TESTED - ST Suspensions' BMW E36 M3 Street Suspension Reviewed

I love seeing the pros work on their daily drivers.

All looks fine and all... But how did it perform? ;)

@ VP: Did you only look at the pictures? On the last page Mike (Essa) shares his driving impressions. It's a street suspension so I don't think he's taken it out to the skidpad and such to measure before/after.

It's okay VP, i just looked at the pictures too at first and was gonna post the same thing you said and then I read Fly'n_Z's post...ah hah. lol.
One downside to this site is that now all I'll be able to think about today is how I can scrape together funds to pick up an E36 M3...sigh.

Reading, it's important!

It really is nice to see a driver who's greasing it up to get even his street ride in order!

Mike K- I was hoping to perhaps get a little more in depth understanding on how these differ from the V1s, as opposed to only what the ST website offers up. I know KW makes great stuff, but are V3s the only way to go if your were putting together a street tire class TA car? I've been wanting to pick your brain lately and this article finally seemed an appropriate place to do so.

Like the story says, this is a great low price street daily driving suspension. I was pretty impressed with the quality for the price. For street/track you should do something like V3s or Clubsports. I don't know how much more in depth can you get than the article. I don't know the difference are between these and KW's. I am not going to compare everything we do with KW's either, thats kinda ridiculous.

Mike - I don't expect or would ask for anything ridiculous. Maybe not too ridiculous! I meant that since ST is a sub brand of KW, how much of the KW brand parts made it over into the ST coilover. ST even compares its coilover to the V1 with differences in the shock body, but I didn't know if springs were the same, bushings, etc. I visit the sites sponsers every so often and when I visited ST about a month ago, I was shocked by the sub brand fact and a little confused.

The ST has a zinc plated steel body and the V1 has a stainless steel body. That is how the ST version is cheaper.

The KW guys just also just told me ST has a 5 year warranty vs lifetime warranty for KW.

I guess I skipped a important paragraph! :)
Sorry about that...

Whats with the washers on the front end? Where the strut bolts to the spindle.

You can adjust camber that way.

RE: E36 Camber adjustment. Wow. That is a MUCH better way of doing it than crash bolts, assuming they set the maximum somewhere above where you'd reasonably want to go anyway (since you can only go positive with more washers).

Hey guys! Thought i would post my feedback about the ST coil overs. The car has 140k miles on it with what i believe to be the original shocks/springs. After installing the ST coils, the ride (obviously:) improved dramatically. But, comparing them to other cars ive driven with bilstien pss9, KW v1,2,3, H&R etc... Its a comfortable ride, im guessing about 20% stiffer than stock (just going off of feel, not actual spring rates or shock valving). Turn in is better, mid corner stability over bumps has improved, and still rides nice on the freeway over bumps and expansion joints. Id say if you want a good street coil over for not much money, ST is the way to go. Not saying there the best that money can buy, but if you only do an occasional track day or auto-x, and still have to drive your car daily with passengers, you probably don't want to deal with the harsh ride of a more track oriented coil over.

about the washers on the bottom mounting bolts of the front shocks- they add negative camber. With the stock rubber upper hat, you dont have any camber adjustment, so by shimming the bottom you can get neg camber. Just dont forget to install longer bolts when you put washers in!

Essa - thanks for the feedback, it's great to see pro level drivers who can talk the talk AND walk the walk! How's the Z4 starting to feel out on the track, now that your getting seat time?

Thanks for the E36 content (I own a '97 328is), and I especially appreciated Mike's answers about the differences between the KW V1s and the ST coil-overs.

Any more articles planned for the car?