I am investigating options for suspension upgrades for my daily-driver E36 M3. I also use the car for autox, and HPDE. Most aftermarket springs seem to drop the car quite a bit, and I don't really want to contend with a super-low car in winter.
What do you run? Are you happy with the handling and ride trade-offs? Would you do it differently a second time?
I'm pretty sure there was a similar thread that made its way around a month or so ago.
I run factory M3 springs, Koni's front and rear (rear were modified by T.C. Klein) THK adjustable swaybar end links, and a larger front Eibach sway bar. (26mm IIRC) All the bushings, and strut mounts have been replaced.
My car is a DD, and an occasional track day/ autocross car. The on-road ride is better than stock, and it handles the track/ autocross without falling on it's face. It is actually a joy on track, but won't be as fast as a more aggressive set up. It is way more comfy day to day though. I figured the car spends 90% of it's time on the road, so I wanted to make sure it remained a great DD.
I couldn't be happier with my set-up. I just love it. I also didn't want the car any lower than stock as I deal with curbs, potholes, etc.
I'm running:
Alignment is:
The car is occasionally street driven on 245 Direzzas/Axxis Ultimate pads. As of last weekend at the track I'm on 255/40-17 Toyo RA1s on 17x9 ARC8 wheels. The car is driven to events.
It's pretty firm of the street but not utterly hateful. I set the damping to full hard F/ 1-3 clicks off full hard R on track, and set to about 5 clicks off of full hard for the ride home.
A nice feature of the AST/Vorshlag setup is that suspension stroke remains pretty close to stock with a car that's lowered moderately. They're rebuildable and can be revalved.
It's not a cheap setup - but last weekend I drove the car 500+ miles on interstate, 2 lane, and 5 sessions at NJMP/Thunderbolt w/ the Track Daze advanced group who are pretty seriously fast. I was at grip limits on 255 R comps for much of Sunday then packed the car and spent 5 hours detouring around immobile stretches of I-95S to get home, and it worked really well the entire time.
Consider this essentially the opposite of Joe Gearin's situation above - the car spends more than half it's total miles circulating racetracks but is livable on the street - the seats and harnesses are much more of a limiting factor.
I have a similar setup to Joe (I am running UUC sway bars F&R). You need some more camber than stock for track day/autoX. I just installed Bimmerworld strut spacers for more camber. I'm running about -1.7 degree now out front and it is worlds better than stock.
This is mostly a street car with one autoX run per year. If you are more serious then you'll want to go with adjustable front and rear camber pieces.
Joe Gearin wrote:I'm pretty sure there was a similar thread that made its way around a month or so ago.
ansonivan wrote:Joe Gearin wrote:I'm pretty sure there was a similar thread that made its way around a month or so ago.
Where's the "embarrassed" icon? I even started that one 
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Oh well, if I've learned anything from my kids, it's that if you don't like the answer, just keep asking the question.
/thread
Beer penance? 
ansonivan wrote:Beer penance?
There's a standing offer to any GRM forum members if they come through Kingston! I get to choose the beer, though.
at least we do not yell "Search!" when a question comes up again.
Now what do you consider too low? My ti is pretty low and I was able to get through the worst of what this winter threw at us. The only casualty (aside from the cheap respray from an accident sometime in the cars past) was the loss of the mesh grill on my sport bumper.
no big loss.. I hated that grill anyway
