S54 powered E30 track car

[grt]

Update.


Had my first run of 2013 at the Mt Cotton Test and Tune. I had a few issues with the car which resulted in me only getting 5 runs of a possible 15 or so. First 3 runs went we and I was starting to push a little. On the 4th run the car lost power going up the first hill. (0.33 seconds on the video). It was then fine for the rest of the run. On the 5th run it did the same thing. This time worse. All the lights came onto the dash. I managed to get back to the pits to find the alternator belt missing.


After a little diagnosis we found alternator bushes flogged out which must have caused the belt the come off. I have order new bushes and 2 new alternator belts.


Other than that problem to car was going well. The tyres are the biggest let down. I have no where near the amount of grip I need.


Next on the list is the roll cage which is finally booked in for the 18th of February.


As well as new tyres, I want to get some new 90mm studs all round as I current have a mix match of studs and 25mm spacers up front to increase track a little more.


Here is the video of my 4th run. Camera is a brand new Go-Pro Hero 3 Black.

[Massimo]

So sick bro. You know you have grip when you dash board cover struggles to stay on lol.

How much was shipping for the VAC seat mounts I need some for my Cobra Suzuka.

[grt]

Yer I actually came off on the next run lol

$150 for the black mounts + $75 shipping

[e30trooper]

Very impressive.

[grt]

Good news everyone!!

I got a hold of some rubber alternator bushes locally so I pulled the alternator off and fitted them up. When I pulled out the old bushes I was surprised to find solid bushes already installed. They seemed to be very poorly machined.

While the alternator was off I decided a color change was in order so I sprayed it blaaaaccckkk. I'm not 100% happy with it yet so I might pull the front pulley off and get it sandblasted and repainted. I was maybe thinking about painting the pulley itself red.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Any who I pull it back on and I am now just waiting for the new belt to show up.

On with the pics.



Old bushes



New bushes installed



Ready for paint



Back on.



Sorry for the crap pics everyone!

[AlpineM325]

engine bay shot... amazing.....

[JinormusJ]

This build is sweet!
I've always been drooling over s5x swaps, but after serious research, on paper, it makes the car very front heavy; e30s are known for they legendary handling, so a small, light, high output 4-cylinder engine takes the maximum advantage of the light e30 chassis. and an s14 is equal to like 14 bawuce points, which is more than most people achieve in their lifetime

How are you liking the total power output and powerband of the s14? I know it wont be anywhere near an s5x, but you must really be enjoying the lighter feel and cornering confidence.

[grt]

This build is sweet!
I've always been drooling over s5x swaps, but after serious research, on paper, it makes the car very front heavy; e30s are known for they legendary handling, so a small, light, high output 4-cylinder engine takes the maximum advantage of the light e30 chassis. and an s14 is equal to like 14 bawuce points, which is more than most people achieve in their lifetime

How are you liking the total power output and powerband of the s14? I know it wont be anywhere near an s5x, but you must really be enjoying the lighter feel and cornering confidence.

Hahahaha bawuce points? I like that.

Car is really fun to drive. It's like driving a 318is on steroids. You can still throw it into corners and control the oversteer really easily. I have driven a track E30 for a stroked M20 with similar power to mine and it feels like it has alot more front end 'push'.

You will never regret doing a S14 swap... apart from when you see your bank account ;)

[grt]

I have a BIG update in the next few weeks so stay tuned!!!!!

[reelizmpro]

What do u mean anywhere near s50? I made s50 type power with cams, chip and big throttles + alpha n.

[grt]

Big update!

So I have kind of forgotten about r3vlimited in the last month,my apologises.

I will start with from where I last finished.

I ended up pulling the alternator pulley off again and sandblasting it then painting it black. I also got a new alternator belt. Around this time I also scored an entry to Gatton Street Sprints. This is an event I have been to many times as a spectator but never had a run. With less than 4 weeks until the event I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get a weld in roll cage installed.

