[critical05]

I have a friend with a 335i that is lowered. We car pool so we switch back and forth between his and mine. I think his are h&r sport, with stock struts. We have never crawled under his to verify but just assuming by the color of his struts.

Before the upgrade, the were some bumps on the freeway that his suspension seemed as if it would bottom out. I had no issues on the same bumps on stock suspension. With the new suspension I notice some jarring on the same bump and badly transitioned railroad tracks, but not as bad. I never noticed it on my old s4 cabrio, but that was a total different beast. On normal small potholes, bridge expansion joints, pavement sections junction I don't notice much difference from stock. On normaling driving its not overly bumpy due to pavement wavyness. I had 4 people ride with me to lunch and no one one complained or hit their head in the back due to the ride.

I like the way it corners and shifts now. It seems fairly flat during cornering and steering is very tight now. If i move the wheel, the car immediately responds.

On heavy accelleration, shifting from 1st to 2nd, I would misshift a few times due to the front end picking up from the acceleration, now its pretty flat during shifting. It seems slower now, relatively, due to the lack of nose lift. I would also get tire scratch between shifts and the only thing i can contribute this to is the suspension not being able to keep the front tire firmly planted.

I've only put 150 miles on the new suspension and i've played with the front settings from 1, 1.25, and 1.5 on the front. I thought at first the 1.5 was to bumpy like being on a boat and feeling all the waves ( pavement irregularities), tried 1 and it felt mellow and smooth. Don't know if's its the alignment that i had done or the koni's breaking in, but went back to 1.5 on the front and like it.

I haven't touched the rear due to having to take them off. I alot of reviews either at 1 or 1.5 and decided to split the difference.

All said and done, measuring at the wheel well lip, the rear is .5" lower than the fronts. It doesn't appear to have a rear rake measuring at the rocker panel. It might be due to the design of the wheel arch diameter and position. With the springs, i haven't rubbed the front of the nose on steep transitions or dips either. I had bought a aero front spoiler but have decided not to install it and risk it bottoming out.

The stance is significanty better and i would note driving around that chevy malibu's had less wheel arch clearance than the XI. I think its better than an UPS delivery truck but not by much stock.

The best part was that with the new parts, no more swooshing noise from the suspension.