Spring Rate question for e36 328i

[Tochenzo]

Hey guys, I'm looking at possible spring rates for my car for autox/track/street purposes. This car is my daily driver, but I do quite a bit of autocrossing and hoping to do some HPDE's later this year. My question is, i'm currently running H&R Sports/Koni SA's and my current springs are just too soft and I'm still getting a lot of body roll. I'm looking at the gc coilover conversion kit and I'm not sure which spring rates would be good for me. Here's a list of my other suspension mods:

UUC Swaybars
X-Brace
Powerflex RTABS

I did a search and saw a lot of m3 drivers use 450f/600r spring rate setup, my question is would these be too stiff or would it be fine? It doesn't bother me if this setup would be too stiff because right now if I have 4 people in the car, i'm constantly rubbing because my car sinks like it has hydraulics. But, i don't want a setup that would make the car handle worse by having the springs be too stiff. Has any other 328 drivers out there used this setup for autocross? Thanks!

also which caster/camber plates do you guys recommend?
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[SOLO5977]

stop worrying about srping rates and buy from a company who already has workedall this stuff out!!! Coil overs that allow you to adjust the ride height and spring rate are ideal!

[Furious]

Originally Posted by SOLO5977

stop worrying about srping rates and buy from a company who already has workedall this stuff out!!! Coil overs that allow you to adjust the ride height and spring rate are ideal!

lol ground control is probably the best coilover setup on the market for the e36. the reason being is you can pick the spring rate that best suits your needs.

in terms of rates, that spring rate is stiff but how much im not sure, ive never rode on that rate, you should maybe contact who you know has those rates and ask how driveable and comfortable it is for street use. since you only auto-x you have to take into account that this is ever so often vs. street driving often.

as for camber plate im not sure, i havent gotten a set yet so im no help there yet.

[Tochenzo]

I talked to James from RRT and he said that high spring rates would be ideal for autocross since they're low speed turns, but at high speed tracks, you would have worse handling with higher spring rates. However, he mentioned to get less body roll the best I can do for my car is to get caster/camber plates and adjustable control arms to get more camber out so i think i'm gonna go with a mildly set spring rate setup (450f/550r) and look into which camber plates are the best. Thanks for the help

[///M Power]

I've ridden in a GC Coilover car with softer rates than your first post and it really did feel solid. I'll try and call up my friend ans ask what his spring rates but I know his weren't that high.

It seems you've already found what you think is a better setup for your car. If I were to do somethign liek that i'd build my car for mroe track events rather than autocross. And I know you're going s/c eventually so you'll probably prefer the track much more (if it werent as expensive).

Bimmerworld and Ground Control both have great plates, although if I recall correctly, when I installed GC plates on my friends car they didn't have camber angles listed at the top of the plate. For obvious reasons because they vary from different setups but I think you should get plates with readable numbers at the top. These allow you to finely adjust the plates to be the same on each side, instead of guesstimating or tryign to measure with a ruler fromt he min and max degrees.


Bimmerworld plates I think have pre-measured units written on top. if not try and see what turnermotorsport has.

[Tochenzo]

Originally Posted by ///M Power

I've ridden in a GC Coilover car with softer rates than your first post and it really did feel solid. I'll try and call up my friend ans ask what his spring rates but I know his weren't that high.

It seems you've already found what you think is a better setup for your car. If I were to do somethign liek that i'd build my car for mroe track events rather than autocross. And I know you're going s/c eventually so you'll probably prefer the track much more (if it werent as expensive).

Bimmerworld and Ground Control both have great plates, although if I recall correctly, when I installed GC plates on my friends car they didn't have camber angles listed at the top of the plate. For obvious reasons because they vary from different setups but I think you should get plates with readable numbers at the top. These allow you to finely adjust the plates to be the same on each side, instead of guesstimating or tryign to measure with a ruler fromt he min and max degrees.


Bimmerworld plates I think have pre-measured units written on top. if not try and see what turnermotorsport has.

good point, just realized bimmerworld is about 20 minutes away from my school, so i'll probably stop by one day and talk to them about my situation. Thanks for all the help once again, my main concern about getting heavier springs was to prevent the rubbing issue when I have more than 1 passenger in the car