E30 325 Suspension Upgrade

[me01mp]

Morning All,

I've recently bought a 1988 325 with a view to tracking it, but its got horrible horrible roly-poly suspension on it at the moment.

Can anyone recommend a decent upgrade kit.. I've no info as to which is the best of those out there.

Any info and first hand experience would be great
Cheers

[Cotty]

If you have money to burn then you cant go wrong with H&R coilovers £759.99. More realistic would be the H&R Cup Kit at £344.99.

www.xsperformance.co.uk/e30zone/index.php?cPath=121_125

I would also reccomend the H&R anti roll bars, they are fantastic, I have them on my car

[me01mp]

we'd budgeted 400 so it looks like the cup kit is favourite. yeah we intend to do the roll bar and PU bush too

[Cotty]

You should pop over and say hi sometime
www.e30zone.co.uk/

What wheels will you be using?

Edited by Cotty on Sunday 6th August 14:58

[me01mp]

looking to get hold of some compomotive 5-spokes but that'll depend on budget. We've got the BBS alloys at the mo, i think wheels are low down in the priority.

Suspension
Bushes
Roll Cage
Limited Slip Diff
Quick Rack

Thats the top 5 at the mo.

[Cotty]

me01mp said:

looking to get hold of some compomotive 5-spokes but that'll depend on budget. We've got the BBS alloys at the mo, i think wheels are low down in the priority.
.

The BBS are perfect, if you do go down the compomotive route I wouldnt go larger than 15"

[Buttmonkey Racer]

I'll agree with that. Stick with the 15 x 7 BBS X spokes. You'll get a better ride if you're intending to track it. I've stuck with those with Toyo R888's which are like glue

I race my E30 Touring in the Production BMW Championship and most of the stuff - except the LSD we've sorted on the car.



I've got the KW Variant 3 coilover suspension which is about £900 but is highly reccomended, the powerflex bush kit which we get for about £100 although this will make the ride very harsh on anything but good track surfaces, a Custom Cage weld in rollcage with side intrusion bars which although pricey at about £590 supplied is the nuts and when it comes to safety best to get the best you can afford. The Custom Cage also runs through the front bulkhead to the suspension turrets which stiffens the car so much theres no need for a front strut brace.


Finally have you considered a quick shift lever? It definitely helps. They're only about £40 or so and transform the car on track.

Drop me a line if theres any other help or info you want

[Cotty]

Buttmonkey Racer Loving your car, I have been tempted to do the same but not so extreem. Not to mine obviously but to another touring that I dont care about

[Buttmonkey Racer]

Mione was a £25 mot failure - light alignment & emissions - that took all of a day to sort and presto! the Buttwagon was born.

Do it, you know you want to

[me01mp]

Cotty,

Do i take it you work at e30zone?

We've just ordered some H&R's but cant find any info for delivery times..
can you advise?

[Cotty]

me01mp said:

Cotty,

Do i take it you work at e30zone?

We've just ordered some H&R's but cant find any info for delivery times..
can you advise?

I dont work at E30Zone im just a member, in the same way as im a member of Pistonheads. The E30Zone is just a forum same as Pistonheads. The guy that runs the E30 Zone shop is called Sal who is a good bloke and if you contact him he will sort your out.

I assume you mean you have purchased something from the E30Zone shop? contact Sal using the contact section www.xsperformance.co.uk/e30zone/contact_us.php im sure he will answer any/all of your queries. He was at the BMW show at Gaydon Heritage Motor Museum today as he had a stall.

I have bought the H&R ARB's though the shop and havent had a problem.

Let me know if you have any problems contacting Sal and ill help you out

[M5Pilot]

me01mp said:

Morning All,

I've recently bought a 1988 325 with a view to tracking it, but its got horrible horrible roly-poly suspension on it at the moment.

Can anyone recommend a decent upgrade kit.. I've no info as to which is the best of those out there.

Any info and first hand experience would be great
Cheers

Hi Martin,

Got your email aswell as Paul Cotty's today asking for a delivery time. I have answered your email.

