Raceland
 

I recently aquired a raceland coilover kit off a friends e36 m3. I was told that the front was a direct bolt on, but the rear wouldnt work. So today I decided to see what was keeping it from working. I removed my rear springs and the rubber cones. I then tried to slip the spring adjuster on and it didnt slide down all the way. I simply removed a little meterial from the inside of the sleeve and it fit on, seemed so simple and I wonder why they just dont machine the piece from the manufacturer? so far no issues and the car looks great. So in short it takes 5 minutes to modify the rear sleeve adjuster to make them work.

Technically the rear shocks are too long, springs should be fine.

actually thet are the same length. I contacted their tech department with my findings and they had no idea on how to mod the rear spring adjuster so we talked .. So they will soon be offering it as a complete kit. So far it rides very good. I will be installing the rest soon and will post pics.

lol, thats sad if they truly are the same length as ti/e30/z3 shocks, they shouldn't be. Are you comparing the raceland to a stock ti rear shock? Any sort of drop would require a shorter shock so a sedan/coupe "sport" shock might come to be the same length as a standard ti shock. That said, the ti version would have to be shorter.

I don't know anything about Raceland's suspensions but Ground Control does offer a RSM for E36 struts that are used on a TI/Z3/E30.

http://store.bimmerworld.com/ground-...nts-p1451.aspx

raceland is far worse quality than OEM. You really should not have that on your car. It is not safe.

why would that be?

i have rokkor/raceland on a jetta and is holding pretty good, is pretty low, all the way down since the first day and we did multiple track days and hard street driving with no problems at all, they r actually not that bad and for $300 what else can u ask for, people that hate is the people that spend $1500+ on a coilover kit that does the same lol

+1 what jean said have rokkors love them and beat the hell out of em..

I like to see what people have to say, seems everyone has an opinion,sometimes gathered from what they hear and not what they know. I think I can decide for myself what would be safe.

you have had them for 2 days, thats not even close to grounds to come up with "safe" as a conclusion "for yourself". you can argue that they ride nice or give your car a nice stance but ~48 hours of having them and they are deemed safe by you?

Raceland is BSing you by saying theyre the same length, they arent by any means. Ive compared the facts many many times on what fits the ti and non-z/ti rear shocks are a NO NO. They bottom out without damping, as when you put them on the car, theyre already damn near maxed out. As so, as you hit a bump, they have little to no damping properties left, especially if you slammed the car. The proper setup is with a ti sport or Mz3 damper for the rear.

As far as springs go, ive had the rokkor setup for about 5 months now with various ride heights and will say, the coil springs in this kit arent the greatest for our cars. Once installed and loaded, the coils sit on top of each other, thus, spring bind and improper dynamics from the rear of the car. Compared to an mz3 spring, they are .375-.5" shorter, but when installed, they compress to about 4" tall from 7", theres nothing left for them to compress to.

Ive played with many many parts on my car to come up with a viable setup while mixing and matching and have come up with my current setup which puts my car VERY close into alignment spec with the mz3 chassis.

Rokkor Front coil over kit
MZ3 Offset strut Hats
Solid centered LCABs
Xbrace
ACS strut bar

MZ3 rear springs
318ti Sport dampers - MZ3 tried previously with slightly better damping ability and dynamics
Standard RSM
Factory rubber bushings

For alignment, the sport ti is supposed to be measured with 17" rims and from the bottom of the rim to the centerline top of the fender opening with the measurement of 23.19"F and 21.14"R. My ride height is currently 22.125"F, 22.5"LR (without driver), and 22.125"LR/RR with driver. There is no coil bind with this setup and sits you were you need to be, as far as alignment in the rear goes. Its considered "out of spec" with the ti specs but perfect with MZ3.

Camber -2.0 (spec is -1.8)
Toe - .3 (spec is .25)

As far as the front goes, i run -2.7 degrees on both sides, toe is standard and have 5.5 degrees of caster.

IMO, sure, the rookor kit works on our rear, but with coil bind, i dont like the effect. The OE setup feels ten times better in all occasions, granted, you cant slam the rear with stock springs but it is MUCH lower than stock ti springs, around a 2" drop with correct spring rate

Bluebimma ~
I know you do a lot of work in this area, you leave informative posts with lots of good info in them that are based on real experience.
Just have a few question about your setup. Why are you not running MZ3 front springs/struts? Also, how is the tire wear with the camber/toe numbers that you are running? Ever thought of using eccentric bushings (the solid rubber OEM BMW type, non-adjustable to bring these numbers into spec for the rear trailing arms (I think BMW did this for the MZ3 trailing arms at the factory)?

Bluebimma, thank you for all your input, very informative. I have access to some mz3 suspension and will swap a few parts around to see what is better for my application. Correct they do bottom out if the rear is maxed out but they have a good 4 to 5 inch stroke left when the rear spring adjuster is maxed out. I wouldnt expect the ride to be perfect in that setting. A shorter shock would be better or taller towers,but for now they will do.Thanks again and I may call on you for more info in the future.

as for THAT318, I have riden in my friends M3 numerous times to tell how they ride and the fact that they were on his car for a year and no issues gives me plenty of ground to deem them safe.And the fact that I am a BMW master tech and have been with BMW for 18 years more than qualifies me to make that decision as well. And for the $150 I gave him for them, who cares.

I saw the answer to the MZ3 front suspension in your http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=31923 link...