I've had about 70 cars over the last 19 years, track cars, road cars, lots of BMW's, a few M-cars and M engined cars, so the car has quite a lot to live up to but its not doing a bad job so far.. Initially I felt it lacked a little feel/body control and lacked a little bit of drama during regular use so after a few months i set about it, trying to add a bit of character and feel to the car.. So far i like what the small changes have done for it! Here it is..
So, the car is an 8 Speed Auto, my only requirements for buying was 8 Speed, Red Leather & any colour other than Estoril Blue.. Was quite difficult finding a clean car with the correct service history and such, but got there after a couple of months, but being honest never thought i'd end up with a Silver one, but in hindsight... I really do like the colour on this car!
I've since added HSD MonoPro Coilovers & Camber Plates, a Maxton Design Splitter, 15mm Bimecc Spacers & an M-Performance Exhaust.
Next up is to fit some BMW BBS 216 Alloy wheels off a 320si, they should be arriving in a few weeks! And i think its about done at that!
New wheels on... Very happy with them, near perfect fit, the front will be spaced 10 to 15mm once my geo is set.
Geometry isn't final yet, it's just set to neg 1 degree until my wheels are fitted, unsure what I'll aim for but suspect a road/track hybrid, perhaps neg 2 up front, neg 1.5 rear.. We shall see!
In terms of feel and noise etc I'm not the best person to speak with due to my background (cage, buckets, no interior & quaife straight cut gears in a road car).. There is always a slight increase in feel through the car when fitting undamped top mounts but it's usually change for the better, more feel through the chassis
Geometry isn't final yet, it's just set to neg 1 degree until my wheels are fitted, unsure what I'll aim for but suspect a road/track hybrid, perhaps neg 2 up front, neg 1.5 rear.. We shall see!
In terms of feel and noise etc I'm not the best person to speak with due to my background (cage, buckets, no interior & quaife straight cut gears in a road car).. There is always a slight increase in feel through the car when fitting undamped top mounts but it's usually change for the better, more feel through the chassis
Sorry to quiz you about this mate but can you tell us more about the camber plates please - are they making any knocking or clunking noises over bumps? How long have you had them fitted?
Any idea how much camber they'll give?
I run nearly 2 degrees all round but it's nowhere near enough on my m135 with stock adaptive suspension.
If you have a reliable/easy way of adjusting them that'sd be perfect.
I've used AST camber plates on another car but they were overpriced ****. Lasted about 1 month before they started knocking
Geometry isn't final yet, it's just set to neg 1 degree until my wheels are fitted, unsure what I'll aim for but suspect a road/track hybrid, perhaps neg 2 up front, neg 1.5 rear.. We shall see!
In terms of feel and noise etc I'm not the best person to speak with due to my background (cage, buckets, no interior & quaife straight cut gears in a road car).. There is always a slight increase in feel through the car when fitting undamped top mounts but it's usually change for the better, more feel through the chassis
Sorry to quiz you about this mate but can you tell us more about the camber plates please - are they making any knocking or clunking noises over bumps? How long have you had them fitted?
Any idea how much camber they'll give?
I run nearly 2 degrees all round but it's nowhere near enough on my m135 with stock adaptive suspension.
If you have a reliable/easy way of adjusting them that'sd be perfect.
I've used AST camber plates on another car but they were overpriced sh*t. Lasted about 1 month before they started knocking
-2 deg is a lot upfront from just F8X LCAs and otherwise stock suspension. What else have you done to yours ?
Re camber plates - Millway camber plates have a few good rep on Euro F2x and F8x forums ie easy to set/tweak upto about -3.5 deg, same height as OEM top mounts and quiet.
Geometry isn't final yet, it's just set to neg 1 degree until my wheels are fitted, unsure what I'll aim for but suspect a road/track hybrid, perhaps neg 2 up front, neg 1.5 rear.. We shall see!
In terms of feel and noise etc I'm not the best person to speak with due to my background (cage, buckets, no interior & quaife straight cut gears in a road car).. There is always a slight increase in feel through the car when fitting undamped top mounts but it's usually change for the better, more feel through the chassis
Sorry to quiz you about this mate but can you tell us more about the camber plates please - are they making any knocking or clunking noises over bumps? How long have you had them fitted?
Any idea how much camber they'll give?
I run nearly 2 degrees all round but it's nowhere near enough on my m135 with stock adaptive suspension.
If you have a reliable/easy way of adjusting them that'sd be perfect.
I've used AST camber plates on another car but they were overpriced sh*t. Lasted about 1 month before they started knocking
-2 deg is a lot upfront from just F8X LCAs and otherwise stock suspension. What else have you done to yours ?
Re camber plates - Millway camber plates have a few good rep on Euro F2x and F8x forums ie easy to set/tweak upto about -3.5 deg, same height as OEM top mounts and quiet.
It's just got the M4 LCA's to make just under -2 degrees.
Thanks for the link for milway, I researched them before getting the M4 LCA's but found mixed reviews, remember reading how a user described exactly the knocking I mentioned in my previous post.
Sam - I think you are being optimistic thinking that F8x LCA's only on otherwise stock suspension nets -2deg camber. -1.3 to -1.5 deg is more likely
git-r2 said:
Thanks for the link for milway, I researched them before getting the M4 LCA's but found mixed reviews, remember reading how a user described exactly the knocking I mentioned in my previous post.
Its actually the hole in the top of the turret, my camber adjusters are hard up against the lip but still have some further adjustment to go. Funnily it was our mutual friend Jamie who had the problem with his Megane:
Its actually the hole in the top of the turret, my camber adjusters are hard up against the lip but still have some further adjustment to go. Funnily it was our mutual friend Jamie who had the problem with his Megane as well.
Its actually the hole in the top of the turret, my camber adjusters are hard up against the lip but still have some further adjustment to go. Funnily it was our mutual friend Jamie who had the problem with his Megane as well.
The camber top mounts are on an M2 for test fitting at the moment, when they are back on I'll get some proper figures of what the max camber can be.
Just to add to the discussion, it seems from messing with mine and my friends M2, the M2 seems to have more static camber, mine made about neg 1 degree when lowered, the M2 was around neg 2 IIRC...
First Track Day done.... Mini one anyway! At Three Sisters in Wigan, they have these arrive and drive days, so i headed up to have a few laps.
I had a session first thing, track was a little damp in places but yes sir, this car shifts. Gearbox is sublime, constant power available, quite good feel to it aswell. The car is a little raggedy on oversteer which is down to the diff and the fast steering ratio but you can grab this car by the scruff of the neck and really lean on it. I was surprised at how much power i could put down in the slower corners..
Handling balance was great under power and braking, the front could do with a shade more grip i suppose but i'm going to add a little preload up front to add some initial roll control & see where that gets me. Again i think the fast steering ratio means you can really lean into the grip very quickly.. Ultimately a set of wider front tyres or more aggro camber and i think it's about where it needs to be. But just fine tuning really, the car works very well even now.
Sadly cant really chime in on tyre wear, we didn't do enough laps to make an impact i suspect, at about 30 laps.. I say we.. It was my old mans birthday so i let him have a session in my car...
I think a proper full track day would see the edges of my tyres gone on current Geo.. Will aim for -2.5 to -3 up front eventually, suspect that will cure the edge wear issue and give a better contact patch..
Itching for my next day out now... lol.
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