Care to post some pics and give us a review of the kit? How do you like it? How is the ride compared to stock? How low did you go? Etc?
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Ohlins R&T Coilovers with Swift Springs!
- Thread starter JKarbon
- Start date
Good point about the wheel/tire sizing playing a role in the overall ride. It's a different effect from the springs and dampers, but important nonetheless. I switched to 18" before getting my coilovers, and that definitely improved the ride, but it didn't transform the ride like changing out the suspension did.
The ride and handling balance with taller tire sidewalls (245/45R18) + stiff-ish sporty coilovers (8kg/11kg Redwood Performance Sport) feels great to me. To get the same ride with the stock wheel/tire setup you'd have to go softer on the suspension, and that's a poor tradeoff. Taller sidewall + sportier suspension is the better and more practical combo in my opinion.
(Of course if you just gotta look good with big wheels, no worries, sometimes that cost has to be paid.)
Anyone that runs at the track or autox doesn't run 20" wheels. Tire replacements get very expensive and sizes are limited.
My concern is that going softer than 11k in the front would make the cornering worse. I had a really hard time with the stock 6k rate the front really pitched hard into the corner (all the weight of the car was shifted to the front outside wheel).
Even doing a light track day would be miserable with anything softer, I think it's been discussed that swaybars aren't a good solution either (loads the
tire even more).
@stevehifi Softening the front will always make turn-in softer in my experience...it's a tradeoff. Need to find that sweet spot which matches your preferences, how you use the car, and how much you drive on rough pavement. I bet the 11kg front has fantastic turn-in on the stiffer damper settings. Should be great for autocross especially, I would think.
If you're doing regular track days I would guess the 11kg:12kg R&T springs make perfect sense. It is "Road & Track" after all, my impression is they spec'd it well for true dual use (which will be a compromise in any car!), it's just that a lot of folks are buying the R&T kit for pure street driving because it's the cheapest way into Öhlins DFV for this car. If you're not doing any track days then swapping the R&T to softer springs makes sense to me, but then again I haven't experienced the turn-in with 11kg front on this car, maybe I'd have trouble giving that up too.
As a reference point, my 8kg:11kg Redwood Performance Sport setup feels like it would be totally good for HPDE use on the stiffer damper settings, BUT if one was planning on a lot of track time, I would suggest an even stiffer setup like the Öhlins R&T or Redwood's HPDE/Race kit. Especially if running serious track-focused rubber and camber. If only doing the occasional track day then the Performance Sport is probably the better tradeoff. (Note I'm not tracking my M3P, it's a shared family car for me, these are just my best guesses based on how the Performance Sport feels vs other cars that I have driven on track.)
I've read Redwood uses 10kg:13kg springs on their HPDE kit. Would be interesting to hear how that feels compared to the R&T. Seems like Redwood is very focused on that neutral handling balance with minimal understeer.
I don't have post to pics, but I'll write a quick review:
-I think the kit is really good, the DFV technology is amazing (especially when you hit hard bumps).. the car still stays composed
-the price is well worth it, very high quality with clear instructions
-This kit as is is meant more for the canyon carving and track enthusiast and not for someone that just wants to a comfy lowered ride
-For my car, the front is lowered about 22mm and the rear about 15mm (fender to ground)
-The kit is not really meant to lower much more then about 20mm +/- 5mm (especially in the rear), if you want more lowering I would look at something else (ie. MPP/KW)
Thank you. I already have the Ohlins kit coming. Should be here tomorrow! Did you use the recommended settings in the manual or did you run different settings? The reason I ask is the manual states that using their settings should result in ~20mm drop, but it doesn't specify if that is on a SR+, LR AWD or Performance. I'm just trying to get a game plan for the installation. Looking to drop ~25mm.
The 8/9k springs will soften up the ride, and in doing so, you can bump up the dampening a bit to balance and negate any adverse countereffect you may feel or experience. That was nearly impossible with the 11/12k springs. Also, with the 11/12k spring setup, anything less than 18 clicks, front or back, was pretty aggressive for everyday street. With the 8/9k springs, I can comfortably keep the dampening at 11-13 clicks for everyday use.I just installed the Ohlins R&T kits on our 2020 M3. I thought the rear spring is 200mm?
Yes agree on the ride is a bit too firm but love the better control and way less rolling around. Now the vibration and noise over rough road/bumps are all gone. The new suspension make me want to drive faster somehow
Very very happy with the R&T but now looking for softer springs. Will 8k/9k wobble like stock? What setting are you on with the Ohlins? I find the rear adjustment have more than 20 clicks, the workshop who install them told me its have 72 clicks at the rear in total and 28 clicks at the front.
