Member since '03 back with a '89 325i

[Smoove1]

Wow I have never seen TE37s look so good on an e30! Making me want a set! :)

The TE37s look great

An example of modern wheels on an old car that I actually like! Good job so far!

Thanks guys. They're one of my favorite wheels.

[alistairolsen]

An example of modern wheels on an old car that I actually like! Good job so far!

[Smoove1]

Welcome back!,

Where did you source the mtech 1 style spoiler from? It looks to be one solid piece but it fits well.

Would love a reproduction option that's decent rather than paying through the nose for a worn genuine example.

Thanks!

The spoiler is a replica I ordered off of eBay. The fitment was good and I plastic dipped it instead of painting it to make it look more rubber like an original. Also, the filler plate is matte black vinyl and the tail lights are laminx’d since MHWs are like $750 now for some reason.

[2mAn]

The TE37s look great

[Balleristic31]

Wow I have never seen TE37s look so good on an e30! Making me want a set! :)

[Jamie H]

Welcome back!,

Where did you source the mtech 1 style spoiler from? It looks to be one solid piece but it fits well.

Would love a reproduction option that's decent rather than paying through the nose for a worn genuine example.

Thanks!

[e30_world]

Welcome back, what a nice car to get back into e30's with!

[ATL_E30]

Awesome whip. Tour e30 is much cooler than the civic, so it won in my mind. By the way, do people still say “cool” or am I 100 years old and really not that cool?

I think the new phrasing is "Dope".

Dope update Smoove!

[Echo30V]

Awesome whip. Tour e30 is much cooler than the civic, so it won in my mind. By the way, do people still say “cool” or am I 100 years old and really not that cool?

[parkerbink]

Sorry you lost, nice update.

[Smoove1]

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.

[2mAn]

Nice, my SSR have a similar spacer, though not as thick. Mine were 4x100 & et35 and came with 10mm spacers and I had a custom 15mm spacer made to get the rear to a et20 final offset.

[Smoove1]

I like the wheels. Did you need to run spacers or rings? Arent those usually JDM offsets?

I'm using 22mm 4x114.3/4x100 hub centric adapters. These Volks come with a 65mm centerbore and usually get sized down from there. The adapters are 65mm to 57.1mm so that cuts out the need for hubcentric rings as well.

[2mAn]

I like the wheels. Did you need to run spacers or rings? Arent those usually JDM offsets?

[Smoove1]

I felt the rear was lacking so my most recent project is this M-tech 1 style spoiler:







Also, I had to take a pic with this thing:




I eventually plan on running the E30 around the track but in the meantime, here of some recent pics from Buttonwillow Race Park in my track car: