Ohlins Road&track Review!!:))

[lowkey_domm]

Originally Posted by Montaver

Out of the box Ohlins will handle 25-30% increase in spring rates give or take, the swift spring conversion which up's the rates to 4xx and 7xx is a well trodden path. Putting track use to one side - If your just fast road driving coming from stock suspension, I suspect you will be very impressed with the all round capability of the Ohlins. They are both more supple and more planted at the same time, they take out the laziness and lack of control you get in the stock suspension particularly in transitions. It makes the e9x feel more 'sports car' rather than 'GT' out of the box. By far the best upgrade I made to my car, significantly improved the driving experience.

This is exactly how I feel. I've purchased aftermarket coils before on previous cars and felt the stiffer springs and noticed how big of a difference they made. When I purchased my M3 I knew I wanted a good out of the box suspension package so I bought the Ohlins R/Ts. Rn, they feel honestly amazing out of the box. I had the guys over at Auto Talent set the car up, generally speaking, I want to do corner balancing (not sure if worth the money), sway bar the car, and dial my Ohlins in as best I can.

I'm an avid canyon enthusiast and just got back right now from a great run. I'm running 18s on 295 rear and 275 front (Nitto NT05 tire), 2008 E92 M3. What tire pressure do you recommend? Talk to me about dampening, tbh I have never adjusted it because it just feels great. My driving style is mildly aggressive (breaking late into turns and trail breaking). The rear can maybe be turned up 1-2 in the rear from my opinion.

Also, I'm hearing a clunking noise in the rear... I have jacked the car up and I torqued to spec the shock and wheel hub carrier bolt. I still hear the faint clunking noise.

[Richbot]

The ohlins uses a monoball lower mount right? Does it get worse at high frequency, light movements like driving slowly over a residential road, over light bumps and the like?

[Captain Starbucks]

Subscribed

[///Mobbin]

Joining the club on these. Went with Swift 448F/784R springs and Ground Control "Street" camber plates.

[Redd]

Originally Posted by Richbot

The ohlins uses a monoball lower mount right? Does it get worse at high frequency, light movements like driving slowly over a residential road, over light bumps and the like?

Nope my Ohlins soaks up small road imperfections beautifully.

[E90M3velocity]

Originally Posted by Richbot

The ohlins uses a monoball lower mount right? Does it get worse at high frequency, light movements like driving slowly over a residential road, over light bumps and the like?

It definitely does not soak up small bumps well in city or slower speeds as it does in faster speeds. Freeway speeds and canyon carving are pretty comfortable for what it is while still feels planted with good shock travel. I unfortunately live in the Bay Area so the car stays in city or traffic speeds for most of the time lol

[Redd]

Originally Posted by E90M3velocity

It definitely does not soak up small bumps well in city or slower speeds as it does in faster speeds. Freeway speeds and canyon carving are pretty comfortable for what it is while still feels planted with good shock travel. I unfortunately live in the Bay Area so the car stays in city or traffic speeds for most of the time lol

That's strange. The roads in my country are crap (definitely worse than US, I've lived and driven there before) and the Ohlins aren't harsh at all. What are your dampers set to? I use 12 clicks f/r for street.

[gmx]

Originally Posted by Richbot

The ohlins uses a monoball lower mount right? Does it get worse at high frequency, light movements like driving slowly over a residential road, over light bumps and the like?

It's rubber.

[E90M3velocity]

Originally Posted by Redd

That's strange. The roads in my country are crap (definitely worse than US, I've lived and driven there before) and the Ohlins aren't harsh at all. What are your dampers set to? I use 12 clicks f/r for street.

I'm either 20-18 clicks. I don't know about your area, but the Bay Area roads are not well maintained. There are places that will bottom out my Camry beater. The Ohlins ride good, just not in slow to city speeds and living in the Bay Area I spend most of time of the time in those speeds.

[dj_dub]

^I find this very odd as well. I too live in the SF Bay Area and while I agree that our roads currently are pretty sh*t, my Ohlins eats them up really well at low speeds as well as higher speeds. I have mine set pretty hard too...8 clicks front and rear.

[Dreamer99]

I just had an Ohlins kit installed on my ZCP model M3 today. I went with the preset heights as recommended by Ohlins but the front of my car now sits 1/4" higher. The rear is 1/8" lower. Does this make sense? I expected it to be close to a half inch lower as the instructions say it should be 20mm lower than the stock non ZCP ride height.

