Im having issues with handling on my track day car
I cant put my finger on it and I cant put my trust in it,
It was a 325. So the mods are based on a 325
Handling Mods done:
Uprated spring shock kit gmax 50 front/ 35 rear
Fully polybushed (every bush)
New wheel bearings
New lower arms
Poly arb bushes
Camber/toe adjustable rear beam
15" revolution alloys
R888 tyres
Now what would anyone recomend I can do? Maybe go lower?
How much of a difference does a uprated arb kit do?
Ive had 306 gti6 that handled better and it was a 700 quid nail with 60mm springs on and sticky tyres. What set ups are people using? Im hitting a sharp corner on my sig picture so you can see the body roll,
Thanks in advance for any help,
handling
Moderator: martauto
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jimmyspeed
- E30 Zone Regular
- Posts: 848
- Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:00 pm
- Location: riding a wagon wheel west
id say the gmax shocks - never used them but at 1/3 of the price of a bilstein, maybe some quality is lacking
Supposedly welding tabs to the front struts and using these as ARB pickups rather than the control arms (as per E30 M3) substantially increases the rate of the front ARB. hence why the E30 M3 got away with 19mm whereas the 325i Sport/Cab/Tourings had thicker front ARBs.
Also you might find the Gmax lowering springs a little soft for a caged E30! When you see what some of the track regulars here are running (Demlotcrew, UweM3, E21jason etc), it's a bit of an eye opener.
Also you might find the Gmax lowering springs a little soft for a caged E30! When you see what some of the track regulars here are running (Demlotcrew, UweM3, E21jason etc), it's a bit of an eye opener.
My understanding is that car body roll is first determined by the damper strength (initial roll on turn in) followed by the spring stiffness once the car has settled into the corner. Using stiffer anti roll bars will help with this somewhat, but their main influence is the car's balance during cornering and to help transfer the vehicle weight from the loaded tyres back to the unloaded tyres.
If you want to decrease the body roll you will have to look at a stiffer spring/damper combination. If you use the car on track, do not look past a rebound (or one-way) adjustable damper set up. You can dial it up for the track and then soften it for street driving. This alone will not overcome the softness you may feel in car if you do not also fit stiffer springs.
For example, my car currently has the adjustable Eibach 20mm (f) - 16mm(r) ARB kit (set to full hardness) and you can see in the pictures below that it is still trying to pick the inside wheels off the ground. The solution is to step up the springs rates to prevent that body roll. The stiffer springs will also help the submarining you get during heavy braking, giving your rear brakes more bite and thus braking force (something the ARB cannot help with).
If you want to decrease the body roll you will have to look at a stiffer spring/damper combination. If you use the car on track, do not look past a rebound (or one-way) adjustable damper set up. You can dial it up for the track and then soften it for street driving. This alone will not overcome the softness you may feel in car if you do not also fit stiffer springs.
For example, my car currently has the adjustable Eibach 20mm (f) - 16mm(r) ARB kit (set to full hardness) and you can see in the pictures below that it is still trying to pick the inside wheels off the ground. The solution is to step up the springs rates to prevent that body roll. The stiffer springs will also help the submarining you get during heavy braking, giving your rear brakes more bite and thus braking force (something the ARB cannot help with).
Cheers,
Michael.
Are you oversteering or understeering? Too much body roll could be a problem if you are getting bounced around alot but in my experience when I first went from fwd to rwd it was driving style that reduced most of the roll for me.
E30's naturally understeer out of the factory. If you drive them like a fwd car and try to pull your car through a corner it will roll alot and understeer more.
Try playing with front vs rear tyre pressure first and experiment at slightly slower speeds also try to change your braking points.
E30's are very rewarding once you figure the balance out.
Don't go spending needless money until you can diagnose the issue with more clarity.
E30's naturally understeer out of the factory. If you drive them like a fwd car and try to pull your car through a corner it will roll alot and understeer more.
Try playing with front vs rear tyre pressure first and experiment at slightly slower speeds also try to change your braking points.
E30's are very rewarding once you figure the balance out.
Don't go spending needless money until you can diagnose the issue with more clarity.
Ok So ive given her a good blast it went round the lanes ok and I put some trust into her (not driven her in over a year), the issues im having are bounce in the corners and roll
Now the springs are gmax and the shocks are eibach pro, im thinking a progressive spring upgrade allround and a 22mm adjustable front anti roll bar and a 4 wheel geom and set up at a local motorsport garage, im going to leave the rear stock.
My next question is what brand,drop and spring weight would you recomend? Im going to upgrade the shocks to bilstein b12's for next season. Many thanks gra
Now the springs are gmax and the shocks are eibach pro, im thinking a progressive spring upgrade allround and a 22mm adjustable front anti roll bar and a 4 wheel geom and set up at a local motorsport garage, im going to leave the rear stock.
My next question is what brand,drop and spring weight would you recomend? Im going to upgrade the shocks to bilstein b12's for next season. Many thanks gra
I was in a similar way this year, very poor front end grip and lots of body roll. I was on budget suspension (Jom). After a bit of research it seemed the only way forward was to save up a few quid (skip messing about with trying spring combos like H&R/koni/bilstein etc) and splash out on a set of coilovers from BC. I went for 10k/12k springs which is stiffer than the norm. It does make the car more uncomfortable on the road though. Everything works better now that I have decent suspension. Ill probably go down the ARB route next.
Yeah you can order stiffer springs and then find that the dampers arn't suitably matched. Dampers need to be valved to take springs of a given rate - advantages with the likes of Gaz, Avo, BC (budget) and any of the more expensive suspension manufacturers (Koni, AST, Nitron etc) is that they will valve dampers to order to match your desired spring rates.