So, just how much better are MCS double adjustables vs Koni's?

[fizzx]

Can anyone comment on MCS SA vs AST4100's for autox duty?
$600+ shipping to rebuild my 4100's vs put that $ towards some MCS's. No, I'm not going to Nats, but with the move to STR I'll be up against stiffer competition (pun intended lol). Just curious if there's a significant diff between them.

[TXBDan]

True, plus I'm not through doing the maintenance on mine yet. I have a box full of ball joints/bushings waiting for me to rebuild the front control arms. Then I'll have gone through the entire car pretty much.

Also I did just blow a wad of cash on a used set of front/rear Stoptech BBK that popped up locally a few months ago too. Thought that was too good to pass up for sure, as I'd been looking for a used Stoptech kit for months...

A few small odds and ends remain after that but nothing that impacts the way anything really works. (Like I need to replace the broken center hvac vent and figure out why the keyless entry isn't working)

Until this becomes our full time job (:P), seat time will improve our lap times more than anything else. I'm in a similar boat, where parts and wrenching is half the fun, but i decided a couple years ago that i do really want to focus on driving and becoming faster. I settled on a TT class and am using classing to whittle down the car mods, keep it stable, and focus on tires on driving. I'm entering the second year of it and its working well. I'm actually selling parts (I sold my intake, BBK, swaybars) and am reallocating resources to tires and seat time and getting my tinker on with data analysis. A new kind of fun.

So the logical answer in terms of gaining speed is that your shocks are fine (and your stock brakes were fine :P) and you can still probably benefit from seat time, instruction, competition, analysis, etc.

[DocWyte]

Quit being so logical! Lol!

Yeah, all last season my stock brakes worked fine. Honestly I just wanted a front Stoptech BBK, but then the front/rear came available locally, so what the hell....

The way the schedule looks for this upcoming season I probably won't get out much. Half the NASA events are out of state and I have conflicts with a few of the PCA events. I may try to do some open track days but those can devolve into the Wild West....

[chikinhed]

Ask Terry at Vorshlag if they have any set up guides, since you bought the set from them? The initial settings direct from MCS (downloadable from their website and are 8R 4C from soft) work fairly well IMO. Bimmerworld's settings are also just a baseline to be adjusted from.

I have the base settings from Vorshlag and I have spent hours setting mine up to where I like them. I was only curious what Bimmerworld recommends because with my set up I run them much stiffer in compression and rebound than what Vorshlag had recommends for their base settings. Maybe I should have asked what other users are setting them to vs what Bimmerworld's base settings are. It's really not a big deal to me, I was just curious.

[jakermac]

Tell them what spring rates you're running Brad. That'll help with suggestions.

[chikinhed]

Tell them what spring rates you're running Brad. That'll help with suggestions.

Spring rates are 680F 800R in a 3350 lb M3. (I know, it's portly)

[dmw16]

I have the base settings from Vorshlag and I have spent hours setting mine up to where I like them. I was only curious what Bimmerworld recommends because with my set up I run them much stiffer in compression and rebound than what Vorshlag had recommends for their base settings. Maybe I should have asked what other users are setting them to vs what Bimmerworld's base settings are. It's really not a big deal to me, I was just curious.

Might be worth reaching out to James and the team to see if you could purchase their baseline data?

[DocWyte]

Well, only made two events this past season due to conflicts and an incredibly poor experience with a shop doing a head gasket job on my car.

In a bit of a quandary here, as NASA is going to create a TT5 class by combining TTD and TTC (where I was running). I have a feeling that I'll have to add weight, detune, or both to fit into TT5. Or try and lose weight and/or add power to jump up a class. So I may need to save cash for a power adder.

Anyways, yet another set of MCS double's have popped up locally, so I get to have this internal debate all over again....

[hc1001]

If you have the funds and the price and condition of the used set is too good to pass up, i would just buy them now. You can install them whenever you want if you are still going after those "target goals".

If they are worn, not your desired spring rates, or in need of a rebuild... i would pass on them and wait for the next deal to come up.

[DocWyte]

These are just the shocks/struts. I'd reuse all my current mounts/plates/springs...

[badmonkey]

Seconds per lap better.

