The Nurburgring season of 2015 is going to start for me next month. This was my last lap of 2014!
The car felt great on the ring in the end of 2014; with the Vibratech engine mounts, RTAB limitors, Bilstein Suspension, AP Brakes and Michelin Supersport tyres. Great is an understatement! The car felt awesome!!! This is a movie of the very last lap of that day at the end of 2014... I was the very last person allowed on the track and the ring was almost empty (sounds like adream). It was a great lap; besides the big crash of two unfortunate Opel Speedster drivers
[youtube]g6yPVp5Jjl0[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6yPVp5Jjl0
The visit before this one; I found that the grip of the tyres was somewhat lesser then before and the car slided more. At the time I was driving with suspension settings 5/5 and 6/6. The harder the suspension, the lower the grip is the ruleĀ . With setting 6/6 I felt lesser grip then before but also lesser body movement. I'm driving with Michelin Supersport tyres; they are realy good "road" tyres and also preform rather nice on trackdays. But they are not semislick tracktyres, like a Michelin Cup tyre. I started experimenting a little with the settings of the dampers.
The Nurburgring is a really bumpy track and in my opinion it's not a good idea to put the suspension to hard. For testing purpose; I tried setting 7 front and rear and the car was undriveable on the ring and jumped almost of track. So last time I tried setting 4 front and 4 rear again (on the street; nowadays I'm driving with 3 front and and a softer 2 rear). The 4/4 setting felt really great on the Nurburgring with a very nice compromise between tyre grip, body movement and road balance. I was talking to a German guy with a black Z4M roadster on the parking. He had exactly the same Bilstein PSS-10 suspension and CSL wheel set-up as my car. His Z4M was fitted with semislick Michelin Cup tyres and this made him put his suspension a little harder then mine (5 front and 5 rear). He also found this the best handling set-up for his Z4M on the ring and it seems to make perfect sense that I would put my Bilsteins one setting lower then him, considering I don't have semislick tyres fitted and will have less tyregrip then him. Next visit I'm trying a little stiffer at the front (5 front / 4 rear) to compare it with 4/4 all round. Because with 4/4 all round there are 2 places where my front tyres hit the inner wheel arch slightly when there is a extreme compression of the suspension.
I know suspension settings and handling also has to do with personal taste... For example; Exdos puts the settings of his Bilstein harder when driving on the ring then me. He likes it better and maybe it also has to do with the fact that he has a stiffer coupe then my roadster? Eitherway; that is the great thing about the Bilstein PSS-10, you can make small suspensions adjustments really fast between street and track (and personal preference). IMO the Bilstein PSS-10 is a street suspension that is also suitable on track. This is how I made my Z4M...it's a very nice street car that is also suitable and very fun (and fast) on the occasional trackday and ring visit. I tried to make a car that is the best of both worlds (street <-> track). My Z4M comes on a track (95% Nurburgring) around 10 times a year and the rest of the time it's a street car (reason why I got a roadster)... For a car that sees 80% track time I would probably go for some more track orinetated suspension like a KW Clubsport, Intrax and also a rollcage, Recaro bucket seats, semilsick tyres, etc...
Only one thing to do on the list is to get a new alignment to get back some better and faster turn in response...that I lost a little after fitting the Bilstein.
The car felt great on the ring in the end of 2014; with the Vibratech engine mounts, RTAB limitors, Bilstein Suspension, AP Brakes and Michelin Supersport tyres. Great is an understatement! The car felt awesome!!! This is a movie of the very last lap of that day at the end of 2014... I was the very last person allowed on the track and the ring was almost empty (sounds like adream). It was a great lap; besides the big crash of two unfortunate Opel Speedster drivers
[youtube]g6yPVp5Jjl0[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6yPVp5Jjl0
The visit before this one; I found that the grip of the tyres was somewhat lesser then before and the car slided more. At the time I was driving with suspension settings 5/5 and 6/6. The harder the suspension, the lower the grip is the ruleĀ . With setting 6/6 I felt lesser grip then before but also lesser body movement. I'm driving with Michelin Supersport tyres; they are realy good "road" tyres and also preform rather nice on trackdays. But they are not semislick tracktyres, like a Michelin Cup tyre. I started experimenting a little with the settings of the dampers.
The Nurburgring is a really bumpy track and in my opinion it's not a good idea to put the suspension to hard. For testing purpose; I tried setting 7 front and rear and the car was undriveable on the ring and jumped almost of track. So last time I tried setting 4 front and 4 rear again (on the street; nowadays I'm driving with 3 front and and a softer 2 rear). The 4/4 setting felt really great on the Nurburgring with a very nice compromise between tyre grip, body movement and road balance. I was talking to a German guy with a black Z4M roadster on the parking. He had exactly the same Bilstein PSS-10 suspension and CSL wheel set-up as my car. His Z4M was fitted with semislick Michelin Cup tyres and this made him put his suspension a little harder then mine (5 front and 5 rear). He also found this the best handling set-up for his Z4M on the ring and it seems to make perfect sense that I would put my Bilsteins one setting lower then him, considering I don't have semislick tyres fitted and will have less tyregrip then him. Next visit I'm trying a little stiffer at the front (5 front / 4 rear) to compare it with 4/4 all round. Because with 4/4 all round there are 2 places where my front tyres hit the inner wheel arch slightly when there is a extreme compression of the suspension.
I know suspension settings and handling also has to do with personal taste... For example; Exdos puts the settings of his Bilstein harder when driving on the ring then me. He likes it better and maybe it also has to do with the fact that he has a stiffer coupe then my roadster? Eitherway; that is the great thing about the Bilstein PSS-10, you can make small suspensions adjustments really fast between street and track (and personal preference). IMO the Bilstein PSS-10 is a street suspension that is also suitable on track. This is how I made my Z4M...it's a very nice street car that is also suitable and very fun (and fast) on the occasional trackday and ring visit. I tried to make a car that is the best of both worlds (street <-> track). My Z4M comes on a track (95% Nurburgring) around 10 times a year and the rest of the time it's a street car (reason why I got a roadster)... For a car that sees 80% track time I would probably go for some more track orinetated suspension like a KW Clubsport, Intrax and also a rollcage, Recaro bucket seats, semilsick tyres, etc...
Only one thing to do on the list is to get a new alignment to get back some better and faster turn in response...that I lost a little after fitting the Bilstein.
8)