pbsdesign

Sam@TDi: "pbsdesign I can guarantee you that at the grip limit the stiffer of the two axles will saturate it's tires, drop grip and slide first. But right up until that point the stiffer axle will be the more responsive. Everything gets reversed at the grip limit." Well, it's all about being 'on the limit' isn't it? I mean 95% of the time my car has way more grip than I have balls, and it's just those "on the limit" moments that make you want to mess with the suspension anyway... also I suppose my experience is subjective to the modifications I've made to this car (having always had classics/bangers before): When I first got the car (with factory Msport suspension) I took a roundabout a lot faster than I should have and was treated to a small, but very definite 4-wheel drift, ie neutral handling. I did this a couple of times before I realised that I really needed more grip. So I installed Eibach springs, M3 spec antiroll bars, and the aforementioned adjustable Konis on tthe front, but left the softer BMW dampers on the rear. The result was loads more grip all round, but when I was really pushing, the front would break loose first and give me that dreaded understeer feeling. I think because at this point the whole car was stiffly sprung all round, and that extra bit of compliance at the rear stopped it from getting unstuck. So then I put the Bilstein Sports on the rear (much stiffer than the konis), again I had a bit more grip all round, but now when I'm really pushing or come into a corner too fast, the front sticks and I can feel the rear end just start to creep out, giving me that lovely controlled oversteer feeling that we all crave (or at least I do). That's why I said I would run stiff rear/ soft front. Again, my experience is limited to real world driving on really crap UK roads, so on a track or in ideal conditions the setup might need to be very different to produce the same balance. Cheers, Paul

Hi Tony & All, my first post here... I have Koni "yellow" adjustable dampers on the front of my bmw, and Bilstein Sports on the rear, so I might be entitled to an opinion on this one. The Konis are great, and I run them on just a hair (16th of a turn) more than full soft for daily driving. They are still very firm and much harder than stock, but not uncomfortable. The Bilsteins are harder still, actually a bit too stiff for the roads, but do their job well. I chose the koni/bilstein combination with the theory that you want stiffer in the rear so as not to introduce understeer in what was a perfectly neutral handling car, and then could balance it by adjusting the fronts. I'm hoping to buy myself some adjustable rear konis for xmas... So if I were to go on a track day, or to the Nurburgring maybe, one of these days when the car and me are ready (I don't want to trash it yet), I can crank up those konis and have all of the benefit of sport dampers, but still be able to live with it day to day. Adjustable is good I would agree with tdi's remark that I am probably not qualified for any more than a "soft to firm" kind of setting, and given the chance and a perfect bit of tarmac would probably run full firm in the rear and softer in the front.