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      12-06-2017, 10:41 PM   #67
lowside67
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I run 7k/12k with much larger Hotchkis swaybars and even at autocross it is far too soft. I will be going to at least 8k/14k for 2018; I may even end up at 9k/14k.

I also noticed a BIG improvement in dialing out understeer going from -2.9 degrees to -3.6 degrees of camber.



Moar spring please.

-Mark
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      12-06-2017, 11:27 PM   #68
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lowside67 View Post
I run 7k/12k with much larger Hotchkis swaybars and even at autocross it is far too soft. I will be going to at least 8k/14k for 2018; I may even end up at 9k/14k.

I also noticed a BIG improvement in dialing out understeer going from -2.9 degrees to -3.6 degrees of camber.



Moar spring please.

-Mark
Ha, yeah. I'm sure I'd have improved understeer with more front camber. I'll get around to getting rid of the M3 arms for adjustable ones soon.

I ran 8k/16k on my E90. I have them here still. Maybe I should just do it. I think 16k would be a bit much for the rear. Only one way to find out, though.
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      12-07-2017, 12:06 AM   #69
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How is the ride quality when running these springs? I moved to a 336 lb/in (6K) front spring from a 400 lb/in (~7K) front spring to fight understeer, and because any time I hit a bump I felt like my shock towers were going to blow out.
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      12-07-2017, 12:08 AM   #70
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lowside67 View Post

I also noticed a BIG improvement in dialing out understeer going from -2.9 degrees to -3.6 degrees of camber.

-Mark
How did you achieve -3.6? Looking at SPL adjustable control arms at this point. I need a lot more front camber than the -3 I have now.
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      12-07-2017, 01:36 AM   #71
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Originally Posted by Ginger_Extract View Post
How did you achieve -3.6? Looking at SPL adjustable control arms at this point. I need a lot more front camber than the -3 I have now.
He runs an offset custom control arm bushing that gave him an additional -.6
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      12-07-2017, 10:14 AM   #72
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Quote:
Originally Posted by berns View Post
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Originally Posted by Ginger_Extract View Post
How did you achieve -3.6? Looking at SPL adjustable control arms at this point. I need a lot more front camber than the -3 I have now.
He runs an offset custom control arm bushing that gave him an additional -.6
He's running them in stock arms which should be equivalent to running m3 arms in terms of added camber. I'd rather move my upper strut mount point vs lose wheel/strut clearance - hence why I notched my strut towers.
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      12-07-2017, 10:19 AM   #73
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Originally Posted by spxxx View Post
He's running them in stock arms which should be equivalent to running m3 arms in terms of added camber. I'd rather move my upper strut mount point vs lose wheel/strut clearance - hence why I notched my strut towers.
http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showt...5#post21782125

Those are the custom bushings that took me from -2.9 to -3.6. The M arms would have a similar effect although I believe they typically add about -0.5 degrees which is a tiny bit less than these arms did.

As SPXXX said - if you can get more clearance at the top, this is a better way to do it. My class does not allow me to touch the strut towers (and most don't) so that was not an option for me, but if you can slot the opening, it would also work.

-Mark
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      12-07-2017, 10:21 AM   #74
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lowside67 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by spxxx View Post
He's running them in stock arms which should be equivalent to running m3 arms in terms of added camber. I'd rather move my upper strut mount point vs lose wheel/strut clearance - hence why I notched my strut towers.
http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showt...5#post21782125

Those are the custom bushings that took me from -2.9 to -3.6. The M arms would have a similar effect although I believe they typically add about -0.5 degrees which is a tiny bit less than these arms did.

As SPXXX said - if you can get more clearance at the top, this is a better way to do it. My class does not allow me to touch the strut towers (and most don't) so that was not an option for me, but if you can slot the opening, it would also work.

-Mark
Have you had any issues with these?
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      12-07-2017, 10:25 AM   #75
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I haven't looked at them in the last few months but when I checked a few weeks after install, my paint was intact and they hadn't moved. They appear to be working perfectly. I do street drive them, though not much, so they don't get any preferential treatment, that's for sure.

