Hello lads! I'm very new to the site, am going to get a BMW E30 318is. I have been looking around at suspension for them and just wanted to get some feedback? The car I'm going to see, and probably buy has just had 4 x New M-Tech shocks and standard springs. I'm thinking the shocks will be fine and i'll just replace the springs. The car has BBS alloys fitted so which suspension do I go for? I have been looking on Ebay and see there are various different options to go for: 30/30mm 35/35mm 40/40mm 60/40mm 60/55mm 60/60mm 80/40mm I dont want it to be rediculously bumpy but want niceish handling and an ideal drift setup. What do you reccommend?
hi craig welcome to driftworks mate only people that do an 80/60 drop is jammex and their springs are gash mate (really soft) id go 60mm all round, will cause you no trouble whatsoever (mike MJG on here runs 15''bbs on a spax psx kit with 120mm chopped springs) but i know you dont want to cut them any more either, so get spax springs or the like. even better would be a spax psx kit or these http://www.driftworks.com/catalog/p...ilovers-for-e30-bmw-3-series-inc-touring.html the stock e30 shocks will still be pretty soft even if it is the slightly better m-tec stuff.
If the car's already on M-Tech suspension, it's already 15mm lower than standard E30s. You could drop it miles as suggested, such as 60mm all round but this generates massive camber on both the front and rear wheels, resulting in nice handling but your tyres last only 6000miles or so I had lowering springs which did drop this low after they'd settled, it looked good but it ate tyres in no time. I'd recommend dropping it no more than 40mm (this equals 55mm on a non- M-Tech equiped car) and the M3 front bushes in the lolipops, with both shocks and springs. Would suggest looking at the Supersport coilovers in the shop though these are fixed rate shocks, the springs are adjustable at the front for ride height. Poly / upgraded / replaced / Solid (if you're going full race) bushes do go a long way in helping to tighten up the old E30 chassis along with an E36 Rack conversion (both done on my car, VERY worth while) One thing when considering new dampers is to replace the rear top mount bushes with E46 M3 Cab items, since these will fit with no modifications but are much stronger than the original E30 items. If you do want to go lower, then you'll have to look into getting camber correction kits for the rear suspension, or you end up with approximatly 5 - 7 degrees of camber, depending how low you go. Good for cornering and grip, not good for tyre life generally or drifting.
Stay clear of -80 -60 Jamex spring kits, I bought one for my e30 and it was shite and didnt really drop it that much (I currently have Jamex coilovers however which arent bad at all for the money). -60 all round or 60 front 40 rear imo.
actually a 60mm kit for a car that is already lowered 15mm will only lower it another 45mm, LOL you're concerned with tyre life on a drifty car on a drift forum PMSL , frick me 6000 miles im lucky if a set of rears last 1000.
drop it the amount of ultimate performance why have an unpratical car which drives like shit and scrapes on the slightest bump but looks hardcore.. fuck that 30-40 mm will be plenty
was being sarcastic there is nothing worse looking than a car with about 10 degress of camber and wheels that cant move
60mm is no problems on an e30, i've had three, two of them were lowered 60mm and one was lowered 40mm, 60mm drop was no more hassle than the 40mm, didn't scrape everywhere i went, handled better and looked much cooler
60mm is a good drop, I used spax PSX adjustable shocks with one coil cut off the front to help slightly drop the front down about 5-10mm. It never really scraped at all and drove well over bumpy roads it was just nice and stiff. I now have my car dropped approx 150mm at the front on FK coilovers and 120mm in the rear on the spax PSX shocks and a coilover spring cut in half.
if you need a hand fitting new springs matew give me a shout can almost do them with my eyes shut now on e30's lol
