Mods for AutoX

[CDN_135i]

I just bought a 2011 135i and unfortunately I didnt have a chance to autocross it before the season was over. But the good news is that it leaves me with enough time to save/purchase/install mods for next season.

So far all I have are a set of lightly used 17'' wheels with Kumho V710s. Ive done some searching so now I just need a confirmation what I should get. From what I understand I should start with

1. E9X front sway bar?
2. E9X front control arms?


I dont want to do to much more unless its seen as essential or at least extremely beneficial. I dont want to lower the car at all due to winter driving and I also dont want to spend to much because I want to save some money for some performance mods as well.

Thanks

[Freon]

Start with front camber. There are a few ways to accomplish that.

There is a lot of body roll, making some transitions difficult. The best fix for that is stiffer springs, i.e. coilovers. Swaybar will help some. Something like an Eibach Pro System or "street" coilovers might not be a bad compromise. If you can, you want extra springrate in the rear, but keep in mind that will make the car more touchy to drive on a daily basis.

From there it has a lot to do with spending money and dealing with a rougher riding car.

[CDN_135i]

I will look into coilovers but unfortunately I am kinda fighting a losing battle with not wanting to lower the car but I want a decent suspension setup. I will look into what are the best coilovers that only lower moderately.

What camber settings are you suggesting I go to if I do some mods? Wouldnt that wear my tires abnormally during every day driving?

[Lubo]

Originally Posted by CDN_135i

I will look into coilovers but unfortunately I am kinda fighting a losing battle with not wanting to lower the car but I want a decent suspension setup. I will look into what are the best coilovers that only lower moderately.

What camber settings are you suggesting I go to if I do some mods? Wouldnt that wear my tires abnormally during every day driving?

You already have everything you need. All you need to invest in now is seat time. Once you will be able to drive your stock car at 10/10 then you should start to mod but until then try to attend as many events as you can.

[romak47]

Originally Posted by Freon

Start with front camber. There are a few ways to accomplish that.

There is a lot of body roll, making some transitions difficult. The best fix for that is stiffer springs, i.e. coilovers. Swaybar will help some. Something like an Eibach Pro System or "street" coilovers might not be a bad compromise. If you can, you want extra springrate in the rear, but keep in mind that will make the car more touchy to drive on a daily basis.

From there it has a lot to do with spending money and dealing with a rougher riding car.

what do you mean by extra spring rate in the rear? stiffer springs?

[xerox445]

Originally Posted by Lubo

You already have everything you need. All you need to invest in now is seat time. Once you will be able to drive your stock car at 10/10 then you should start to mod but until then try to attend as many events as you can.

+1 Pop the camber pin, and spend the money on events.

[fboutlaw]

Originally Posted by CDN_135i

So far all I have are a set of lightly used 17'' wheels with Kumho V710s.

You're on a dangerous road here. Same thing I did when I started. You wont learn what you need to with this setup and it will set you back as a driver.

Right now, your suspension cannot handle those tires (in front). Use some all seasons or summers. Expect your times to be high, the 1 is not the fastest autox car. Also; do not mod your power at all, stick with suspension upgrades. It's the achilles heel of our cars when you run on non-run-flats.

Things to do that will help in order of importance and cost benefit.
- Raise your limits (Performance brake fluid and pads, high octane gas if available)
- Front Camber (m3 bits + camber plates. You can use Dinan ones easily)
- Limit your roll (m3 front/rear sways - stick with coupe sizes, springs)
- Connect the car (m3 subframe bushings + other bits)
- Get some Grip (Wider wheels/tires, LSD)

My best setup:
- M3 sways, subframe bushings, control arms
- Dinan Springs/Dinan Koni Shocks
- Vorshlag Camber plates (at -3.25 deg)
- Apex 8 Wheels, PSS tires (255/275) <-- should be 245/275 for no issues
- Cool Carbon Brake pads with Super Blue brake fluid
- Quaife LSD w/3.46 gearing

My advice:
- Burn through your run-flats and stay stock until you can correct for your car when it gets twitchy and you start losing control. When you're at the point of being safe, change 1 item at a time (for fun) and see what it gets you. Know that this is an expensive hobby and certain mods can actually make things much much worse. Talk to other people at autox and see what they do. Generally people gravitate toward an ideal setup.