-Mark
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      12-07-2017, 04:18 PM   #76
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lowside67 View Post
I haven't looked at them in the last few months but when I checked a few weeks after install, my paint was intact and they hadn't moved. They appear to be working perfectly. I do street drive them, though not much, so they don't get any preferential treatment, that's for sure.

-Mark
That's good to know; I still have to install mine. John stated he went a bit more aggressive with the ones he sent me...
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      12-07-2017, 05:33 PM   #77
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ginger_Extract View Post
any time I hit a bump I felt like my shock towers were going to blow out.
That was probably coil bind. Check for evidence that adjacent coils were hitting on those 400 lb/in springs.
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      12-07-2017, 10:38 PM   #78
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That was probably coil bind. Check for evidence that adjacent coils were hitting on those 400 lb/in springs.
I'm still curious as to how people think 336lb (300% stiffer than stock) isn't stiff. With 336lb (6k) and NO front sway I don't bottom out my front struts... in fact, If I go any stiffer the car understeers because of being tire limited up front... maybe ride heights are playing into this for people? Rake? Damping not adjusted correctly? If I run my coilovers on full soft it feels like a sloppy rolly mess too lol... Or maybe people are just feeling the REAR of the car rolling... To each their own I guess.

I do plan on putting the front sway back in. As is, the car is not soft at all. It's almost nauseating on the street on long drives. Now that I am on rcomps I might go a bit stiffer too, but I'll probably do that with e93 M3 sways for a modest 10% bump.

A 7inch Swift spring should not bind at anything over 6k 336lb/in. I did have that issue with a 4k spring though... And I did hit bump stops with the 4k. The softer spring had more coils. Swift provides a chart with all this info on their website...

Last edited by bbnks2; 12-08-2017 at 08:08 AM..
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      12-09-2017, 12:30 AM   #79
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Originally Posted by bbnks2 View Post
I'm still curious as to how people think 336lb (300% stiffer than stock) isn't stiff. With 336lb (6k) and NO front sway I don't bottom out my front struts... in fact, If I go any stiffer the car understeers because of being tire limited up front... maybe ride heights are playing into this for people? Rake? Damping not adjusted correctly? If I run my coilovers on full soft it feels like a sloppy rolly mess too lol... Or maybe people are just feeling the REAR of the car rolling... To each their own I guess.

I do plan on putting the front sway back in. As is, the car is not soft at all. It's almost nauseating on the street on long drives. Now that I am on rcomps I might go a bit stiffer too, but I'll probably do that with e93 M3 sways for a modest 10% bump.

A 7inch Swift spring should not bind at anything over 6k 336lb/in. I did have that issue with a 4k spring though... And I did hit bump stops with the 4k. The softer spring had more coils. Swift provides a chart with all this info on their website...
A lot of this information isn't really correct. For example, the firmer spring has more coils, which is why it has less usable stroke (travel before coilbinding).

http://www.swiftsprings.com/products...lover-springs/

Your car may never hit the bump stops but that doesn't indicate anything about your spring rates being ideal. You could have far too much bump travel and not enough droop, or far too high of a ride height, or a dozen other things.

Springs and bars are also useful for speed of weight transfer and that's why I am going up in spring rate - the car is far too slow to transfer weight in transient events.

-Mark
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      12-11-2017, 07:59 AM   #80
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lowside67 View Post
A lot of this information isn't really correct. For example, the firmer spring has more coils, which is why it has less usable stroke (travel before coilbinding).

http://www.swiftsprings.com/products...lover-springs/

Your car may never hit the bump stops but that doesn't indicate anything about your spring rates being ideal. You could have far too much bump travel and not enough droop, or far too high of a ride height, or a dozen other things.
You're right about the springs. Sorry for the misinformation. Admittingly, I made the assumption before looking at the very swift site I referenced lol. I just know from experience that 4k was too soft and caused binding in 7" lengths. That is probably why ycw gives you 9" springs with their 4k rates... Since 6k 7" swift springs have 4.2" of travel, that means I would experience coil bind BEFORE bottoming out my suspension since I have over 4.2" of strut travel. I do not have any coil bind, so I am not even using all of my available bump travel. My 255 200tw tires don't produce enough mechanical grip to warrant increasing roll resistance IMO.

