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Tuesday, 14 January 2014 00:04

SuperPro BMW 1 & 3 series alloy arm upgrade

SuperPro BMW 1 & 3 series alloy arm upgrade


As part of its ever-expanding range of alignment and suspension products, Australian chassis authority SuperPro has released details of its all-new alloy arm upgrades for many 1 and 3 Series BMW models.

Thanks to BMW’s parts sharing philosophy, these new parts will fit all E81, E82, E87, E88, E90, E91 and E92 models. SuperPro has designed these parts in response to significant demand from the tuning fraternity for a set of uprated front arms to cope with the stresses and forces placed upon these cars when driven enthusiastically, and of course, when subjected to tuning. Both the 1 and 3 series ranges have become well-proven tuner platforms, and these new products not only offer a greater level of performance and durability ‘out of the box’, but also the ability to adjust geometry far outside the factory’s relatively timid parameters.

Where the OEM parts use traditional rubber around a ball joint, the SuperPro parts use a vastly superior polyurethane formulation that balances greater precision with equivalent levels of comfort. This formulation is really clever, as it’s not only used by many race teams and reigning motorsport champions, but it’s also approved at dealer level by Subaru UK’s accessory division, Pro-R . Clearly a compound that can be all things to all people! By removing any unwanted movement, or ‘slop’ in the suspension action, the SuperPro arms ensure that chassis geometry is kept consistent and maintained even when the car is driven on the limit.

Both the Front Lower Control Arm and the Radius Arm offer a complete arm replacement and come ready mounted with all bushes for a simple and easy fit. The Control Arm is “on car” camber adjustable and allows up to a degree of extra camber. The radius arms can also be adjusted in situ and allows tuners to obtain an additional increase or decrease of caster. In both cases, this fine adjustment is achieved by the simple rotation of a turnbuckle – and the kit even includes a spanner for this very purpose.

 

Source: Easier Cars

http://www.easier.com/120357-superpro-bmw-1-3-series-alloy-arm-upgrade.html

 

 

ALOY0005K

Christmas is just a couple of weeks away and if you’re like us, you probably have lots of shopping left to do. In case you need some gift ideas or are just looking for some cool new goodies for your own car, here’s the December Product Showcase from our official suppliers.

Who wouldn’t want to find some of these cool parts and accessories under the old tree this year?

SuperPro have developed and released the front arms for the BMW in response to the need for an upgrade to the standard OEM style rubber bushings and ball joint. The 1 Series shares its platform with the larger 3 Series and both have become popular as a tuner car, particularly the bigger horsepower cars. This has uncovered a few issues with what is a very good chassis. 

The front cross member/cradle assembly and control arms are made of rigid aluminium and provide a solid platform to build a well-handling car. Both of these vehicles run fairly aggressive caster from the factory, but with no adjustability. The new SuperPro arms allow for adjustment to achieve caster ‘split’ and allow for tunability to really make this chassis perform. The OEM bushings are fairly soft and the SuperPro bushings minimise the dynamic caster change and increase stability under braking.

The SuperPro Alloy Lower Control Arm is fitted with a camber adjustable SuperPro bushing to complete the package. All the SuperPro bushings are cotton reel style, which allows full articulation and movement without binding and with no increase in noise, vibration or harshness.

ALOY0005K Complete Alloy Control Arm Kit – includes radius and front lower control arms.

• Both the front lower control arm and the radius arm are a complete arm replacement and include SuperPro bushings and a ball joint.
• The control arm is ‘on car’ camber adjustable.
• The control arm allows for up to 1 degree camber change.
• The radius arm is ‘on car’ adjustable.
• The radius arms allow for up 0.8 degrees caster increase or decrease.
• Kit includes a spanner to adjust both lower control arms and radius arms.

To find out more information on this and other SuperPro products for your car and where you can purchase these, visit www.superpro.com.au or www.superpro.eu.com.

 

Source: Speedhunters.com

http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/12/december-product-showcase/

 

Friday, 06 December 2013 05:22

BMW 1 & 3 series Alloy Arm Upgrade

BMW 1 & 3 series - E81, E82, E87, E88 E90, E91, E92, E93 

 

SuperPro have developed and released the Front Arms for the BMW in response to the need for an upgrade to the standard OEM style rubber bushings and ball joint. The 1 Series shares its platform with the larger 3 Series and both have become popular as a tuner car, particularly the bigger horsepower cars. This has uncovered a few issues with what is a very good chassis. The front cross member/ cradle assembly and control arms are made of rigid aluminium and provide a solid platform to build a well handling car.

Wednesday, 04 December 2013 00:01

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Wednesday, 27 November 2013 06:17

BMW Mini Cooper S R55, R56, R57

SuperPro has now released bushings for this model.

The SuperPro front lower control arm bushes are designed in three configurations, standard,single caster offset with approx. 1 degree change and double caster offset, approx. 2 degree change. In order to maintain the positive location of the bushing in all three configurations, the only option was a steel shelled, press fit part. This eliminates all unwanted rotation of the bush in the housing and will dramatically increase the service life of the bushing.

A complete arm replacement that gives camber and caster adjustment in one product!

When these vehicles are lifted they run out of Camber and Caster adjustment and driven by the need for accurate wheel alignment, SuperPro has designed a product that will provide the solution.

Friday, 01 November 2013 01:51

Dealer Resource Centre Registration

Trade Resource Centre Registration

Register a contact or business for the SuperPro Dealer Resource Centre. Having issues? Call us on 1300 360 922

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Tuesday, 01 October 2013 03:15

Toyota F86 / Subaru BRZ Rear Sway Bar Links

Subaru BRZ

SuperPro has now released Rear Sway Bar Links, designed to work perfectly with the SuperPro Roll Control Range of rear adjustable Swaybars.
The O.E links will not work correctly and fail due to high angular loads generated from an uprated, adjustable Swaybar.

Subaru BRZ

SuperPro has developed and released a superior bushing to control the Differential in this popular performance car. The O.E rubber bushing suffers from excessive movement that leads to angular changes in the driveline and power loss. The SuperPro bushings keep the differential properly aligned to prevent this issue and deliver the power to the ground!

Thursday, 26 September 2013 03:46

Speedhunters Project Zn6: Superpro Install

I’m known as the hot rod guy around these parts, so I’m guessing a lot of our readers will be surprised to learn that my daily driver is a modded ZN6. I built the car for my employer, Airaid Filter Company, to display in our booth at last year’s SEMA show. I loved it so much that when my company put it up for sale I was the first in line to buy it.

SuperPro

Of course, since it was built as a SEMA car it was designed to grab attention, hence the graphics and logos. The next phase of this fun little car’s life will be as a daily driver and Speedhunters project car, so it will be changing quite a lot over the coming months.

Superpro

The first project I’ll be doing is installing this SuperPro Master Kit for the ZN6 which includes every bushing you can change out on the chassis.

Superpro

SuperPro is an Australian manufacturer of performance suspension components like these bushings. I’ve had my reservations about polyurethane bushings, but they use a proprietary blend that not only improves handling and stability, but does so with no increase in noise or harshness. You can read more about this here.

Superpro

SuperPro also prides itself on precision engineering – something I started to notice as I opened each package. The steel sleeves are machined to tight tolerances and the bushings are knurled and grooved to retain grease and reduce friction at pivot points. The ability to hold grease means you don’t have to keep taking your suspension apart to re-lubricate the bushings.

Superpro

They also sent sway bars – front and rear.

Superpro

I had already mounted a set of KW V3s and honestly was plenty satisfied with the set-up as it was. Not only do the V3s handle well, they are by far the nicest riding lowered suspension I’ve owned – a good quality in a daily driver.

Superpro

The first bushings I set my sights on were those that held the rear crossmember to the unibody. The crossmember supports the rear differential and suspension, so taking up the slop here should make the car feel tighter.

Superpro

I was pleased to see that this was an insert and not a complete bushing because I knew this would make the installation much easier.

