Hey guys,
Here is a mag article that recently came out of my car. Few details in the mag are a little incorrect outside of my control so I have pasted my own corrected story too :)
Also normally the car doesn’t sit this low for suspension geometry reasons.
The car has had a few more things done to it since this but as promised.
Build thread here ..
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=162982
Full story and specs:
1986 E30 m325i with s50b32
The project started after I had finished my modified e46 330i. I need something outside of my daily driver that I could take on the track that was a bit more suited to the task.
Being inspired by some of the modified cars coming out of Sweden and Norway and the crazy event that is Gatebil, the scene was set.
One night about 4 years ago I invited some of my BMW pairs along for a beer or two to help plan the project, It goals were for a light weight, great handling rocket that you could throw around the track but could still out pace most vehicles on the road today.
The chassis was chosen, it would be a NZ New 1986 325i motorsport m-tech1, which I was very lucky to find for a good price before the prices of these vehicles started to go up. This example had been stored in garage and driven for many years on the open roads of the south island. So was in near perfect order for its age.
The engine was a different story. I had a phone call from a friend of mine who has his hand in every part of BMW racing in New Zealand. He had a s50b32 motor for me which would need some work. So I purchased this, a new gearbox from a z3m (m-coupe) as well as a single trailing suspension arm/half-shaft assembly. The thing to realise about doing this sort of thing in a country like NZ is that these parts just don’t exist second hand, unlike in Europe where m3’s and z3m’s are pretty common. I soon realised I would be buying and importing a lot of ‘M’ parts new from BMW.
After having the engine stripped down and checked .. I would need to replace the pistons, skim the crank and run over size bearings which got me thinking about weather I had made the right choice as the bore had some water / rust damage from when it has been left outside however luck would have it a couple of years later another friend of mine phoned me and told me he knew were a low K s50b32 was sitting and the guy just wanted to sell it. I had the budget for a second motor and it was an amazing price so I took the opportunity while it presented itself. In my hot little hands I had a 321hp 38,000k s50b32 from a BMW 98 M3 Evo sport. It included all the bits I didn’t have, DME (ECU), complete engine loom and special expansion chamber headers etc. These engines are already very highly strung with a small margin to guarantee reliability and road driveability. Features such as under piston oil squirter for cooling at high RPM, high compression ratio, Individual throttle bodies (ITB), forged crank and true hydraulic variable valve timing on both the exhaust and intake sides which has been lifted from the s70/2 from the BMW powered McLaren F1. If you look at a s70 it is in fact two s50b32’s essentially glued together to make a v12.
Ray from HellBM kindly supplied me with a workshop and any parts I didn’t buy new. My best friend Brendon and I had just finished working our bands (Antiform) album at the time and decided to get started on the engine conversion.
We poured over any information we could find on the net to find the best solutions to each problem, which of there were many to overcome, including translating Swedish and German languages!
First up was which engine mounts to run, OEM m5 engine mounts gave the correct amount of support and stiffness for the torque of the engine. New e21 gearbox mounts were used with a special alloy cups to stop movement.
A Group-A drive shaft was used as it was the correct length from the ZF 5speed z3m gearbox to the new z3m ‘finned’ 3:15 diff.
Suspension:
The rear suspension was complete replaced with z3m and aftermarket. The trailing arms, up-rated ‘M’ half shafts, from a z3m (m-coupe) as they fit perfectly on the e30 Chassis as BMW just happened to use the e30 plans for the basis of the z3 chassis. Handy
This setup also allowed me to use the m-coupe hub and paved way to change over from the annoying wheel PDC standard of 4x100 to 5x120 of which there are lot more wheels available.
The shocks installed were Koni yellow race adjustable shocks and sourced from the US BMW racing scene matched Eibach 700 pound rear springs.
Also sourced from the US a ground control adjustable perch kit to allow height adjustment and adjustable top mounts.
Also installed was a Ireland Engineering adjustable sway bar with re-in forced support plates bolted to the boot floor as the stock ones tend to bend under hard track driving.
The front suspension starts with a brand new set of e30 m3 struts and hub (also 5x120 PDC) a converted ground control spring perch cupping Eibach 525 pound front springs with a Koni yellow adjustable race shock inserts. The sway bars are again Ireland Engineering adjustables.
The top mounts are ground control camber adjustable. And I have increase front castor using a set of treehouse racing eyeball arms which allow the 18x8.5s just turn lock to lock. This also help remove the e30’s ‘twitchiness’ and increases cornering speeds as it essentially makes the wheel base longer. I have dialled in 3 degrees of negative camber and toe out to match.
