[1 YR. Update] My Swift Spec-R Review - R&T.

[S65V8]

===17k miles===
Quick update...

Now 1 yr. in and 17k miles later through road, track, etc., these springs (batch 1) are still great. I don't feel any noticeable wear or slop or softness from day one.

One pretty major thing that made them better was coding my EDC to ZCP spec, comfort and sport+ became even better, particularly comfort. sport and sport+ feel better on rebound than before.

On the track, these springs still really shine, I never feel they are off or unpredictable, I can hammer high speed bends, trail brake into sharp turns, and the springs are linear and great at doing their job. For springs, I really couldn't expect more. More than a few people have come up to me and asked what mods I have and assume I have a coilover suspension, and surprised to know I just have lowly springs

I do wonder how much better the M Performance Springs will be when they come out, that will be very interesting to try out. Although it does go to show BMW engineered these dampers to take on stiffer springs out of the box...did swift crack the code before they did? we shall see...

===3k miles===
On the Road… (EDC)
After 3k miles it’s really given me a chance to evaluate how this set-up responds to all types of road imperfections and environments. Overall a very street-able set-up, all modes in EDC get bumped up a notch or two:

*Comfort is great for slow cruising on bad or even surfaces.

**Sport is simply Sport+ now, and my favorite everyday mode as it still dampens bumps well enough and gives the car a tighter overall feel. For example, I’ll drive the car on default settings (Eff., Sport, Sport), and forget I’m on that setting before I switch to comfort.

**Sport+ some say is only for track, but I like this for fast highway driving, this mode I believe is what Swift focused on fine tuning most of all. I like how responsive and tight the car is in this mode.

Although, it should be noted to those first timers installing springs/suspension upgrades, these are not as “comfortable/plush” as stock springs, given the stiffness increase you should be prepared to feel that stiffness in all modes of driving.
While “Comfort” is now closer to sport, in some situations I think it’s even stiffer than that. Just remember how extremely stiff this car is to begin with, it's literally at near race car levels vs. the previous gen M cars.

"BMW claims the M3's torsional stiffness is over 40,000 Newton-meters per degree, approaching that of the 2004 BMW M3 GTR race car, which used a steel-tube roll cage to reach 46,000 Nm/deg. The stiffness comes in part from the same strut-tower brace that also helps steering feel and response. Additionally, BMW mounts the rear subframe directly to the body, with no rubber bushings."

On the Track…
This is where these springs shine, I experimented with all modes, and it is no surprise Sport+ was my favorite mode. Sport was good too, but I liked it less overall.

Similar to my E92 review, it reduced roll in high-speed turns, hairpins, etc. The key for me is that it performed very consistently under load in all situations, on camber, off camber, threshold to trail braking, high speed turns, and through unexpected maneuvering and mid turn corrections. There was never a moment I felt the car was nervous, floating, or gave me any sense of uneasiness. I was very impressed. In the clip below, I am actually threshold braking pretty hard at the end of the straight at around 140 MPH, and you can see the car keep its composure and is braking in a predictable/even fashion. No rear end squirreling.

Note, these cannot be compared to coilovers which I believe would be the best solution for the track rats out there.

Drop and everyday clearance…
The drop is about 1 finger all around and looks balanced imo. Same as the E92 set-up, it’s low but not too low that you’re scraping and hitting everything that dips. Once in awhile the rubber scrap guards will touch. Net, I don’t even worry or think about it, and that to me means it’s not low enough where I’m “worried” about daily driving the car.

Is there bounce?
In my opinion no, but because the springs are stiffer, the road undulation may feel like a bounce to some. I’ve driven coilovers before, and a similar dampening effect can be felt at the stiffer limits. Naturally, since the set-up is tracking the road closer with less travel it will undulate with the road making you feel an 'up and down' movement...I’ve driven and been in a H&R set-up car, that’s what you call bounce and uneasiness in suspension movement.

What happens when you do hit dips/road imperfections?
It dampens everything pretty well without rattling the dash or responding with any nervous and uneasy abrupt deflections. It’s very linear and consistent. However, unlike the stock set-up, you can’t just power through, I would still recommend respecting and slowing down on dips and imperfections.

Any new noises to be aware of?
The set-up is as quiet as a mouse, like OEM. So if done right you shouldn't hear any difference. The only time I hear a little front suspension tension or jossle is if I hit a sharp sloping dip, at a specific speed, and with both front tires. It's not a bad sound, but because I tried to hear for every creak, it's the one thing I could notice. Other than that, over every bad road condition (which in the east there ALOT of), car was perfectly silent. I thought there would be more rattle or something, but the install / car is tight
as a drum.

