And as JG just reminded everyone via the office’s group chat, he’s at the FIRM tomorrow. So, soon, we’ll know the answer.
I’m eager to see how the MCS setup tackles the curbs through the esses.
Photography by J.G. Pasterjak
Our BMW 435i finished on the podium at last fall’s Tire Rack SCCA Time Trials Nationals, but that didn’t stop us from making more improvements.
[Third at the Time Trials Nats: How we intend to get even faster]
Because the intercooler install, along with many of our reliability mods, pushed us into the Tuner category–a jump up from the closer-to-stock Sport category where we had been competing–we were potentially leaving some performance on the table in the form of unrealized modifications.
Our next step toward maximizing the car for its new class: the installation of a set of Motion Control Suspension coil-overs.
Why the move? More adjustment plus we’d like to see if the installation of dampers more suited for the rigors of track use pays off. At our home track, the Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park, shocks matter as the fast line uses a lot of the curbs.
Now, making the jump from traditional, progressive-rate springs and street-style struts and shocks to true linear-rate coil-overs always comes with a bit of hesitation, especially on a car that will still see plenty of street duty.
Talking with MCS’s Wyatt Gilbert, who shared his experience with his own BMW on coil-overs, abated our fears a bit. Obviously, Wyatt might be a little biased, but his suggestion seemed viable: A set of single-adjustable dampers–skip the additional complication of remote canisters–paired with a set of 500 lbs./in. front and 400 lbs./in. rear springs wouldn’t sacrifice any comfort.
So we took the plunge.
The MCS setup like ours is available only through authorized dealers and is customized for the end user’s situation. In our case, the setup also included a set of MCS’s adjustable camber plates.
BimmerWorld’s price on the kit starts at $3740 without springs or camber plates, and the company highly recommends ordering on the phone so options can be properly tailored.
Install is as easy as installing any set of springs and shocks into a late-model BMW. Well, easier, really: The front strut housings are a few inches shorter than the stock pieces, while the rear dampers feature a true coil-over design that is easier to adjust than the stock spring-in-pocket setup.
The overall fit and finish of the gear is impressive and precise, making you feel a bit better about dumping real money into a set of dampers before you even get to the track.
We did a quick initial setup–check out those corner weights, eh?–based on some recommendations from BimmerWorld, and the car is currently loaded up on the trailer for a trip to the FIRM for some laps.
BimmerWorld recommended a tiny bit of rake–starting with about 2mm more ride height in the rear versus the front as measured at the rocker pinch welds–along with an eighth of an inch of total toe-out in the front and an eighth of an inch total toe-in in the rear.
The issue came with dialing in front camber. BimmerWorld recommends more than 3 degrees of negative camber in the front and a little less out back.
As with our previous, Koni-based setup, we can only get up to 2.7 degrees of negative front camber. In the rear, though, we can get as much as we’d want.
We’re exploring some possible solutions–we’re waiting on some rule interpretations before making any changes that might be hard to undo–as we’d like to get closer to 3.3 or even 3.5 degrees of negative camber up front. That would help those 275mm-wide Bridgestone RE-71RSs maintain a proper contact patch on this relatively tall and heavy car.
But for now, we’ll head to the track this weekend to do some initial testing on our install, mostly to provide some data for a new baseline setup going forward. An excellent corner weight is a nice start and gives us a predictable platform, while 18 positions of rebound adjustment at each corner provides plenty of tuning options.
As for streetability, well, we have zero complaints so far, so it seems that Wyatt wasn’t just giving us a marketing speech. There’s a bit more noise transmitting through the rear shocks as they’re now mounted by spherical bearings, but it’s not offensive by any means.
The general ride and demeanor of the car on the road is pretty exemplary. It’s not what we expected from linear-rate springs on track-focused shocks at all, to be honest. We’ll put some longer drives on the car after this initial test, but our first few miles show this to be every bit as comfortable and livable as our previous setup.
