Well, time for an long overdue update...
I entered a friendly bet with my good friend Duane over which would be faster. An E30 or a EF civic. So with that in mind, I started sorting out my car.
First things first. My car had a miss at idle and low RPM. Compression test showed low compression on cylinder 4 and the leak down test showed it was coming from the exhaust side. So with that in mind, it was time to pull the head:
We ended up finding 3 burnt valves. The worst on cylinder 4. Had the head refreshed with replacement valves and slapped the thing back together.
Next up was refreshing the suspension. From what started as a simple bushing replacement turned into a whole lot of "well, if we're in there we might as well replace..." I ended up replacing the front LCABS, trailing arms, rear subframe, and diff bushing with Powerflex black series bushings. We decided to add adjustable trailing arm mounts to the subframe while everything was out. I also installed new front lower control arms while doing the front LCABs. I noticed there was a power steering system leak so at that point I did a Z3 1.9l steering rack conversion with new inner and outer tie rods, new p/s hoses and reservoir. Engine and trans mounts were also replaced at this time with IE urethane units. Shifter bushings were also replaced. While I was working on all this, my best friend, Kyle, was working on the strut housings for my Ground Control track school kit. While modifying the strut housings we decided to add some sway bar mounts to the strut bodies to use with E30 M3 sway bar end links. Before buttoning up all the suspension, I replaced the brake pads with PFC 11 compounds all around and SS brake lines.
Last couple things to get the car prepped for the battle against the EF. I removed the sound deadening out of the trunk, added a TMS Chip, built a single SS 2.5in exhaust from the exhaust manifold back, and 949 Racing spec e30 wheels with NT01s. I also swapped the diff for a 4.10lsd from the 3.73lsd. Looking back I feel that was a mistake.
We completed the car 2 days before the race. To save time, we loaded up the car and brought it over to Trinity Autosport for an alignment:
And here is the finished product. Cosmetically it's not pretty but that the best we could do with the time we had.
Here are some pics from battle day:
And here is the video: https://www.drivingline.com/articles...e30-bmw-video/
As you can see, I lost. I was pretty bummed out that all our efforts turned into a loss. I hate to say it but the Civic was the better car that day. If I had more time in my E30 I probably could have produced a better result. I also probably would have found out sooner that my ABS was failing. And before anyone ask about the drivers...
This is my best time in the E30:
We switched cars and this was my best lap in the civic. Please keep in mind I've never driven any Civic or FWD for that matter on a track before:
I only did 4 laps total in the Civic. I put down a faster lap time then Duane's winning time on my second lap in his car. He ended up running a 2:11 in the E30.
In all my sadness, I loaded up the car and headed home:
So now what to do with this thing? I plan on continuing with sorting it out and doing a track day here and there. I still have my track prepped E46 M3 and S/C E36 M3 project to play with. I'm trying to avoid being too deep into this car but we all know how that goes. The next thing to do will be repainting all the rock chips in front and repairing the crushed left rear corner. I picked up a set of 16x9 BBS RS' to give it a bit more presence when driving to Sunday breakfast.
The RS' were cool to look at but they rub a little too much for my taste. Running them made it was waste to have such nice suspension and not being able to go around a corner or freeway transition quickly. I decided to put the TE37s back on until I have some money to refinish the RS', fix the body work, and modify the fenders to make the wheels work.
This is how it sits as of today. BBS RS' have always been my dream wheels for the E30 but I do like TE37s on everything.
Thanks for following along. I'll update this again once more progress is made.
I entered a friendly bet with my good friend Duane over which would be faster. An E30 or a EF civic. So with that in mind, I started sorting out my car.
First things first. My car had a miss at idle and low RPM. Compression test showed low compression on cylinder 4 and the leak down test showed it was coming from the exhaust side. So with that in mind, it was time to pull the head:
We ended up finding 3 burnt valves. The worst on cylinder 4. Had the head refreshed with replacement valves and slapped the thing back together.
Next up was refreshing the suspension. From what started as a simple bushing replacement turned into a whole lot of "well, if we're in there we might as well replace..." I ended up replacing the front LCABS, trailing arms, rear subframe, and diff bushing with Powerflex black series bushings. We decided to add adjustable trailing arm mounts to the subframe while everything was out. I also installed new front lower control arms while doing the front LCABs. I noticed there was a power steering system leak so at that point I did a Z3 1.9l steering rack conversion with new inner and outer tie rods, new p/s hoses and reservoir. Engine and trans mounts were also replaced at this time with IE urethane units. Shifter bushings were also replaced. While I was working on all this, my best friend, Kyle, was working on the strut housings for my Ground Control track school kit. While modifying the strut housings we decided to add some sway bar mounts to the strut bodies to use with E30 M3 sway bar end links. Before buttoning up all the suspension, I replaced the brake pads with PFC 11 compounds all around and SS brake lines.
Last couple things to get the car prepped for the battle against the EF. I removed the sound deadening out of the trunk, added a TMS Chip, built a single SS 2.5in exhaust from the exhaust manifold back, and 949 Racing spec e30 wheels with NT01s. I also swapped the diff for a 4.10lsd from the 3.73lsd. Looking back I feel that was a mistake.
We completed the car 2 days before the race. To save time, we loaded up the car and brought it over to Trinity Autosport for an alignment:
And here is the finished product. Cosmetically it's not pretty but that the best we could do with the time we had.
Here are some pics from battle day:
And here is the video: https://www.drivingline.com/articles...e30-bmw-video/
As you can see, I lost. I was pretty bummed out that all our efforts turned into a loss. I hate to say it but the Civic was the better car that day. If I had more time in my E30 I probably could have produced a better result. I also probably would have found out sooner that my ABS was failing. And before anyone ask about the drivers...
This is my best time in the E30:
We switched cars and this was my best lap in the civic. Please keep in mind I've never driven any Civic or FWD for that matter on a track before:
I only did 4 laps total in the Civic. I put down a faster lap time then Duane's winning time on my second lap in his car. He ended up running a 2:11 in the E30.
In all my sadness, I loaded up the car and headed home:
So now what to do with this thing? I plan on continuing with sorting it out and doing a track day here and there. I still have my track prepped E46 M3 and S/C E36 M3 project to play with. I'm trying to avoid being too deep into this car but we all know how that goes. The next thing to do will be repainting all the rock chips in front and repairing the crushed left rear corner. I picked up a set of 16x9 BBS RS' to give it a bit more presence when driving to Sunday breakfast.
The RS' were cool to look at but they rub a little too much for my taste. Running them made it was waste to have such nice suspension and not being able to go around a corner or freeway transition quickly. I decided to put the TE37s back on until I have some money to refinish the RS', fix the body work, and modify the fenders to make the wheels work.
This is how it sits as of today. BBS RS' have always been my dream wheels for the E30 but I do like TE37s on everything.
Thanks for following along. I'll update this again once more progress is made.
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