BMW F87 M2 / M2 Competition Suspension Tuning Guide

BMW M2 / M2 Competition Suspension Tuning Guide

The BMW F87 M2 / M2 Competition has a fundamentally well-designed chassis, with near-perfect 50:50 weight distribution, a long wheelbase providing stability and a motorsport-inspired tubular rear subframe with 5-link multi-link rear suspension design.

Despite this, the M2 and M2 Competition suffer from unoptimised suspension geometry and lacklustre suspension hardware. This causes the M2 and M2 Competition to suffer from two key dynamic downsides. The first downside is the poorly matched spring and damper rates. The springs are too soft and the dampers are too stiff, which leads to a feeling of ‘crashiness’ over poor quality tarmac and bumps. The compression and extension of the soft springs is controlled too aggressively by the stiff dampers, leading to the car feeling unstable when driving fast.

The second dynamic downside of the F87 M2 and M2 Competition is their poorly optimised suspension geometry. The geometry on these cars is designed to make the M2 / M2 Competition understeer before they oversteer, which alerts less experienced drivers to the fact they are getting close to the limits of grip. Unfortunately, understeer is not good for high-performance driving.

It is possible to overcome these dynamic issues with a few suspension and chassis upgrades. Once the basic issues have been sorted, a few more upgrades will transform your BMW M2 / M2 Competition into a very capable fast road car, and by comprehensively upgrading the chassis and suspension it is possible to turn your M2 / M2 Competition into a ballistic track car.

We’ve created this guide to give owners an idea of what suspension and chassis upgrades are available and which upgrades may suit your needs as a driver. We’ve also created a series of Handling Packages where we’ve grouped together the ideal upgrades to suit a type of driving such as demanding road tours or intensive track days.

Before we get started…

A full geometry alignment is absolutely essential after installing suspension or chassis upgrades. A good geometry alignment improves a car’s handling dramatically and will ensure any installed upgrades are used to their maximum potential whilst also improving cornering grip and traction, and helping to reduce understeer and tyre wear.



INITIAL UPGRADES

In this section we’ll explore individual upgrades and the benefits that each brings to the driving experience. The upgrades on this list can be installed as standalone modifications or in conjunction with other upgrades depending on your budget or aims with your car. There are a lot of aftermarket parts available for the M2 / M2 Competition and it can be a little daunting to understand just what benefits each upgrade offers.


Lowering Springs

Eibach Pro-Kit Lowering Springs

High-quality aftermarket lowering springs are a great first upgrade to make when looking to improve the cornering performance of your M2 / M2 Competition.

Lowering springs help to reduce the ride height at the front and rear of your BMW, which in turn lowers the centre of gravity. A lower centre of gravity helps to improve cornering performance as the movement of the car’s mass is reduced when cornering, resulting in more grip. This reduced transfer of mass also helps to improve directional stability. A lower ride height also helps to improve braking stability, as nosediving during heavy braking is reduced, and to improve acceleration as excessive rear axle squat under heavy acceleration is also limited.

Lowering springs are often slightly stiffer than OEM springs, which for the M2 / M2 Competition, actually helps to improve ride refinement by removing the ‘crashiness’ experienced with the OEM springs.

Lowering springs also increase the front camber, which is particularly useful as the front camber angle on the M2 / M2 Competition is not adjustable as standard. Increasing the front camber helps to improve cornering grip in mid and high speed corners whilst also helping to reduce understeer.

A good set of lowering springs will also introduce positive rake into the chassis. The rake angle is the difference between the front and rear ride heights. Positive rake means the front ride height is set slightly lower compared to the rear ride height. This improves braking stability as it helps to prevent nose diving on the brakes. Positive rake improves the M2 / M2 Competition’s turn-in due to reduced initial body roll as the car loads up at the start of a corner.

For the BMW M2 / M2 Competition, we recommend Eibach Pro-Kit Springs as they improve vehicle dynamics whilst also remaining usable for daily driving.



