By common request - Suspension MODS (VERY LONG) (archive)

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When I bought my car in March 2000, it took me only 1 month to find out that the stock suspension wasn't up to what I wanted to do with the car. At the time, I went to an Audi Quattro driving school with Mike Z. (remember the good ol' days? :-) ) shortly after breaking the car in, and I wasn't very satisfied with the suspension, even though the car was AMAZING on the track.
So I went to see Race Marque Systems, and bought a "Stage 2" suspension kit, which comprised of a 24mm front bar, 22mm rear bar (the rear bar is actually Dinan), H&R Sport springs, and Koni Single adjustable shocks.
At 1st, I was very happy. The car looked amazing, street driveability was almost unchanged from stock, and the car performed well on the track/autoX.
Unfortunately, as track/autox events came about, my experience with the car and with autoX/track know-how increased, but so did hatred for my suspension.
I tried pretty much everything one can think of: I swapped the camber plates around, which gave me -3deg. Was great for turn-in and cornering. But no matter what I tried to do with the shocks/swaybar setup, the car always felt weird. Either pushing heavily, or, like last AutoX event, oversteering like CRAZY. I was basically driving a rally car on slicks. And what I hated most about it is that I couldn't tune my front shocks for compression, nor my rear shocks at all without disassembling the whole rear end.
It virtually took me and Mike Simanyi (thanks Mike) 6 hours to adjust the rear shocks from full stiff to 3/4 stiff !!!!

So I had it. That's when I asked myself "what do I want to do with my car?". The answer came VERY quick: ditch my shocks and springs, and try to find a shop that manufactures DOUBLE-ADJUSTABLE >>TOPSIDE<< shocks, and matched springs. Yes, TOPSIDE. Between runs, I want to be able to tune bump AND rebound very easily, without having to jack up my car. ALSO, I wanted front camber plates. The reason being is that I wanted to be able to dial in as much neg camber as possible for autoX/track, and dial down to min camber for street driving (remember, this is my ONE AND ONLY car). If you look at the Kumho V700 tire cording trend on my car, you'll see that the fronts always corded on the outside. So I clearly needed neg camber.
Lastly, I wanted to make SURE I got the most comprehensive suspension package I could get, so that I could get very refined adjustments. That meant going with a coilover setup.

That's when I found out about Ground Control in NorCal. After some back and forth conversations with Jay, the BMW guy there, we came up with a good setup.

1. Advance Design double-adjustable bump/rebound shocks, from top of the car.
2. RACE Eibach springs, 450lbs/in Front and 575lbs/in Rear. (can you say, STIFF?????????). Coilovers front, and adjustable spring perches rear, to remain SCCA ASP Legal.
3. RACE front camber plates
4. RACE rear shock mounts (no more of that rubber bulls**t)
5. RACE strut inserts for front shocks

Now that I had the parts and was VERY confident as to what setup I wanted with my car, I took my car to Buller Perf Engr to have the whole thing installed. They had the car for initially 3 days, but ended up staying there for ONE WEEK !!!!!!!!! It was a NIGHTMARE for Chris (the installer) and I. He had ALL SORTS of alignment problems with the car, and ALL SORTS of problems with the camber plates up front.
But I told Chris: "WHATEVER you need to make the car SUPER WELL setup, go for it.".

Well, remember the items I got from GC above? I ended up HAVING to get more than that !!!!!!!!

1. KMAC eccentric rear bushings. Chris needed full adjustability of the rear alignment, to make the car perform well, so he had to get those. (why not, eh?)

2. Ground Control sway bar endlinks. The stock ones just wouldn't cut it and wouldn't fit in the adjustable swaybars I had, so he had to order those.

3. Dinan front upper strut brace. Chris said this item was necessary for a race car, it keeps everything tight, especially with the setup I had (a full race setup). Plus, it looks so awesome too.

Upon my request, Chris cut 2 holes through the carpet in the back in order for me to adjust the shocks from the trunk. Clean hole, covered by BMW rubber cover. Neat stuff.

Chris had to do 6 alignments of the car, multiple adjustments of the camber plates, and multiple adjustments of the ride height (which I don't know the figure, btw).

He released the car to me one week later, with the car being in RACE MODE (adequate neg camber, aggressive alignment, and properly setup sway bars). From there, I only modify the shocks to my liking. At 1st, I thought I'd be able to EASILY dial camber in and out as needed, but I later found out that a) it's not as easy as you think, and b) toe is affected everytime you change camber.

Knowing this, I leave the car in race mode during street driving, adjust the shocks to FULL compression and FULL rebound, and I don't worry about my tires getting used a bit more than normal (that's why I WILL go with the Kumho ECSTA once my stock Michelins run out. ONLY $110/tire!!!).

Chris's laber was well over 35 hours, but he charged me only 19. GREAT guy, and very knowledgable too. Install cost + add-on parts? $1,900.

Is the car very stiff on the street? yes. Unbearable? hell no. But again, people might think I am crazy, because Chris thought it was stiff, but I then told him that 450/575 spring rates is too stiff. I wanted 800/1000 like F1 cars ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

Is the suspension much noisier than stock? OF COURSE! It's a race design, not a performance street design.

So for under $5,000, I have a KICKASS setup.
Worth it? HELL YES. Look at Mike Z's post below. It answers everything. Mike is the only person who's seen me evolve on a regular basis through my 1st year of racing, and he can attest to the progress I made.
Just the thought of arriving 0.028 seconds off the leader when I used to be 3 seconds behind him already paid off for my suspension. And I don't know my car yet (I used to, but now with the new suspension, I gotta learn it all over again).

Boy.....it's getting late. Gotta change my tires back to street tires now (price you get for not having a trailer, and for having a car that's too small to haul 4 tires).

Hope this gives any insight to the prospective suspension buyer. Make SURE you know what you're getting into before going further. My car is a race car, even though I drive it on the street every day. But again I like to strap myself in my 5-pt harness every day too, so I don't mind the stiffness + noise of the exhaust/suspension/flywheel/tranny rings. Yes, I >AM< crazy :-)

But I will NOT be responsible for anyone who tries this setup and later tells me how "too stiff and loud" it is :-)
Just fyi, my girlfriend doesn't mind the ride at all and we can still have a conversation inside the cockpit, so all is not THAT bad.

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