E30 Zone

I've recently decided to take a slightly different route with my car build. As i will realistically only be using it on track a few times a year, and the rest on the road, i feel it a little silly to deck it out as a full on track car.

So i will be making the inside a little more 'comfortable' along with some other things. It seems a little unnecassary to spend over a grand on some gaz golds when a spring and damper kit will probably do me just fine.

I have eibach front and rear arb's, all new bushes mix of oem and poly, new front control arms and eccentric m3 bushes.

I have been looking at the h&r cup kit at venom for £411, mainly the 60/40 although they also do a 35/35

I have also considered the bilstein b12 kit with b8 shocks and eibach springs, cheapest i have seen this is £550

I have done a lot of searching on here and the net for info. Nearly all american sites say the h&r is very soft and very low, but most experiences on here seem to say it is a fairly stiff kit, at least stiffer than the eibachs

Are there different kits available in europe to america or am i missing something?

Christian

the cup kit is a very good kit for the road and rides fairly softly. Softer than the mtec set up. It drops more than the stated drop so I would go for the 35/35 drop as it settles around 40mm.

B12 kit for £550? That's a bargain!

cheapest b12 kit i have seen was at larkspeed £550

http://www.larkspeed.com/index.pl?p=1146000132&a=i

h&r on venom for £411

I've got the H&R 60/40 kit, very good quality kit

Christian, I used to run the 60/40 H&R kit and thought it was brilliant. Ride height was great in my opinion (not too low, but sits very well).

I now run an Eibach kit with Bilstein shocks, and I would agree that the H&R kit was stiffer in comparison. Also made the rear a little more twitchy!

Great bit of kit though!

Interesting Ajay, that you have had both kits, are the bilsteins the b8's as in the b12 kit?

Not sure which route to go for here, i dont live in the best of area for rough roads, who doesnt! I dont want the h&r kit to be bottoming out, as i have read some people say. Its always hard to know however whether some peoples bad experiences are them referring to fitting just the springs, on old knackered shocks, which is asking for problems.

but.. the cup kit is springs only, right?
When I got my B12 kit it was closer to £1k....

No, the cup kit is 4 dampers and springs. Have had a good search round and the b12 at Lark for £550 definetly seems the cheapest, the price seems to vary a lot.

Still dont know which way to go. I keep checking for used but good coilovers as that would also interest me, they rarely seem to come up though.

As said, I've got the H&R, but I chose it on budget and how much it lowers the car by. If you're not too fussed about lows and you have the budget, I'd say go for the Bilstein kit, it's quality and a good all rounder, not that the H&R isn't good kit, it's just a bit firmer. That dfidn't bother me though as the car isn't a daily, but if you're going to be using it regularly, I think you'll appreciate the slightly more comfortable Bilstein

I am amazed people are saying the h+r kit is firm It is less firm than the metc 2 kit and the even stiffer bistein shockers found on the mtec 1 sports. I am only speaking of the -35 kit though.

I've got the 60/40 kit so that may have something to do with it, poly bushes won't help my cause either

Chris_B86 wrote:I've got the 60/40 kit so that may have something to do with it, poly bushes won't help my cause either

That may explain it. The cup kit used to be the prefered choice of the old zoners perhaps some of them could add their experience.

True, when I got the B12 kit I thought it was the softer option for the rural roads I drive on. Since then, fashion has moved away from 60/40 drops and towards 35, or MTech -15mm.
Fashion is one thing, but get what you need for your own use.

edit: I've also noticed the difference in opinion on E30tech. They seem to like running super stiff springs - possibly because they're running on track? I've seen posts where they want 550lb or 600lb springs on the front corners and deriding Eibach for being 350lb (IIRC) and far too soft. I can't imagine doubling the springs rates on my car would leave it usable on the road.

interesting thoughts guys, all appreciated and certainly welcome anymore.

One other thought i have had/seen, Gaz adjustable front and rear dampers, what are peoples thoughts on these and what springs would compliment them?

ive used all the mentioned kits. The 60/40 cup kit doesn't ride hard. The dampers that come with it are boge gas items.

