Im seriously looking at getting a set of Racing Dynamics sways for my car and would be interested to hear if they balance out the inherent E34 understeer some, or if it is still there.
Thanks, Colin

I dialed out nearly all my understeer by jacking with the tire pressures. I'm running 42 psig front and 40 psig rear (pressures when hot) on 18"x8.5" fronts and 18"x10" rears. It now only starts to understeer when you enter a turn really hot.

By contrast, I had run the pressures at 38 psig front and 40 psig rear and the understeer was dangerously heavy (worse than my old Audi S4).

Cat you need camber plates to do it right! K-MAC adj. or Dinan fixed plates

theDogger

I thought you sold your car? :confused:

Camber plates and tire pressures, You'll have oversteer at will. :cool:

Hey all, thanks fot the replies. I have Kmacs on now and set at -1 degree camber. Turn in is improved, and now I wear the inside edge and outside edge of the tires evenly so I am happy about that!

Also, right now I have the M-tech 19mm/25mm bars with Koni's(f)/Billie Sports(r) and Dinan springs. Understeer is not bad right now, but overall the car does not feel buttoned down enough in fast turns. I want it stifffer.
I rode in a friend's E34 with the RD bars and that thing was tight! Less body roll and more positive feel (similar shocks/springs). The thing is I didnt push it enough to find out if it went into "plow" mode at the very limit.

I just want to make sure Im not exacerbating the nose-heavy balance by going to the larger front bar setup. Sounds like people like it though!

525i Feen: I had a change of plans and sold the M3, and keeping the fiver!
I might make the NorCal meet, but I really cant say for sure yet, so I didnt want to register.
Colin

If your sway bars are adjustable,along with the Konis and Dinan springs,the only other thing you should need for almost perfect handling is 50 series tires.If the bars don't adjust,run the rear tires 4/5lbs. lower than the front.This should make the car extremely stable.Ask me how I know...

Hi, no my sway bars are not adjustable. They are the factory Euro M5 bars. I have 17 inch wheels with 235/45 and 255/40. I know the stagger will not help and Im thinking about going 245 or 255 all around on the next tires.

MBlaster: do you have any more pics of your ride? Looks nice. Do the rear Koni's have adjustable spring perches like the Bilsteins? I might try those on the rear as I like the fronts full stiff, but the rears feel a bit soft with the Sports.

I was also considering going with a Koni/Eibach coilover in the rear with full stiff setting on the shocks and a slightly heavier spring to tighten up the rear more for turn-in.

Any more ideas?

Colin

Running larger tires staggered doesn't help;what WIDTH are your wheels,and what offset?You can try running rear tire pressures 4/5 lbs lower than fronts,which should help alot.
You DON"T need larger tires;what you need is to balance what you do have.I ran 235/40/17's or 235/45/17's on 17X8.5" rims.Used 235/45/17 front on 8.5's"also,but rears were 9.5" with the 255/40/17's.Worked fine on street and track.

Running larger tires staggered doesn't help;what WIDTH are your wheels,and what offset?You can try running rear tire pressures 4/5 lbs lower than fronts,which should help alot.
You DON"T need larger tires;what you need is to balance what you do have.I ran 235/40/17's or 235/45/17's on 17X8.5" rims.Used 235/45/17 front on 8.5's"also,but rears were 9.5" with the 255/40/17's.Worked fine on street and track.

You can see the tires in my previous post. I am running type 32 wheels, 17x8 front and 17x9 rear. The tire sizes are the factory sizes run on these wheels on the E39. Same offset as E34 also (20mm).

Dont get me wrong, I dont experience heavy understeer right now. Back to my original post, I am just wondering how the understeer issue is with the RD bars as seem to be more biased towards understeer (19mm/27mm) vs my current setup (19mm/25mm).

If you do decide to use the RD bars,keep in mind the difference in the size of the bars is more than offset by the fact they are ADJUSTABLE.I've used them on e28 and e34 5 series street and track cars,and they need to be reset for street or track use,but always have worked with either my 16x7.5" RD RGP highway rims,17x8.5" RGRs,or the 17x8.5 and 9.5 RGR set I had and the same size and offset you have now.
I ran Instructor's group at Lime Rock,The Glen,and NHIS as well in the mid 90's with the staggered setup on a '90 modified,lowered 535i.Car ran down 540i 6 speeds in turns.You should be fine that way.Try using slotted,not drilled rotors and race compound pads if you are going to track the car seriously.E-mail me direct if you want to discuss this and other mods.More than happy to talk.

Im pretty well convinced of the virtues of the RD bars now. If I can only find a killer deal, I'll be in 'em!

I may track my car once or twice, but not really regularly. I just drive a lot of country roads where I live. :cool: