Need Advice on Eliminating Body Roll *Tight Budget*

[brent5631]

OK. I have seen those. But they only work on e30 M3 suspension. You would need something like this for the regular e30 suspension.

http://store.bimmerworld.com/e36-race-front-control-arms-p1021.aspx

And if you have coils there is no need for the spacer above the camber plate. Just spin the adjusters up and get more suspension travel to boot.

[jntar]

I decided on the j-stock springs and GC camber plates. It was the cheapest route for me since I can sell my H&R race springs and recoup some of the money. I'll post up my opinions and photos when I hit up the next autocross on the 6th and 7th.

[BlackbirdM3]

I decided on the j-stock springs and GC camber plates. It was the cheapest route for me since I can sell my H&R race springs and recoup some of the money. I'll post up my opinions and photos when I hit up the next autocross on the 6th and 7th.

I will bet the farm your suspension geometry is wrong assuming you got the Spec E30 adjustable camber and caster plates. The J-stock springs are crazy high spring rates, unless you got the correct dampers to go with them, the car is underdamped. I bet it will skip over every irregularity out there. It won't bottom, but it also won't absorb anything short of a large square edged impact either. A suspension system needs to move to work, and its got to work to get the car to stick.

It might be fine for an all out race car that can't run coilovers, but for anything driven on the street, or even a slightly rough track the thing is going to hop and skip around, it will feel very poorly planted. I've driven an E30 M3 with similar rate springs and the thing was the most nervous thing ever to the point of being hard to drive even on the street. Sure, it corners flat, but it also breaks into a drift far too early in a corner as well.

A little compliance in the suspension isn't a bad thing.

Will

[jntar]

Just a quick update.

What I did end up going with.

1)Kmac camber plates (this virtually eliminated my understeering problem completely)
2)Whiteline 24mm front bar (fixed the front roll and also seemed to help keep the camber in the front while hard turn in)
3)BFGoodrich Rival 205/50/15 tires (HUGE step up from the Yokohamas I had on there)

[Emre]

I decided on the j-stock springs and GC camber plates.

Good choice.

[freeride53]

Please post back with updates! This thread is extremely relevant to me.

[jntar]

Please post back with updates! This thread is extremely relevant to me.

So far with spirited street/mountain driving the three upgrades I made are night and day difference (better). I have a two day autocross event this weekend I will be running in. Saturday is test and tune, Sunday is race day. I'll post back next week with more thoughts.



On another note. When I was under the car installing the sway bar I noticed that I have the offset CABS. I must have somehow overlooked this originally.

[jntar]

Progress being made with the new setup and gaining experience as a driver.

3/2/13


4/7/13


5/19/13

[jntar]

Put up a run .3 off first

[Nsquared97]

Very cool man, keep it up. I can't wait to for coils and to move into STX.

[Daeldalus]

not trying to mess you up or anything but OP's car does not qualify for STX because you are not allowed to change your steering rack to any other unit.

plus i have always heard that for AutoX you should not use a bigger sway rear bar because of oversteer issues so???? or is it better to keep both bars fairly well matched?

[jntar]

Couple things.

1)I do qualify for STX. Since making this thread I did further research on the non ZF rack I bought. It was from advanced autoparts and the part number matches the ones they sell for the '91. I looked up some pics and the lines are run in the exact way the stock ZF rack I had were and have also measured the LTL turn and its around 3.8 LTL (this was done crudely, but still done).
I then went to our SCCA tech and was cleared to run, I didn't with hold the information of the rack and they measured and checked it also.

2)The bigger front bar with stock rear bar made a huge improvement on the cars handling and gave no ill effects thus far. I dont see the need for a rear bar. IMO it would not help the car any.

[Nsquared97]

To be quite honest, until you start going to BIG events (Match Tours, Divisionals) and kicking everyone's butt, very few people would care about a different rack. But at the same time I am all for honest, clean racing.

[petrolhead]

"Eliminating Body Roll *Tight Budget*"

Make it lighter anyway you possibly can. Big things, little things, everything. It all adds up and will reduce tendency to roll. After that, whatever else you do to minimize roll, will give more results (, compared to doing the same mods on a heavier car).

[Nsquared97]

Just about any weight reduction will kick him out of STX. You are allowed to do lighter seats, but with mounts they have to weigh a minimum of 25 lbs.