Your experiences of aftermarket suspension on the Z4 MC
- Thread starter exdos
- Start date
Beedub said:BMWZ4MC said:How regular Beedub? These are on my shopping list - in fact I'm planning to order them in the next couple of weeks so they'll be waiting for me when I get home (along with a collection of other toys)
ideally every 35k less depending on usage.... As they are track units, they are going to be used hard!! After my last sprint session i can honestly say these were for me the right choice, on softest setting they are definitely driveable on the road, 110% still avoiding all the drain covers and bumps in the road which sometimes make me wince, but i can hustle this car along at an incredible rate with these coilovers in place, and on the track, where they belong, they are sublime, the car is glued to the road and transitions are like a guided missile, you'll be hunting down some serious machinery with these in place.... They are completely silent and offer upto --3.7 negative camber, mines currently set at -3. and due to extreme use the are wearing perfectly even, hell the outer shoulders are still taking a beating..... The construction of the actual damper is wonderful, and they look brand spanking new to this day, the shperical uniball mounts do increase Nvh significantly and also transmit a very clear message to the steering wheel.... i LOVE these..... and you will too....
heres the car FULLY loaded on a very tight hairpin, entering and HOLDing a solid 45mph +, im on the absolute limit of grip, theirs also a heavy passenger in the car..... the car no longer dips at all during acceleration and breaking, it stays as flat as a pancake... if you cant tell.... im over the moon with these.... i was soooo pleased that my passenger stated " This is the best handling road car ive ever been in" and this was the car on bog standard Ps2s ( wanted to kill them off once and for all), with cups on its fair beyond my skill level and is actually scary, not fun to drive.... i keep it on road tyres to keep the levels within where i feel comfortable... with the the cups the car is competing WELL above level, matching the slower/medium level caterhams..... The r8 v8 that goes their isnt even on the same playing field.....
braking as hard as i can from 100 mph.....
this thread is awesome BTW..... imo the best resource for changing your suspension on the z4m, on the net....
next up for me??? poly FCABs.....
All good to hear Beedub, and great pics
Understeer is my enemy and I'm determined to rid my life of its influence I'm hoping I can make my ///M handle more like my Westfield, a lot to ask I know...I hadn't realised that you could dial in that much negative camber, and had presumed that separate camber plates would be necessary. I'll be buying various parts over the next six months to fit when I'm back in preparation for more power :evil:
BMWZ4MC said:Beedub said:BMWZ4MC said:How regular Beedub? These are on my shopping list - in fact I'm planning to order them in the next couple of weeks so they'll be waiting for me when I get home (along with a collection of other toys
ideally every 35k less depending on usage.... As they are track units, they are going to be used hard!! After my last sprint session i can honestly say these were for me the right choice, on softest setting they are definitely driveable on the road, 110% still avoiding all the drain covers and bumps in the road which sometimes make me wince, but i can hustle this car along at an incredible rate with these coilovers in place, and on the track, where they belong, they are sublime, the car is glued to the road and transitions are like a guided missile, you'll be hunting down some serious machinery with these in place.... They are completely silent and offer upto --3.7 negative camber, mines currently set at -3. and due to extreme use the are wearing perfectly even, hell the outer shoulders are still taking a beating..... The construction of the actual damper is wonderful, and they look brand spanking new to this day, the shperical uniball mounts do increase Nvh significantly and also transmit a very clear message to the steering wheel.... i LOVE these..... and you will too....
heres the car FULLY loaded on a very tight hairpin, entering and HOLDing a solid 45mph +, im on the absolute limit of grip, theirs also a heavy passenger in the car..... the car no longer dips at all during acceleration and breaking, it stays as flat as a pancake... if you cant tell.... im over the moon with these.... i was soooo pleased that my passenger stated " This is the best handling road car ive ever been in" and this was the car on bog standard Ps2s ( wanted to kill them off once and for all), with cups on its fair beyond my skill level and is actually scary, not fun to drive.... i keep it on road tyres to keep the levels within where i feel comfortable... with the the cups the car is competing WELL above level, matching the slower/medium level caterhams..... The r8 v8 that goes their isnt even on the same playing field.....
braking as hard as i can from 100 mph.....
this thread is awesome BTW..... imo the best resource for changing your suspension on the z4m, on the net....
next up for me??? poly FCABs.....
