[Bluebimma]

From my point of view, and what ive been taught, as an alignment tech, the multilink suspension is forgiving for the reason of safety, fine tuning, market appeal, and ability to multitask. Unfortunately, theyre more costly to repair and take much longer to tune than a semi-trailing arm suspension setup. If you break both suspensions down to their core componants, youll see many more parts needed to compose the multilink suspension, thus providing you with more parts that may potentially need to be replaced due to wear and tear. Youre usually able to adjust camber and toe with most factory multilinks, but even with some of the brand new cars ive worked on, they only allow toe adjustment, but which can only do so much in a performance setup.

Ive read through the article posted above and see a few things that arent mentioned about the cars and suspension but will note on the weight distribution, the multilink will gross a bit more weight due to more parts needed to attach each piece together and to the chassis but at the same time, the battery had been relocated to the rear of the car. If you notice on the MZ3, the battery is located in the rear center of the trunks floor, right behind the differential, thus, removing the extra weight from the front or rear corner of the car, meaning, no ballast or additional weight needed to balance the chassis out for the somewhat heavy product. Combine that with the larger 188mm differential and slightly larger axles, the weight is put in a useful spot and brings the chassis back towards the green of 50/50 like the rest of the E36 lineup.

Semi-trailing can be tuned to where you need them to be, comfort or aggressive, not too much median. You can adjust, camber and toe, and with the correct set of subframe bushings, you can lower the car even further or if its low, you can bring the subframe closer to the chassis giving you the ability to gain more positive camber. Too much negative camber can wear the tire unevenly, but its toe that eats your tires quickly. The hollowed arms make for less unsprung weight and less wear and tear parts. Theyre also the soft spot of the chassis/suspension, meaning theyre used at protection to damage in the case of accidents and such, that theyre sacrificed and minimize damage elsewhere. Ive had two personal cases in which this has saved the chassis and minimized the damage spread and usually only cost you the arm, an axle nut, possible a shock, and an alignment. They may seem inferior in the way they move or how uncool they look compared to a multlink, but they perform just the same, in the case that they support the chassis, provide maneuverability, can be adjusted to where you need them, and are readibly replacable.

If you look at the stock specs for the E36, they havent been tuned for aggressive driving, nor sportiness, theyre specd for comfort and safety. If im not mistaken, the ti is about .2* toed in with ~1.5* of negative camber, it helps with stability at speed and cornering at the expense of your tires. The front is toed out about .5* with about (-).5-1* of camber. Obviously, witch camber plates, toe kits, caster plates, camber bolts, etc. alignments can be specd where you want and essentially NEED them, so its about what you need the car for and how its supposed to work for you.

No one takes into consideration the fine tuning pieces beyond just the arms and such, look at the shocks/struts and their quality and properties, sway bars, bushings and compounds of bushings, wheel and tire sizes, weights of wheel packages, size and weight of brakes, size and weight of differentials, and most important, your alignment. Without a proper alignment, tuned to what you want, youll never have what you want and expect from your long list of *parts*.