Half-Life | '91 DS 318iS Slicktop | Track & Weekend Warrior

[HertE30]

Any feedback in tire and wheel size would be appreciated. I like the ZII Star Specs in 225/45-16 I've been running, but I know there are a lot of new/better/faster tires on the market these days. However, the select in E30 ~24" diameters really sucks!

The Direzza ZIII is out in Japan and I think we'll get it in the first few months of next year.

http://tyre.dunlop.co.jp/tyre/lineup/sport/z3/

I just got some ZII star specs that I'm excited to get onto my car

[Digitalwave]

Hey all. Did some small projects on the car recently that I thought I'd share. Also have some pics from some recent area "meets." We will finally be heading back to the track a couple of times in October! Almost everything car-related got cancelled in September due to Hurricane Irma and damaged one to our local track.

As a side note, I've been thinking about what's next for the car now that I don't have any major projects on the short list. I know that some time down the road I want to convert the suspension over to coilovers. Secondly, I do still have a PNP Megasquirt ready to go into the car. I want to do a baseline dyno soon, then perhaps install the MS and see how much I gain by deleting the AFM. However, after that, I have really gotten the itch to do an RHD Engineering ITB kit with the carbon plenum. I think the gains would be good with my built motor, and we all know ITB's are just awesome! I also want to start looking into some new (lighter) wheels, perhaps in 17" for a better selection of track tires.

Any feedback in tire and wheel size would be appreciated. I like the ZII Star Specs in 225/45-16 I've been running, but I know there are a lot of new/better/faster tires on the market these days. However, the select in E30 ~24" diameters really sucks!

In the mean time some of the interior projects I was working on include putting speaker covers and wiring covers back in to cover up the rocker panels. I reused the stock rubber covers for now. They suck. I want to trace them and recut them out of ABS plastic down the road. To hide the wiring behind the speaker grills, I cut out some pieces of suede and glued them over the opening on the back side. I will be using the rest of the suede to cover the roof trim piece that surrounds the sun visors/check panel (which will be deleted), and the a-pillar trim. Those pieces are only a couple of pounds total, and it's nice having the sun visors I think.

These are the stock rubber trim pieces, which I ripped in a few places. They don't get noticed much once in the car, and they hide the wiring well.




I forgot to get an after picture, but this is essentially the area I was covering up on both sides of the car. It's also nice on the driver's side as it tucks away a lot of the wiring that runs around the dead pedal area.




Suede patches cut and 3M spray adhesive'd to the backs of the speaker grills.










The number one question I get about this car is "what's in it?!" The straight exhaust and lopey cam with 1,000 RPM idle sounds really awesome. I've been wanting to toss the 318iS badge back on the trunk just for shits and giggles. It took a lot of searching due to Photobucket broken links, but I finally found the diagram with the proper spacing for the badge on the trunk. The 318iS using the same pattern as the iX.


















In other news I finally got to weigh the car. It came in at 2452 with the spare tire in the trunk, and about a 3/4 full gas tank. The spare weighs 41lbs, so with half a tank I'd say the car is easily in the 2,400lb range! I was going to guess it was closer to 2,500 after the roll bar went in. I was pleasantly surprised by the weight.




And here's some random pictures of the car from recent events.

[Brian697]

Very nice!

[econti]

It's surprising to see such a track focussed car not bent up or hacked into going fast.

This is very nice

[Digitalwave]

Such a clean and properly built E30

Looking good dude! this has been one of my favorite builds on here to follow.

Thanks so much fellas!

Looking good man, time to bring that thing up to GA! We'll be doing Road Atlanta 2nd weekend in October with PCA, and probably Roebling at some point in October/Nov as well. Let me know if you want to come up this way, I can definitely help you out with a place to work on the car and/or a place to crash if you need it

I would love to do RA and Roebling! I will take you up on that when the time is right. I don't have a trailer, so for now I am staying local, but I am sure that is going to change. I just can't see myself in my advanced age driving this thing up to GA and back


Forgot about these pictures I took for my insurance company...

[Joeyz31]

Looking good dude! this has been one of my favorite builds on here to follow.

[Jb325is]

Looking good man, time to bring that thing up to GA! We'll be doing Road Atlanta 2nd weekend in October with PCA, and probably Roebling at some point in October/Nov as well. Let me know if you want to come up this way, I can definitely help you out with a place to work on the car and/or a place to crash if you need it

[mr.]

Such a clean and properly built E30

[Digitalwave]

I love that picture looking into the braking zone.

The car looks badass with the full halo seats in there

Thanks brother!

[iwantspeed]

I love that picture looking into the braking zone.

The car looks badass with the full halo seats in there

[Digitalwave]

Not much to update. Haven't touched the car in a few weeks due to Hurricane Irma. We were all safe and sound thankfully, but lost power for almost 5 days. I found some other photos from the last autocross I thought I'd drop in here. Also, a cool photo from my GoPro entering turn 10 at PBIR during my last track day. My tach isn't working in that pic, gotta send my cluster out to BavRest soon.









^ (out of focus, but that's the most current look of the front end)

Pretty much all car related events this month got cancelled due to the hurricane. Was supposed to be doing a track day tomorrow. I'm going to work on putting a few trim pieces back into the interior this week, like the panel that holds the sun visors and the a-pillar trim. Then hoping to get some more track time in October.

[Jean]

Nice build!

[Digitalwave]

Not too much to report on lately. Haven't worked on the car much. I have a few small things to do before the next track day in 2 weeks.

Last track day I noticed a little bit of gas spillage by the filler neck during the first session when my tank was full. Most of it was on the side of the quarter panel and on top of the bumper. In that area I guess the only possible thing it could be is the gas cap. I stilled poked around the evap tank, but didn't see much. The hoses were definitely original to the car, and while there were no signs at all of them leaking, I changed them out anyways. I left the one large pre-formed hose for the filler breather for now, as that one looked okay.

I ordered a brand new Genuine BMW fuel cap (the one on the car looked aftermarket -- Blau I think was the brand), along with a new boot for around the filler as mine was disgusting.

I had fuel line and BMW hose clamps lying around to get the job done. It was messy, but easy!

Here you can see where it let some residue on the body:









This is a dirty ass job! Here's some of the lines, old and new (probably out of order):














That metal y-pipe in the first picture is known to rust out on some cars, causing a leak. Mine looked to be in great shape. It's still available, but it's about $45.

At this point I've replaced every single soft fuel line on the car. I hope the new gas cap solves this isssue.

Before the last autocross, I switched over to Redline 10w40 oil, from the thicker 15w50. It lowered my oil pressure a little. I am going to leave this in for a while now. I've done probably 3 oil changes in the last ~150 miles on the car!

Lastly, here is where I placed the breather for my tranny vent. Thankful that the hose I ran has solved the last of the leaking on my G260!

[Digitalwave]

Quick picture from the track day this week:

[Digitalwave]

It's the correct sensor and according to Innovate that is normal behavior. I have nothing to compare it to to know if it's "right."