Clearly Something Went Horribly Wrong ...

"Steve in Manhattan" (blogenfreude01)
08/01/2016 at 22:20 • Filed to: None

West 95th near Broadway, at 7PM:

DISCUSSION (34)

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Steve in Manhattan
08/01/2016 at 22:30

Far from the worst stance I’ve ever seen.

Invinciblejets > Steve in Manhattan
08/01/2016 at 22:31

Looks good.

shop-teacher > Steve in Manhattan
08/01/2016 at 22:32

Not to my taste, but the wheels look to be pretty well straight, and the tires don’t appear stretched. This is lowering done right.

BAM- Before Anything Melts > Steve in Manhattan
08/01/2016 at 22:35

Probably won’t be worth the repairs it will need within 5 years :(

I see a slammed E34 quite frequently. I remember sitting next to it at a stoplight where the driver decided to take a picture of a clean E34 in the same color as his and procede to share it on Snapchat. The light turned green as he was probably sitting there writing #wheelgap!

Invinciblejets > BAM- Before Anything Melts
08/01/2016 at 22:37

Don't cut yourself on that edge........

FunkyHatch > Steve in Manhattan
08/01/2016 at 22:47

I like it.

Steve in Manhattan > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/01/2016 at 22:54

And yet still horrid ...

Steve in Manhattan > shop-teacher
08/01/2016 at 22:54

But is lowering ever done right?

Tripper > Steve in Manhattan
08/01/2016 at 22:56

Nope, unless it’s for race purposes on a race car.

Steve in Manhattan > Tripper
08/01/2016 at 22:56

Thank you. Wonder how long that thing has been sitting there?

Tripper > Steve in Manhattan
08/01/2016 at 23:00

I dunno, but the poor thing needs help. I feel compelled to one day buy a disrespected euroclassic and breathe new life into it. Even if there is a better car available, just once I want to say I pulled one out of the crackhouse.

Steve in Manhattan > Tripper
08/01/2016 at 23:04

Yeah - cars like that need to be brought back to stock.

shop-teacher > Steve in Manhattan
08/01/2016 at 23:13

If it’s done safely, I have no problem with it. It’s probably on air bags, so it rises up to actually drive. It’s not my style, but at least that looks safe. That’s my problem with the stancebros, those cars are freaking dangerous.

Tripper > Steve in Manhattan
08/01/2016 at 23:25

I don’t even care if it’s 100% stock, I just want to make something that looks like this:

Kinja'd!!!

or this

Kinja'd!!!

Look like this:

Kinja'd!!!

Steve in Manhattan > Tripper
08/02/2016 at 00:04

Save the BMWs. Save ‘em all. And the CRXs ... save them.

Invinciblejets > Tripper
08/02/2016 at 00:06

Oversized tacky stock wheels with zero car culture influence...yeah that’s alot more classy..but as long as no one thinks your a hipster “stancebro” right.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Tripper
08/02/2016 at 00:09

Confession - I would “save” the car you want to own by making it into what you want to save it from.

E30s are junk. I said it. THe chassis is okay, but people hump its dick due to it being RWD and german. It pukes coolant out the front, dumps parts out the back, and usually has a wasted lump of flesh in the driver’s seat who can’t afford to keep it running. At least the ratty “drifters” make it into something a little different, IMO.

Logansteno: Bought a VW? > Steve in Manhattan
08/02/2016 at 00:40

Bring it up a touch and I’d drive the hell outta that. Tastefully lowered cars are best cars.

I might have a slight bias for lowered BMWs though.

Aaron Brown > Steve in Manhattan
08/02/2016 at 00:58

I know the guy who owns this car. He’s a BMW enthusiast and owns several E30s as well. He uses this car to tow them haha.

tacogx > Steve in Manhattan
08/02/2016 at 01:02

dang, this looks good.

Textured Soy Protein > Steve in Manhattan
08/02/2016 at 01:51

Yes, for example my car.

Kinja'd!!!

Tripper > Invinciblejets
08/02/2016 at 08:37

No I don’t care what anyone thinks, just what I think. I think stance and otherwise poorly modified cars are a disease.