Camber Plates

Suspension Secrets BMW M2 Camber Plates


The front camber angle on the M2 / M2 Competition is not adjustable as standard, meaning aftermarket camber plates are required when looking to increase front camber.

Camber plates replace the OEM top mounts that are fitted to the M2 / M2 Competition with a fully-adjustable unit. This adjustment enables you to gain complete control over the front camber angle of your BMW, and it allows you to set the negative camber to whatever you require as a driver from a good fast road setup, all the way up to an aggressive track day setup that is intended to work with semi-slick tyres.

Both the M2 and M2 Competition are designed from the factory to understeer before they begin to oversteer at high speed. This understeer acts as a safety net, alerting drivers to when they are trying to carry too much speed into a corner. In our experience understeer works the other way and prevents a driver from exploring the limits of the car as it erodes confidence when driving. 

Increasing negative camber with camber plates unlocks more grip at the front axle and it also greatly improves driver confidence and feedback from the steering when driving fast. The biggest improvement is in long medium-speed or high-speed corners, where the increased camber effectively loads the outside front wheel and hooks the car around the corner with far more speed and composure.

We recommend Suspension Secrets Camber Plates for the F87 M2 / M2 Competition as our plates offer camber and caster adjustability. Caster improves high-speed stability, cornering grip and steering feel, making it a good aspect of geometry to improve. Suspension Secrets Camber Plates also feature notched grooves which prevent the camber angle from changing even after driving over rough tarmac or kerbs on the race track.



Adjustable Drop Links


Adjustable drop links help to solve some of the issues that can be created by fitting lowering springs. Whilst lowering springs are a great first handling upgrade to make but they can introduce some issues. If your M2 / M2 Competition has been lowered significantly, it can cause chassis and suspension components to collide with each other, causing damage. Another issue is that the position of the front and anti-roll bars can change which causes the bars to be held in tension which can lead to uneven handling left-to-right.

Adjustable drop links allow you to return the anti-roll bars to their original positions, and they help to prevent any unwanted collisions between chassis and suspension components.



BMW F87 M2 / M2 Competition Ultimate Road Handling Pack (Handling Pack 1)


The Ultimate Road Pack is our first Handling Package for the BMW M2 / M2 Competition and it contains all the upgrades that are possible without compromising the usability of the M2 / M2 Competition on the road. Each upgrade improves cornering performance without increasing Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH).

The Ultimate Road Pack contains:

  • Eibach Pro-Kit Lowering Springs
  • Suspension Secrets Camber Plates
  • Suspension Secrets Front and Rear Drop Links
  • Suspension Secrets Rear Toe Arms
  • Suspension Secrets Solid Front Control Arm Bushes
  • Eibach Anti-Roll Bars

Suspension Secrets Solid Front Control Arm Bushes

Suspension Secrets BMW M2 Solid Front Control Arm Bushes

The standard front lower control arm bushes on the BMW M2 / M2 Competition are constructed predominantly from isolation rubber. This rubber flexes during high-speed driving which leads to vague steering and instability when braking at the limit. 

Replacing these rubber bushes with solid control arm bushes eliminates this flex, which results in more accurate steering and braking stability.

Our bushes are fitted with sealed high-quality OEM-supplied bearings for consistent performance and reliability.


Suspension Secrets Adjustable Rear Toe Arms

Suspension Secrets BMW M2 Adjustable Rear Toe Arms

Adjustable rear toe arms improve cornering stability whilst allowing you to improve the rear suspension geometry without compromise.

The standard toe adjustment bolts and rear camber adjustment bolts on the M2 / M2 Competition have a limited range of adjustment, which make achieving higher-performance geometry alignments impossible without compromising on either toe or camber settings.

Using the standard adjustment bolts, you can either increase the rear camber for more cornering grip, but achieving the desired rear toe-in settings becomes impossible, which leads to instability; or the rear toe-in can be optimised for good traction, but that means reducing the rear camber, so cornering grip is limited.

