M coupe Suspension advice please!!

[Hellred]

I want to drop the car down, but not with coils. I was considering bying the HR Race springs, with Koni adjustable shocks.
Any advice or horror stories on this.

Thanks,

Greg

[Punter]

Messing with the suspension of an M Coupe is like touching up the Mona Lisa in my opinion.

[vishal]

Originally posted by Punter
Messing with the suspension of an M Coupe is like touching up the Mona Lisa in my opinion.

Why would you make such a comment? The BMW M3 was lauded as one of the best handling cars in the world yet you saw it fit to modify its supension

The M coupe handles very well stock, but, like most components of a factory produced car, can be modified to fit an individual's preferences. Greg, I had H&R Race, Koni SAs, and RD Sways on my M coupe and absolutely loved it. You won't be disappointed.

[kitwetzler]

The M-Coupe's suspension actually sucks. I think the rear is totally underdamped and heavily susceptible to snap oversteer... I drove a student's car and came through turn 9 at Laguna... he kept lifting there and I was afraid he was going to hit the ditch. I was trying to show him how he could take a steady line, in slow, and plant the throttle. Stupid car took a set, felt fine and then started to let go! yikes. Thought I was going to pull the leather off the seats with my butt cheeks. Catching it was really scary, way underdamped.

Oh well. It really needs a set of stiffer rear shocks. I would do H&R coilovers. They barely ride worse than stock, much better than the H&R sports I had on my M3. (I have a 97 m3, now with the H&R coilovers, for the past 35K miles)

No shock and spring combo, short of a matched and custom valved solution is going to work as well.

[Punter]

Originally posted by V Shah
Why would you make such a comment? The BMW M3 was lauded as one of the best handling cars in the world yet you saw it fit to modify its supension

First of all, if I had it to do over again I would leave the M3's suspension alone. I've come to the conclusion that BMW Motorsport has a little bit more experience in setting up the suspension of a car than either I or anyone else on this board has. I think modifying a car's suspension tends to be over simplified by a lot of people who talk about it. Making a car handle better is a much more difficult thing than putting a new set of springs or shocks on a car. If the valving of the shocks/struts don't match up with the springs then you've done nothing but create a mess. Even in the case of coilovers where you don't have to worry about shock/spring compatibility a lot of people overlook other things that they've unknowingly changed such as camber. So I guess I should have been more specific, I'm not calling the M Coupe suspension the best suspension ever made, I mean it still uses the same rear setup as an E30. I'm simply saying that amateurs such as us tampering with something that was built to perfection by some of the most knowledgable suspension experts in the world is a dangerous business and unless you know exactly what you're doing you're just going to degrade the handling of your car.

[ayton]

Originally posted by Punter


First of all, if I had it to do over again I would leave the M3's suspension alone. I've come to the conclusion that BMW Motorsport has a little bit more experience in setting up the suspension of a car than either I or anyone else on this board has. I think modifying a car's suspension tends to be over simplified by a lot of people who talk about it. Making a car handle better is a much more difficult thing than putting a new set of springs or shocks on a car. If the valving of the shocks/struts don't match up with the springs then you've done nothing but create a mess. Even in the case of coilovers where you don't have to worry about shock/spring compatibility a lot of people overlook other things that they've unknowingly changed such as camber. So I guess I should have been more specific, I'm not calling the M Coupe suspension the best suspension ever made, I mean it still uses the same rear setup as an E30. I'm simply saying that amateurs such as us tampering with something that was built to perfection by some of the most knowledgable suspension experts in the world is a dangerous business and unless you know exactly what you're doing you're just going to degrade the handling of your car.

I disagree...while BMW Motorsport may have a good understanding of suspensions they are still number crunchers and sell "MASS MARKETED" products = FACT! You get a good track car and a civil street car = COMPROMISE! Real world dollars dictate what they can and can't do as does the market. I would bet that if they could equip every factory car with coilovers (dropped ride height) They most certainly would.But you would have the fair amount of people saying the car ran like crap and the elitist few that bought them because they can (read: socialites,estate car whatever)would go clammoring back to the dealer to say something was wrong with the car.COMPROMISE, it's the way of the world.

[Neil]

Year 1: Stock suspension

Year 2: Koni SA struts/shocks (now FOR SALE) -- Ride comfort unchanged -- greatly improved handling. Stock rear end was way underdamped.

Year 3 (which began this past weekend): Ground Control coilovers with Eibach racing springs, Koni DA shocks, Racing Dynamics sway bars, swapped strut hats. A bunch stiffer and some noise from rear springs, but still more than acceptable as weekday commuter. Cornering is unreal. Can't wait for first autox!

Yeah, it is a slippery slope -- but, to my mind, suspension can be improved.