E30 Ride Height

chuck baader

chuck baader

New member
have mostly finished my ITS E30, but have ride height questions. can't get to the 5" minimum. front is around 5 5/8, and rear is over 6 with the adjusters removed. am i missing something? thanks, chuck
 
Originally posted by chuck baader:
have mostly finished my ITS E30, but have ride height questions. can't get to the 5" minimum. front is around 5 5/8, and rear is over 6 with the adjusters removed. am i missing something? thanks, chuck
Click to expand...

Chuck,

On my E30 M3, the front is 5" and the rear is 6". I have Gruppe N coilovers on the front and stock type springs on the rear. To lower the rear, I would have to order shorter springs and a threaded collar to adjust ride height. Both are available from Ground Control. I am just too lazy to change the M3, besides, it drives great!

On a 88 325ITS car I drove a few years ago, we did use the shorter springs and ride adjuster and had the front and rear right at 5".

Bob Turnage
 
Hi - Jeff Ireland of Ireland Engineering has some very good advice for e30 325 suspensions... So does Bob by the look things... It's very important to get these cars at the right height.. Low is good.

http://www.bmw2002.com/

Kieran
 
am using groung control camber plates, 6" h&r springs with adjusters. on rear am running 6" springs with no adjusters. does this mean i need to shorten my front struts and use 4" springs in the rear with adjusters? is anyone having trouble with the "nothing lower than the bottom of the wheel....." rule? thanks, chuck
 
Hi Bob,
I hope this post will get to you... I have just found the site and was going through older postings. I have just built a 90 325i and also have a hard time getting down to 5" on the front. I do have coilovers but find the wheels like to rub on the collars if I bring it down to far.
This may have something to do with the tire combo I am running 225/45 15.
What do you use? If the same, do you use spacers?
Originally posted by RTurnage:
Chuck,

On my E30 M3, the front is 5" and the rear is 6". I have Gruppe N coilovers on the front and stock type springs on the rear. To lower the rear, I would have to order shorter springs and a threaded collar to adjust ride height. Both are available from Ground Control. I am just too lazy to change the M3, besides, it drives great!

On a 88 325ITS car I drove a few years ago, we did use the shorter springs and ride adjuster and had the front and rear right at 5".

Bob Turnage
Click to expand...



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Dennis
90 325i
 
d--almost forgot about starting this thread. have at this time, shortened the front struts to lower front ride height. am using 5" progressive wound springs in the rear, shimmed to corner weight the car. i still have too much ride height in the front to compensate for the higher back (over 6") so as not to get too much rake in the chassis. yesterday i tried the setup with da koni shocks, and am impressed! the only thing left to do with the rear is install the nascar style shock bucket/adjuster in the chassis so the rear can be lowered. anyone sone that (legal ITS car!) thanks, chuck
 
what size wheels & tires are you using Chuck? I am also sitting at about 5 1/2 on the front & 6 on the rear...but want to bring that down for next year.

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Dennis
90 325i
 
dennis-225-50-14---spec wheel for ITS is 7" wide. had to run spacer on the front to clear the adjuster collar. (1/2"). wonder is anyone has modified rear to make height adjustable and how have they done it, and mostly, is it gcr legal????!! chuck
 
Originally posted by dbainbridge:
Hi Bob,
I hope this post will get to you... I have just found the site and was going through older postings. I have just built a 90 325i and also have a hard time getting down to 5" on the front. I do have coilovers but find the wheels like to rub on the collars if I bring it down to far.
This may have something to do with the tire combo I am running 225/45 15.
What do you use? If the same, do you use spacers?
Click to expand...
Chuck,

I am using Gruppe N struts on the front of my E30 M3 (it is a retired Gruppe N car), but have used Ground Control struts also. I do get a little tire rub on the struts running 225 45 15/s on stock wheels, but it doesn't seem to hurt anything.

For the rears, I used shorter springs, a threaded collar, keeper springs and a custom aluminum perch on the body to keep everything in place. You can get all this from ground control.

BMW's seem to like about 1" rake, so 5" front and 6" rear is probably optimal in SCCA. Since I don't race this in SCCA, I have lowered the car and still playing with ride height. At 3" front, I can't get less than 4 degrees negative camber and that is too much.

Bob Turnage
 
bob -- do you mean 4 degrees negative camber in front or rear with 3" front height. if rear, korman modifys the upper suspension mount to account for lowering that much. i set up my da konis saturday, and wow, what a difference!! am also using groupe n springs in rear, and was thinking of modifying the upper mount to use a nascar type hat/adjuster arrangment to lower the rear and try the car with about 1/4" rake. am currently running about 3/4" and had thought that too much. comments? thanks, chuck
 
Originally posted by zracer22:
Is 15" legal?
Click to expand...

Not for SCCA, but I have run SCCA yet. The wheels I use locally are 15 M3. I also have the stock 14x6 bottle cap wheels.

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Dennis
90 325i
 
Having just built the car I will have to hold off for a little bit. I may be interested after Xmas. How much & where are they located?

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Dennis
90 325i
 
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