BMW 2002 front suspension rethink

After years of faithful service as a ratty F Street Prepared daily driver, my 2002 is being disassembled for a proper rework.

One of the big shortcomings of the car is the front suspension geometry, which was well designed, but well designed well before the advent of wide radial tires. Etc.

The first question is whether to try to correct the suspension while keeping the stock subframe, in hopes of landing in Street Modified, which has good attendance here in Portland. I believe this class would still allow me to do whatever I want with steering, control arms and struts, as long as the pickup points don't move, and I don't hack up the subframe (which is a big conditional).

However, I'd have a much freer hand for geometry, and it'd make swapping to a rack & pinion much easier, never mind the M42/M44 swap, if I ditched the stock subframe completely.

That, in turn, opens the can of worms of whether to stick with a strut front end or try to package double-A-arms (which likely means doing unpleasant things to the inner fenders).

The biggest potential plus of the latter is that it might be doable to basically borrow Miata geometry (and arms!), saving myself a lot of time with an Allan Staniforth-style string computer, and/or a lot of money on a copy of WinGeo3...

Further cans of worms are opened by each of these thoughts, but this is already too long.

Thoughts? Opinions? Observations that I've badly misinterpreted the SCCA rulebook? I've obviously got more research to do, as I don't even know whether the subframe would put me in XP or some Mod class...

A 2002 is capable in f-street, but I'd want to talk to these guys a little.

This creation was built by a good friend. There is not much 2002 left under there. Obviously - it's not built for parking lots but if you want to know how to make one handle I could pass along a question or two.

oldtin wrote: A 2002 is capable in f-street, but I'd want to talk to these guys a little.

Iain is a really, really smart guy and very, very helpful.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

Thanks very much. That thing looks very serious. I don't want to pester him unduly, but do you know roughly what's there in lieu of 2002 bits? Any relation to my proposed direction(s)?

In reply to fast_eddie_72:

Good to know. I checked out their site and see they have some experience with converting from struts to double-A-arms, which is terrific. Perhaps I can get my ducks a little bit more lined up so that when I bug them there's actually some immediate possibility of needing to commission parts.

ransom wrote: Good to know. I checked out their site and see they have some experience with converting from struts to double-A-arms, which is terrific.

Which web site do you mean - Performance Machine Works? That's not the owner of the car but I have met the fella who owns PMW as well. Another very nice and helpful person named Dave Stone. Dave is something of an artist really. Does absolutely stunning machine work. No question he could help you do the conversion - probably better than just about anyone out there. I just had a couple of small parts made, but even those were absolutely fantastic.

Plus, Dave owns a '74 Capri! So you know he's good folk.

Take care,

Ed

ransom wrote: In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker: Thanks very much. That thing looks *very* serious. I don't want to pester him unduly, but do you know roughly what's there in lieu of 2002 bits? Any relation to my proposed direction(s)?

It uses an S-14, manual rack & pinion and part or all of an E30 M3 subframe and control arms. I remember a discussion about fabbing up the whole thing and using tubular A arms but it still had McPherson struts in October when I saw him at the track so I assume that was a bench racing exercise that didn't happen.

I'll find out what the specifics are. I do know that it is still slightly 2002, part 320i, part E30 M3 and lots of home fabrication.

Have you found any new info, and has any of it been posted online?