Strut stroke is independent of ride height adjustment on coilovers... 6k does seem ideal. A 6k spring lands you right in the middle of that stroke given the cars sprung corner weights (700lb) (700/336 =~2" of static travel) with the close to 1:1 motion ratio up front. That is about 50-60% bump and 40-50% droop travel given 5" of strut travel. I can't imagine anyone else's coil-overs being much different since they all have around ~5" of strut travel.

A stiffer 8k spring would result in 700/450 = 1.5" of static compression. Meaning, I would gain another 1/2" of bump travel (70% of available travel) I don't need. I would end up reducing droop travel (30% of available travel) to the point that I would probably be lifting wheels. Not a good thing. If I wanted to go any stiffer up front I would do it with swaybars to work around the coilovers.

Then again, I may not have super accurate suspension travel measurements. If I found that I only had 4" of total travel then I might consider moving to a 7k spring to maintain a bit more bump travel than droop. At 4" of travel, a 6k spring would put me at 50/50 instead of 60/40. The drawback of that might be that I don't have enough mechanical grip up front to make use of this stiffer springs...

Quote:
Originally Posted by lowside67 View Post
Springs and bars are also useful for speed of weight transfer and that's why I am going up in spring rate - the car is far too slow to transfer weight in transient events.
I disagree with your comments about weight transfer. These cars are high COG and short wheelbase. There is actually very good weight transfer which makes them easy to toss around. Spring rates/swaybars have no affect on how quickly weight transfers. Springs rates/sway bars DO affect the distribution of weight (dynamic cross weight) under transition load (e.g. does weight shift forward in roll or rearward? Or, will the car be neutral, understeer, or oversteer?). Rebound and driver input (steering, acceleration g's, and braking g's) dictate how quickly the weight transfers. COG and wheelbase dictate how much weight transfers to the outside wheels in transition.

The ideal car would have 0 weight transfer. However, that's impossible since cog will always be above the ground lol. To go faster you need to be as smooth as possible with inputs to avoid abrupt weight transfer. You can reduce weight transfer to the outside wheels by reducing COG and widening the wheel base. The inside wheels will carry more weight and overall grip will be improved. This is one of the drawbacks of all the rear tire fitment being inboard. You won't be square with the front which pokes more. If you want weight to transfer quicker then simply use harsher steering inputs lol... make sure you turn rebound down too. That does not sound like an easy or fun car to drive though.

Stiffening the suspension would:
- reduced suspension travel (helps prevent dynamic changes in camber and toe)
- improve responsiveness (driver input is more direct to the tires with the drawback that you may ask more than the tires can provide)
- allow the car to ride lower without bottoming out (leads to less weight transfer if you've reduced the cog)

Last edited by bbnks2; 12-11-2017 at 02:10 PM..
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      12-11-2017, 12:57 PM   #81
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This does bring up a good issue though... A 7" spring is too short. You will always bind the spring before engaging the bump stops. It looks like 8" would be more ideal with 6k rates and you'd possibly need 9" length for higher rates... you'd trade off wheel fitment for stiffer springs which is not worth it in my opinion since you already need more front tire to makes use of even a 6k spring with 200tw class tires.

Also note, a better way to manage roll might be to change ride height to a more ideal roll center. You might be able to reduce roll without needing to stiffen the suspension...

Last edited by bbnks2; 12-11-2017 at 02:12 PM..
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      01-13-2018, 11:50 PM   #82
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Well, shit, I got pretty swamped after I got this thread up and running, and have been wrenching and playing with the car quite a bit. Haven't made it back out to the track since the first outing at GTA Super Lap Battle @ Buttonwillow back in November, but I'm going back out to BW at the end of the month with Speed Ventures, both days I think, so come on out if you're around. Hopefully I'll break that 2-minute barrier, but I'm just stoked for more seat time in this thing.