Superpro

There are four mounting points so I removed one bolt at a time and used a large pry bar to sneak the upper bushing into place.

Superpro

Here you can see how the inserts are molded to fill in the gaps in the factory bushings.

Superpro

Moving to the front mounting points I did the same with my pry bar…

Superpro

… and loosened this bracket to slide the lowers into position.

Superpro

Here’s the finished installation of the rear crossmember inserts.

Superpro

While I was under the rear of the car I turned my attention to the sway bar.

Superpro

The spindly stock unit is apparently 14mm.

Superpro

I used a ratcheting wrench to turn the end link nuts off. This is helpful in case they spin, as you can use a hex key through the open end of the wrench.

Superpro

The SuperPro sway bar was in place in minutes. I used the furthest end link mounting position since the instructions recommend you start at the softest setting.

Superpro

The calipers show the new bar is 19mm in diameter, but it’s actually 18mm plus the thickness of the powdercoat.

Superpro

SuperPro also has its own aftermarket end link coming, so we’ll touch on those in the next installment.

Superpro

Moving to the front of the car I pulled down all of the skid plates that cover the belly of the car.

Superpro

I removed the steering rack bolts and let it hang down a bit so I could get to the bushings. There’s no need to unhook the tie rod ends to swap the rack bushings.

Superpro

I used a large socket that fit over the bushing on one side, with a long bolt that would draw the stock bushing out as I tightened it.

Superpro

This worked well and the bushings came right out.

Superpro

Once the bushing was most of the way out I was able to grab the socket and wiggle it the rest of the way.

Superpro

The SuperPro bushings are two-piece with a machined steel sleeve, so you just pop one half in each side, grease the sleeve, and slide it in.

Superpro

While I was under the front of the car I pulled out the front sway bar…

Superpro

…which measured 18mm…

Superpro

… as compared to the 20mm SuperPro version.

Superpro

I applied plenty of the supplied grease to the frame-mounted bushings and again attached the end links in the furthest mounting position.

Superpro

Here’s the finished product with sway bar and steering rack bushings installed.

Superpro

There are a lot of bushings left to install on all the control arms, but I thought to finish this story I would give a quick demo using parts that I’ve already removed from the car in favor of more adjustable aftermarket parts.

Superpro

I have a little five-ton bench top press which I attempted to use to press out the rear toe arm bushing. No dice.

Superpro

The instructions call for a torch to heat the rubber part of the bushing.

Superpro

With the press maintaining a stretch on the bushing I applied heat with a propane torch.

Superpro

Soon I heard some cracking sounds and the rubber part separated from the outer sleeve.

Superpro

Next I clamped the toe arm to my work bench and used an air chisel to carefully cut away the remaining sleeve.

Superpro

Now I had the bare arm into which I could install the SuperPro bushing.

Superpro

Each pack is clearly marked and comes with its own pack of grease.

Superpro

After applying grease to the inside of the bushing and the outside of the sleeve I slid the sleeve into place.

Superpro

Another part I had already removed from the car was the stock rear lower control arm (LCA).

Superpro

Again I put pressure on the bushing…

Superpro

… and applied heat…

Superpro

… until the bushing popped out. By the way, it would be wise to clean the factory goop off the arm before doing this. It does make a mess.

Superpro

Here’s the SuperPro bushing and sleeve installed in the rear LCA. Notice the ridged edge of the bushing – this is the knurling that is designed to retain grease and reduce friction.

Superpro

So how does it drive? I have to say I thought the car was tight before, but the addition of these SuperPro parts has made me realize there was more to be had. The car corners even flatter, and there is less slop in the chassis while launching and shifting too. Steering feel is definitely more precise and responsive, with no NVH penalty that I’ve felt in the last week of driving with these parts installed. I’m off to buy a bigger press now, so stay tuned for the next story where I’ll install the rest of the suspension bushings.

In the meantime, what would you do if you got your hands on a former SEMA show car? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

 

Words and photos by Keith Charvonia

Source: Speedhunters.com

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