Brian Silvestro > Aaron Brown
08/02/2016 at 09:17

real

Invinciblejets > Tripper
08/02/2016 at 11:08

What makes them poorly modified besides your opinion?

Steve in Manhattan > Aaron Brown
08/02/2016 at 13:38

It hurts me to look at that thing ... and small world.

Steve in Manhattan > Textured Soy Protein
08/02/2016 at 13:50

That's fairly tasteful, though I still wonder how it changes the handling and how things wear out.

Textured Soy Protein > Steve in Manhattan
08/02/2016 at 15:16

The handling destroys the stock setup. That was my primary goal along with getting rid of the ugly stock wheel gap which is huge on awd BMWs.

I totally redid the whole suspension with the exception of keeping the stock control arms (some of which got harder bushings) and front sway bar, which also got new poly bushings and adjustable end links to compensate for the lower ride height. I chose parts based on them working together as a whole. I even used shorter BMW bump stops from an E36 M3 in front and Z4M in rear to have the OE style bump stops but match the shorter suspension travel.

Yes, it’s easy to lower a car and do a shitty job of it but with a little picking and choosing it’s also possible to vastly improve the handling of a car over stock.

Steve in Manhattan > Textured Soy Protein
08/02/2016 at 15:34

I can't argue with any of that. Does it affect the ride? Do you get tires hitting the wheel wells ever?

Textured Soy Protein > Steve in Manhattan
08/03/2016 at 10:47

The ride is a bit stiffer than stock but it’s still in the range of being acceptable. I tried to pick stuff that wouldn’t give too stiff of a ride, like Koni FSD shocks that are supposed to mechanically adjust their damping in response to sharp bumps. But the car is also much more planted over bumps and transitions whereas the stock suspension could be floaty and uncontrolled, so in a way that’s riding better than before.

At first I did have a bit of rubbing of the tires but that’s more from the wider wheels & tires and was cured with an alignment and re-tightening the front passenger side fender liner (that tire was rubbing on it a little at higher steering angles). I was getting some rub from these wheels & tires on the stock suspension so the lowering itself was not the source of the rubbing.

Steve in Manhattan > Textured Soy Protein
08/03/2016 at 11:09

If it ain't broke ...

Textured Soy Protein > Steve in Manhattan
08/03/2016 at 13:35

It was broke though. The stock 335xi suspension sucked for a performance car. It was way too floaty and imprecise in turns. Even though it’s an M Sport, the awd M Sport didn’t get any better suspension from BMW. Compared to the previous 135is which did have the OE BMW sport suspension, it was garbage. Comfy, but garbage handling. I wanted to improve the handling, but I also very much liked the ride comfort advantage of the 335xi, and wanted to preserve as much of that as possible. The main culprit of the 135is bad ride was the stock runflat tires, not suspension.

Even with all the suspension modifications, my 335xi with 19" non-runflat tires, is noticeably comfier than my 135is was, with the stock BMW sport suspension and stock 18" runflat tires. Riding in it, doesn’t feel like riding in a modified car. In many ways it feels very similar to the stock suspension. But the handling is vastly improved.

As for the rubbing, in the front, the source of rubbing wasn’t because the wheels didn’t fit, it was because the fender liner vent behind the oil cooler was loose and the wider wheel rubbed on it. Fixing the vent fixed the rub. In the rear, getting the car aligned with the amount of negative camber I wanted for handling purposes fixed the rub. But the rubbing was all because of the wheels. If I had done the same suspension stuff and put non-runflat tires on the stock wheels, it would clear with no tweaking.

Sure with the wider 19" wheels it took a little tweaking, but the car is very dialed in and everything works just fine. It’s properly aligned, even the sway bars. There’s no bad behavior, the wheels don’t rub, and I didn’t have to roll or pull the fenders to achieve that.

Nimbus The Legend - Riding on air like a cloud > shop-teacher
08/04/2016 at 20:45

its only done right, if its on air suspension

shop-teacher > Nimbus The Legend - Riding on air like a cloud
08/04/2016 at 21:36

I bet it is on air.

Nimbus The Legend - Riding on air like a cloud > shop-teacher
08/05/2016 at 12:10

I hope so, otherwise id feel bad for him son, i got air suspension, and i got 99 problems but my oil pan aint one