If you fit bilstein B6/8 dampers with them the ride gets hard. The best road combo imo was the shorted B6 dampers with these springs.

Theres not enough to write home about comparing the -35mm springs really compared with the eibachs.

The big difference was H&R springs are progressively wound which i thinks better for feedback myself. Lots will disagree no doubt and say eibach this and that.

I'd not listen at any american about making a car handle. especailly an E30 for our needs

Don't want to thread hijack but I currently have an e30 that came on bolster dampers and unknown lowering springs. I believe it is currently running a 60mm drop.

The ride is fine and the dampers good but the car just sits too low to be practical! I scrape too often for my liking. I am looking to just replace the springs, what would you guys recommend?

H&R or eibach springs? I would be going for 30/40mm drop.

Had a 60/40 cup kit on my car for the past 4 years and I love it. Just the right amount of feel so you know just what both ends are doing as you enter and exit a corner. The ride for everyday motoring is good as well - I'd consider it firm without being at all uncomfortable. At first. I was uncertain about that amount of drop on the front end, but in reality it has hardly been a problem and to my eyes, the raked look is still the best.

Bakedbean100 wrote:Don't want to thread hijack but I currently have an e30 that came on bolster dampers and unknown lowering springs. I believe it is currently running a 60mm drop.

The ride is fine and the dampers good but the car just sits too low to be practical! I scrape too often for my liking. I am looking to just replace the springs, what would you guys recommend?

H&R or eibach springs? I would be going for 30/40mm drop.

Well Simon13 has run both at -35mm and says there's not much in it but he prefers HnR for the feedback. I've only run Eibachs so I can't compare, all I can say is that I'm happy with what I've got.
So, flip a coin, or go try out both types. I don't think you can go far wrong with either

put it this way years ago, H&R 35mm springs used to be about £110 delivered max. eibach were always around the £160 mark for their 35mm springs.

So H&R used to be more popular, now they're about a million quid a set and eibachs the same price guess whats more common now!

Thanks for everyones comments on this. Cant say i'm decided on either option, but will order 1 of them very shortly

if you stick to quality stuff especially shocks then you won't be disappointed.

buy spax, jamex, Pi and all that other sh ! te and it won't get so great

Simon13 wrote:if you stick to quality stuff especially shocks then you won't be disappointed.

buy spax, jamex, Pi and all that other sh ! te and it won't get so great

This^^^ I even had Koni once and they were awful, may aswell have welded scaffold bar in place of the dampers.

When I bought my H&R's I did a fair bit of reading and didn't find any bad reviews, so I chose them over the Bilstein/Eibach kit purely because it was something like £140 cheaper.

Think the main reasons my ride is a little firm is I've got E92 top hats so it's a 70mm drop at the front, all round poly bushes, and H&R front and rear anti roll bars on the stiffest adjustment points.

I had a touring with a 60/40 cup kit for a bit and I thought it was excellent!!!
The handling on the road was great and the previous owner was more than happy with it on track!!!
I definately thought it was an improvement on the Mtec stuff - though they wouldve been worn and prob tired bushes etc!!!

Comparing it to the H&R coilover kit I've got on my current touring - the coilys do give better grip and feedback, but to be honest, I don't think its enough difference to warrant the big jump in price!!! I don't have any probs driving on the coilys daily and I have wondered if the H&Rs aren't as firm as some!!!

Next time I would happily go for a 60/40 cup kit - for daily and some track use!!!
Never had any probs height wise with the 60/40!!!

Right chaps I have a 91 cabby 325i with borbet b's 16x9 all round with 205/40/zr16. I want to drop the car low enough that the arches just sit above the tyre. Was thinking h&r cup kit 60/40mm but some have said maybe to low and to go for 35/30mm instead any help would be great coz need to sort it out asap. P.s have had the arches rolled by paul from archenemy .....top bloke Thanks Ozzy

H&R's (Red) sport springs and billie shocks im going to be using B8 ones with 36 old part number as the new part number 34 is just the B6 spec and they just pass them off as B8's