Tein Drift Spec Coilovers for BMW E21

[LewyS14a]

10/8kg may not be a lot different, ive uprated my sway bars wich has allowed me to run the damping a lot softer as it doesn't have to compensate anymore for the body roll , its helped alot on our pot hole riddled roads over here but if you value your spine id go with something softer .

[ollycarbs]

i am still intersted on all one off engineering parts and when it is about the suspension of an E21 i am more than intersted!
what you do with your local engineer is really great!!!!

my setup is simplier: Bilstein B6 from an E30 (70$ second hand), shortened strut, threaded sleeve welded on the strut, 300lbs spring rate for the front... not finish yet but i can't wait!

[340i]

i am still intersted on all one off engineering parts and when it is about the suspension of an E21 i am more than intersted!
what you do with your local engineer is really great!!!!

my setup is simplier: Bilstein B6 from an E30 (70$ second hand), shortened strut, threaded sleeve welded on the strut, 300lbs spring rate for the front... not finish yet but i can't wait!

thanks. i'd love to fabricate the bits myself but dont have access to lathes, mills, welders, etc, so its quite handy i can use him to make the bits for me. there's also always interesting cars in there too, which is fun to go see.

i was planning on going with a setup like yours, but measured the e30 shocks and didnt think i could go as low as i wanted (due to the large overall height of my wheels), so this seemed like the next best solution.

btw, this is just the start with my suspension upgrades. the real interesting stuff is coming up soon...

think dave macintyres setup, but without the downfalls of the design and without the ludicrous pricetag

plus a bit more bling thrown in, just for laughs

[340i]

update:

I have found some more stance in the front, by swapping the Tein camber plates for some BC camber plates. Due to their lower profile, this simple swap has netted my about 15mm, with scope to go another 5mm or so if I do some minor modification to the spacer ring between the bearing and the top spring platform.

Anyway, onto the pics...
Tein camber plates for an S15 silvia, vs BC camber plates for a Subaru Forrester (that was what they had on the shelf at the time, so I made them fit the e21)






As can be seen here, the BC top spring perches (left) are one piece, and the Tein ones are flatter and have a spacer. If more stance is required, this will get shortened.


Success!!

(bear in mind that this is an old brick of a phone, and also that I have hammered the panel upwards so that it is no longer sharp and pointing downwards)

And now for the start of the rear...

I got these Tein units for the back of a Subaru, which were meant to have adjustable dampers but are actually unadjustable versions. Pretty annoying, but I bought them anyway as they're the right size. I'll get them rebuilt with adjustable parts at a later stage, so no biggie...


side note - it cracks me up the names Tein give their suspension parts. Gotta love the Japanese!

Comparison shot with my Spax suspension

second side note - don't buy spax. These cost me a heap, I've driven on them 7 times (all in the dry), and they are rusting away and the paint is falling off the shocks and the springs.

The Teins have beefier bushes. I'll have to drill out the mounting pickup on the suspension (or run a sleeve) but that is easy enough.


They came with springs but no top plates, so here they are with my front plates before I used them on the front


And in the car...

Side note three: yes, that is a massive hole in my inner guard. I want to fit two recaros in the back but they're too wide, so cutty cutty cutty...

And finally, my new tyres! 295/35r17...

side note four: the reason the photo is crap is because my sister in Australia took it with her phone. I'm gonna bring them back with me on my next visit there. Nobody in nz could supply these, and shipping them from oz costs more than the tyres!

And the previously 'wide' 235/40r17's, which are now going to be the 'narrow' fronts

[TheNeek]

Those rears are shorties.

Most impressive.

[ollycarbs]

oh yeah, impressive!!!!
i will enlarge my field of research for my rear shocks, i was just looking on E30, E36, E46, i found some cool things but when you use some Tein subaru shocks with this quality, it makes me reconsider my choice!

Anyway, massive build for an E21 and i learn each time i read you!!!

By the way, was the previous camber plates, plug n play with the stock 3 bolts of the E21 by any chance ??

[340i]

oh yeah, impressive!!!!
i will enlarge my field of research for my rear shocks, i was just looking on E30, E36, E46, i found some cool things but when you use some Tein subaru shocks with this quality, it makes me reconsider my choice!

Anyway, massive build for an E21 and i learn each time i read you!!!

By the way, was the previous camber plates, plug n play with the stock 3 bolts of the E21 by any chance ??

The BC camber plates needed a bit of slotting on two of the chassis mounting holes, and when i trial fitted the tein camber plates i drilled three new holes (and spun the plate around 180 degrees). it looks a bit like swiss cheese now but will be covered up eventually when i get a strut bar, so im not too concerned about the extra holes.

ill get a pic at some point and chuck it in the next update

[340i]

heres the BC plates and the slotting (i just drilled next to two of the existing holes). They should stay where they are, but I might weld some washers in there, just to give it a bit more strength.


from underneath you can see all the room available. I think that almost any aftermarket camber plate could probably be used.


and to make the S15 Tein camber plates fit, i got the tapemeasure out and drew some dots and drilled some holes. This was pretty quick and easy, and also if you were to be clever with it, could be done so that you get a bit more castor too (if you want to). My new lower arms will give me this adjustability, so I just mounted them as centred as I could get them with my limited tools.




...and back to the rears, I've got to make some custom top plates to suit the oem mounting holes and the Tein shocks. I've got some Tein plates out of the back of a Skyline (I got them free with my front shocks ) which im thinking about mod'ing and then bolting to a plate which has the same PCD as the holes in the chassis. Theres a bunch of different solutions to this, but I think this will be the quickest and easiest with the parts I've got on hand.

[ollycarbs]

oh!!!
That's great!!! i was really thinking it would be a lot of work, i mean weldings and cutting, etc.
i will perhaps plan that for the (near) future. As i do not want to modify the shell i will perhaps modify the CP to suit the stock holes a little like you do for the rears... Now i just have to find some camber plates; it is not the easiest thing in France...

Thanks for the explanation and pictures!
Nicolas,

[NikDev]

Nice mods! Did the same thing on my volvo

Instead of making a new tube, with treads. Why not just take the sleeve thats with the coilovers and weld that on the bottom of the leg?


I did that on my car:

[340i]

Nice mods! Did the same thing on my volvo

Instead of making a new tube, with treads. Why not just take the sleeve thats with the coilovers and weld that on the bottom of the leg?

hey NikDev, nice work with the volvo. I thought about doing it that way, but didnt think the standard part was thick enough for my application, and thought it might not look too tidy after cutting off the mounting tabs etc that are on the oem Tein sleeve. Your setup looks great though, so this is definitely another option for other people to take.

[340i]

slight update on the rears. here they are with the nissan rear plates bolted up (and BC top spring perches). I'm going to lathe off the stepped bit off of the plates then bolt an adaptor in. In my head it seems like it will be easy, but we'll see how we go!

[340i]

slight update, ive purchased some Tein Mono Flex units (for a new style mx5/miata), which im going to swap into the rear instead of the above shocks. they're fully adjustable and have the threaded bodies (and look pretty much brand new), so will be much better than what i was going to use. I'm picking them up tomorrow, good times.
No doubt there will be 'some' adaption required, hopefully they should go in easy enough though.

[Tman]

You sir garnered my respect!

[Oxer]

Deffinately love your work.. I love the fact that you arent affraid to try different coilovers in a completely different application and are content in the amount of fabrication involved. Great work!