Quote:
Originally Posted by DeepOvertone
What I want to maintain: as much of the "good ride" as possible IE vibration isolation, low impact harshness so on and so forth.
What I want to improve: I'd like to improve the turn in, decrease the understeer and improve ability to oversteer if desired.
|
I think its going to be quite hard to satisfy your criteria. If you really want a car that has sharp turn in and the potential for controlled oversteer I think you need to sharpen up every aspect of the suspension. It means springs, dampers, sway bars, front M3 arms, rear Sub-frame Bushes, and finally an LSD as well! Its not realistic to expect the same comfort as the stock car. It will become more like the comfort level of an M3, or actually bumpier because of the shorter wheelbase. Is your objective to make the car ride and handle as close as possible to a M3?
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeepOvertone
With the availability of the M3 components such as anti sway bars, bushings, and linkages... or even the BMW performance shocks and springs.. everyone says these things are an upgrade as far as handling. I believe this is true but rarely does anyone say which handling dynamic each upgrade improves and what its drawbacks are.
|
The performance suspension is a good upgrade. Its not very harsh by itself (assuming you upgrade to non-RFT tires), so I think its a good compromise if you are keen to maintain a reasonable degree of ride comfort in a car you will use as a daily driver.
The M3 front arms are also recommended for sharpening the steering response. They help a lot due to the added negative camber and they also give much, much improved steering feel. I added the front arms at the same time as the performance suspension. It does transfer a bit more harshness and vibration through the body of the car. I think it comes from the M3 front arms rather than the performance suspension, but I can't be 100% sure. Overall its not bad, but not quite the same comfort as the stock car. On decent roads it is still a comfortable car, but you will become more aware of things like potholes and disjointed concrete slabs.
Recently I had the rear sub-frame bushes upgraded to M3 items. IMO, this is really needed to go with the from M3 arms. If you want to drive the car fast and hard, it is an essential mod. It makes the car a lot more predictable, safer and easier to drive. Without the rear sub-frame bushes the car had great steering and was fun to drive, but the rear-end would feel disturbingly loose at certain times. The car was had an imprecision in pretty much any situation and I had just got used to continually making small corrections though the steering. After changing the sub-frame bushes the whole car feels tighter and I noticed even the steering response get sharper. There is some vibration transmitted though the M3 sub-frame bushes. It seems there is probably more harshness than what you feel though the M3 front arms. You may not like the harshness, but if you want the car to handle well and stay in control of it, I say its the job that needs to be done.
I think others can give more advice if they have tried different combination of mods. I just give my opinion based on what I have tried.