Better late than never, so here goes...

This time around, I wanted to give upgraded inlets a try. I hate pushing these tiny stock turbos so hard, and I also hate the powerband just falling on its face after 5500rpm. So, with this build I'm aiming to keep these things alive and moving the powerband as far to the right as possible. Now that the hardware is there, the rest will be done via custom tuning from Jake @ Motiv.

I went with the VRSF Stock Location Silicone Inlets. I heard the install isn't fun at all, so I let Rob @ Speed Logic handle it, per my neighbors recommendation. While he was at it, I had him do a Walnut Blast and fit a larger bung onto the intake manifold for a better source.

Also had him toss on the charge pipe and BOV since it was all out at that time... and the downpipes. Honestly, I didn't want to do any of this crap, and I'm glad he did! At a great price too.

Pretty amazing how tiny the stock inlets are!




Charge pipe has a nice wrinkle black finish and it's super light. Fitment was spot on.




And the downpipes fit perfectly as well, with pretty welds and solid flanges. Pretty impressed with this stuff.




After this, I pretty much just flashed a stage 2 MHD OTS map and left the motor alone while I went much further with the chassis...

I ordered a set of 18x9 +42 APEX ARC-8's, despite everyone telling me they wouldn't fit. I did a lot of math before ordering, and I was right. 18x9 squared with 255/35/18 Nexen NFera SUR4G's, which run super wide. I'm running no spacer out back, and a 3mm up front, but that's just for piece of mind. Front clears the strut and lower perch with no spacer as well. 7" springs ftw!




Also, I think it's common knowledge, but if you haven't done a stud conversion, just quit cars all together. I went with a 75mm kit from Macht Schnell. Best thing you'll ever do. Go with the 90mm kit if you're running lager than 10mm spacers.




Then I was presented with an opportunity to own some of my favorite seats, ever... These are kind of a "keep it in the family" deal, previously owned by two of my friends and now passed onto me. I love them dearly. Recaro Pole Positions, Macht Schnell floor mounts and a VAC extinguisher mount to finish it off. Roll bar will come next.






Next up was brakes. You might know, I had a basically brand new front and rear StopTech ST60/ST40 kit for my last E90. I thought this swapped right over to the E82, but I was wrong. Welp, cut my losses and sold that kit and decided to go big for the Trophy kit. I've wanted these forever and BimmerWorld was a huge help in pulling it together.

Install day was fun. I'm really good at doing brakes now. I've had them on and off the e90 and the e82 probably 10x.





With the brakes sorted and my KW Clubsports, M3 front lower arms and BimmerWorld adjustable rear arms installed almost on day one, I had a laundry list of upgrades to get in, with very little time to make it out to November's GTA Super Lap Battle. I am SO fortunate to have become great friends with the owners of EAS in Anaheim. Tom and Steve are the best dudes, and Sammy is a magician of a tech. Together, myself, Steve and Sammy did a shit ton of work in 3 days.

First up, we had to drop the rear subframe for most of the bits. Not exactly the view you want to see 4 days before a track day..



PowerFlex track-spec front/rear rear subframe bushings
PowerFlex track-spec front/rear diff bushings
Warning -- these are a huge pain in the ass to install compared to the standard Street bushings PF sells.. We struggled with them for a while, until I decided maybe we should just mill off a tiny bit of material on the bottom edge, to help get it started in there. This worked, thankfully. Almost gave up and just installed solid aluminum subframe bushings! Boy am I glad I didn't, though. While the car was still down, I drove a Solid Bushing E92 M3 home for the night and hated it on the street. Diff whine, clunks and bangs -- no thanks. The PowerFlex bushings on the other hand? Just as firm, ZERO noise.






