[ButtDyno]

Mykl, out of curiosity, what heights are you at?

thanks

[Mykl]

Yikes... the E36 M3 is a fantastic car, but I really would think that you'd not have a difficult time outrunning one in your STi.

When I chose the rates for my coilovers I already had the Cobb bars. So I basically went by the idea that if I match the spring rate ratio to the car's natural front to rear weight balance ratio that the car would turn out close to neutral. 25mm hollow bars at the same stiffness with 450/400 was about as close to that as I could get.

I can definitely get my car to oversteer any time I really want it to. My guess is that you may want to consider revising your spring rates, front swaybar, and making 100% sure you're not running out of bump travel up front. The big front bar is nice on the OEM struts as a bandaid for keeping the car from getting too deep into the bumpstops, but for a car with coilovers it *might* be too much.

ButtDyno, I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's about 14" center of hub to fender front and rear. I raised the car a half inch yesterday, and I think it used to be set at 13.5". It handled good and looked great at 13.5", but the rear tires were rubbing and it's cheaper to raise it than it is to buy a fender rolling tool. But at this height it feels like I might have a *touch* more front end grip. The rear feels like it might be a hair more responsive to lift throttle rotation. But it's really hard to say without data logging, the car may very well have less overall grip and a touch more front bias than before due to the higher CoG.

*edit* it also might be worth noting that I have over +6.5 (not exactly sure how much now since raising the car) degrees of castor up front. Although I'm not entirely sure exactly how important this would be to handling balance. I wouldn't think that it'd be hugely significant.

[Conekiller13]

Originally Posted by Mykl

*edit* it also might be worth noting that I have over +6.5 (not exactly sure how much now since raising the car) degrees of caster up front. Although I'm not entirely sure exactly how important this would be to handling balance. I wouldn't think that it'd be hugely significant.

The positive caster shouldn't have any discernible effect on cornering aside from steering input effort. The higher the caster the more the wheels will have a natural tendency to self center. So high speed straight-line stability is improved but turn in may be slowed. In the reverse case if cast is low or zero the car will have very quick turn in but would be "twitchy". Anyway...........for those that did not know the effects of caster..........

[Lutfy]

Originally Posted by Mykl

Yikes... the E36 M3 is a fantastic car, but I really would think that you'd not have a difficult time outrunning one in your STi.

When I chose the rates for my coilovers I already had the Cobb bars. So I basically went by the idea that if I match the spring rate ratio to the car's natural front to rear weight balance ratio that the car would turn out close to neutral. 25mm hollow bars at the same stiffness with 450/400 was about as close to that as I could get.

I can definitely get my car to oversteer any time I really want it to. My guess is that you may want to consider revising your spring rates, front swaybar, and making 100% sure you're not running out of bump travel up front. The big front bar is nice on the OEM struts as a bandaid for keeping the car from getting too deep into the bumpstops, but for a car with coilovers it *might* be too much.

Mykl,

yes the E36 M3s are fantastic cars. Plus the development that went into it(from racers and tuners) you can just pick up the phone and get a kick butt setup with all the data and fine tune it from there.

I got the STi because the previous owner blew the doors off of my Stock Classed (BMW CCA I Stock) M3 at the track and he was on OEM tires with stage 2 mods and the current bars with JIC coilover. Since I got the car, I went with KW Variants but I put the rears on full soft.

Previous owner's setup:

-2.5 degree 0 toe front, -1.6 degree back, 0 toe. Front bar full stiff, rear medium with JIC 7K, 5K standard springs on RE070s.

I agree with the front 27mm bars for softer or stock springs. That is why I decided to soften it up and let the 8K springs stay up there (stock KW front springs) and up the rear a bit. Rear bar set to medium should do the trick (I HOPE SO).

I am running R Comps so the slip angles may be different. I do know for a fact I am not hitting the bump stops plus my compression/rebound is quite stiff (track setting).

Does anyone know what is the MAX spring rates you can run with KW V3 without getting it revalved? I have heard 700lbs front with 600lbs rear. I may have to get smaller bars up front as well.

Regards,

Lutfy