From digest.v7.n1072 Wed Feb 4 13:48:12 1998
From: John Rambo <fstbmwm3_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 07:41:36 -0800 (PST)
Subject: E36 M3 w/ H&R / Koni/ Dinan camber &offset plates

Another digester raved about this setup and I would like to join in.

Although the M3 is race ready , right off the box, there are major improvements that can be made.

Understeer and steering responce (old M3 owners have screeming for years on this one) on the E36 M3 is not race car like.

There is some minimum body roll also, but that's not really such a bad thing. Putting monster sway bars that make the feel like live axle Mustang is far worse IMHO.

Anyway, I found that stiffer springs with OEM shock is a very dangerous setup. Braking and slalom become very dangerous due the massive mass movents.

The H&R / springs (race / street they're both great) and the yellow Koni adjustables really help. The biggest improvement is that the car "settles" faster and it awards the driver with a lot more confidence. Car mag nerds might not see a "true" skidpad G reading increase, but the car will be faster in the track.

High speed driving improves dramatically, and the M3 doesnt float at 130+ mph speeds.

High speed braking improves dramatically also (even car mag nerds will be happy, since the braking distance will be reduced) .

The biggest difference in handling and steering responce is accomplished by the Dinan Camber plates AND Dinan Offset plates.

Its amazing how much difference the neg camber & offset plates make to this car. The magnitude of improvement is close to putting R1s (assuming you also dialed in more neg camber at the rear)

Tire life is not affected noticably. I cant really tell if my tires (PZeroes) are wearing down faster.

To recap: BEST BANG for the Buck is the camber/offset plate combo. For $300 + $70 allignment you get improved handling and very responsive steering.

My question is :

What is the TOE OUT angle that would improve my baby's handling.

I was planning to go TOE out 1.5 degrees. Are there any handling gurus that can shed some light to us simple folk ?

TOE can be adjusted on the M3 and I would like to experiment with different dial ins.

I have not messed with sway bars since I have taken weight off the car (now tips the scale at 2750 lbs/1250kg with 5 gallons of gas).

I feel that since the car is lighter, the OEM sway bars are much more effective.

Again I hope someone has experimented with TOE out settings and is willing to helps us.

Thanks for the bandwidth, now back to the "Digester ______ is a spammer" thread.

Best Regards
Vlasis

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