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      04-20-2010, 03:48 PM   #16
Ant Man
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Drives: E92 M3 Individual Edition
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: East Anglia

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Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisburns View Post
Dunno why you think that ?
I can assure you the handling is just fine running eibachs, they lower the car around the same as the BMW performance springs do so are you saying that BMW have buggered up the handling as well?
I have read the thread you are referring to as well and still stick by the fact the eibachs are fine.

TBH the above is a pretty silly comment IMO.
Which M3 springs are you refering to? Eibachs lower the front by 20mm and therefore double the drop of the Edition models.

The purpose of the springs is to hold the car up at the required ride height, allow sufficient movement above and below this point, resisting excessive body roll and allow the wheels to follow the road surface. Spring travel is thus a very important part and the if there is not enough travel, the spring bottoms out. Effectively that corner of the car ceases to have suspension.
If this happened when cornering or braking hard it could be very dangerous.

The M3 front suspension has 0.5" of travel before hitting the bump stop. The bump stop has been dyno'd and acts progressively over the first 1" of compression. It's resistance then shoots up at which point it is not acting like a spring.

The front M3 springs are rated at 160lbs, meaning it takes 160lbs of force to compress the spring by one inch. With two adults in the car you are already eating into the available spring travel.

So with the Eibachs you are already riding on the bump stops, yes the springs are stiffer by ~22% but only at the maximum compression (as they are progressive) and this will potentially create a worse handling car.

Below are the threads to read

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=370301

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=360300

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=343880
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