James Clay @ BimmerWorld also suggested I install their Rear Camber Arm Bearing Kit and Precision Front Upper Control Arm Bearing kit. I didn't have these pieces on my E90, and honestly, I'm blown away by the difference. The car is SO stable under braking, and everywhere in between. Turn-in is awesome, especially for this little car which loves to understeer. According to James, these are the most critical suspension bushing/pivot locations on both E8X/E9X. Can't recommend these pieces enough. If you're prepping your car for track duty, and spending on all the other usual parts, don't skip this.

Here are the front bearings:



And the rears (sidenote - these require a sleeve to be tack welded into the subframe.)




You guys still with me? There's more.

I ran a Wavetrac LSD on my E90 and it was bulletproof and generally fucking awesome. Great company, amazing service, and a solid product. I knew I wanted to go with one again, but this time I really wanted to try the shorter 3.46 gearing from the automatic 128i. I always felt like the 3.08 was too long on the E90, especially on track, so why not. I hit up Dan @ Diffsonline . Pretty awesome that you can order the whole pumpkin from him. All you have to do is swap your cover on and fill it with fluid. ZERO downtime with the core exchange, too. Even nicer is that you don't end up with some gross, rusted, weathered diff. Dan cleans everything and hits it with fresh paint. Can't recommend him enough.





Finally, with the rear end all sorted away and almost no stock parts left back there, I moved on to the transmission mounts, motor mounts and shifter.

I really didn't want this car to vibrate and shake at all times, but of course its purpose is to be a track toy. Rather than go all out with bowling ball level hardness, I decided to go with everything from AKG Motorsport. I spoke to them directly about my goals for the car and my fears of gratuitously adding NVH, and we settled on the following pieces.

Poly 95A Motor Mounts (softer than 75D)
Transmission Mount Upgrade Set, basically E21 OEM hard rubber trans mounts with beefy bolts, nestled inside AKG's aluminum cups. Note** you have to drill out your stock mounting holes just a bit. Easy peasy.
Motorsport Quick Shifter & DTM Selector Rod - seriously, this is one of my absolute favorite parts of this car. Anyone that's driven it has said the same. I was nervous to go for it but I could never go back. With a transmission that's in good shape, and proper fluid, your shifts on track are lightning fast, super direct and take no time away form the steering wheel. This thing RULES.

Oh, and about the install. I already had my driveshaft out since we were doing the diff. Obviously that made this way easier. Getting the stock stuff out isn't too bad, and install this is SO easy as far as shifters go. I've installed a CAE before and it's not fun, since you have to drill.. With the AKG, it utilizes existing holes for the baseplate. There is only forward and rearward adjustment, strictly for preference. No guesswork involved at all. The quality of these parts is incredible, the prices are SUPER reasonable and they're made in the US. Rad!

As for the mounts, you will definitely notice a significant increase in NVH, however, for me, it's totally livable. There is literally nothing to hear or worry about once you're up and moving, but at idle, AC on or letting off the clutch to get going in 1st gear, you'll have some vibration. Other than that, the motor and trans mounts are awesome and you need them to run a solid chassis mounted shifter.









While I was up here in the front of the car, I did another install of my favorite mod from my E90: the E9x M3 steering rack. 12.5:1 vs our stock 16:1. Not a fun install by any means, but not terrible either.

IMPORTANT NOTES if you want to do this swap:
You must make sure your steering wheel is straight when you disconnect.
You have to swap your tie rods onto the M3 rack. The stock M3 tie rods are way too long, so unless you want 58* toe out, you have to do this.
Lastly, and this is a big one. You must ensure the rack is centered. Mine is actually off by a 1/4 turn, meaning I have more steering angle in one direction vs the other. I'll address this soon. Sorry, no pics.

Instead of throwing my stock exhaust back on the car, and since I was already down in Anaheim, I hit up Berk Technology to see if they had their mid pipes and Race axle back in stock. Lucky me, I got the last one on the shelf. This is a seriously beautiful piece. And together with catless downpipes, this is a sound I didn't know the N54 could make. Also? It is super light. Win all around.





