Ohlins Road & Track kit for the M3 E46

[alexk]

This is the long awaited kit for the M3 E46.
Part of the 'Road & Track' series of Ohlins car products, the kit is designed to be comfortable for road use yet capable for track use.

It features Ohlins dual flow valve technology (aka DFV).
It's 1-way adjustable and has 70N/mm front springs and 110N/mm rear springs.
Last but not least it has TUV certification and a 2 year warranty.

Some pics.

BMWM3E46BMSMI30-page-001_zps88bab3de.jpg

Öhlins M3 e46-KL.jpg

Ohlins-coilovers-bmw-e46-m3 (2).jpg

Ohlins-coilovers-bmw-e46-m3 (3).jpg

Ohlins-coilovers-bmw-e46-m3 (4).jpg

[phoenixcsl]

I think that would be a well made bit of kit being Ohlins and knowing how good their stuff is on the bike side, looks lovely!

Pricing seems fairly competitive, though I don't think there has been many real world reviews of the kit yet over here.

It's been available in the states for over 6 months though.

I'd love to try a set just to see what they are like!

[alexk]

Ohlins had told me that when testing in one track with a 997 GT2 RS compared the OEM suspension vs. KW V3 vs. Ohlins road&track.
The laptime is ~60 secs.
The KW V3 was down 0.5secs compared to the OEM suspension.
The Ohlins road&track was down 1.5secs compared to the OEM suspension.

The result was repeatable with various drivers (each driver improved in the same way his laptime), although their pace was different (one of them was a racing driver).

They also reckoned that a TTX setup would drop the laptime at least 3 secs compared to OEM, which is the setup that I will get

[phoenixcsl]

Originally Posted by alexk

They also reckoned that a TTX setup would drop the laptime at least 3 secs compared to OEM, which is the setup that I will get

You clearly have too much money

[Neil M]

Alex, if your speaking to them again why not mention the Euro-Trip, it might be an opportunity for them to get a bit of good PR, with the launch of their 'Road & Track Kit'? Just a thought in passing

[alexk]

I have spoken to my guy about the CSL meeting...

Any ideas about what they could do/offer so as I can propose it ?
Maybe pm shimmy and me ?

[Pooky]

Originally Posted by alexk

Ohlins had told me that when testing in one track with a 997 GT2 RS compared the OEM suspension vs. KW V3 vs. Ohlins road&track.
The laptime is ~60 secs.
The KW V3 was down 0.5secs compared to the OEM suspension.
The Ohlins road&track was down 1.5secs compared to the OEM suspension.

The result was repeatable with various drivers (each driver improved in the same way his laptime), although their pace was different (one of them was a racing driver).

They also reckoned that a TTX setup would drop the laptime at least 3 secs compared to OEM, which is the setup that I will get

Now if only those Porsche engineers had the skills, knowledge and experience to tune in those lap times from the start. They must be really jealous as it turns out the aftermarket suspensions actually use magic..

[shimmy]

Originally Posted by Pooky

Now if only those Porsche engineers had the skills, knowledge and experience to tune in those lap times from the start. They must be really jealous as it turns out the aftermarket suspensions actually use magic..

i think oem designers have more criteria to worry about than just laptimes

[_Nathan_]

I think that is his point, as an oem suspension engineer

Sure TTX is great but I don't have 5 figures to spend on suspension, and you will get a bigger improvement spending the money elsewhere.

[alexk]

Originally Posted by Pooky

Now if only those Porsche engineers had the skills, knowledge and experience to tune in those lap times from the start. They must be really jealous as it turns out the aftermarket suspensions actually use magic..

I am not sure how to interpret your post.
Last time I checked, track focused suspension kits help reducing laptimes compared to OEM.

A lot of Porsche race cars run Ohlins suspension and not OEM.
All the current BMW Motorsport cars (M3 GT4, M3 GT2, M3 DTM and Z4 GT3) run Ohlins suspension...