[BayE30]

Originally Posted by dj_dub

^I find this very odd as well. I too live in the SF Bay Area and while I agree that our roads currently are pretty sh*t, my Ohlins eats them up really well at low speeds as well as higher speeds. I have mine set pretty hard too...8 clicks front and rear.

how about when you drive into SF?

[M3SA1993]

What sway bar end links is everyone using? I keep hearing clicking and the ride doesn't feel quite right. Just wanted to see how everyone else is set up.

[dj_dub]

Originally Posted by SFCM3

how about when you drive into SF?

You of all people know the roads in SF are on a whole 'nother level of f*cked up...there isn't a suspension on God's green earth that can make our cars ride well in the city. I avoid SF with my E90 like the plague. lol

[///Mobbin]

Originally Posted by M3SA1993

What sway bar end links is everyone using? I keep hearing clicking and the ride doesn't feel quite right. Just wanted to see how everyone else is set up.

I have dinan adjustable links up front and SPL adjustable in the back. I noticed my suspension installer adjusted both all the way in, presumably to minimize preload on the sways, I'm also at a fairly street friendly ride height in the front and lower in the back. Car feels well balanced on the track like this though surely I could go lower. Wondering if the Dinan adjustable have a range that's more setup for a street ride height car? Surely the SPL parts are made to accommodate lower ride height and the car is fairly low in the rear. No clicking either end.

btw the 448F/784R spring rates with r-comp tires felt absolutely perfect at COTA, ended up dialing all corners to 3 for stiffness and the car felt great all weekend, soo much better than just the swift lowering spring + Bilstein setup this car had before. Not quite as magical as the MCS 600/900 setup I had on my last car but pretty darn close and half the money on this setup. Not sure this would be enough spring rate or dampening for slicks but I'm still happy with r-comps at the moment anyway.

[Obioban]

A couple thoughts...

1) The Ohlins only support a 30% variance in spring rate from stock (their stock) before a revalve is required. People should note that when choosing any springs they swap in.

2) IMO people think they need WAY more spring than they actually do. The Ohlins start off at ~twice as stiff as stock (spring rate wise). Until you need more spring (aero, grip, travel), softer springs = more grip. If you're rubbing, there's often better places to look (offsets, tire sizes, sways, ride height, damper settings).

... I'm running softer springs than came stock on my Ohlins, and I'm not doing so for improved comfort :P.

3) you guys really need an e9X equivalent to this: http://www.fatcatmotorsports.com/FCM..._M3_Online.htm
Lets you calculate roll stiffness and frequencies (spring stiffness accounting for weight, unsprung weight, offsets, suspension geometry, etc). Making statements about spring rates without frequencies is a bit... meaningless.

4) I'm quite enthused with my Ohlins, for a variety of reasons. But, I'm not sure they make sense for any car that sees DD use, thanks to their 25-30,000 rebuild interval (not at all unusual for high end shocks (I don't know of any that aren't similar/worse), but true regardless). That said, I'm kind of excited for my upcoming (next winter) first rebuild as I'm going to have them revalved and pressurized for my specific corner weights, spring rates, and desires. Having a car that is 350-700 lbs less than what they were designed for and running different spring rates at every corner of the car (giving me equal frequencies per axle left/right) probably means they're not operating at their potential :P

[gmx]

I've read and watched some of the FCM nomenclature and I think focusing on springs is missing the point and almost a disservice. He has as much to offer on damper tuning.

Flat ride is nice in principal for a road car. I personally don't believe it applies to any racecar and even most track cars since everyone's perception of comfort varies across a large range. I forgot the book it's from, one of the popular racecar engineering ones mentioned a 10-20% front frequency bias and also touched on slightly higher rear bias for road cars, which co-incidentally is now termed as FCM's flat-ride. Generally, you spring the car for a frequency that the tyres and if any associated aero will perform best at.