We're almost there guys! I'd been waiting for a while, but finally my intercooler and radiator showed up. Also, I'm installing an E92 M3 rear sway bar to match the E92 Front. I don't know why it became a "thing" for everyone to run a stock bar and an upgraded front bar, on a car that inherently understeers, but DO NOT FOLLOW SUIT. Also ordered some Hotchkis adjustable front and rear endlinks. Cheap and well made, and nice to have adjustability everywhere. Haven't installed this yet, and sure wish I did it when the subframe was out, but it doesn't look too bad.

As far as the radiator goes, I went with the CSF unit. I ran a CSF radiator on my E90 and it was bulletproof. Temps were never a problem, even when IAT and Oil Temp were suffering, my water temps never got out of hand, lap after lap. This radiator is a bit thicker than stock, so if you're running upgraded stock location inlets and a huge intercooler, get ready to finagle everything into place. I actually had to zip tie my front turbo inlet to the fan shroud to keep it away from the pulleys. Not the best setup, but it should be ok. This is a solid amount of work paired with the intercooler of this size, but good to do both at once.



The radiator is a quality piece and fits without much struggle. The fan shroud is tough to get back in place with the inlet there, but just be patient. Here's the tight clearance issue.



Now, you might be wondering why I opted for the VRSF 7.5" Race Intercooler for a stock turbo car. Well, there are a ton of options out there to start. I ran a Forge FMIC on my E90 and my IATs were too high for my liking on track. The stock turbos probably generate more heat than a nice, efficient single. I don't like upgrading things twice and I'm sure, at some point, I'll have a single setup and be running in the 550whp range. I went big instead of going home. With that being said, this intercool is seriously HUGE. If you want to keep your stock front plastics, don't get it. If you want bulletproof IAT's and additional weight hanging over your front wheels, this is for you! Your stock intercooler weighs 7lbs, this weighs 35... I wish I was half the weight, but I'll trim elsewhere. With all that, this is a quality piece from VRSF and it works. I took some logs last night and monitored temps on the dyno. Temps actually dropped during pulls... Insane! I might open up the mesh on the front bumper, or ditch it completely and build some proper ducting. Impressed that it does indeed fit behind the bumper with no trimming though!








And look at those IAT's! 3rd gear, started at 68*, ended at 68*. Way to go VRSF.


Once I was done with this stuff, I decided to just see how much wider I need to make my car to fit the wheels and tires I want to be running for optimal grip. The goal is 18x10 +25 squared with 285s. In case you want to know what that looks like, with plenty of camber already, here you go. These are actually 275s though** FYI, these are Titan7 wheels. So awesome and only 18lbs each, and forged! Maybe they'll make a 1-series fitment. Would you guys be interested?






Being that it was Friday and I knew I had traffic ahead of me, Steve at EAS was nice enough to let me run on the dyno to get some baseline numbers before we do custom tuning and ethanol blends. A note here. Not sure if 4th is still the best gear for this, or if I should be in 5th since I run the shorter 3.46 gearing. But whatever, man. I also flashed the Stage 2+ map on the car right before the dyno session, so the car was definitely not adapted and was still figuring out its boost. You can hear it wanting to overboost and correcting. Numbers are ok for 91 octane, maybe? Nothing crazy. The higher run is 5th gear. Here's a video.


Log here: https://datazap.me/u/berno/09-135i-m...22-23-24-25-26



That's it for now. Thanks for reading if you made it this far, and let me know if you have any questions.

Last edited by berns; 01-14-2018 at 12:19 PM..
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      01-14-2018, 12:16 PM   #83
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Hell yeah, love that you went from bone stock to a perfect setup so quickly - this thread will be invaluable for anyone looking to build the perfect streetable track beast.

+1 on the front upper control arm bearings + the rear camber arm bearings. Totally change the car along with all the other killer parts you installed - also, he's not lying about 18x9 et42s fitting pretty easily with ~265s. Not sure about camber wear if you drive a lot of street miles but I've been driving my car on the street quite a bit recently and I CAN ROTATE WHEELS lol it's so nice.
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      01-14-2018, 12:28 PM   #84
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spxxx View Post
Hell yeah, love that you went from bone stock to a perfect setup so quickly - this thread will be invaluable for anyone looking to build the perfect streetable track beast.

