Mild track setup (BC Racing ER)
 

:happynewyear:
Happy new year everyone!

I'm finally getting around to making some suspension adjustments on my 2015 Nismo. I think i have a plan, but would love any additional insight.

Phase I: I'll start with BC Racing ER Series coilovers. The Nismo is a weekend and track-day car (nothing competitive though). I'm in downtown Chicago, so I'll only be dropping the car by .75" - 1" initially. At that drop and on stock Nismo wheels, I think I can get away without camber arms up front, but I will use SPL titanium camber arms in the rear. At .75" - 1" drop, do I need toe bolts?

Phase II: Assuming that I'm happy with how the coilovers perform, eventually I will seek to drop the car a bit more. This would involve installing an air cup system up front to avoid clearance issues, SPL camber arms up front and SPL rear mid links to get toe back in spec. To accommodate for the cups and rear mid links, Phase II would also see an upgrade to Swift springs (although I need to do more digging on spring rates).

For my intended uses, am I overlooking anything?

I think it would be a good idea to buy the front and rear camber kit at the same time if you plan on driving the car on a track. I would also recommend reading up on the track day best practices thread. Good luck and have fun :)

After experiencing some fortune coilovers on another platform and what I heard about them from local drivers, I can't recommend them enough at the sub $2000 price point

Get the swift spring upgrades on the 510 series

The spl stuff, get it all at once. One install, one alignment

If you get the BC's may as well do the swift upgrade from the start. Wasting money/time otherwise. That's what I did with mine (BC DR's with custom valving and 18K/14K swift springs).

I would recommend looking into Stance Coilovers, not only are they a solid option. They are headquartered not to far from you in Wheeling, IL. With their XR1 line up being in your budget and the local support to me it would be a no brainier!


For your other questions, you will want to have the toe bolts to be able to get the most out of the alignment even at that height. Front camber arms are not needed, but they help with getting the car dialed into your driving style.

If you have any questions at all shoot us a call at 410.593.7080



-Daelen

First. Get plenty of face time with the windshield at the track before doing major up-grades. This way you will have a feeling in what you need and want. Going down this rabbit hole will get $$$$$$$$ Dumping money into this before hitting the track can and will be $$$$$$ if you guess wrong on what you need.

Before hitting the track. Things to do. Bleed your brakes with good brake fluid. Use at least Motul 600. Oil cooler. Get a 34 row. People will tell that you don't need that much. But as your speed increases at the track. The hotter the engine will be. Do it once and be done. If you have a manual. Wrap your clutch line down be the drivers side header with insulation. This will help keep the fluid from boiling. And keep the reservoir full. Same with the brake reservoir.
.

Thank you all for the input!

Rusty, I've been tracking the car for about a year and a half. The 34 row was the first thing done! I'm not sure if this is accurate, but I was told the larger one was all that would actually fit on the Nismo. I also went with Motul 600, but I did not wrap the clutch line, I'll have to put that on the list!

@OptionZero, I was looking at your set up and see that you went with an OEM style rear, with SPL rear mid links. Mind me asking why you went this route as opposed to a true rear? I'm weighing the options and a true rear would give me an extra $500 to spend on coils (as the rear mid link is about $500 more than toe arms), but I'm also nervous about the strut tower deforming.

Get the SPL upper control arms and a Hotchkis front sway bar. Set your front alignment to -2 camber, +7 caster, toe in 1/16". Rear camber -1.5 to -1.75, toe in 1/16". You'll still have good tire life on the street.

Your toe figures are total, right (still putting all these concepts together)?

Yeah. You want a little toe in. In the rear. If you go zero or toe out. You will get snap-oversteer more often. :eek:

There really isn't any benefit in running a true coil over in the rear, unless you also plan on reinforcing the strut towers or you really want a 1:1 motion ratio in the rear for some reason.