The E92 GT4, F82 GT4, M235iR with an assumption of the damper motion ratio on latter two, all run above 20% front frequency with matched springs. I don't know what any team, driver ran ie hard fronts, soft or medium rears etc. They also have triple adjustable sway bars of the same diameter and arm length (rulebook) to fine tune balance. If you tried flat-ride in a E9x M3 or a bias in rear frequency, it wouldn't surprise me if the car tripods and behaves worse with stickier tyres. Yes, the OEM rates suggest this but there's more to it than just spring rates which is where other elements of the FCM sheet is great eye-opener (ie bump stop rates on cornering and travel).
I wanted to try this in increments esp since a 300lbs spring just to go straight to "flat-ride" wouldn't tell me much or prone to hasty conclusions. After my calcs and patterns I found in above racecars I'm going to try 514lbs (down from 570) first which incidentally, is what KW CS use to be.

At WTAC here I'm seeing a lot of cars target around 150cpm (2.5hz) on R-comps without aero or mild/basic aero. More with aero. And hands-down, better R-comps than what I've seen popular on this forum and region.
I'll take an 800lbs rear spring which is popular on this platform. It's about 1.85hz on a E92 M3. The motion ratio and wheel rate sucks, we know. Due to the camber arm arc, there's more problems associated than just low resulting wheel-rate but I'll leave that out of this. And I've noticed no one really goes above 1000lbs which is barely above 2hz. Beyond such point, C/O conversions seem to be popular.

What astounds me is the amount of front spring people run and reliance on a static "300" split between F/R. We all know the front and rear motion ratios, yet for some reason we just accept this :S Let's take the above 1000lbs spring @ 2hz example. Paired with a popular 700 front, that's around 35% front bias whereas the car above on 448/784 is nowhere near that. Rather, it's around half.

I'd say ///Mobbin 's car should be pretty dialed in regarding frequencies, especially if everything else is set. How's the balance?

[Obioban]

Yeah, I purposely avoided mentioning flat ride as that’s a whole other discussion. That spreadsheet is hugely useful for seeing what the changes you make actually do, and being able to compare one car to another, without any consideration for, or targeting of, flat ride.
(that said, I am running a flat ride setup and am pretty hugely enthused with it (rides better and makes the car easier to control at the limit)... and all of the people that have switched over to it on M3F, so far every single person is at least a second per lap faster after. IMO the real break point may be functional aero)

[Redd]

Obioban, how many clicks are you running on your Ohlins dampers? How did you know they were due for rebuild?

[Obioban]

Originally Posted by Redd

Obioban, how many clicks are you running on your Ohlins dampers? How did you know they were due for rebuild?

I think how many clicks I'm running only serves to distract from the conversation... given that I'm in a different chassis, with a pretty not stock weight for that chassis, with different spring rates.

The rebuild interval I mentioned is Ohlins specified rebuild interval for the R&Ts (which is long on the scale of high end dampers, btw). A real "road and track", with "road" meaning daily driver that sees real miles, is something more like the TCKs imo. The Ohlins R&Ts are more like... weekend and track. (which I don't mean as a knock-- on various cars I've run TCKs/Bilsteins/JRZs/Motons/etc-- the Ohlins are my favorite out of that group for weekend and track use. I just wouldn't DD them due to the hassle and expense of the constant rebuilds that would necessitate)

[m3jala]

Originally Posted by dj_dub

You of all people know the roads in SF are on a whole 'nother level of f*cked up...there isn't a suspension on God's green earth that can make our cars ride well in the city. I avoid SF with my E90 like the plague. lol

Same story here in some areas in and around DC. It's like someone didn't get the memo that potholes are meant to be filled. They've been "working on" one highway (66) since I moved here 8 years ago.

[Redd]

Originally Posted by Obioban

I think how many clicks I'm running only serves to distract from the conversation... given that I'm in a different chassis, with a pretty not stock weight for that chassis, with different spring rates.

The rebuild interval I mentioned is Ohlins specified rebuild interval for the R&Ts (which is long on the scale of high end dampers, btw). A real "road and track", with "road" meaning daily driver that sees real miles, is something more like the TCKs imo. The Ohlins R&Ts are more like... weekend and track. (which I don't mean as a knock-- on various cars I've run TCKs/Bilsteins/JRZs/Motons/etc-- the Ohlins are my favorite out of that group for weekend and track use. I just wouldn't DD them due to the hassle and expense of the constant rebuilds that would necessitate)

I ask because I have 40k kms on my Ohlins R/T - mostly street mileage with some track and canyon driving - and they still feel pretty firm. I don't foresee having to rebuild them any time soon. I suspect Ohlins recommended 25k rebuild is pure track mileage at stiffer damper settings (which result in higher friction, heat and wear).