The H&R suspension range is one of the best at that sort of price bracket. The Anti roll bars make a huge difference to the E30 range as Paul will happily tell you.

The Powerflex bushes work very well and are only harsh in the first few weeks over normal roads. After a while they slightly soften and compliance is much better. The rear subframe bushes are to be avoided if you drive over bad roads and also if you do alot of motorway driving as they do transmit more road noise into the cabin.

Thanks

Sal

[taffyracer]

I ran an E30 in Kumho for 2 years and I and all the other E30 racers in the Kumho championship and some of the Easytrack (still call it the Milltek) run on Leda. I also sell alot of other BMW track www.xlraceparts.com and race parts and do a whole host of shocks for the E30...Eibach, KW, Moton as well as Leda and can safely say that in my opinion and from a standpoint of dealing with all the main companies doing shocks for the E30, Leda are the best without spending large sums, they're £890 before discount and are rebuildable, if it's going on track then the biggest improvement you can make is with the handling so I wouldn't even consider looking at anything else unless you want to spend £1300 +

Edited by taffyracer on Monday 21st August 18:43

[Cotty]

M5Pilot said:

Hi Martin,

Got your email aswell as Paul Cotty's today asking for a delivery time. I have answered your email.

me01mp hope you have things sorted now.

M5Pilot is Sal in case you were not sure, oh and Sal is a bloke

[Cotty]

taffyracer said:

Leda are the best without spending large sums, they're £890 before discount and are rebuildable, if it's going on track then the biggest improvement you can make is with the handling so I wouldn't even consider looking at anything else unless you want to spend £1300 +

I think he is looking for a but of fun with a track toy rather than a full bore race car and budget restraints would rule out the Leda's

[me01mp]

Hi all,

Thakns for all the advice and help, we've got the bushes and suspension now, the plan is to get the front end rebuilt this weekend and begin to look at taking the rear off.. once that's done its back on the road.. the rest of the things (seats/cage etc) are coming later down the line with some more funds!

Wooooo!

The only downer is that there's every chance of me binning it first time out...

[Cotty]

Hows the track day touring project going? Got any pictures?

How do you find the H&R suspension. I have KW which are a bit hard for normal road use and was thinking of switching to H&R as they are a bit softer.

Edited by Cotty on Tuesday 12th September 22:36

[rlk500]

Cotty said:

taffyracer said:

Leda are the best without spending large sums, they're £890 before discount and are rebuildable, if it's going on track then the biggest improvement you can make is with the handling so I wouldn't even consider looking at anything else unless you want to spend £1300 +

I think he is looking for a but of fun with a track toy rather than a full bore race car and budget restraints would rule out the Leda's

To be honest a lot of people make that mistake when choosing suspension. Everyone I know that I track with has done the Bilstein sport or Uprated suspension thing, and each one of them to a man has thrown it away and put full coilovers on at a later date. I went straight to coilovers on my e30 M3 (it's a trimmed road car, that spends most of it's time on track)and when people get a ride in it they are pretty amazed at the difference between the two setups (Sal, I think I took your friend out in it at Oulton). The additional mechanical grip that the rear coilover setup provides makes the car feel that it could handle a shed load more power. Coupled to the fact that you can tune the suspension to your own personal setup, it really makes it the way forward. Yes it's more money, but do it once, it's going to be cheaper in the long run.

[Cotty]

Buttmonkey Racer whats the situation with your sunroof. Some cages are different depending on whether you have a sunroof or not. Your car appears to have a sunroof but whats the deal? Have you removed the internals and refixed the pannel in place or left all the gubbins in there.

I understand an electric sunroof has a lot of weight what with the motors etc which is not what you want ie lots of weight high up.

[Buttmonkey Racer]

I fitted a Custom Cage which has the disagonal strengthening bar below the sunroof. I took the roof panel out, removed all the internals then welded it back in and sealed it with mastic.



I also ran the front bars through to the front struts for added strengthening and door bars of course.







I'm racing at Snetterton Saturday and Sunday this weekend if you want to come down and look it over. It was a total pig to fit