[Darth Bobo]

Ride is good and wheels turn fully, no rubbing so far. I can easily fit a full finger in between the fender and the tire. Ran the car through some corners at tire sliding speeds and no rub at all. Haven't tried with passengers.

Wheels are SF-71 staggered, silver 19x8.5 ET35 and 19x9.5 ET35. 235/35-19 front and 275/30-19 rear Bridgestone Potenza RE760 Sport. Rolling diameters f/r are almost exactly the same, way less than 1% difference. The tires are pretty round on the top, other tires like Toyo are more square so they are more likely to rub.

Vendors were Canadian - OEMConcept for wheels, Redline Motorworks for the coilovers, tires from Image in Motion. Brian Jessel Autohaus did the installation and corner balance. Recommend all of them, no issues with ordering, purchasing or shipping.

Still have aero lip and trunk spoiler or CSL lid to put on, and probably some tint.

I'll be getting an alignment in a couple weeks, will update if there are problems or anything else that should be known.

[SpmnE9zero]

Looks great!

[BoostLover99]

x2. You have new pads up front, bro? You've got a ring on that front disc.

[Darth Bobo]

Originally Posted by BoostLover99

x2. You have new pads up front, bro? You've got a ring on that front disc.

Yeah that sucks I've been watching it for a few weeks, looks to be pad wear more than rotor; might be some crap stuck in there? When I jack it up for the aero lip I was gonna poke around and see what's up. Just that one wheel.

[BoostLover99]

Originally Posted by Darth Bobo

Yeah that sucks I've been watching it for a few weeks, looks to be pad wear more than rotor; might be some crap stuck in there? When I jack it up for the aero lip I was gonna poke around and see what's up. Just that one wheel.

If it's pad, I think I know what's going on; I actually have the same issue on my evo (brand new rotors & pads). Basically what's happening is that the face of the pad isn't perfectly even with the rotor and the ring(s) is where the pad's contacting the rotor.

I'm surprised that your ring is in the middle of the rotor; the evo's ring is on the inside (closest to the axle) but is very pronounced. Interestingly, the rings are only on the front rotors on the evo.

The solution (which I haven't tried yet) is to go re-bed the brakes and wear down the pad so that the entire pad surface contacts the rotor. It shouldn't take that long - we're not talking about millimeters of pad surface; we're probably talking about 1/10th of a millimeter or less.

I'm probably going to go re-bed my pads this Saturday.

[BoostLover99]

BTW, you can figure out whether anything's stuck in between the pad and the rotor by dragging your fingernail along the radius of the rotor (obviously do this only when everything's cold).

If the ring is pad material, it will be even with or even marginally higher than the rest of the rotor.

If the ring is caused by scoring (i.e., something stuck between the pad and the rotor), it'll be lower than the rest of the rotor.

I'm guessing you would have noticed scoring a long time ago during braking, though.

Remember to make sure the brakes are cold before you do this and to drag your fingernail along the *radius* (from the inside of the rotor, nearest the axle, in a straight line to the outside of the rotor, nearest the tire) of the rotor to get the maximum effect.

[headlee103]

Looks good man... I like the wheels

[MassBimmer]

Really nice drop man, looks awesome

[Laguna3]

Drop looks good! How much lower can you go ? Could you elaborate more on the ride quality? How does it handle sudden dips, subtle stiff ? I'm in the process of ordering the same setup.

[Wonka]

Excellent look. The wheels are a perfect color match.

[IN54NITY]

Looks fantastic. Did you DIY? If so, how long did it take you?

[Darth Bobo]

Thanks, when I first picked it up I thought it was too low. There is zero fender gap, the fenders are right at the top of the tire tread. After a couple days of driving I think it's perfect - tires aren't tucked or have cartoonish camber. Makes the car look billet and purposeful. Driving it you feel the drop, it doesn't seem perched up on the tires anymore, more like down in between them.

The ride is really pretty good. It's firmer than stock but not harsh at all. I'm anal about hitting manhole covers and stuff, but the V1 soaks those up no problem; I didn't even cringe when I let it roll over some big edges and dips. The rear end is still lively in high speed transitions, it seems to bounce and skip under load and that causes the front to kind of wobble, makes the whole car wallow and you have to saw at the wheel. Stock suspension did this as well and it was REALLY bad (I nearly binned it on the test drive), V1 makes it better but it's still there. Ride is choppy over bumpy/cracked concrete and groups of road patches, I didn't notice it as much with stock suspension.

I came from an E92 328i and that suspension and steering was beautiful. I don't like the servotronic steering on this car, it needs correcting constantly. I used to play a game on the highway to see how little I would have to move the wheel; the 328 tracked dead straight and moving the wheel 1mm seemed to turn the car. With this car it is contant little corrections and there is more slop in the wheel.

Overall the 328 is a better handler than this car even with the V1, the V1 best points are lower ride height (both looks and lower center of gravity) and reduced wallow. I wouldn't hesitate to move to V1 if you're worried about ride, it's about as comfortable as sport suspension on the i.

Local BMW specialty shop did the install, they had the car all day for install and corner balance, I would say it took them all of that day.

I'll also say that the shocks aren't any noisier than stock when they compress, maybe even quieter. I have 2 big sharp speed bumps in my building so I get hear it everyday. A post I read somewhere said they were noisy but I haven't seen it yet.

[ska///235i]

Are you at the lowest setting?

[Darth Bobo]

Originally Posted by ska325xi

Are you at the lowest setting?

I'm sure it will go lower, Wonka's car is lower than mine. I think I would be in danger of rubbing if it went much lower.

[msp116]

Looks good I think my H&R sport springs days are numbered......

[teamadobo]

The car looks very good. I wish I can lower my car but I think I am done with modding the car for a while.

As far as the rotors I have those on mine except I have about 5 or six rings, it looks nasty. I took it to the dealer and they told me is normal and I think they did a little bit of sanding on the rotors. Whats the proper procedure on bedding? I guess the end result here is to wear the pads a bit?

[BoostLover99]

Bedding varies from pad to pad but the general idea is to *gradually* bring the temperatures up without thermally shocking the rotor.

I like to go to a deserted road (not as many as you would believe in the desert) and perform the following (never come to a complete stop):

2 x slows from 40 mph (10% brake force)
2 x slows from 40 mph (25% brake force)
2 x slows from 40 mph (50% brake force)
2 x slows from 40 mph (75% brake force)
10 x slows from 70 mph (50% brake force)
2 x panic slows from 70 mph (100% brake force)

30 min cool down (no braking)

Remember to never come to a complete stop on hot brakes - that will almost certainly ruin your efforts because the pads may imprint material onto the rotor unevenly. This is 99.9% of the cause of cases of rotor "warping." Even 0.001" of pad material deposited unevenly will grow over time and create that annoying pulsing sensation when you brake - this pulsation is what forces you to cut/turn/machine/lathe your rotors to solve "warping."

[Darth Bobo]

I had Stoptech brakes on my G35, the bedding process was similar. Made a helluva stink.

[spdy330]

Nice drop!

[anthoj]

Nice drop. Aggressive but subtle. Just bought myself somr v1s and 19s as well. I can't wait for it to arrive and have them installed.

[OEMconcept]

your car looks great! I'm glad you're happy with the wheels

[bavarian19]

nice!