NOTE: "Batch 1" front springs were good, Batch 2 - 3 were defective, so ensure you know what Batch 1 or 4 (replacements) actually look like before you buy them. I clearly had Batch 1. The defective batches would crash the front coils onto themselves causing massive bottoming out and issues.

Net, these springs did the job by providing a balanced looking drop, being confidence inspiring on the track, while being a great daily drivable set-up. I approve!

lil' track clip at full WOT @ track : )

[SROC3]

Originally Posted by SROC5

After about 3k miles, I thought I’d share some specific thoughts about the Swift Spec-R Springs on a stock F82.

Shout out goes to Harold @ HP Autowerks (Parts) and Tommy and Lalit @ ACM!

On the Road… (EDC)
After 3k miles it’s really given me a chance to evaluate how this set-up responds to all types of road imperfections and environments. Overall a very street-able set-up, all modes in EDC get bumped up a notch or two:

*Comfort is great for slow cruising on bad or even surfaces.

**Sport is simply Sport+ now, and my favorite everyday mode as it still dampens bumps well enough and gives the car a tighter overall feel. For example, I’ll drive the car on default settings (Eff., Sport, Sport), and forget I’m on that setting before I switch to comfort.

**Sport+ some say is only for track, but I like this for fast highway driving, this mode I believe is what Swift focused on fine tuning most of all. I like how responsive and tight the car is in this mode.

Although, it should be noted to those first timers installing springs/suspension upgrades, these are not as “comfortable/plush” as stock springs, given the stiffness increase you should be prepared to feel that stiffness in all modes of driving. While “Comfort” is now closer to sport, in some situations I think it’s even stiffer than that.

Drop and everyday clearance…
The drop is about 1 finger all around and looks balanced imo. Same as the E92 set-up, it’s low but not too low that you’re scraping and hitting everything that dips. Once in awhile the rubber scrap guards will touch. Net, I don’t even worry or think about it, and that to me means it’s not low enough where I’m “worried” about daily driving the car.

What happens when you do hit dips/road imperfections?
It dampens everything pretty well without rattling the dash or responding with any nervous and uneasy abrupt deflections. It’s very linear and consistent. However, unlike the stock set-up, you can’t just power through, I would still recommend respecting and slowing down on dips and imperfections.

Is there bounce?
In my opinion no, but because the springs are stiffer, the road undulation may feel like a bounce to some. I’ve driven coilovers before, and a similar dampening effect can be felt at the stiffer limits. Naturally, since the set-up is tracking the road closer with less travel it will undulate with the road making you feel an 'up and down' movement...I’ve driven and been in a H&R set-up car, that’s what you call bounce and uneasiness in suspension movement.

On the Track…
This is where these springs shine, I experimented with all modes, and it is no surprise Sport+ was my favorite mode. Sport was good too, but I like less overall.

Similar to my E92 review, it reduced roll in high-speed turns, hairpins, etc. The key for me is that it performed very consistently under load in all situations, on camber, off camber, threshold to trail braking, high speed turns, and through unexpected maneuvering and mid turn corrections. There was never a moment I felt the car was nervous, floating, or gave me any sense of uneasiness. I was very impressed.

Note, these cannot be compared to coilovers which I believe would be the best solution for the track rats out there.

Net, these springs did the job by providing a balanced looking drop, being confidence inspiring on the track, while being a great daily drivable set-up. I approve!

lil' track clip at full WOT @ track : )

Attachment 1310818

Attachment 1310819

Great review and Nice clip!!

[JTO24]

Great review, thanks. BTW, At first I thought OP had commented on his own thread saying nice review lol

[330cibimmer]

Thanks for the review.
Btw, do these come with bump stops or did you keep oem bump stops?
Thanks. Sorry for newbie question

[S65V8]

Originally Posted by 330cibimmer

Thanks for the review.
Btw, do these come with bump stops or did you keep oem bump stops?
Thanks. Sorry for newbie question

not at all brotha, they do not come with bump stops and you're supposed to use the ones on the car. It's less of an issue re: the famous "riding on bump stops" topic, as the F8x dampers have a lot of travel to begin with before you've even touched the bump stops.

[330cibimmer]

Originally Posted by SROC5

not at all brotha, they do not come with bump stops and you're supposed to use the ones on the car. It's less of an issue re: the famous "riding on bump stops" topic, as the F8x dampers have a lot of travel to begin with before you've even touch the bump stops.

Cool. Good to know.
Thanks!!

[yaymitch]

Originally Posted by SROC5

After about 3k miles, I thought I’d share some specific thoughts about the Swift Spec-R Springs on a stock F82.