Here is a mag article that recently came out of my car. Few details in the mag are a little incorrect outside of my control so I have pasted my own corrected story too :)
Also normally the car doesn’t sit this low for suspension geometry reasons.
The car has had a few more things done to it since this but as promised.
Build thread here ..
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=162982
Full story and specs:
1986 E30 m325i with s50b32
The project started after I had finished my modified e46 330i. I need something outside of my daily driver that I could take on the track that was a bit more suited to the task.
Being inspired by some of the modified cars coming out of Sweden and Norway and the crazy event that is Gatebil, the scene was set.
One night about 4 years ago I invited some of my BMW pairs along for a beer or two to help plan the project, It goals were for a light weight, great handling rocket that you could throw around the track but could still out pace most vehicles on the road today.
The chassis was chosen, it would be a NZ New 1986 325i motorsport m-tech1, which I was very lucky to find for a good price before the prices of these vehicles started to go up. This example had been stored in garage and driven for many years on the open roads of the south island. So was in near perfect order for its age.
The engine was a different story. I had a phone call from a friend of mine who has his hand in every part of BMW racing in New Zealand. He had a s50b32 motor for me which would need some work. So I purchased this, a new gearbox from a z3m (m-coupe) as well as a single trailing suspension arm/half-shaft assembly. The thing to realise about doing this sort of thing in a country like NZ is that these parts just don’t exist second hand, unlike in Europe where m3’s and z3m’s are pretty common. I soon realised I would be buying and importing a lot of ‘M’ parts new from BMW.
After having the engine stripped down and checked .. I would need to replace the pistons, skim the crank and run over size bearings which got me thinking about weather I had made the right choice as the bore had some water / rust damage from when it has been left outside however luck would have it a couple of years later another friend of mine phoned me and told me he knew were a low K s50b32 was sitting and the guy just wanted to sell it. I had the budget for a second motor and it was an amazing price so I took the opportunity while it presented itself. In my hot little hands I had a 321hp 38,000k s50b32 from a BMW 98 M3 Evo sport. It included all the bits I didn’t have, DME (ECU), complete engine loom and special expansion chamber headers etc. These engines are already very highly strung with a small margin to guarantee reliability and road driveability. Features such as under piston oil squirter for cooling at high RPM, high compression ratio, Individual throttle bodies (ITB), forged crank and true hydraulic variable valve timing on both the exhaust and intake sides which has been lifted from the s70/2 from the BMW powered McLaren F1. If you look at a s70 it is in fact two s50b32’s essentially glued together to make a v12.
Ray from HellBM kindly supplied me with a workshop and any parts I didn’t buy new. My best friend Brendon and I had just finished working our bands (Antiform) album at the time and decided to get started on the engine conversion.
We poured over any information we could find on the net to find the best solutions to each problem, which of there were many to overcome, including translating Swedish and German languages!
First up was which engine mounts to run, OEM m5 engine mounts gave the correct amount of support and stiffness for the torque of the engine. New e21 gearbox mounts were used with a special alloy cups to stop movement.
A Group-A drive shaft was used as it was the correct length from the ZF 5speed z3m gearbox to the new z3m ‘finned’ 3:15 diff.
Suspension:
The rear suspension was complete replaced with z3m and aftermarket. The trailing arms, up-rated ‘M’ half shafts, from a z3m (m-coupe) as they fit perfectly on the e30 Chassis as BMW just happened to use the e30 plans for the basis of the z3 chassis. Handy
This setup also allowed me to use the m-coupe hub and paved way to change over from the annoying wheel PDC standard of 4x100 to 5x120 of which there are lot more wheels available.
The shocks installed were Koni yellow race adjustable shocks and sourced from the US BMW racing scene matched Eibach 700 pound rear springs.
Also sourced from the US a ground control adjustable perch kit to allow height adjustment and adjustable top mounts.
Also installed was a Ireland Engineering adjustable sway bar with re-in forced support plates bolted to the boot floor as the stock ones tend to bend under hard track driving.
The front suspension starts with a brand new set of e30 m3 struts and hub (also 5x120 PDC) a converted ground control spring perch cupping Eibach 525 pound front springs with a Koni yellow adjustable race shock inserts. The sway bars are again Ireland Engineering adjustables.
The top mounts are ground control camber adjustable. And I have increase front castor using a set of treehouse racing eyeball arms which allow the 18x8.5s just turn lock to lock. This also help remove the e30’s ‘twitchiness’ and increases cornering speeds as it essentially makes the wheel base longer. I have dialled in 3 degrees of negative camber and toe out to match.
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