Post your track setup

[Bavarian3]

Insert here.

[rwh11385]

Insert here.

that's what she said

[Bavarian3]

Don't ruin this awesome track forum...

[Charlie]

So, um, you mean like what we're running?

Mostly stock motored M20 325is. Turner J stock springs with the custom valved bilsteins, RRT -2 degree fixed camber plates, suspension techniques swaybars on 205 RA1s on 14 inch basketweaves. Stock rotors, SS lines with Hawk blues, HP+'s & HPS's for pads.

Corbeau Forza seat, VSR rollbar, Canon Zr100 DV camera on the ioport rollbar camera mount. Rare european rubber chicken mod.

-Charlie

[e9nine]

--Stock m42 318iS

Koni SAs
e30m3 suspension components
600#Front 650#Rear ERS springs
GC adjustable camber/caster plates
Stock Front Sway
Rear Sway delete
15 x 7 wheels
205-50-15 Falken Azenis 615
SS lines
Hawk HPS pads
Stock Rotors
ATE Super Blue

Last alignment readout(measured with 17" wheels with 215-40-17 tires @ 17 x 8 Front ET 15, 17x9 Rear ET 20)
Front End- Left || Right
Camber -3.4 || -3.8
Caster 9.4 || 9.6
Toe -0.01 || 0.00

Rear End- Left || Right
Camber -2.4 ||-2.4
Toe 0.21 || 0.14

Overall eval: Car's balanced. Doesn't understeer, rear end isn't twitchy. Very satisfied after visting little taladega for about 6 hours of track time. Front end has a lot of "Stick" Rear end behavior is not sloppy and neither snappy nor senile. When I start auto-xing in March I will post more updates.

[Bavarian3]

Interesting guys.. if you could, post various experience, like understeers in low speed corners, well balanced and if you would change anything? Lets get a good track topic going...

Heres mine:

88 M3 with Bilstein sports (not revavled) with Grupp N springs (Eibach), stock sways, Sparco strut bar, SBI rear bar. Stock strut mounts and no camber plates. Running around -2.99 in the rear and -2.5 in the front. 225/45/15 Hoosiers. No understeer or oversteer. Very balanced through the corners but might need a bit less roll.

Interesting (but stupid how this came about) I ran Victoracers 205/50/15 in the rear and 225/50/15 in the front. I totally forgot that we were running a 15x7 and 15x8 Kosei at the time. The car did not produce understeer but a bit of oversteer. I ran this for about four sessions (30 minutes)...

I finally ran Hoosiers at low pressures (which I've normally ran high, around 36 or so) and it hooked up great.

[DanGillan]

aint a "track car" but i took it to the track

basic modded m20 (chip intake exhaust) blah blah, its stock.
4.10 60% 3 clutch rebuilt diff
fk suspension
m3 rear sway with poly bushings
zimmerman x-drilled all around
hawk hps
ate superblue
17x7.5 kopis with 215/40/17 es100's.

very fucking fun set up on the track. couldnt have asked for more although i would have loved a little better tire, and possibly some brake cooling (the glen was tough on my brakes)

[Bavarian3]

Did you have any over/understeer? Would you change anything other than the tires or wheel size?

[rwh11385]

my setup sucks. the rear lets go before the front because i have no camber back there. and my ghetto solution of no rear bar is the weaksauce

i need to drop the rear an inch and rehook my bar back there. possibly throw down for an IE big front bar, then swap rear rates if need be.

my more advanced auto-x friend called it neutral, and coming from a FWD car himself, that means "understeer", LOL. but on track it seems good


alpine cd and infinity stereo system in my "track car"
cold a/c
plush seats and leather rear seat
streetable rates, and comfy ride if on 205/55-15s
noisy rear (RTRS subframe mounts)
IE engine mounts and BW tranny, z3 2.8 SSK

GC 300/475, koni SAs, stock sway in front, GC RSMs, RTRS trailing arm eccentric bushings, m coupe diff bushing, GC camber plates

205-50-15 Azenis RT-215 on 15x7 ET17 koseis....


ss lines, stock rotors (may throw in ATE Powerdiscs for the hell of it, $30 used ha), HP+ noisy bitches in front, Axxiss Ultimates in back.

[DanGillan]

Did you have any over/understeer? Would you change anything other than the tires or wheel size?

the over/understeer was pretty neutral with this set up, but i definately wouldnt change the wheel size, the handling characteristics with the smaller sidewall were awesome. i would just want a stickier tire with better wear, my tires were pretty much garbage after a couple autoX's and the weekend at the glen.

[cheades]

Mine is balanced enough for now, but I have camber plates on the way to help with tire wear. M3 rack helps a huge amount on autox course, but not as much on tracks (haven't been on one so far with a tight 180).

S50 - intake, exhaust, chip
3.23 Torsen LSD
Bilsteins with H&R Race
Sparco front bar, custom rear bar
e36 M3 steering rack
225/50-14 hoosiers r3s04 (track) and a3s04 (autox)
IE rear subframe mounts

[BimmerToad]

318iS w/ M52 2.8L

E30 M3 brakes and suspension
4.10 LSD M3 diff (Getrag 260)
GC 350F 475R
Custom valved Bilstein Sports
GC front sway endlinks
Treehouse CABs
Urethane rear subframe bushings
Front stock sway (20mm) attached to M3 strut link
Rear stock bar (12mm)
225/45R16 RS2s (formerly T1S) on 7.5" rim
Superblue fluid
Axxis ultimates front and rear
eccentric RTABs (set to max pos, min toe in)
Motorforce camber plates (formerly SBI)

Last alignment:
camber: -2.5 deg front
-2.0 deg rear
toe (IIRC): 0 deg front
(forgot rear)

When I initially did the 5 lug swap (w/ M42), I kept the front and rear bars in the stock positions while running the GC spring kit. The car had quite a bit of oversteer, both track and autox, and a bit too much lean. Repositioned the front bar and killed a large portion of the lean, but created quite a bit of exit understeer at the track (fairly neutral in a slippery parking lot).

The 24v swap lessened my track exit understeer a bit by putting more weight up in the front, but it still has a bit of push. Overall a decent and beginner friendly setup, but I think I'll dial in a bit more front camber for my next DE.

[Dave]

Stock M20

Stock Brakes w SS lines - OE Blank rotors, HP+ all around
3.73 LSD diff
GC Adjustables
Koni SAs
Treehouse CABs
Urethane rear subframe bushings and CA bushings
Front Cabrio stock sway
Rear stock bar
195/60-14 Azenis RT-215 on Steelies
IE camber plates

Cant comment on it yet, as it is not completely installed. First auto-x event is 3/12 - I'll know better then.

Inside - no cage, grey cloth sport seats, CG Lock, no rubber chicken.

[Axxe]

Stock M20

IE Stg III's
Koni Yellows
IE Urethane TA and SF bushings
M3 CAB's
Stock Sways
Stock Pads (first time I went out)

205/60R14 Ziex's


- very slight understeer at high speeds (a good thing IMHO)
- low speed understeer (unless I overpower it with throttle)
- not so good turn it, can be attributed to tires
- a bit too much body roll, need to get new (or solid) end links, mine are not so good, hopefully it fixes part of the problem

[nando]

it's hard to compare my car, and I've only done autox so far, but here it is anyway:

somewhat stock M20
springs: ix H&R sports
shocks: koni SA
sways: stock (17/14.5)
front adjustable swaybar links
SS brake lines
poly rear subframe and trailing arm bushings
M3 offset CABs
front strut bar
falken azenis RT215 195/60-14

otherwise my car is 100% stock, no removed AC, no stripped interior, no gutted insulation or trunk tar. and it's staying that way. ;)

Understeer isn't really much of a problem, I'd describe my car overall as neutral (of course there is a natural understeer tendancy from AWD). Definitely much improved over a stock ix. I don't think my suspensions stiffness is much of an issue, but body roll is a bit too much. As long as I'm careful with the throttle (and AWD requires care), I can control the amount of understeer and even oversteer in the right situations. I've never once experienced high speed understeer.

I haven't really changed much in the last 3 years, but that's okay because I've had time to improve my driving instead. But the weakness are starting to show:
auto tranny (sometimes I need to shift down, but I just can't)
sways: worn bushings and just too much dive (I want an 18mm front and 18/19mm adjustable rear)
front camber, I just don't have nearly enough (1.5 degrees at the most)
rear toe/camber settings, I have no idea what they are, it's very unlikely that they are optimal.

I plan on taking care of all these issues this spring, I'd like another degree or so of negative camber up front, get adjustments for rear toe/camber and have a real alignment done, and replace my worn swaybar bushings/upgrade rear bar. I'd also like wider tires, but I'm still waiting for RT615s in 225/50-15 or 225/45-16 to come out.

while we're here, anyone have an idea of the ideal rear toe/camber settings for an E30?