Coilovers or OE set up

[Neilios]

After a bit of guidance please.

I am collecting all the parts to make my 320 Touring a M52 road/track car, should I use coilovers or a quality set of springs and shocks.

Its only a toy as I have a car to drive everyday, any guidance and comments from people who have done a similar project would be good.

Thanks

[Neilios]

Or should I go down the route of using E36 stuff as I will have it spare from the donor car?

[Grrrmachine]

the E36 won't donate as much as you think, and you'll need to invest in some VERY expensive parts to properly convert an E30 to an E36 setup. Not worth it for a weekend toy.

As for coilovers, I shouldn't comment because I don't have any direct experience, but they're very much a fad. Coilies are designed to be an adjustable suspension setup so that you can tweak and fine tune the stiffness per corner of the car... but 99% of coilovers for sale don't do that. They're just garish junk sold to VW gimps so that they can get the free JOM sticker to put on their car. And if you are at the point where your car needs minute suspension adjustments, then it definitely won't be a road-going car because it'll rattle your spine to dust when driving in a normal potholed British road.

For a lot less money and effort you can get a decent shock/spring setup that will be a decent balance between racing performance and drive-home comfort.

[tomislav]

If you track it a lot, go for coilovers.

If you dont track it a lot, go for something like an H&R cup kit

[jmc330i]

I believe the usual advice is, if you can't afford a proper coilover setup (BC or similar), go for a decent spring/shock set up. The cheaper coilovers will be poor for a track based car.

[Motorhole]

E36 stuff from the donor car won't give you the right geometry, unfortunately. You need E36 M3 Evo stuff for the front to make it work and the rear ends are quite different; E36 Compact or Z3 bits needed for a 5-stud rear. Even then, you'll be struggling to get adequate negative camber (at least for track use where you may want -3 degrees or more) on the front without camber adjustable top mounts, speaking from experience. There is a guide on the wiki too.

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... ront_Setup

Define your budget first - if you can afford to spunk £600+ on suspension and if your car is going to be used heavily on track, go for coilovers. Otherwise, springs and shocks it is - unless you can find a good used set of coilovers.

[Neilios]

I have been looking at Bilstein B4 shocks, H&R springs with a 30mm height reduction the setup is just over £400 against the Gaz coilovers at just over £600.

Don't want to spend thousands but not interested in buying rubbish, just wanted comments on what other people use and rate as a good set up.

[Neilios]

More research and more confusion! H&R Cup kit, Spax, Bilstein B12 kit and the what height to drop, they seam to go between 30mm to 60mm?? Some offering 60/40mm f/r?

[DanThe]

If you track it a lot, go for coilovers.

If you dont track it a lot, go for something like an H&R cup kit

/\ This /\

stay away from spax, its utter shite.
anything Bilstein is proper, B4 being at the more road comfort/bump friendly side and B6/B8 stiffer road holding end of the scale

I have B8 dampers and H&R springs on my road car and they are great, maybe a little too stiff but only due to the pathetic state of the roads, on a nice smooth road they are perfectly fine

I have Gaz golds on my track car and they are also great at what they are designed for, not something id want to be riding on every day though

[tomislav]

/\ This too /\

Gaz golds (900 odd quid) are the mutts nuts on track, tried and tested round the 'ring and in 5 years havent let me down but they are bastid stiff for road use.

Bilsteins are good (will have some front b8's for sale very soon if ya interested) as are h and r, eibach i can also vouch for. All for the road.

Dan speaketh the truth!