Diagnose this car’s condition

No doubt, this looks cool— but is everything alright in suspension land? Springs that are soft and excessively short come to mind, although there may be more to it yet— an insufficient front anti-roll bar, for instance.

Suspension gurus, a penny for your thoughts.

~ by velofinds on March 19, 2013.

Posted in Mods, Still images

12 Responses to “Diagnose this car’s condition”

  1. > Diagnose this car’s condition

    ‘Comfortable’? It might be nothing more than regular street dampers. Or, none at all… Neko.

    Kuroneko said this on March 19, 2013 at 12:34 am

  2. Could be a few things:

    – Excessively grippy tires for the springs and especially sway bars, OEM or not.

    – The wider track generated by those dished wheels makes the effect of having more lateral “lever”, therefore making the suspension work harder in the corners.

    (- Worn dampers that allow a bit more initial roll). If those two would be ruled out only, but most probably the first two.

    Jorge Azcoitia said this on March 19, 2013 at 1:02 am

  3. PS: It doesn’t look cool in my book. Rather, uncontrolled and probably dangerous driving at the limit. I’d rather have a stock one if I can’t fix that roll issue.

    Jorge Azcoitia said this on March 19, 2013 at 1:03 am

  4. Awesome pics!

    SuperSwede said this on March 19, 2013 at 5:08 am

  5. Oval tracks bank to the left… Stagger is on the wrong side 🙂

    Chris said this on March 19, 2013 at 6:57 am

  6. There is no problem here. I still see negative camber on the outside tire relative to the body, and it looks like fairly neutral camber relative to the ground. Body roll only really hurts by making you more sluggish in transitions and putting more heat in the outside tire (assuming you aren’t throwing away camber in the process, that opens a whole other can of worms). My hunch is that the whole suspension is stock or still close to it.

    Body roll isn’t really as bad as a lot of people think it is. If roll isn’t causing camber and toe problems, you should probably be looking at changing a lot of other things before sway bars. Too much sway bar makes you slide.

    I’m more worried that the driver doesn’t have a big grin on his face.

    Cactus said this on March 19, 2013 at 1:07 pm

  7. You can definitely tell he likes turning right, that lip is showing some wear and tear on the drivers side. I think it looks good just a little on the soft side for me.

    Alex B. said this on March 20, 2013 at 12:23 pm

  8. I’m late to this party but:

    I don;t think there is really anything wrong with the car. As it has plates it appears to be a street driven car on the track, If so, the softer springing is an acceptable compromise. As Cactus mentioned, roll is not always bad. I can show you pictures of my E28, that is set up for regular autocross use, rolling as much or more and it has big bars.

    My only concern would be the tires appear (hard to tell for sure though) to be under-inflated and the sidewalls look to be about to pull the rear bead off the rim.

    Looks like a nice car. Why does he have no helmet?

    Randy said this on March 20, 2013 at 12:51 pm

  9. i see a sad-faced bimmer on soggy suspension with stupid stretched tyres ‘stance’ style.
    :p

    wm said this on March 21, 2013 at 6:27 am

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