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In Reply to: Top speed handling posted by Marco on January 27, 2002 at 22:08:20:
The first things that spring to mind are what you, yourself, mentioned.
A set of stagered 16" wheels and tires will help. 205/55 front and 225/50 rear. Wider front can cause the car to wander or trammel (follow every road groove). The TRX are NOT that bad in reality, but there are better tires out there (especially in the wet). Buy the LIGHTEST wheels you can afford. Unsprung weight is a HUGE enemy seldom considered. I'd rather run tall narrow tires on light wheels than heavy tires and wheels, especially on less-than-smooth road courses.
A set of uprated sway bars. I installed some ST bars from LaJolla and it improved things considerably without extreme harshness. Stiffer springs help only a little after the bars IMHO. I recommend the bars first, and only maybe the springs if you're rolling in dough.
DO install poly thrust arm bushings, even if your present bushing don't cause shimmy. Paul Gray sells good ones at good prices. They will give you better "turn-in" and hold the suspension settings better, especially with wider rubber that can override the OEM rubber bushings.
Certainly check every ball jointed connection in the car. At 100K, most should still be tight.
The e28 is an absolute BLAST at highway speeds. I think you are being optimistic to believe it will be extremely stable and forgiving at 138mph and yet comfortable on real-world roads at sub-legal speeds.
In all honesty, I haven't driven the Alpina B7 e28 (I have the old R&T test at 167mph where they called it very stable), so I can't say it's impossible to achieve, but I haven't seen it. In honesty, both my B9 Alpinas (e23 and e24), and the Alpina suspended 745i were great cars, so maybe they COULD make the e28 a 150mph handler.
Bob
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