i]

Both of which are better than stock, in durability and maybe travel. If you want to be competitive then I would go for them, but if you just want to have fun and keep things cheap for now just use what you have.

Odds are this car will not make it through 10 events before it is totaled, nature of the sport.

True.

Do not put a GC kit on a rally car. It is a very bad idea.

Only as far as using Koni shocks. The springs and height adjusters are just fine for this purpose.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Odds are this car will not make it through 10 events before it is totaled, nature of the sport.

Do not put a GC kit on a rally car. It is a very bad idea.

10 events probably gets me 4 years, so that's good enough...

Concur with Bimmerman on the GC kit, I would not be using the complete kit with supplied shocks, just perches and springs "conversion kit." Can't see how it would be any worse than stock and its a relatively affordable mod.

[iamsam]

Yeah it seems like the best way to go if you can specify spring height as well as spring rate.

But still, I'll ask Peter at SCR, he knows his rally suspensions (Mike, he was the guy we were talking to w/ the white Talon)

[MasterOfPuppets]

I started the build thread for the car here.

[futureficus]

Subscribed. Looking to learn from your setup.