F30 340i - Pt.4 - Wheels, Tires and Suspension - Again!

After driving the car for awhile, Jay decided the mods we've done in regards to the Wheels, Tires and Suspension wasn't enough. Although it was a drastic improvement over the original, Jay wanted more. 

In this segment, we will be looking at a full overhaul of the suspension. 

There are a lot of parts that the F80 M3 chassis can share with the F30, as it is just a widened F30 body. We took a look at the diagrams of an F80 M3 to see what can be retrofitted onto the 340i. 

The retrofit that stood out the most to us was the complete F8X M Front Bracing system.

This includes:

• F8X M Carbon Strut Brace
• F8X M Aluminium Rear Brace
• F80 M3 Cowling Plastics
• F80 M3 Hood Sealing Gaskets
• F80 M3 Front Top Plates
• F80 M3 Shock Tower Reinforcement Plates

F8X M FRONT STRUT BRACING SYSTEM RETROFIT

This has been done before by some people with F series N55, however only a small handful have done this on F series B58. This was very time consuming to source all of the parts, bolts etc, but well worth the upgrade to fully brace the front end.

The F80 Front Top Plates had to be utilized as it is required to be able to connect to the F8X M Front Bracing system. This resulted in a loose between the top plate and the F3X shaft, therefore a custom machined washer was made to properly center and keep the two parts working together.

Same goes for the rear, we put F80 M3 Rear Top Plates. The reason behind this was to upgrade from the softer F30 inner bushing to a more hardened and track ready one found on the F80. This also required a custom machined washer to work seamlessly with the F30 shocks. To finish this off, we added F80 Rear Bumpstops as they are shorter than the original F30 ones and will work with the next upgrade for this segment.

BILSTEIN B16 EDC COILOVERS / WHITELINE SWAY BAR END LINKS

Now, the biggest change in this segment is the shock absorbers. Our OEM EDC shocks were starting to leak (as all would sooner or later) and we decided to upgrade. With only a handful of EDC shock upgrades on the market being Bilstein, Jay opted for the Bilstein B16 EDC Damptronic Coilovers.

The B16 EDC is a coilover system mounted on an EDC shock that works seamlessly with the original BMW EDC system which came on cars optioned with the Track and Handling Package.

Along with the B16s, we had to upgrade the stock sway bar end links to an adjustable setup. We opted for the Whiteline Heavy Duty for the front and rear, as it is a balljoint style bushing. The other options on the market were spherical bushing, which would be good for summer, but not ideal for our Canadian winters.

We've also changed the Front Tension Struts to the MEYLE HD upgraded ones. The OEM arms fail due to the Hydrobushing that is used. Over time, cracks develop in the bushing which leads the fluid to leak out and cause problems. The MEYLE HD arms come with an upgraded bushing that is made of full rubber, which will improve handling feel and last much longer than the OEM bushing.

APEX ARC-8 / MICHELIN PS4S

To finalize, Jay made the decision to switch from the 19" setup to an 18" one. Although the car looked great on the 19" Superspeed RF05RR setup, he decided an 18" setup will be a better choice to shave weight and gain acceleration.

Popular due to its amazing quality and design, we chose the APEX ARC-8 in 18x9 +30 squared, wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S 245/40R18.

The ARC-8 comes in at a weight of about 18 lbs each, a really lightweight wheel with a reputable track record! Compared to the factory BMW 20" 405M wheels (24 lbs each), a total of 6 lbs per wheel has been shaved off, for a total weight saving of 96 lbs in rotational mass. We then chose the Michelin PS4S, as it is arguably the best high performance summer street tire available on the market due to its exceptional handling in dry and wet. 

All in all, the modifications in this segment completely transformed the F30 340i. Gone was the floaty, disconnected feel and now the car dives into corners and holds itself flat. The combination of parts in this segment is bringing the F30 closer to that ///M feeling we are chasing.