FL5 Nitron R1 Coilovers Review

[03m_plus]

I wanted to share my experience and overall feedback running Nitron R1s on the FL5.

TL;DR: I am extremely satisfied with this setup for my specific use case. They have exceeded my expectations.

Use Case

• Mostly a street car with daddy duties
• Occasional canyon and track days

My Requirements

• Needs to be compliant and comfortable for street driving with minimal NVH.
• Compliant and composed on track.
• Adjustability for ride height, damping, and front camber.

My Setup

• Coilovers: Nitron R1 (RoadSpec)
• Spring Rates: 11k Front / 7k Rear
• Damping Adjustment Range: (0 = Full Stiff)
  • Street: 14 Front / 14 Rear
  • Track: 6 Front / 8 Rear
• Tein cancellation kit
• Swift 60mm thrust washers

Dialing It In & Driving Impressions

Street Compliance:
It is genuinely comfortable for me on the streets. My passengers are mostly a pregnant wife and a toddler. The final passing test for street compliance was the wife. She's in her 3rd trimester and is sensitive to everything. For context, if I go over speed bump too quickly in a X5, I'd hear it... Road imperfections are felt more, but the suspension just soaks it up well.

Track Performance:
I took the FL5 to its first track event with this setup and I was glad with how easy it was to dial in and how composed it felt on track. It handled everything thrown at it with ease. Sharp turn-in, rotates and transitions well, no noticeable body roll, and handles bumps and curbs with ease. Every single click on the dampers produces a noticeable effect on the car's behavior.

Ease of Adjustment:
Adjusting the dampers is quick and hassle-free. The front adjustments are located right under the hood at the top of the strut towers, while the rear adjusters are located at the bottom of the struts. Damping is easily adjusted without jacking up the car or removing wheels. While it's not quite effortless as ADS, it’s pretty convenient for a manual setup.

NVH & Small Fixes

I did run into a couple of issues with some noises coming from the rear.

1. Rear driver side was making clunking noises from the spring binding to the perch after install. The solution was to add Swift 60mm thrust washers and it completely solved the issue.
2. Rear passenger was making a squeal after a track day. Solution was to apply grease to the o-ring on the strut bushing.

Decision Process & Alternatives Considered

I wanted a suspension setup that would allow me to adjust height, camber, and damping to improve handling on track and canyons while retaining enough compliance to serve as a daily driver for the family as the priority. In my experience a quality coilover is a mod worth spending money on.

My baseline for street comfort was the FL5's OE Comfort mode and my E92 M3 on Ohlins Road & Track coilovers (both of these have softer baseline spring rates) and both are great for the streets for me.

When researching options, I evaluated three main setups:

1. RS-R Best Active Coilovers: A lot to like here—great price point, tons of community feedback/reviews, and it retains the factory electronic ADS functionality.
2. Ohlins Road & Track: Well-known on other platforms and I've had great experiences with them on my E92. However, there is very limited feedback or data available for their implementation on the FL5/DE5 platform.
3. Nitron RoadSport or R1: Proven track record on Euros and priced competitively with the Ohlins. Very little information was available on the FL5 forums.

I ultimately chose the R1 as I wanted to try something different and a more aggressive setup. The car is a daddy mobile 90% of the time, so I opted for the softer spring rates (11k/7k) with the RoadSpec as opposed to the TrackSpec (14k/9k). You can spec custom spring rates to whatever you like depending on your use case and they will valve the struts accordingly. The order took about 3 weeks to receive as every order is built, dynoed, and tested by someone at Nitron. While I could have gone with the Nitron RoadSport setup (instead of R1 w/ RoadSpec), I wanted the camber plates that only come with the R1/R3 setups. Paying slightly more for the R1s gave me fine camber/caster adjustment and a cohesive system from Nitron.
Customer Support

The Nitron USA office is local to me in SoCal and their team has been super helpful, knowledgeable, professional, and pleasant to work with. Fantastic team they have over there.
Conclusion

Nitron gets my absolute stamp of approval and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a quality suspension setup for the FL5/DE5 chassis.

There isn't a whole lot of info on this forum regarding suspension setups outside of lowering springs and the RS-R setup so I hope this helps anyone currently in the market. Feel free to reach out or drop a comment if you have any questions.

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[2fast916]

Thanks for a great write up! I think you made my mind up to try Nitron. Interesting too the other options you mentioned were on my short list for a final decision.

 

[CG13]

Thanks for the great write up. I was considering an R3 kit for next year.

 

[rondre3000]

Thanks so much for the tip on the thrust washers!

 

[MooMoo]

Id love me some Nitrons.

Also the good thing about Nitrons is Inertia Lab out of I believe Austin will rebuild and revalve Nitrons. They are an excellent shop and know what they are doing so if you ever need a rebuild or custom valving they are excellent for that.

Great review!

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