[JBasham]

I seriously admire your philosophy about seat time and driver improvement over more and more hardware. But it's not like you're going to finance them on a credit card, and it's not like you're going out and buying a used GT3! I vote you treat yourself a little and buy them. If you later feel like you over-spent, could you put them back on the used market? If you didn't recover your investment, would you get most of it back? Then it would just be a little "rent" at a fair price for enjoying the experience. I don't know about you, but I'm not getting any younger . . . .

[DocWyte]

True. I may pull the trigger on them, right now I'm waiting to see if a deal on a supercharger comes through....

[Fair]

I have the base settings from Vorshlag and I have spent hours setting mine up to where I like them. I was only curious what Bimmerworld recommends because with my set up I run them much stiffer in compression and rebound than what Vorshlag had recommends for their base settings. ...

Give me a call here at Vorshlag. I share our MCS shock settings openly, especially to customers that bought from us. And don't blame James for NOT sharing - he is both a pro driver and paid driving coach, and I'd expect nothing less than keeping that info / IP for his paying customers. Nobody likes to handle "tech support" for parts that were purchased from a competing dealer.



I run the MCS doubles on my E46 330, which was similar in weight (3285) for 2 seasons to your car - but I did run a softer spring setup for most of the last two seasons (600F/750R) for the 245/40/17 Hoosier R7 tire we had to run. Of course different tire widths/compounds, tracks/surfaces, spring rates and even driving styles will change your "ideal" damper settings.



Now that we've added aero (and a few other things) at the end of the 2017 season we will bump up to higher spring rates next year - likely close to what you listed (I usually go up to 750F/900R). With 19 weekends/test events in this car and wins and/or class track records at every NASA weekend we have attended, I think we've probably got a decent enough set of damper settings to share - but it might not be exactly what you need.

Cheers,

[DocWyte]

You guys are a bad influence! Met up with the local selling his very lightly used MCS'. They're in great shape so a deal was struck!

Looking forward to installing them and seeing what I think.

Terry, would love to get your setup recommendations, if it helps, the seller did buy these from you...

[Bobkid]

Aw man, those look mint! Nice score

[TXBDan]

Nice, congrats. I've been on the fence as well for a couple years now. If someone can get me even the slightest deal i might bite!

[DocWyte]

Yeah, I hear you. At full price it was a non starter for me. I got these for a killer deal and even then it was a little eye watering.

[cohny]

Nice, congrats. I've been on the fence as well for a couple years now. If someone can get me even the slightest deal i might bite!

Unfortunately for us they seem to be pretty common at COM events.

[TXBDan]

Well, the fastest guy in T70 is on PSS9s with higher rate springs. The second fastest guy is on old AST 4100s. I'm a click or two back in third generally. I'm sort of hoping to one-up them with MCSs. You know, substituting cubic skill with cubic dollars...

(there is another fast guy new to T70 with MCS doubles. I'm not sure if he'll stay in T70 or not)

[DocWyte]

Solution is always to throw more money at the problem

[HalfFast1]

The driver mod is the most expensive and difficult mod to obtain.

[cohny]

Well, the fastest guy in T70 is on PSS9s with higher rate springs. The second fastest guy is on old AST 4100s. I'm a click or two back in third generally. I'm sort of hoping to one-up them with MCSs. You know, substituting cubic skill with cubic dollars...

(there is another fast guy new to T70 with MCS doubles. I'm not sure if he'll stay in T70 or not)

Interesting, I didn't realize that. I thought there were several E36s running MCS at COM. Anyways that's great news for me. I was planning on getting a Bilstein PSS9 setup with a linear spring conversion for next season if I can swing it.

[TXBDan]

Interesting, I didn't realize that. I thought there were several E36s running MCS at COM. Anyways that's great news for me. I was planning on getting a Bilstein PSS9 setup with a linear spring conversion for next season if I can swing it.

I might sell/trade my TCK DAs and move to something single adjustable to free up a point. If i do that and don't get MCSs, i might go that route as well. Nick Fontana ran that setup for a few years and was obviously fast. Bilsteins are good.

[DocWyte]

Fastest way to quicker lap times are brand new sticky tires....