NOR-CAL General Chat.

[PorscheH6]

:D

[decay]

:D

congrats!

[Cabriolet]

Dam Nate. I thought I was opinionated. HR race are like 315 front and my "coilovers" are only 250 and they felt almost good enough for that autox. With the lightness of the m3's front and the shit roads he drives on. I can see why Will thinks the hr race are stiff. Granted I may even go j-stock on my m3 so I dont need to take the coilover points for bmwcca autox. Butdifferent strokes for different folks. just like luke loves 5ch amps and I hate them. Its all preference in an under powered car with iffy suspension. <3 both u guys

[YosemiteSam]

From what I recall most mountain bikes ride topped out in their suspension travel, which may explain why you have this conception. This is not at ALL how automotive suspension operates. Extra preload WILL raise the car; I speak not only from experience but frankly from common knowledge.

This is not true. I work in a bike shop and have been riding Mountain bikes for quite a while now. Full suspension bikes are supposed to sit ~20% into their travel, some people set them up to have no sag but that hurts performance greatly. On a coil mountain bike shock, which operates much the same as automotive suspension, increasing the preload will raise you up just as it does on automotive suspension thereby allowing you to adjust the sag.

[Wh33lhop]

my "coilovers" are only 250

Lies! I want proof :hitler:

[BlackbirdM3]

So by my math you have already paid $1450 (750 dampers + 350 springs + 350 camber plates) for your suspension, that is not a far cry from the $1800 or so (IIRC) that GCs come in at.



If you need to make your car ride unevenly to corner balance it you are doing it wrong.



From what I recall most mountain bikes ride topped out in their suspension travel, which may explain why you have this conception. This is not at ALL how automotive suspension operates. Extra preload WILL raise the car; I speak not only from experience but frankly from common knowledge.



I have never cared much about whether or not they are linear, all I know is that they are soft. Around 300-350lbs/in in the front, right? It is all subjective obviously, but to most E30ers those are DD rates, not really track or autocross rates. I am on 450#/in on the front on 205 R888s and they still feel a bit soft to me. Most track or autocross guys go for 500-600.



You could if you grabbed a kit that let you adjust your ride height and dampers that accommodated it.

Its pretty simple, you can't lift that which is already topped out. You can compress the spring, but you can't lift the car because the height is already limited to the strut length that is already at its maximum extension anyway. Heck, in theory I could achieve the same thing by running really thick spring pads, but all that does is require the use of a spring compressor in order to install the camber plates because the strut is now Xmm below the bottom of the camber plate. I've played this game with the set of spring that came on the car (Now those springs were too soft by a long way, the front suspension bottomed out while driving into the garage) The height of the car is a fixed distance unless the damper that holds everything in place can also move upward. You can create some good coil bind but if the strut is X inches long from the bottom to the top of the damper, that is how high the car will sit, minus any sag from the springs. Now, if you are running springs stiff enough to not allow the front end to sag, sure you will have a higher ride height because there is nothing compressing. By preloading a spring, all you are doing is putting extra stress on the insides of the damper causing it to wear out faster because its getting slammed into the top-out position time and time again. With some sag to the suspension, this should be a bit less of an impact. My guess is that the car will be skittish and overly nervous with anything but a set of fresh set of race tires. If I were looking for a set of springs like that, I'd get a set of the Turner J-stock springs and have at it. Not long after I'd be having to weld cracks in the body from transferring all the impacts to the body rather than soaking them up with the suspension.

As it is, my car handles pretty well. I haven't autoXed it this year, but last year I had 3 wins, and was usually the fastest BMW at any of the UFO races. Sure sometimes there was someone on R compounds with a stripped out E30 that would beat me, but I'd still be in the top 3 cars (assuming Vic Sias showed up with his SCCA M3, and the Stripped E30 were both there at the same time.) and this was on street tires (RS-3s) That was also on the stupidly soft springs. The thing is, I know it can handle better and be less prone to bottoming out with the right roll center. With that correct, I also won't need stupidly large anti-sway bars due to having less body roll, or the need for excessive camber because I wouldn't be loosing camber as the suspension compresses.

As for the H&Rs being too soft, why would they spec them for Spec E30 if they were too soft for a car that is heavier up front anyway? It doesn't make any sense (but then not all race rules are there to make sense.)

If I'm going to spend $ on a set of coilovers, they will be the real deal, with the right extended height to get the roll center correct, and will have external damping adjustments. They won't be a sleeve welded onto a stock strut housing with an off the shelf damper shoved into it.

As for the Ground Control conversion kits, when was the last time you tried to source a set of E30 M3 strut housings? They are hard to come by and cost as much as what I've already spent. At that rate, I'm still at $3K for a set of cobbled together single adjustable coilovers for the cost of a set of MCS coilovers that will still require a set of spacers to get the ride height right.

I've done a set of the GC coilover conversions for a 510, I wasn't impressed. It was a lot of money for the ability to make the car way too low. I was happy to help a friend out and do the welding, but personally I'd never spend the money for what he got.

Will

[Pantless Spency]

Blah. Thought I fixed my water leak.


For whatever reason I am under the impression that my thermostat. is not opening properly, just took it out and I'm gonna give it a whirl with no thermostat

[Wh33lhop]

Its pretty simple, you can't lift that which is already topped out.

I'm gonna stop you there. I mentioned in my last post that this is not the case if you choose your dampers correctly. You've really got to start reading and processing my posts, dude, because it's frustrating as fuck responding to someone who ignores points you make.

[decay]

Yeah, people who operate in broadcast-only mode piss me off.

(Girlfriend.)

[MR 325]

Blah. Thought I fixed my water leak.


For whatever reason I am under the impression that my thermostat. is not opening properly, just took it out and I'm gonna give it a whirl with no thermostat

Having no thermostat can cause problems too.

[Pantless Spency]

Having no thermostat can cause problems too.

Yeah.. As soon as I started it up thermostatless it made this horrible noise, sounded like he fan was hitting shit lol turned it off fast.

[kronus]

Yeah.. As soon as I started it up thermostatless it made this horrible noise, sounded like he fan was hitting shit lol turned it off fast.

that's not something taking a t-stat out can accomplish if you've put stuff back together correctly.

[Cabriolet]

Lies! I want proof :hitler:

this is what they are:
Spring Rates: 8kg front, 7kg rear

http://www.ebay.com/itm/XYZ-SPORT-COILOVER-86-91-BMW-E30-M3-ADJUSTABLE-COILOVERS-51MM-REAR-SEPARATED-SET/221010745740

oops bad math looked them up did the math 450 lb/in front

[Danny]

Spencer why don't you just sell your cars to me?

[Wh33lhop]

this is what they are:
Spring Rates: 8kg front, 7kg rear

http://www.ebay.com/itm/XYZ-SPORT-COILOVER-86-91-BMW-E30-M3-ADJUSTABLE-COILOVERS-51MM-REAR-SEPARATED-SET/221010745740

oops bad math looked them up did the math 335 lb/in front

8kg is 450#. kg/mm to lbs/in conversion rate is 56.