The process began to strip the interior of the car. This wasn't to bad of a job. I even pulled the windshield out by myself. Don't laugh as I paid someone $300 last time because the broke it pushing it out. How silly I was. The next Monday we shipped it off to the roll cage fabricators. After a lengthy discussion we decided on a 6 point cage going to the rear chassis rails and side intrusion bars. So with the new roll cage in a wanted to chase some more grip. I threw the word out there and managed to find a good set of Yokohama A050 soft compound tyres in 225/50R15. Not the idle size for a 7 inch rim but they would do the job.



Fast forward 2 weeks and I get car back. Super impressed with the outcome. Everything is TIG welded and looks the goods. With only a week to go before Gatton it was all hands on deck! New tyres are fitted and interior re-fitted and tidied up. Also went over every bolt on the suspension and driveline and torqued them to spec.



Friday comes around and we load up the car and drive off to Gatton. With everything unloaded it was time to go back to the rental house, drink and watch racing movies!



First run on Saturday and the car felt really strong. Had quite a bit of tyre scrub from the wider tyres but apart from that it was going to be a great weekend. Second run was wet which provided some good in-car footage. Ended up with a mid 39 second run by the end of Saturday which put in 1st in class and 15th outright!



Onto Sunday and the car went beautifully. 2nd last run came around and I was sitting on a 39 dead. So a pressed a bit and had a very loose run, again some good in-car. Come last run I pulled the visor down and went for it. The result was a 38.040! First in class, 8th outright and new class record!



I am incredibly happy with the result! My fastest run beating a modified Porsche 997 GT2 by half a second. So now I have entered 2 events and have come 1st in class, top 10 outright and new class record at both. Not a bad record!



Next up was a test and tune day at Mt Cotton hillclimb which I attended. Unfortunately it resulted in serve tyre scrub and a gearbox oil leak. After some diagnosis we found the breather had been leaking. So it was time to pull the box out and tap a thread into the breather hole so we car run a hose up to the engine bay. I didn't take many photos of the gearbox issue. After seeing photos from Gatton I decided to lower the front. The looks less of a boat now! Also added some yellow highbeam tape.



As I write this I am filling in an entry to my first race at Lakeside raceway which is on this Sunday. I am a little nervous about this as anyone who knows Lakeside is not a track to be taken lightly. Those who don't know I still holds a few records. The highest average speed at any racetrack across Australia and most car written off in one year (about 3 per week).



I would ideally like to do a quite track day but was offered free entry and use of a set of tyres so I don't destroy mine. You can't turn that down! So again this week we are going over the car to make sure everything runs smoothly.



We are going to be adding a diff breather to match the gearbox, modifying the rear guards to eliminate the tyre scrub and replacing the alternator bracket. I will probably update on Saturday night with the finale report then again on Monday after a day of racing.



Here are a few pics and some videos of the recent events.



Engine back together


Got tyres?

Cleaned the roof!

Roll cage progress

Finished roll cage

Ready for Gatton

A few pics from Gatton



Gearbox removed

New ride height and yellow lights!

[grt]

Onboard videos from Gatton

Run 2 in the wet.



Run 8 quite loose.



Fastest run of the weekend.

[JCarp90]

Just went and watched a bunch of your videos - sounds amazing and looks like a bunch of fun.

One thing though, you're driving on the wrong side of the car!

[yberther]

One thing though, you're driving on the wrong side of the car!

When I saw the cage, I was like hmm, not super reinforced on that side, and forgot too!

The car looks like it moves properly! Holy crap that looks like fun. The videos are awesome.

Are the rears rubbing a ton? It looks like you'd benefit from stiffer rear springs (stop the rubbing), and it might reduce that longitudinal weight transfer out of the corners and balance out that light weight front... That's what it looks like from watching the videos, what do you think?

[brian52555]

Yum - great driving and seriously fast car. Thumbs up