05-17-2017, 03:41 PM | #1 |
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First Nitron Coilovers for the M4 - Report soon
Hi Everyone
Just a teaser at the moment but I wanted to let people who might be considering a coilover kit know that Nitron in the UK are developing a solution. My 16 M4 (non-cp) is being used as their development car for the production of their Nitron R1 coilover kit. Nitron has been working with race teams to develop their R3 kit but my car will be the first in the world to be fitted with the road version the R1. I have to leave the car with them for 2 weeks or so for them to develop and test but the kit will be finished in early June so I will report back then. http://www.nitron.co.uk/catalogue_it...9&prodID=87642 http://www.nitron.co.uk/pwpcontrol.php?pwpID=17759 https://www.facebook.com/nitronracingsystems/ Nitron produce extremely high, quality, hand built shocks for cars and bikes and they are the OE supplier for the top end Lotus sports and race cars. I will be discussing my requirements and expectations for the kit with their engineers to hopefully achieve a great end result. I will post full pictures from the install and report back on how the car feels and drives over the next few weeks. My car is currently running standard adaptive shocks and Litchfield lowering springs so I will be able to contrast the difference in performance from springs to full coilovers. |
05-17-2017, 10:10 PM | #2 |
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I am extremely interested in this topic, please report back if there is any update with development.
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06-17-2017, 04:16 PM | #4 |
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For anyone following this I'm picking up my car from Nitron on Monday. My car has been fitted with the R3 coilover system.
http://www.nitron.co.uk/catalogue_it...9&prodID=87643 http://www.nitron.co.uk/catalogue_it...6&prodID=73656 http://www.nitron.co.uk/pwpcontrol.php?pwpID=17760 I will be back with pictures of the install and a a report on how they feel shortly. Can't wait! |
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06-19-2017, 03:09 PM | #6 |
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Picked the car up today and drove home, 300 mostly motorway miles.
First impressions only tonight, will do a full report with install pictures over the following week or so. The short version is that I'm impressed, very impressed. I've raced motorbikes for years and I've owned my fair share of good and not so good (shite!) suspension set ups, sometimes even the expensive shocks can be disappointing and harsh. I've also had Lotus cars and a 911 with bilstein coilovers in the past so have a decent experience level with sports cars. I've got Ohlins TTX on my current race bike and Ohlins sets the standard in the bike world. Extremely well damped. I would go so far to say the Nitron R3 dampers on my car are as good as the Ohlins TTX shock on my bike. Ride quality. Very good, soft and compliant, I had been prepared to get my teeth rattled at slower speeds but this is just not the case. The car ride bumps very well and feels very different to the standard dampers, it provides enough feedback of bumps but the damping is so good you don't really notice them. Spring stiffness. The spring rates are considerably stiffer than even the competition pack rates that BMW uses and I was expecting to get my teeth knocked out. The car just doesn't feel stiff though because the damping is excellent, feels like it's sitting between sport and sports plus when compared to the standard suspension but bizarrely a lot more comfortable than even the comfort setting on the BMW suspension. Grip. With my bike experience I know that some bikes I can go very hard on, some I can't and it's all down to feeling the grip under the front wheel on a bike. With the car now the feeling was instant, I know I can drive very quickly in this car and I can just feel the grip from the front and rear. This car iust has tons of pure mechanical grip and the tyres and damping feels soft and compliant with excellent feedback. You can move the car quickly from side to side and it settles almost instantly. Braking, the front spring rates are hugely increased from the standard springs and the car just stops very hard now with minimum dive. Acceleration, car hooks up, drives hard with none of the usual M4 antics, no sliding, no hopping or dancing around, just instant grip converted into forward acceleration. The only downside is it makes the car feel slow because it’s so planted, the fear of hard acceleration every M4 driver will know has gone completely. Corners. Turns hard and flat with plenty of feel transmitted through the chassis. I haven't had the chance to really hit the twisties with it yet though. A really good suspension set up is one you don't really notice. I've driven 300 miles today and quickly forgot that I was using a racing derived suspension. The car just does everything very well, it brakes, corners and accelerates well but also cruises along the motorway with a very compliant ride. I've been in a lot of cars with aftermarket coilovers fitted and many of them are bloody awful, just racetrack refugees that operate within such a narrow window that they just don't work on a real UK road. The Nitrons really are excellent. To be honest this is how a £60,000 car should feel straight from the factory the BMW adaptive system really isn't anywhere near this. It's both comfortable and extremely capable at the same time. Take note BMW. |
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06-19-2017, 05:04 PM | #7 |
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Great to hear and thanks for posting up!