[xerox445]

Originally Posted by fboutlaw

You're on a dangerous road here. Same thing I did when I started. You wont learn what you need to with this setup and it will set you back as a driver.

Right now, your suspension cannot handle those tires (in front). Use some all seasons or summers. Expect your times to be high, the 1 is not the fastest autox car. Also; do not mod your power at all, stick with suspension upgrades. It's the achilles heel of our cars when you run on non-run-flats.

Things to do that will help in order of importance and cost benefit.
- Raise your limits (Performance brake fluid and pads, high octane gas if available)
- Front Camber (m3 bits + camber plates. You can use Dinan ones easily)
- Limit your roll (m3 front/rear sways - stick with coupe sizes, springs)
- Connect the car (m3 subframe bushings + other bits)
- Get some Grip (Wider wheels/tires, LSD)

My best setup:
- M3 sways, subframe bushings, control arms
- Dinan Springs/Dinan Koni Shocks
- Vorshlag Camber plates (at -3.25 deg)
- Apex 8 Wheels, PSS tires (255/275) <-- should be 245/275 for no issues
- Cool Carbon Brake pads with Super Blue brake fluid
- Quaife LSD w/3.46 gearing

My advice:
- Burn through your run-flats and stay stock until you can correct for your car when it gets twitchy and you start losing control. When you're at the point of being safe, change 1 item at a time (for fun) and see what it gets you. Know that this is an expensive hobby and certain mods can actually make things much much worse. Talk to other people at autox and see what they do. Generally people gravitate toward an ideal setup.

Yeah R comps cover so many mistakes its not even funny.

[Xaeryan]

You don't want to lower AND want a better suspension AND are new to autocrossing...
You sir, sound like the perfect candidate for D-Stock class (assuming SCCA).

Some Koni Yellows (or similar) and a bigger *front* roll bar (e.g. M3) are about the only significant upgrades allowed in stock category not including tires (see sig). You can also remove the camber pin for more negative camber. This provides a (much flatter) setup with minimal modifications that will allow you to focus on just learning to drive it better. It gives you a little room to play with adjustment of the Koni Yellows (or revalving later if you become really serious). It's also fairly competitive in this class when prepared to the fullest, although not close to any National trophies (so far). As has been mentioned, stick with street tires for a while to learn on - you'll need to keep the 18s anyway if you stay in stock class. You can grow into R-compounds (legal in stock) once you've got plenty of experience.

Ask any questions you might have; you're in a circle where experience is invaluable and everyone's eager to chat.

Have fun!

[GaryS]

There sure are a lot of opinions here. I'll add mine, take it FWIW.

I think the stock tires and shocks are the weakest links by far. Pulling the alignment pin for some camber up front is always recommended unless there's some class restriction against it. A lot of people, including me, have had success with an E92 M3 front swaybar, but a few people have said it slowed them down.

I want to emphasize that if you install stiffer springs or an even stiffer swaybar, you will likely need to stiffen up a lot more components to match them. So I recommend leaving the springs alone unless you're prepared to go all the way with M3 conversion.

[CDN_135i]

Thanks for all the advice, im going to price out some M3 parts and continue my research.

BTW im not new to AutoX or R compounds or winning my class consistently. Just new to the 1.

Anyone have suggestions where to get the M3 parts? If I found a scrapped car with low mileage that would probably be cheapest but do these parts tend to wear quickly?

[CDN_135i]

Originally Posted by Xaeryan

You don't want to lower AND want a better suspension AND are new to autocrossing...
You sir, sound like the perfect candidate for D-Stock class (assuming SCCA).

Some Koni Yellows (or similar) and a bigger *front* roll bar (e.g. M3) are about the only significant upgrades allowed in stock category not including tires (see sig). You can also remove the camber pin for more negative camber. This provides a (much flatter) setup with minimal modifications that will allow you to focus on just learning to drive it better. It gives you a little room to play with adjustment of the Koni Yellows (or revalving later if you become really serious). It's also fairly competitive in this class when prepared to the fullest, although not close to any National trophies (so far). As has been mentioned, stick with street tires for a while to learn on - you'll need to keep the 18s anyway if you stay in stock class. You can grow into R-compounds (legal in stock) once you've got plenty of experience.

