Thinking of buying a Nitron suspension kit ?

[Slippydiff]

I'm thinking of fitting a Nitron NTR1 suspension kit to fit to my 1M Coupe.
Has anyone on here had experience of the quality of their kits (preferably when fitted to BMW's) and their customer service etc ?

Many thanks in advance.

[janahan9]

I'm thinking about Nitrons too. Please do let me know if you get a set and how you get on. Another 1M owner from another forum has just had a set built and has just got them on his car. Haven't heard his review yet.Jamiesecker on here has a set on his M3.Met him at a trackday - very nice guy, sure you could PM him for info. From what I've read he's very happy with it!

[neutral 3]

Be Very wary.... I have them on my Griff, they have covered very few miles but one is allready leaking badly. An exposed damper rod equals rapid seal wear, hopefully they will give me a replacement unit.

[bertie]

Not on a BMW, but I've not long swapped from the standard Bilsteins to Meteor motorsport Nitrons on my Caterham R400.

Being so light Caterhams are really sensitive to tyres and suspension and it is absolutely transformed, I can't rate them highly enough.

[LocoBlade]

neutral 3 said:

Be Very wary.... I have them on my Griff, they have covered very few miles but one is allready leaking badly. An exposed damper rod equals rapid seal wear, hopefully they will give me a replacement unit.

Yup, I had Nitrons on a kit car and they were brilliant, there's no doubting the quality of them in terms of how they perform but unless they make specific road kits with better protection etc I suspect they, like most stuff made primarily for track use, might be quite unreliable long term on the road in all weathers and conditions.

[wheelsmith]

I spoke to a chap running Nitrons on his M3 E46 and his first comment was "there a bit bouncy", this was a couple of years ago on a BMW track day. Seemed like the springs and dampers wasn't very well matched.

Edited by wheelsmith on Saturday 18th May 20:05

[LocoBlade]

wheelsmith said:

I spoke to a chap running Nitrons on his M3 E46 and his first comment was "there a bit bouncy", this was a couple of years ago on a BMW track day. Seemed like the springs and dampers wasn't very well matched.

Edited by wheelsmith on Saturday 18th May 20:05

Not sure about kits for M3s but I know for the kit car Nitron only supplied the dampers pretty much to whatever spec you wanted, so being bouncy and not matched to the springs may be the fault of the installer rather than the equipment.

[mlhj83]

Point is, there are many fantastic damper manufacturers including Nitron, Moton, Ohlins, Sachs, Bilstein, KW etc. But how successful the setup is on one's car is very much dependent on the installer or owner having a sound understanding in selecting the right spring rates and damper adjustment range for the intended purpose of the car. Off-the-shelf kits (no matter how good) are always a compromise, as they are usually tailored to give better handling and road holding at a slight or significant expense of ride compliance, durability (needing more frequent rebuilds) or practicality, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Don't forget that most suspension manufacturers or sellers do not have the budget or the time to test their suspension setup for each car for hundreds of thousands or millions of miles before release (unlike reputable vehicle manufacturers), thus cannot possibly determine the long term effects on the car being used in all sorts of environments. One must be prepared to undergo quite a bit of fiddling, trial and error or accept increased wear or failure of other vehicle components when choosing aftermarket components, and using the vehicle at near 10/10s over many miles.

Edited by mlhj83 on Sunday 19th May 04:55

[m30dus]

I had Intrax 1K2 on my race car but recently moved to the Nitron NTR Race R3 setup and am mightily impressed.

They have only been on the car a couple of months but the car has been transformed and the quality to touch and feel is superb.

[Slippydiff]

Thanks for the feedback all. do please keep it coming.

[AnonSpoilSport]

Slippydiff said:

Thanks for the feedback all. do please keep it coming.

I had them - specced and fitted by CA Automotive and their agent - after two M3s with AST suspension. Never took this (also a BMW) on track as intended and it was a bit OTT, and bumpy, on the road, but less than the ASTs and did transform the handling of the car - very crisp and precise; lovely on Welsh roads. 'Had no problems with reliability etc. in several months and a few thousand miles.

[thegreenhell]

I ran Nitrons for about 30k miles on my old Elise and was very impressed with them. They seem very well built, and still looked and performed like new when I took them off the car. They are the de facto 'go-to' damper in the Lotus world.

It may also be worthwhile talking to somebody like Spires Tuning, as they do their own Nitron setups for BMWs. I know a couple of people running their setup, including PH's Dale, and they rave about them. I have no affiliation with the company, btw.