Two things: would love to hear (ha) any noticings about noises, above and beyond what is typical of a coilover setup with hard mounts. Anything weird in the damping? Lots of high end brands still seem to have issues in this space. Second thing: pics of the pretty parts! Both installed and not. Thanks much |
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06-20-2017, 06:34 AM | #8 | |
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06-20-2017, 04:25 PM | #9 |
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OK....pictures...bear with me, had to reduce the size to get them to load.
The picture shows the stance of the car. I asked for low but not stupidly low as the car has to get up ramps and over speed bumps. The picture of the top plate is Nitron's watercut prototype that was fitted to my car, the production version will be finished up to their normal high quality standard. I like them, kind of one off race car cool.... |
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06-20-2017, 04:49 PM | #11 |
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Took the car up to the Scottish Borders this evening. Good run of about 90 miles or so. Really enjoyed the kit and had the opportunity to play with some of the settings.
The kit comes set exactly in the middle of all of the adjusters so there is plenty of scope for making changes to suit. I wanted a little more feel and directness from the front wheels and felt they would benefit from slightly slower rebound. Added 2 clicks of rebound damping and tested some more, added a click of low speed compression as well. I could easily feel the effects of 2 clicks on the dampers, the result was a "pointier' front end of the car that I can place very accurately with bags of feedback as the car comes to the apex of the curve. I tried adding a couple of clicks to the rear rebound but it made the rear slightly too harsh for me so put it back to the baseline settings. The car is very good, I'm really only making very slight changes to personalise the car to me. It is fast and stable up to very high speeds. (clearly no speed limits were broken). To answer the question about noise. The rear mountings are metal to metal on the R3 kit as its designed for racing. This causes some occasional chatter sounds at lower speeds, (up to 25 ish) and I also noticed some higher speed chatter from the rear under very hard braking. It's not an issue for me at all. Nitron will supply the R1 road biased kit that works with the OE rubber mounts if anyone wants to go that way. |
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06-28-2017, 08:33 AM | #13 | |
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I made that clarification because I'm not asking about noise from hard mounts - obviously those will always make some incremental noise over rubber or poly. Thanks |
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06-28-2017, 01:59 PM | #14 | |
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06-28-2017, 02:50 PM | #15 |
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Good deal, thank you
My old e92 JRZ RS1 front struts were sometimes noisy, and I've heard the new generation while better can still exhibit some clunks. Seems to be a ymmv situation, at least with that brand. I loved the performance, however. |
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06-29-2017, 02:28 PM | #16 |
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http://www.nitron.co.uk/catalogue_it...9&prodID=87643
http://www.nitron.co.uk/catalogue_it...9&prodID=87642 http://www.nitron.co.uk/catalogue_it...9&prodID=87642 Available to order from Nitron now in the UK Last edited by jim996; 06-29-2017 at 03:20 PM.. |
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06-30-2017, 12:54 PM | #18 |
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Not cheap but they do include a fully adjustable top plate.
Sound investment though. The performance of my R3 kit is outstanding and the quality of the dampers and clickers is on a par with the Ohlins factory TTX shock on my bike As the Rolls Royce brothers used to say "The quality will remain long after the cost has been forgotten" ;-) |
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06-30-2017, 02:08 PM | #19 |
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Finally a HAS that matches the color of my car!
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07-15-2017, 02:30 AM | #20 |
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Just a quick update on the Nitron coilovers with around 3 weeks use and about 800 miles on the kit now. I haven't noticed any further settling of the car onto the new kit and it continues to be an extremely good solution. The car grips like a limpet now absolutely rock solid and no surprises in the handling at all.
I drive the car in sports plus engine settings and MDM mode traction in the dry and I think that the limiting factor has switched from the bouncy standard rear suspension to the Continental tyres that came with the car. My rears have about 8000 miles on now but seem to be lasting forever. I'm planning to switch them for Michelin Cup Sport 2s once I've killed them which will probably allow me to go slightly stiffer on the set up to accommodate the additional grip. Overall I'm absolutely delighted with the upgrade. I guess the only downside is that it's a big investment in the car that no one can actually see.....a set of bling wheels would make the car look better but not add any extra performance! |
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08-01-2017, 07:53 PM | #21 |
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Awesome stuff and great to see more UK owners going for performance rather than the fancy bling parts
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11-05-2017, 02:21 PM | #22 |
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Final production version of the Nitron coilovers
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