Suspension "Springs" question

[bengal taiga]

I recently noticed an early E9 and its driver at a shopping center. The car was was primer black, missing all trim and front grills and wore no plates. I was struck by the stance of the car in that it sat much lower in the front than rear and looked the way I wish my E9 would look. I suppose I should add that the car looked like it was prepped for the track in that it had extremely wide wheels with lug studs that protruded well past the wheels and the tires (covered in mud) looked as though they were racing slicks. I did not have an opportunity to get a thorough look see and it was clear the driver was in a real hurry.

Prior to his leaving I asked the driver if he did anything to get the car to sit as it did. He said he previously tried progressive rate springs and did not like them. Instead, the only thing he could recall doing was was swaping out the rear springs from a square bumpered car which he said were taller than the European models. He said he did fool with the front spacer plate although he considered cutting the front springs. He also said it was easy to fit springs from another model that worked, but neglected to say which model. I have no idea if he was pulling my leg.

Can someone confirm that the US big bumpered models had rear springs that were taller than other E9's?

TIA

 

[bert35csi]

Don't know about different springs for the 74 US coupes, but the upper spring rubber pads came in several thicknesses, so you can adjust the rear ride height by a small amount.

Albert
72 3.5 CSi(L-jet, Getrag 265 5 speed)

 

[bert35csi]

Another consideration this coupe stance is that it may have an extra tall racing tire and rim setup giving it a higher rear rake. Yet another possibility is when Bilstein gas shocks are used in conjucntion with stock springs, the car will actually be raised about an inch, therefore when using gas shocks, change to a lower spring set.

A few years back, after installing Carl Nelson's spring set and Bilstein HD shocks, I felt the back sat a tad too low in the rear, so this is what I did.
As the coupe is already maxed out with the thickest spring rubber pad, and finding no other alternative to raise the rear, then I had an idea to take another big set of spring pads and slice it in half and install this in combination with the regular pads, thereby raising the rear rake by .5"
Size of spring pads is indicated by the number of dots on side, 2 for small and 3 dots for the thickest.

This modification worked well, giving the coupe the raked appearance.
When cutting the rubber pad, use a fine tooth rigid backsaw and cut carfeully, do not deviate from center as there is practically no way to recut the rubber spacer once a mistake is made. After being cut, discard the notched end and insert cut spacer on top of the existing spring pad. The modified piece should now be sandwiched between car chassis and the other pad. My mechanic charged about 2 hours labor for this installation.

I've since removed the extra spacer and have gone back to the standard Carl Nelson spring setup, as I prefer this lowered coupe stance now.

Albert
72 3.5 CSi(L-jet, Getrag 265 5 speed)
88 M6