E36 Race Spring Rates

[ebg1223]

Looking to see if anyone has recommended spring rates for E36. 95 M3 S52. Car is fully caged, and weighs 2840# w/ driver, full tank of gas. Ground control double adjustable front/rear, front bar, no rear bar. Car is race/track only, and typically runs on nitto nt01s.
Thank you!!!!

[MauiM3Mania]

Moved from the E36 M3 sub-forum.

[aeronaut]

What springs does the car have now, and have you driven it on track?

Everybody is a little different. Without knowing more, my starting point would be 550-650 up front, and 650-750 in the rear. Narrowing more than that depends a lot on your driving style, damper types, ride height, front bar, alignment, track, etc.

[ebg1223]

Before we had the car, it was initially setup with advanced design front/rear shocks, 800 front 875 rear, and a rear sway bar. When we took on the car, we removed the rear bar, and had all shocks rebuilt. Rears were unable to hold pressure, and were replaced with the ground control konis.

In this configuration(new gc koni shocks/875# springs rear, old adv. design shocks/ 800# springs front) car was very neutral at high speed, but at lower speeds, front was very very bouncy, and would then upset balance and lose grip in rear.

Advanced design fronts are now leaking, and are being replaced with the Ground Control Koni.

TLDR- We are starting fresh with double adjustable ground control konis front and rear.

We are trying to figure out a good spring rate(or at least a starting point) so we can dial the car in. It sounds like 600 front 700 rear is a good place to start? Have also heard 600 / 800 around the track..... Would also appreciate any alignment suggestions for this purpose!

Thank you!

[aeronaut]

Does the car have aero?
Either way, if you were neutral at high speed, and have swapped out all 4 shocks, why not install the springs (800/875) you have and start from there to get a baseline? With DA shocks, you can tweak some to see if you can get your low speed handling where you want it.

Tons of threads on here on a starting point for alignment, but here goes;
Front: -3.5 or so camber, 0 or a smidgen toe-out, max camber.
Rear: -2.5 or so camber, smidgen^2 toe-in.

The exact front camber really depends on where you end up on spring rate, etc.

[ebg1223]

We have a front splitter and rear wing. Current springs seem very stiff given what we hear from others, especially running on nitto nt01s, but please excuse the ignorance if that is not correct. Even with a very experienced driver usually running very quick times, car is difficult to drive, seemingly due to bouncing in the front, but not sure how much to attribute to the old advanced design front shocks. He describes the car as "just not feeling quite right", which of course could be anything, so we are trying to eliminate as many variables as possible and tune from there.

Thank you again for all the info!

[M3kiwi]

If you're buying from Ground Control, call them.
They set up the shock/damper to match the spring rate
Have your cars specs handy and they will advice you.

[jr02518]

What are your cold tire pressures front/rear, then what are they after a session?