We’ll report back after our first round of testing. Of course, that’s when the real work begins, as we just added a boatload of variables to an already complex equation. Yay, cars.
And as JG just reminded everyone via the office’s group chat, he’s at the FIRM tomorrow. So, soon, we’ll know the answer.
I’m eager to see how the MCS setup tackles the curbs through the esses.
Also, JG, next time the car’s on the lift, let me know. I’d like to compare the rear setup to the one on my M3. (My rear Bilsteins use the factory perches.)
38 degrees at the FIRM. Humans are scientifically unable to survive at these temperatures.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
Gotta break out the thermal cargo shorts.
MCS makes nice stuff and has brillant support. I had them on my old E36 M3 track car and now have them on my 911.
Yeah, James at BimmerWorld has spoken highly of MCS shocks for many years.
Eager to see how they handle the curbs at the FIRM. As someone (JG) has told me, the more you can turn the esses into a straight, the faster you can go.
David S. Wallens said:Yeah, James at BimmerWorld has spoken highly of MCS shocks for many years.
I have MCS on my E46 (duals w/ reservoir in my case) and they're amazing. They do need a rebuild every 100 or so track hours, I'm not sure what that translates to in street miles.
So, initial impressions are overwhelmingly positive. Now that I have a few track miles and I know everything was installed properly, I can start working on getting the setup dialed, but there were a few pretty significant things I noticed on track.
First, spoiler alert, I didn't manage to lower the car's best lap today, but that was more a matter of track conditions. It was very cold, and very sandy, the tires are at the end of their useful life, and maybe the pads are as well. At any rate, a better lap wasn't out there today based on conditions. but i see a few things in the data on a quick first glance that tells me one definitely is out there. Although, even that said, the track has taken to throwing out some cones in key areas to prevent folks using too much curb, and there's one area in particular that I've had to alter my typical line pretty significantly.
Anyway, the cool stuff: The final turn at the FIRM (or the first turn, if you;re using the new s/f line) has a bump right about at the end of the first phase of cornering. When you've made your full commitment and have transitioned back to throttle but haven't fully loaded on the throttle yet. With the former setup you'd have to modulate the throttle there to balance everything. Sometimes it would be to get the front to grip a bit more, sometimes it would be to get the rear to plant harder, but you pretty much always had to do a little double-tap when transitioning back to the gas. With the MCSs, you just don't. Like, the car still definitely heaves, it just doesn't affect the balance hardly at all. It lets you roll in to the gas much more progressively and get the car to take a set so much earlier in the corner.
The second big thing I noticed is at the spot where I mentioned before that they've been throwing cones out a lot. That's the final section of the esses where you clear out of the last S heading to the left and hit the brakes for the hairpin. Previously in the pre-cone days you were able to just jump that final S with the left side of the car, wait for the landing, then brake. Now you actually have to do some cornering to the left, but only after the car take a set from the previous jump with the right side. And the result of the landing of that jump could be pretty unpredictable, turning that brief cornering phase into kind of a guessing game. You'd land, try to get the car turned left to square up for the braking zone, but the right side of the car would still be doing a lot of stuff. The result ws typically thaat your line into the braking area varied quite a bit from lap to lap, and that short turning phase was more of a twitch than an actual cornering segment.
With the MCSs, though, the time between phases is reduced to almost nothing. As soon as the car lands you can get right into that short cornering phase and line things up perfectly every time. It's pretty uncanny, and it's kind of an indication that making improvements with the new hardware is going to come not only from hardware changes, but from me as a driver learning to trust the car and not pre-emptively cover for the fact that it previously had trouble getting from phase to phase. Actually, I never felt like it had much trouble getting from phase to phase, but now that I drive it with the new dampers I realize how much time I spent waiting for one thing to end so I could start a new thing.
So, yeah, big thumbs up all around so far. time for a more comprehensive setup and alignment, a few tweaks, and we go back with fresher gear and hopefully a better track next time.
Yes, they do require maintenance, MCS said to have them rebuilt every 5 years or 30k miles I think
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