Quote:
Originally Posted by Karmic Man
The benefits of coilcovers is adjustability that's why it's on the E92 GTS and the F80 GTS and it's also on the CS Racing.
Having ADs on the CS was probably not be the choice of engineers but from marketing. The engineers just have to do what they can with the directive given.
One cannot adjust ride height and corner balance with ADs and that is why many saw it as a downgrade on the CS which should be more track focus.
Added weight and cost is also a big factor.
A set of dampers would last around 30000 km if seen track regularly. That set of ADs on the CS won't last forever and please go and check how much is the listed price from your local dealers. Easily twice the amount of a set of good coilovers.
With coilovers one can rebuild which would lower the cost of replacement even further.
If you still have doubts about coilovers, go to your local racetrack and have a look at some of the fastest M3/M4 and see how many are on stock ADs.
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I don't see these things as black or white, but rather a progressive scale of greys.
The CS series are not intended as all out track cars. They are intended to be dual use cars: practical daily drivers and track toys, with slightly more bias towards track performance. The GTS (CSL in the future) series are intended primarily as track toys that can be driven to and from the track.
A true coil-over suspension will indeed offer better track performance due to greater adjustability of various rebound and compression parameters, but at the expense of greater complexity. Not everyone is able to extract the best out of manually adjustable dampers. I have the MP-HAS on my M4cs, so I would argue that it is possible to fine tune ride height and corner balancing with AD. I actually tuned the handling balance of my car by playing with the front and rear ride heights. Further, coil-overs also come at the expense of durability. Based on personal experience and shared experiences from track buddies, coil-over dampers require an overhaul after 2-3 seasons to remain at their best. The adaptive dampers on the ///Ms that I have owned still performed flawlessly after 70,000~90,000 km of ownership, which included well over 100 track day on each car.
From a track performance standpoint, coil-overs are the superior option, followed by the adaptive dampers and then followed by the static dampers. Fitting the M2cs with adaptive dampers is the right "engineering choice" given the M2cs' intended mission.