Quote:
Originally Posted by cburn
Have you built a x for the track or know someone who has?
Thanks,
Burn
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I should probably stop talking now.
Of all the BMW chassis I've driven extensively on track, the E92 I owned will remain the ONLY BMW chassis I've never taken to churn a hot lap. Well, the E92 and the E60, but that's another story. I've driven my E30, E46, Z4 3.0i, MZ4 Coupe on about a dozen tracks around California for the last 15 years...Sprinkled in between a few other brand's chassis (350Z, Subaru WRX, and my current DD, a Hyundai Veloster).
I've driven FWD, AWD, and RWD chassis on track and driven them ANGRY, so I can probably share with you how each different layout behaves, and how to adjust the car's operating system to get the most out of each layout's short-comings (they ALL have their short comings). But if you require "set-up" expertise on the E9X Xi chassis, I'm afraid I have absolutely zero knowledge to offer up there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cburn
Roger that. After a ton of reading I understand quite a bit more. Looks like best place to start tuning is square setup (wheels tires), coilovers, rear subframe bushings, then start tweeking toe, camber, dampening rates, and driving skill 
Thanks guys for the great info you saved me 300 bucks and a buncha bullshit.
Cheers,
Burn |
Reading up on how to "set-up" a car on car forums is the LAST thing I would do. There's so much mis-information and dumbassery out there that you will never, and can never gleam the nugget of truth from all the crap spewed on the intarweb. The percentage of the general public that actually understands a sliver of chassis setup is very slim. On top of that, those that REALLY know chassis setup won't be posting about it on a forum, present company included (no offense to those that responded). Even just reading E90Post I can't help but shake my head at how much BAD info is being passed around as fact, then re-spewed as confirmation of said "fact" on how to set up a BMW or improve its handling.
I recall, LONG time ago, when I was but a wee little noob starting my HPDE career, I once told the chief instructor of our chapter that he can solve all his understeering problems with a new set of swaybars for his stock M3. He gave me a little knowing smile and said "oh really? I'll have to keep that in mind." Little did I know he has been club racing for years and have been finishing first in his class consistently, and had forgotten more about setting up chassis than I will likely learn in my lifetime...He TAUGHT the instructor that taught me about some basics of chassis set-up that I've been spewing on various forums as fact.
In reality, he spared me the embarrassment of trying to learn all that black magic that is chassis dynamics knowing that I didn't know enough at the time to comprehend 1/2 of what he'll be able to impart. It wasn't until much later, when I advanced to advanced level in the program did I start to pick up on some of the subtleties that changing chassis settings would do to effect handling. And in all honesty, up till that point, ANY change I would and could make to the car, I could really only take advantage of a small fraction of its capabilities, and in fact, due to the car's operating system still in 0.X release, the behavior of the chassis was far too erratic to extract any meaningful feedback from it.
(and if you still don't get the reference, the car's operating system is the driver. You can't solve ANY chassis dynamic issues without fixing that first.)