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Thread: Improving handling on the E32

  1. #26
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Loveland, Colorado USA
    Posts
    369
    My Cars
    1993 740i
    Hope someone will take some video for you, I'd love to see one of our old girls terrorizing cones!
    '93 740i - Mine
    '13 Range Rover Sport - Hers
    '08 Land Rover LR2 - Hers
    '96 328i - Son's
    '97 328ic - Daughter's
    '87 944 Turbo - Mistress
    '74 Alfa Romeo Spider - Italian Mistress
    Northern Colorado, USA


  2. #27
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Loveland, Colorado USA
    Posts
    369
    My Cars
    1993 740i
    Ok whiteghost1, I ran out of weather and health excuses so I finally installed the Dinan anti-roll bars today!

    Install went fine, except for the exhaust hanger bolt that snapped. Right now I have them in the outermost (softest) setting. I only had time for a quick drive around the neighborhood and it definitely corners flatter...but I suspect I'll be stiffening them up this weekend.

    Thanks again for the Ebay heads up and for the catch on the rear end links, I really appreciate it.

    I'll update this in the near future with further impressions.

    Greg
    '93 740i - Mine
    '13 Range Rover Sport - Hers
    '08 Land Rover LR2 - Hers
    '96 328i - Son's
    '97 328ic - Daughter's
    '87 944 Turbo - Mistress
    '74 Alfa Romeo Spider - Italian Mistress
    Northern Colorado, USA


  3. #28
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Nevada
    Posts
    109
    My Cars
    89 750iL 6 Speed
    Just thought I would Update on this 5 years later as I’ve learned a lot. Seems the best recipe for handling with these cars is good adjustable coilovers with camber adjustment, monoball control arms, and the Dinan sway bars.

    I’ve now done many track days in my 89 750iL and am beyond pleased with its performance. We’ve setup quite a few E32’s on the Ideal Japan coilovers and it seems to be a perfect combo of comfortable but trackable.

    to everyone who recommended the Dinan sway bars, you were right. They are significantly bigger and stiffer than the mtech options. Especially the rear.

    Here’s a photo of the car out at Thunderhill West last year.
    A9418F25-9ACA-44B0-9797-1C37F00C2504.jpg

  4. #29
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,133
    My Cars
    e34 540ia/e32 740il
    Quote Originally Posted by Jormotors View Post
    Just thought I would Update on this 5 years later as I’ve learned a lot. Seems the best recipe for handling with these cars is good adjustable coilovers with camber adjustment, monoball control arms, and the Dinan sway bars.

    I’ve now done many track days in my 89 750iL and am beyond pleased with its performance. We’ve setup quite a few E32’s on the Ideal Japan coilovers and it seems to be a perfect combo of comfortable but trackable.

    to everyone who recommended the Dinan sway bars, you were right. They are significantly bigger and stiffer than the mtech options. Especially the rear.

    Here’s a photo of the car out at Thunderhill West last year.
    A9418F25-9ACA-44B0-9797-1C37F00C2504.jpg
    Awesome info, and I love the photo!

    I gave up trying to find a Dinan 21mm rear sway bar for the E32, so a few years ago I installed the M-Tech 17mm rear bar instead. And for an interesting data point on E32 handling - I also have H&R sport rear springs installed on my 740iL and I entirely refreshed the rest of the rear end suspension components and bushings, including polyurethane subframe mounts. I retained the LAD (SLS) rear suspension. The H&R sport springs for LAD are higher spring rates than stock LAD springs but they are way too tall in physical ride height (that's a rabbit hole I'm still trying to figure out....), but my front suspension is still completely stock because I haven't had the time to do the R&R on it yet. What's surprising is that I absolutely love this current front and rear 'balance' of the car with the stiffer rear, but stock front end; my wheels/tires are a square setup, and the car doesn't push / under-steer when thrown violently into a tight corner and instead dances beautifully with slight oversteer when giving just a bit of throttle on corner exit. Super fun for a street car. Typically BMWs (at least the E34 and E32) like to understeer hard at the limit of grip unless you are wild on the throttle.

    I will eventually install the H&R sport springs on the front end, and I also want to up-size the front bar to something larger than the stock 24mm currently on the car, but I fear that stiffening the front springs and sway bar will negatively affect the overall balance of the car if I don't also go even firmer on the rear springs and rear swaybar than what I'm currently running. I think that the stiffer front springs and swaybar will increase the ultimate 'objective' cornering grip of the car but probably at a detriment to the 'feel' of the chassis balance, which is why I'll continue trying to source a larger (Dinan 21mm) rear bar than the 17mm m-tech I'm using now. I'd like to find at most a 25mm or 26mm front bar to avoid upsetting the nice front-rear balance that I currently like.
    Last edited by m60power; 10-17-2023 at 11:18 PM.

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