The rear shocks do have significantly more "clicks" than the stated number of 20, and it has caused a great deal of confusion for many, but after consulting with Ohlins directly, I can assure you, all clicks after the 20 mark, have zero impact on dampening. So whether you're at click 25, or 45, the shock will behave the same as it does at or around the 20 click mark.
You can easily obtain anywhere from a .75" to near a 1.20" drop with the R&T out of the box. Swapping to softer springs can yield an additional .25" to .50" over the standard springs. Your goal of 25mm with the standard setup is no problem.
All these comments of R/T kit being too stiff is making me nervous. I get mine installed next month. I’m hoping it will be like My Evo X Ohlins setup. I ended up getting stiffer Swift springs..I believe it was 10k front and like 11 rear, stiffer than OEM but I loved the ride and it was a daily. I hope I don’t have to change anything out.
Tesla crowd is different than Evo crowd, I think you'll be fine.
I did ~ 40 miles of twisty roads today, some cars here and there but mostly empty road in front of me. I left the Redwood Sport dampers at wife-approved 16 of 32 clicks. With this 8kg:11kg setup I bottomed out the rear, just barely, as I compressed into the pavement from the road curving back upwards after a downslope. Nothing unsettling at all but that's an example why I would hesitate to go much softer than this 8kg:11kg setup if you're into shredding those twisty back roads.
Though quite possibly just running the dampers stiffer, eg. 11/32, would have been enough to entirely avoid that bottoming out. I'll test that out on this same stretch soon enough.
The suspension balance is impeccable. For twisties I've switched from using Handling Balance of 50/50 to 40/60 as I've gotten more and more comfortable with the limits of this car. I've been told 50/50 is fastest if you're lapping a racetrack in your M3P, but it does tend towards just a little power understeer, much like 50/50 ICE AWD on dry pavement (if you don't help the car start rotating via other means first). With 40/60 and this 8kg:11kg Performance Sport setup the car feels oh so close to neutral on maintenance throttle. Had a quick 4 wheel slide going around my favorite hairpin on this road. (It's extra wide with good visibility, so there's room to play, traffic willing.)
Guess which side most of the hairpins were on today?
Mxa121
Member
Ohlins always seem to over spring their Road and Track setups. (which is why these lighter spring options are becoming so popular)
I remember on my Cayman S Ohlins R+T, the high spring rates detracted from otherwise nice dampers.
Keep in mind when adjusting the Ohlins, the clicks are more effective closer to closed. The further open you go, the less effective each click is.
I wouldn't recommend anything outside of 12 or so clicks open, as you want it controlled for those bigger hits. (even with the high spring rates, my Cayman would bottom out on big hits if the clickers were more open. This is in part due to the DFV design, which opens up on big hits.)
I remember on my Cayman S Ohlins R+T, the high spring rates detracted from otherwise nice dampers.
Keep in mind when adjusting the Ohlins, the clicks are more effective closer to closed. The further open you go, the less effective each click is.
I wouldn't recommend anything outside of 12 or so clicks open, as you want it controlled for those bigger hits. (even with the high spring rates, my Cayman would bottom out on big hits if the clickers were more open. This is in part due to the DFV design, which opens up on big hits.)
I'd trust either to be top notch. I'm no expert though.
Are they the same length as each other? Same number of coils in that length? I believe less coils is considered slightly more desirable because you can compress the spring more before the coils touch. That may or may not matter at all in this case though...probably won't.
Something to keep in mind - if you match the original R&T spring lengths with softer springs, I think you'll lower your overall range of height adjustment. The car's weight will compress those softer springs more.
Agree with this comment.. I noticed when I tried 15 or 20 clicks the dampers weren't working as well. I'm at 10 clicks front/back right now but I wouldn't go higher than 12 for sure.
Bro, I just installed mine tonight and they are awesome! I dropped 1” all around and have the dampers set at 10 clicks from full stiff. I kept the rear spring isolator and lowered the ride height to compensate for the thickness of the isolator. I took it for a nice long drive, and it was not harsh at all. I am even considering going a few clicks stiffer. I still need to get it aligned, but it drove great. Very flat in corners and considerably less dive under braking. It felt very smooth. This is exactly what I was looking for and I’m super happy with it. I’ll post some pics when I get a chance.
Mxa121
Member
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