Ask any questions you might have; you're in a circle where experience is invaluable and everyone's eager to chat.

Have fun!

Thanks for the advice. What Camber setting do you suggest if I was to stick with all stock suspension? Ive looked into Konis and they seem like the best product around for the money. How is the ride after getting them?

[RimasRS]

Oh.... $$$$

Just get BMW Performance suspension for beginning...

[Xaeryan]

Originally Posted by CDN_135i

Thanks for the advice. What Camber setting do you suggest if I was to stick with all stock suspension? Ive looked into Konis and they seem like the best product around for the money. How is the ride after getting them?

Sorry if I assumed you are new to autocrossing. Oops.
These cars are very camber limited; the most I can get is 1.1 degrees with the M3 control arms (which add a bit of negative camber) and being lowered a bit (also adds a little negative camber). So you'll want to max out negative camber, even for street driving, once you pull your alignment pin on the strut top (or when you get other struts).

As for the Koni Yellows, they are not on my 135i, but on a Merc C230K. The car is similar weight and suspension design, and suffered similar characteristics of poor, floaty rebounding and heavy body roll. The Konis on full soft don't make the ride any worse, but you can feel the rebounding is improved - feels more "solid" on bounces than "floaty", if that makes any sense. On full stiff they are definitely rough on bad pavement, but they keep the car a heck of a lot flatter during autocrosses. Cutting trap doors in the rear shock liner allows quick adjustment, so they can be quickly set to full soft during normal driving, then cranked to full stiff for track/autocross. I'm not sure cutting the trunk liner is something you wanna do to a car you just bought though. ;-)

[CDN_135i]

No im not sure I do want to cut the liners but thats something I can think about more seriously if I do end up getting them.

This will be my first time in a RWD so its gonna be tough to get used to although I think with a few mods to settle the car down and get it to be more competitive I should not only have a blast but hopefully get some top 3 finishes.

[xerox445]

What was your last car you were competing with if you dont mind me asking.

[CDN_135i]

I had a MazdaSpeed3. Great car but after 4 years I wanted something new. I couldnt be happier with the 135 and im iching to get back at AutoX next summer. The biggest thing will definately be learning to drive RWD. The reason im looking at some mods is due to everyone saying that the suspension isnt quite up to snuff so I figured I would address that first before other mods. Although unless I find a good deal somewhere I might just give it a shot stock and see how I do and then figure out exactly what needs to be changed to improve and hopefully continue my winning ways.

[xerox445]

Intresting, you have any vids of the MS3 in action? Were you winning FTD or PAX top 3?

[CDN_135i]

I wish I had FTD, I wasnt nearly that quick with the group of guys who run here. I was in D class with some similar cars like WRX, S4 some modded cars that got bumped up and so on. The FTD guys were often track only cars so really I never had a chance.

How is else doing in their class and with what mods?

I had some vids and pictures but I lost most of them when my PC got wiped a while back. I will definately invest in a GoPro for next season though.

[Clovef]

Ha. I started off autoxing a ms3 as well. It was fun wrestling it around the courses but I wanted rwd so I just got a 135i. I plan to stay in d stock for the first season in the 1 at least. Figure if I could consistently win the class in a stock speed three I should fair well in the 135i but will have fun learning rwd and I plan to teach myself left foot breaking this coming season. I was just going to switch to a star spec or similar tire and get as much neg camber as I can to start. We will see where it goes from there. Good luck and I will update with my thoughts and experiences.

[CDN_135i]

Well my season will probably start as late as yours since I think you guys have snow as long as we do but I will definately post up how it goes. For now I have 17'' rims with kumho V710s so that will bump me up a class compared to where I was in my MS3. So essentially tougher competition with a car that has roughly the same power. Although it is RWD. For now I decided that I will not mod for a little bit unless I find some good deals on used stuff this winter. Like pretty much anyone in life I have a budget I need to stick to and right now just isnt the time to dump 3k in suspension in the car.

[Clovef]

I am right there with you. Tires will be changed as I need rears anyways. I will do the m3 bar probably as it is pretty cheap and easy and I will do a good alignment as well but that's it for now I think. I would like to do shocks but I can't justify it when they only have 10k on them and I am buying a set of snow tires as well as a set of summer performance and a clear bra already.