325 AWD vs RWD

[OriginalE30iX]

Hello guys,

I have been having a debate with a friend. I would love to get my hands on a 325iX, he however is trying to steer me away from it. I says that the transfer case in these cars are crap. Everything ive researched so far states otherwise. Anyone have any input?

[nando]

Not crap at all - but people run them dry of oil, tow the car on two wheels or shred the front diff splines because they put it together dry. if maintained, they last a long time.

The bummer is parts are starting to get really hard to find or NLA. I wouldn't say no, but at the same time if you just want an E30, a RWD is going to be far simpler in the long run.

[roguetoaster]

Paging Kershaw, he's probably broken a stock power level ix in most every way possible at this point.

I also suspect he might have reached his limit of ix charm.

[OriginalE30iX]

Thanks for the input guys. My only debate is living in the PNW we get a ton of rain here and some snow. Is AWD all the needed? I hear the iX are pretty spendy to fix

[Das Delfin]

I DD'd my RWD for years here in the northeast and all you need is a set of snow tires and common sense. It's not worth the headache of tracking down ix specific front axles and center diffs that aren't blown, esp if it's your only car

[4x4_e30]

Pretty sure iXs are passing the point of being practical to own for the majority of people out there now. Which is good, because that just means more parts cars for me. Muahahaha

[nando]

Thanks for the input guys. My only debate is living in the PNW we get a ton of rain here and some snow. Is AWD all the needed? I hear the iX are pretty spendy to fix

If you have to ask, then the answer is probably you shouldn't buy one. I don't think you need AWD in the northwest and I've had mine since 2002. It hardly ever snows here, and it's not like the climate is getting colder. ;)

I agree that they are getting to be impractical to own as your DD/only car. I stopped daily driving mine years ago. :(

[Kershaw]

IXs kick a lot of ass. I beat every single e30 in Modified RWD this weekend with my Prepared (one class below mod) AWD ix. Granted, that's not always the case, but it's happened more than once. Even when I don't beat all of MR, I'm still close and I don't have all the mods they do.

[nando]

is that in your rally ix?

I had a blast in mine doing autox - especially the winter "slush" series. If it was dry I could get in the top 10, if it was wet I was usually 1st or 2nd, and there were lots of faster/awd cars with more mods. :)

[Kershaw]

Yep, SCCA Rallycross. MR is dominated by e30s, over half the class. M20s, m42s, 24v swap, etc. An e36 m3 also runs very competitively in MR and took 2nd last Sunday. The fastest MR car was 3 seconds behind me, 695.xx seconds to 698.xx seconds.

Just like your experience, the drier it is, the faster the rwd cars are. But that should be a fairly obvious conclusion. However, conditions were very dry and the RWD e30s were still slower this past event. :-P

The AWD classes are all Subaru. Except one ix. Lol.

[aaron325ix]

I daily my iX and love it. Just stay on top of regular maintenance and don't dump the clutch. I also live in Leadville, CO at 10,200ft.

Coilovers to raise it up in the winder and lower in the summer. Stock wheels with studs in winter and 17' BBS RK's in summer.

[nando]

I have probably dumped my clutch at 6500+rpm 250 times at least. Never hurt the drivetrain, although my clutch sure didn't like it..

it was always fun, because the Subaru guys couldn't touch my launches - their glass transmissions would surely explode.

this was always on hoosiers though, I never did that on street tires. the hoosiers when cold probably 'gave' a bit more than a sticky (and heavy) street tire would

[LowR3V'in]

that's crazy how subaru made theirs transmissions out of glass.

[Kershaw]

Huh, I haven't seen that. But launching on dirt is easier than pavement. Every (competitive) Subaru launch I see is a 5k+ clutch dump. I always launch at 6k+, over 100 launches so far this year. Haha.

It's the RWD guys that are slow to launch. 2-3k is a decent launch for them, otherwise they just sit and spin.

[aaron325ix]

I have probably dumped my clutch at 6500+rpm 250 times at least. Never hurt the drivetrain, although my clutch sure didn't like it..

it was always fun, because the Subaru guys couldn't touch my launches - their glass transmissions would surely explode.

this was always on hoosiers though, I never did that on street tires. the hoosiers when cold probably 'gave' a bit more than a sticky (and heavy) street tire would

Wow, thats surprising. I could have sworn that letting my dickhead cousin drive my car while I was out of town years ago is what caused my front diff to give out. I've always tried to be easy when starting off. Then again I dont race it either.