You need to go the coilover route, then you can make it look and handle anyway you so choose.

 

You've neither the wheelbase or the track/tyre width, so no.

You can certainly make it handle better, but that means throwing more money at it with (at a guess) half return if you strip it back to sell.

 

Have you tried coilovers? The problem im having is no tuning companies seem to of done that much with the m135 suspension wise, and everyone you speak to seems to offer a different solution to the problem but always by selling their product, which another company will tell you you dont need. Very hard to get the right advice, and we're talking about spending a lot of money here

 

Been a few on here who have coilover, M4 LCAS and rave about how good they are on track.
BP on here seemed happy with his setup.
I have tried coilovers, albeit on a different car, night and day better and that was on a car that handled well anyway!!!!

 

You're going to need an LSD, M4 LCA's and TS, lots of re-bushing, wider wheels and tyres, new ARB/s, front strut braces probably, and most importantly - decent dampers or coilies set up correctly.

You can't easily fix the M-Lite's ****ty steering so it still won't be an F82, but it will keep up. £8k probably?

If you want to be really depressed, try a Lotus Evora around those same roads! Makes an M3 feel like a stodgy blob.

 

In my opinion the answer is no you can't to be blunt lol, unless you spend serious amounts of money! You need quality, upgrades dampers and that will make a big difference.

I am in the same boat but with my M140, getting Bilstein b12 kit fitted soon with the superpro camber bushes I've got.

I'm looking at going to a new M3 next year, 18/88 plate as they're just perfect blend of great pace/handling and drama but with the practicality of a saloon. Out of interest what we're you're thoughts on the ride in your mates M3 and was a competition pack F80?

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Cheers mp, all ready have an lsd mate. If Ive got to do all that to realistically make it close to an m3 theres no point. I was thinking if I could say get some bilstien shocks or coilovers and perhaps arb's too and it would then be pretty much there I could handle amd justify doing that. Ive driven lotuses and owned/driven several many performance cars so i know how a car should behave if you get me. Cheers

 

KWs, arbs, a decent geo including corner weighting (more camber!) and decent tyres will sort it out no problem.

Not sure on prices but I'd think all in for under 3k unless you go for clubsports, v3s will be fine for road use and occasional track

 

Its already got mpss tyres on it, i can understand kws being a good way to go suspension wise but my only concern would be spoiling the ride quality.
One thing with arb's that i find a little odd is that surely bmw would of put on a decent thick arb on from stock, so why upgrade them? Im not saying your wrong, just that you would think the stock one should be adequate.

The m3 rode great i thought, totally comfortable

 

No, BMW fit pipe cleaners for rear ARB's, as they're not /M Cars with an LSD.

It's a massive PITA to swap them, as BMW decided to mount them above the subframes for some reason. E Series cars were so much easier to work on.

 

That'll save a few quid then with the tyres.

KWs will ride much better than standard, don't forget they are adjustable so you can tweak as much as you want until your perfectly happy.

They arbs won't be the worst out there but they are a safe setup that keeps the car relatively refined for average Joe.

Once you've driven a properly setup car with arbs, coil overs etc you'll never go back.

 

How much labour would arb's be roughly?

 

4 hours I guess? Maybe more?

 

Can you not slide them out or do you need to drop the full frame completely?

 

Got to drop both frames, too bent/curly to slide through.

 

That's a bugger!

 

Birds want over £600 in labour alone to fit two bars, total price is £1,090.

 

600 quid! On a ramp, it's not a days work is it...?

Unless the frames are hugely complicated?

Not had it on a ramp yet to have a nosey

 

Birds do seem to charge a huge amount for their parts/work. Just an observation, Nothing against them and im sure there good. Its hard to see for example why their bilstien dampers are twice the price or whatever of the normal b12 kit, i know they've been specially developed but cant they really be worth the extra on top of what's already a well respected brand/product?

 

It would be interesting to know how much is different on an m2 compared to a 235i, im sure there is plenty

 

It would be interesting to know how much is different on an m2 compared to a 235i, im sure there is plenty

An M2 is near as damn it an M3, with a very slightly shorter wheelbase. F82 and F80 share most (if not all?) suspension components. Completely different to an 235i.

 

Guys

Some thoughts

Yes - I was very happy with my adaptive mlite's setup - different league from pre LCI stock chassis.

It's all relative though. Having moved onto an used m2 and owned it for just over a month, stock m2 is a different level - even conpared to my fettled car. As said all ready it's the cohesiveness of all the chassis tweaks that shows where M boffins applied their intellect. Alas have driven eibach'd M2 and an M2 with MP coilovers. Eibachs were step backwards compared to stock whereas MP coilovers move the game further onwards and upwards.

M2 steering is still ePAS but fixed ratio as opposed to std VSS on mlite.

Birds - My car was one of their early interations of their b1s pack 2 - ie retaining oem adaptive dampers - tweaked with oem upgrades (f21 undefbelly V brace; f3x wider alloy wheels and F8x front arms). With aftermarket kit you get what you paid for. I was happy to use Birds as a repeat customer.

In the end my fettling got v favourable responses from people that either rode in it, drove it or tried to stay with it after it went past/around them on TD's.

BP

 

Birds want over £600 in labour alone to fit two bars, total price is £1,090.

That's a lot, but the job to do is huge. As I already said, you will have better effects with great suspensions and standard ARB than OEM suspensions and upgraded ARB

I think, you can get a better car and a more enjoyable one with upgrading our F2x, but it will cost a lot of money to do that.

 

Birds do seem to charge a huge amount for their parts/work. Just an observation, Nothing against them and im sure there good.

In the case of ARB/sway bar installation, we've had a look at the under carriage and can confirm it would be a huge PIA job. There is a lot in the way that needs to be dropped.

Birds may charge a premium, but we shouldn't take away from how big an ARB swap actually is.

 

Cheers bp, out of interest how does the m2 feel speed wise compared to your old modded m135i? Random one but how easy/how much room is there to get in the back? I've got two young kids which I occasionally have to take in my car rather than the family bus, so ideally need a 4 door but could possibly stretch to a 2 door if the access was reasonable.
Thanks everyone for your replys, pretty much summed up what I thought, it would need way more than a set of new shocks to fix the problems and get close to what an m3 is like.