All good to hear Beedub, and great pics
I hadn't realised that you could dial in that much negative camber, and had presumed that separate camber plates would be necessary. I'll be buying various parts over the next six months to fit when I'm back in preparation for more power :evil:
sorry for the confusion, the camber was achieved by using the uniball spherical bearing billet units from kw for the track suspension units.... i agree alot of camber but understeer is literally gone... i can lean on the front with complete confidence......
Cheers. So it looks like I can get Clubsports together with the adjustable top mounts from Larkspeed https://www.larkspeed.com/index.pl?p=L35220834&a=i for the same amount as the best price I'd seen elsewhere for the Clubsports alone. Does 2k sound reasonable to you Beedub? Or do you think I should keep shopping around?
BMWZ4MC said:
thats a good price!!! they usually retail at 2500 with the top mounts... dont forget to order new rear top mounts.... i went with the R.E units.. fabulous pieces!!
At least at this point you can rebuild the dampers too.. 125 quid is expensive but much cheaper than new units....
BMWZ4MC said:Just answered my own question by reading your previous posts about them:
http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=20140
Added to the list
i think once you go this far in terms of coilovers you may as well do the rest of the suspension as a slow project eventually swapping out all the pieces... RTAB limiters are a must!!!
BMWZ4MC said:
The best price I had for Clubsports when I was looking last year, was £2.3k including camber/caster plates.
Since you are trying to make a highly focussed track car, you should definitely fit the caster/camber plates, but instead of increasing negative camber, I would suggest that you should increase caster, because this gives an increase in negative camber in the dynamic situation when the steering is turned and better straight line stability and self-centring. To see a demonstration of caster in operation, just watch the movement of the front wheels of any modern Mercedes saloon when it is parking, and you'll observe the considerable change in camber created by turning the steering.
Uprating the front ARB, only, might be the answer with the very soft OEM front springs, but If you're going to redress the gross imbalance of the OEM spring rates with those of KW Clubsports, if you uprate the front ARB, you should also uprate the rear ARB too, to preserve the suspension balance that you'l have with the Clubsports.
The only thing I would say to anyone considering KWs is take a good look at how the damper adjustment is made before you commit. I had V3 Clubsports on my 993 and the rear bump adjustment was a total pig. It was almost impossible to do with the wheels on and definitely impossible without lifting the wheel off the ground.
Having since had Nitron and Intrax adjustable suspension since, and seen how simple and easy their shocks are to adjust I wouldn't have KWs system again.
They may have altered their system by now of course, but if not it would be a dealbreaker for me.
Having since had Nitron and Intrax adjustable suspension since, and seen how simple and easy their shocks are to adjust I wouldn't have KWs system again.
They may have altered their system by now of course, but if not it would be a dealbreaker for me.
tertius said:
It's changed now.... It's still a pain in the ass however !! Nitron for ease of adjustment is my fave!!
Intrax are great options BUT huge but... They rear coilover conversion is completely unsuitable without serious strut tower reinforcement .... This area was never designed to withstand that stress.... How have you reinforced yours ???
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TBH, unless the suspension can be adjusted electronically from inside the car, then all adjustable suspension is a bit of a pain to adjust. A torch and a pair of plastic caravan ramps are useful at the track so that you can lift the car a little so that you can see what you're doing when making the adjustments at the bottom of the dampers see: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_t...van+ramp&_nkw=caravan+ramp&_sacat=0&_from=R40
exdos said:
I do think KW's pin system is in a class of its own for inconvenience.
The Intrax dampers just have a knob right on the bottom of the damper (one way only) they are OK but not that positive, and way too many clicks. I agree with beedub the Nitron knurled adjusters are the dog's wotsits. Really positive and easy to adjust - I could do all four corners with the car still on the ground in about 2 minutes.
tertius said:
you need 110% address this.... this was never designed to be swapped from a barrel spring and converted to a coil-over unit... even more so a sperate barrel unit performs just as good imo....... just look at the csl race series.... ;-) I looked at intrax and dismissed it instantly... exactly the same with nitron too who will not produce this in the stock format.... John will concur this is not suitable for the z4m and its current strut towers....
take a read...
http://www.cslregister.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2041
ive seen 3 of these personally.......
this is how the adjustment looks on the clubsport/comp coilovers...