Aragosta probably could make some true types if I asked, but I didn't see any advantage and there are potential structural issues with the strut tower mounting area which weren't designed for true type

Probably fine in most cases but why **** around

370Chicago I'm interested in buying your Nismo springs if you decide to sell them.

I'm surprised that masseffect hasn't thrown his :twocents: in yet. :rofl2:

He has been pretty silent silent since we told him less is more in responding to request for information. SAD!!!

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

Kind of miss his multi-page essays on suspension. :icon17:

This is interesting and I'm actually a little surprised to hear this. I know a few people who have said good things about Stance coilovers, but only in the street/show arena. I haven't heard much about their track performance.

You need to get out more...Stance has been rockin the track scene for a long time!

You're not wrong! Even at the XR1 / entry level though?

I'm on vacation ��️

Thought you might be suffering from brain fart, writer's block or writer's wrist cramp. :rofl2:



Enjoy your vacation. :tup:

Nope. Just no one has asked anything that needs any "complex" explanations. Plus it would be repetitive, I'm sure I've wrote enough that can be re-read if someone cares to search.

I am high as a fkn kite though. Marijuana is legal now! Woohoooo. I'm in the clouds thinking about lightsabers ��.

Now you've got me looking in a whole different direction! I am looking at the XR2s (local support would be great) but really can't find a lot on them. Any input on how they stack up against the BC ERs?

Since your only weekend and track use I would go stance. The be spring rate will be too soft for any real track use. My z is a daily and the powertrix 12/11 swift setup is just fine and on track it is even better. It’s arguable if stance and powertrix are the same (same factory but that really doesn’t mean anything in terms of function) but the stance spring rates and the way that the adjustments actually make a difference (not 5 clicks just to finally make a noticeable difference) is what would make me take them over bc.

Just because it is legal doesn't mean you should use it. Put that stuff away
and save some brain cells for stuff that matters.

I appreciate you caring about my brain :tiphat:. But to be fair, trying it for the first time in years has actually elevated my thought process in ways i couldn't have imagined. The level of clarity it's given me is incomparable to when I was free from any drugs or alcohol. I still don't drink or smoke anything else, so I'm not worried. Marijuana has not been linked to decreased brain activity in any testing.
................................

On the current topic. As jhill just stated the spring rate is what should be the primary focus. All three of the companies in discussion offer optional spring rates and most likely fairly good dampers. The questions you should ask yourself OP... Are

-What ride height am I looking for ( a lower height will automatically require a stiffer spring rate all things being equal).

-Where am I using it most often and how much force will I be exerting on the tires (more lateral force will require more spring pressure to resist roll)

Last but not least - what tires am I using and how quickly will they begin to work. Stickier tires is the sole purpose behind total grip. The more grip you have the more pressure will be exerted on each corner during weight transfer. Additionally spring pressure will be needed to combat roll and weight shifting.

If you're not increasing your tire grip significantly and not decreasing your ride height much you can use a softer spring. That will allow your damper setting to be more relaxed.

Apparently they don't make the 510 for the Z34.

The 500s are fine. Ask hotrod, I think he runs them

Yup they are very well made and they have made some pretty cool changes to the gen 6 model. The gen 6 are also upgradable to two way adjustability.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

The 500 may even be better for mild track and mostly street as the 510 seem to focus on a heavily digressive setup. Typically from what I have seen is this usually involves a concave piston or ring shim setup with really large ports. This allows them to run a firmer low speed as the shims are preloaded and then open up and "blow off" for a high speed impact. This is great for chassis roll and stability but can be harsher over non smooth surfaces with ripple bumps that aren't big enough to force open the shims. So it's kind of a trade off, when I was researching I found that linear or just semi digressive is still more common in circle track and off road and you'll see a mix of it on bikes where some like the added support for brake dive but you do know it's a trade off in sensitivity. In fact for 2018 fox ditched their digressive shim stack for a linear setup and is getting the best comments for its suppleness vs others. So if your roads are like mine with lots of cracks and tar strips etc that firmer low speed may not be what you want.