+1 on the front upper control arm bearings + the rear camber arm bearings. Totally change the car along with all the other killer parts you installed - also, he's not lying about 18x9 et42s fitting pretty easily with ~265s. Not sure about camber wear if you drive a lot of street miles but I've been driving my car on the street quite a bit recently and I CAN ROTATE WHEELS lol it's so nice.
Thanks man!
Are you running the the RS-RR's in 265/35/18 all around?
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      01-14-2018, 12:48 PM   #85
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spxxx View Post
Hell yeah, love that you went from bone stock to a perfect setup so quickly - this thread will be invaluable for anyone looking to build the perfect streetable track beast.

+1 on the front upper control arm bearings + the rear camber arm bearings. Totally change the car along with all the other killer parts you installed - also, he's not lying about 18x9 et42s fitting pretty easily with ~265s. Not sure about camber wear if you drive a lot of street miles but I've been driving my car on the street quite a bit recently and I CAN ROTATE WHEELS lol it's so nice.
Thanks man!
Are you running the the RS-RR's in 265/35/18 all around?
Haha those things are way too meaty, I'm running them in 255 all around but probably going to switch to something new for this year - the 135 is just too heavy for them I think. When people ask I usually just refer to them as 265s since they run as wide or wider than most 265 tires.

I also have this e46 m3 that I may or may not keep. My commute is pretty short now so my 135 could easily serve as my DD and track whip.

How are the Nexens? What else have you run that you can compare them to?
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      01-14-2018, 01:11 PM   #86
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Really impressed with the Nexen's. Awesome grip, definitely need a bit of heat in them, and if you start to overdrive, they can get a bit greasy, but finding their sweet spot and driving smoothly, I was consistent on track for ~15 laps. Road noise isn't bad either, and they don't chunk up or degrade too quickly on the track.

Before that, I ran 265 squared RE71R's on my E90. Those definitely out-grip the Nexen's, however, they break down quicker than any other street tire I've used. After a 2-day track weekend, they feel like different tires, where the Nexen's seem like they could keep going without trouble. I've been street driving them since the event in November and I'll run again on them at the end of the month. I wouldn't hesitate to buy them again, but I might try them in 265.

Before the Bridgestone's, I ran Falken RT615k's for like 3 years on different vehicles. Great tires, awesome looking tread pattern that I'm a sucker for, and decent wear qualities. I think it's outclassed by the other two tires I mentioned but I haven't driven the new RT615k+, so I can't say overall.

In other news -- two of my ARC-8's are bent already. Yay.
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      01-14-2018, 04:01 PM   #87
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Love seeing updates on this car. Good to know that I can probably drop my spacer width on the 17x9 ARC8s.. maybe I'll get rid of rub altogether. Someone needs to guinea pig a 9.5" + 265 front fitment now. Are you able to discern any difference between the standard ST60s and the trophy kit?

Hopefully I can score some lightly used SPGs and then there will be another white 1er in super lap battle when it comes to NJ this summer
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      01-14-2018, 05:33 PM   #88
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Originally Posted by drunkenup View Post
Love seeing updates on this car. Good to know that I can probably drop my spacer width on the 17x9 ARC8s.. maybe I'll get rid of rub altogether. Someone needs to guinea pig a 9.5" + 265 front fitment now. Are you able to discern any difference between the standard ST60s and the trophy kit?

Hopefully I can score some lightly used SPGs and then there will be another white 1er in super lap battle when it comes to NJ this summer
I have some 18x9.5 et40 EC7s from my e46 that I'll fiddle with up front. Square 9.5s would be pretty badass but rotating would be hard unless you're cool with big ass spacers up front and et58 18x9.5s all around.

The Nexens sound like RS3s, it's funny to see so many (not dialed in) cars on RE71RS which are basically ~$1k per weekend to run, crazy to justify that cost for sure when you're just doing HPDE/time trials.
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