racing suspension

[PFCRayB]

i am building a track car and want the more experienced drivers to chime in not the stance group, i came over from the 2002 side of everything and wanted to know if the suspension set ups are the same roughly, i can find and post the set up i was running in my 2002
Ray

[Massimo]

i am building a track car and want the more experienced drivers to chime in not the stance group, i came over from the 2002 side of everything and wanted to know if the suspension set ups are the same roughly, i can find and post the set up i was running in my 2002
Ray

What setups are dependent on the individual cars/driver? Do you mean a base setup.

[PFCRayB]

this is the set up i was running in my 2002 it is just copied and pasted from the 02faq site



Front Suspension:

Adjustable height coil over for standard 2.5”ID racing springs
Springs – 400 to 425 lb/inch x 7”
Shorten struts approximately 2”
Shocks – special shorter body (VW Rabbit) Bilsteins
Bend struts 1 to 1.5 degrees for maximum camber adjustment
Adjustable racing camber plates with solidly-mounted spherical bearings
Camber setting – 3.5 degrees total camber and toe out 1/16” to 1/8”
Strut brace – should be straight not bent
Urethane bushings for control arms and strut rod
Sway bar – Ireland Engineering 22mm hollow bar or 25mm solid bar

Rear Suspension:

Custom adjustable camber and toe installation necessary to achieve:
Camber and toe settings of – 2.25 to 2.5 degrees camber and toe in 1/16” to 1/8”
Stock-location springs – 350 lb/inch –
Optional weld-reinforce stock shock towers for coilover rear shocks – adjustable height coil over springs on shocks – 275 lb/inch x 8”
Coilover shocks – Bilstein sport
Sway bar – Ireland solid 22mm adjustable bar
Urethane bushings for trailing arms and differential mount
Solid aluminum rear subframe mounts

[Massimo]

I don't race but do you want adjustable coilovers? If not everyone will recommend you to the Spec E30 setup, it is tried and tested and seems to be the best way to go.

[PFCRayB]

this is just a base set up, i understand that each driver/car has their own perfrance on what is right, and handles better, or ideal for the track/conditions but those two are more on the tire side of this, i guess what i want to know is what is the most balanced set up to run, i.e camber, toe i.e./out, caster, spring rates, sway bar size, ect.
i do appolagize for the long and run on sentence.
Ray

[PFCRayB]

i am not building a spec e30 car, i do not want to be stuck in a class it is more of a time trail car

[Massimo]

Well I would say go Spec E30 then swap to coilovers down the track you would be looking at.

Billie Sports or Koni Adjustables
H&R Race Springs
22/19mm swaybars plus reinforcing
CABs probably offset ithor poly or treehouse racing Cabs
I Think IE are making a new trailing adjusters check that out.
You can also fix that with some offset poly or alloy Subframe bushes to reduce the rear camber as much as possible.
Poly TAB's and diff mount.
GC make great camber plates.

Oh Edit then maybe try GC coilovers or if you budget allows, I have only heard good things about ATC suspension. If you are going hard springs probably look at the IE 25/22mm sway bar set.

As far as actual alignment someone else will need to chim in.

[PFCRayB]

what is the benefit of going with spece30? and i don't know if i can with my e30 as it is a 318i slick top m42.

[Massimo]

Oh don't mean actually racing in the class I am just talking about the suspension setup. Everyone seems to like it so I thought that would be a good place to start. Yeh only M20in the SPEC E30

[PFCRayB]

o i see what you mean, well, the car already dose have the h&rs and billys, they are too soft for my liking it feels as if the car is "submarining" during turn-in if that makes seance, hence why i am asking if i can just copy the suspension off my 2002, i also understand that i can not have the fully coilover in the rear.

[Massimo]

Well you can go full coilover but may require strengthing the trailing arm mount point as you car moving all the load to that single point GAZ dose a true coilover setup for the E30.

I don't think there is any real great advantage to this though. If the H&R are to soft look at GC they can custom valve your shocks and have a huge range of springs

[D-rock]

^ your sig always freaks me out! Lol


Well you deffintly want coilovers.
Brand wise I would recommend ground control

[PFCRayB]

my buddy had gcs on his car and they filled with water. and I'm close friends with a shop near me who is a bc dealer and one of them ran them on his m5 and where amazing, i am also looking it to the gaz ones. dose anyone out here run the gaz ones???
and yes his sig dose bug me out also,

[Massimo]

lol you all love the sig. Don't go BC as much as everyone raves about them they are nothing more then a generic coilover adapted for the E30.

What do you mean the GC filled with water? They are a very reputable brand I would be very surprised if something went wrong. Read this thread on BC http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=232800

BC are ok, but you would not uses them for racing you are kidding you self if you do. There is a reason why you do not see them on pure track cars.

Oh and I ment AST not ATC whoops

[PFCRayB]

well he daily drives his e34 turing and he noticed that it felt as if he blow out the fronts so we took them off and they where filled water, and i wish i had the money for the ast 4100s but they are a little out of my reach at this moment of time, ha, and i like that there is no one "bashing" "flaming" this question, but it is 0233 so it is time for me to sleep.
Ray