Suspension Secrets Adjustable Rear Toe Arms have a much wider range of adjustment, so you can increase rear camber whilst simultaneously maintaining the optimum rear toe settings. 

The Suspension Secrets Adjustable Rear Toe Arms feature spherical rod-end bearings for improved performance and accuracy. Solidly-mounted arms do not flex during cornering, which ensures your rear suspension geometry remains fixed throughout a corner, resulting in greatly improved cornering grip and stability.


Eibach Anti-Roll Kit

Eibach Front and Rear Anti-roll Bars for BMW M2

Upgraded anti-roll bars are a good upgrade for an M2 / M2 Competition that still needs to be a good road car/daily driver. Anti-roll bars work during cornering, but when driving on the motorway/highway they are passive so ride comfort is not impacted.

Anti-roll bars help to reduce body roll and to control the lateral load transfers that takes place when the car turns, which results in more cornering grip. Reducing body roll also allows more aggressive suspension geometry to be used more effectively. 



BMW F87 M2 / M2 Competition Clubsport Handling Pack (Handling Pack 2)


Handling Pack 2 is for those drivers looking for a capable track car that is still usable on the road, or a ‘clubsport’ spec build. The Clubsport Handling Pack includes:

  • Suspension Secrets Camber Plates
  • Suspension Secrets Front and Rear Drop Links
  • Suspension Secrets Rear Toe Arms
  • Suspension Secrets Solid Front Control Arm Bushes
  • Eibach Anti-Roll Bars
  • Choice of 1.5/2-way adjustable coilovers

COILOVERS

At this stage, the standard dampers in combination with Eibach lowering springs are not suitable for intensive track use so coilovers are required. Aftermarket coilovers are made from much higher quality materials and use more sophisticated technology compared to the OEM dampers for enhanced performance. This ensures your tyres remain in contact with the tarmac more of the time leading to more grip.

Coilovers also offer damping adjustment which allows you to fine-tune the handling of your M2 / M2 Competition to suit different circuits or to help improve certain handling characteristics. For example, if you are experiencing understeer you can stiffen the rear damper rebound setting to help rectify this.

Coilovers are also ride-height adjustable, giving you complete control over the ride height of your BMW. Ride-height adjustability also means corner-weighting setups to be applied.

For a Clubsport-spec car we recommend the following coilovers:

ÖHLINS ROAD AND TRACK

Ohlins Road and Track Coilovers

Öhlins Road and Track coilovers are 1.5-way adjustable (compression and rebound characteristics controlled via a single adjuster) and are compatible with the Suspension Secrets BMW F87 M2 / M2 Competition camber plates.

The combined compression and rebound adjustment of the Öhlins makes them a good choice for making quick adjustments or changing from ‘road’ settings to ‘track’ settings upon arriving at a track day, as the damper adjusters can be made stiffer easily.


KW V3

KW V3 Coilovers for BMW M2

KW V3 coilovers are 2-way adjustable (compression and rebound characteristics controlled via two individual adjusters) and are compatible with the Suspension Secrets BMW F87 M2 / M2 Competition camber plates.

Independently adjustable compression and rebound damping allows you to fine-tune the damping and cornering of your BMW with more accuracy versus a 1-way or 1.5-way adjustable coilover. With compression and rebound being independently adjustable you can also achieve a good fast road setup that provides compliance over bumps but not at the expense of body control in the corners.


NITRON ROAD SPORT

Nitron Road Sport coilovers are 2-way adjustable (compression and rebound damping characteristics controlled via two individual adjusters) and are compatible the Suspension Secrets BMW F87 M2 / M2 Competition Camber Plates

Independently adjustable compression and rebound damping allows you to fine-tune the damping and cornering of your BMW with more accuracy versus a 1-way or 1.5-way adjustable coilover. With compression and rebound being independently adjustable you can also achieve a good fast road setup that provides compliance over bumps but not at the expense of body control in the corners.