Nice review, thanks for posting. It looks like you have spacers...what size are they?

[nineonenine]

Thanks for posting the review!

Are these in stock anywhere now?

[nineonenine]

Just picked up from HP Autosport. Nice and quick service. Looking forward to installing these.

[330cibimmer]

Cheapest place i found to get is from maperformance.com.
They have excellent customer service as well. Provided me with tracking information the whole time..

[W///]

Great review, thanks for sharing. Car sounds great too btw, and 6MT ftw!

[clutchdj]

[PayamFSU]

OP great review. Has anyone thought of putting the M3 kit on the M4 to have less of a drop?

[S65V8]

Originally Posted by PayamFSU

OP great review. Has anyone thought of putting the M3 kit on the M4 to have less of a drop?

Thanks, and that topic was discussed in another thread. But give Harold @ HP Autosport a call or the guys at Swift. They're both very forthcoming with details.

[PayamFSU]

Originally Posted by SROC5

Thanks, and that topic was discussed in another thread. But give Harold @ HP Autosport a call or the guys at Swift. They're both very forthcoming with details.

Lol, I swear I read all 22 pages of that thread.... I'll probably just give them a call, thanks for the post!

[te37]

Did you ever track the car with the stock springs? And if so I have been hearing that the tail will be a little squirrely under heavy braking from 140 down, did these firmer springs resolve that issue?
Thanks

[S65V8]

Originally Posted by te37

Did you ever track the car with the stock springs? And if so I have been hearing that the tail will be a little squirrely under heavy braking from 140 down, did these firmer springs resolve that issue?
Thanks

No, but I do know what people mean as I felt that with my E92 stock set-up. Under heavy braking on this set-up the car was steady and flat, I think my video pretty much shows that at end of the straight, I'm actually braking pretty hard there.

[JamesGames]

With the suspension loaded (I.E. under a high speed corner / sharp corner) and you hit a bump, what are your thoughts? Did that cause any bottoming out? Granted you had a bump to hit in the middle of a turn that is. I'm getting mine installed this week and am excited. Thanks for your review.

[S65V8]

Originally Posted by JamesGames

With the suspension loaded (I.E. under a high speed corner / sharp corner) and you hit a bump, what are your thoughts? Did that cause any bottoming out? Granted you had a bump to hit in the middle of a turn that is. I'm getting mine installed this week and am excited. Thanks for your review.

No bottoming out for sure, there's so much travel in this suspension it's unlikely to bottom out like a E92. Even in my E92, I never bottomed out, but I also used E36 bumpstops (despite being told not to lol).

On this track I actually hit the corner rumble strips at around 70 ish mph on one of the turns and the car handled it fine. My mistake actually was letting off the throttle vs. just going through with stable throttle application.

[IcebergM4]

I've read all these positive reviews of the Swift springs, but my experience is the complete opposite. I had the springs installed on my M4 two days ago and so far my car rides like complete shit! Yes the drop is absolutely perfect (one-finger gap all around), but it feels like I'm riding on the bump stops and every mode feels like sport+ but worse

The springs were installed at a well-qualified BMW indy shop, the owner has been working on these cars for 30 years. What could be the problem?

[S65V8]

Originally Posted by Iceberg4

I've read all these positive reviews of the Swift springs, but my experience is the complete opposite. I had the springs installed on my M4 two days ago and so far my car rides like complete shit! Yes the drop is absolutely perfect (one-finger gap all around), but it feels like I'm riding on the bump stops and every mode feels like sport+ but worse

The springs were installed at a well-qualified BMW indy shop, the owner has been working on these cars for 30 years. What could be the problem?

I don't think anyone can convince you it doesn't suck. I guess you'll have to take them off the car. Have you had springs or a coil over suspension installed on your car before?

[IcebergM4]

Originally Posted by SROC5

I don't think anyone can convince you it doesn't suck. I guess you'll have to take them off the car. Have you had springs or a coil over suspension installed on your car before?

Don't get me wrong, the car corners like a dream now, but the harshness over bumps and dips is serious. I don't think it sucks at all, but I'm not in love with it (yet). Yes I've had suspension work on my other cars (springs AND coilovers) but I guess I wasn't prepared for such a drastic change with the EDC in this car.

Maybe I'm jumping the gun, I'll just stop by the shop again and have them double-check everything. If anything, I probably just need to give it some more seat time to adjust. These New York roads are probably the root cause of my issues.

Your review was very insightful by the way, I'm gonna use it as a tool to have my shop smooth out any rough edges from my install.