BMW F87 M2 / M2 Competition Full Track Handling Pack (Handling Pack 3)

BMW M2 Track Car

Handling Pack 3 is a complete package that will turn your M2 / M2 Competition into a fully-built track car that is designed to use very grippy semi-slick track day tyres.

The Full Track Pack includes:

  • Suspension Secrets Front and Rear Drop Links
  • Suspension Secrets Rear Toe Arms
  • Suspension Secrets Off Centre Caster Control Arm Bushes
  • Eibach Anti-Roll Bars
  • Choice of 3-way adjustable coilovers
  • Suspension Secrets Adjustable Rear Camber Arms
  • Suspension Secrets Adjustable Rear Traction Arms
  • Suspension Secrets Solid Rear Control Arm Bushes

Set of 3-Way Adjustable Coilovers

Nitron R3 coilovers for BMW M2

We are often asked if 3-way adjustable coilovers are too sophisticated for amateur drivers but in reality amateur drivers will benefit from them more than a professional will. What makes 3-way adjustable coilovers special is the independent high speed and low speed compression settings. Drivers can use the low speed compression settings to influence how their M2 / M2 Competition will handle in the corners, and then use the high speed compression settings to control how the car responds to bumps and kerbstrikes. This means you can set the low speed compression to stiff for improved cornering grip, and then set the high speed compression to very soft to ensure your M2 / M2 Competition remains planted and stable over rough tarmac and kerbs.

We offer the following coilovers for Handling Pack 3

  • Nitron R3 (3-way independent adjustment, supplied with Nitron camber/caster top mounts, custom spring rates available, fully ride-height adjustable)
  • KW Clubsport V4 (3-way independent adjustment, supplied with KW camber top mounts, custom spring rates available, fully ride-height adjustable)
  • MOTON 3-Way (3-way independent adjustment, supplied with MOTON camber top mounts, custom spring rates available, fully ride-height adjustable)

Suspension Secrets Off-Centre Caster Bushes

Suspension Secrets BMW M2 Solid Front Caster Bush

Handling Pack 3 replaces the standard Suspension Secrets Solid Front Control Arm Bushes with Off-Centre Caster Bushes for even more cornering grip and steering feel. Increasing positive caster improves steering feel, mid-corner grip and high-speed stability making it an important aspect of suspension geometry to adjust and increase.

The Suspension Secrets Off-Centre Caster Bushes also provide the benefits of standard solid control arm bushes which includes improved braking stability and steering accuracy when driving on track.


Suspension Secrets Adjustable Rear Traction Arms


The Suspension Secrets Adjustable Traction Arms replace your BMW’s original trailing arms. An adjustable traction arm can be lengthened compared to the non-adjustable standard arms. By increasing the length of the traction arms, the kinematics of the rear axle are changed to provide more traction.

A longer trailing arm causes the rear axle to rotate forwards when accelerating, which digs the rear tyres into the tarmac, resulting in much more traction when accelerating particularly at corner-exit.


SUSPENSION SECRETS ADJUSTABLE REAR CAMBER ARMS

Suspension Secrets BMW M2 Adjustable Rear Camber Arms

When the rear camber adjustment bolt of the M2 / M2 Competition is at its maximum position there is still not enough camber to effectively use grippy track day tyres. Adjustable rear camber arms are required to increase the rear camber to a more appropriate level for track use, resulting in far more cornering grip in medium speed and high speed corners. Increasing the rear camber also allows more front camber to be applied, resulting in greater overall cornering grip.


Solid Rear Control Arm Bushes

Suspension Secrets Solid Rear Control Arm Bush

Solid rear control arm bushes help to increase the sense of connection to the rear axle felt by the driver. Replacing the rear rubber bushes in the M2 / M2 Competition’s rear lower control arm with solid bushes ensures the rear suspension geometry remains fixed throughout the duration of a corner, which improves stability.



How To Get Your Handling Pack

If you would like to get in touch about any of our upgrade options, services or handling packages you can contact us via the Contact Page.

Leave a Reply