E30 #2- '86 S52 Coupe Project Log

[Jb325is]

I love the style 21's reflecting in that last pic. One of the best wheels for an E30 in my opinion.

Me too. I think they're such a cool factory wheel, and the plan here is to run them with turbines on this car... I just don't like all of the compromises associated with cost effective 5-lug conversions, I want the car to function as a practical road car and don't want to have to run small tires or deal with rubbing.

First impressions on my coilovers: The rear shock valving is off with the Mustang shocks- It's pretty bouncy and it gets into the Koni bump stop pretty hard. I'm going to trim the bump stop down and crank all of the rebound into these things. It's worth mentioning that I do live in Downtown Charlotte and the roads are absolutely *terrible* here. Aside from that, pretty happy with this setup for the money, fronts feel perfect.

Maybe this is a sign that I'm getting a little older, but it almost looks too good to go 5-lug and put 17's on it

[rzerob]

I love the style 21's reflecting in that last pic. One of the best wheels for an E30 in my opinion.

[Jb325is]

Well I've started working on this thing again. Wasn't a fan of the Bilstein/H&R setup, so I sold then and put together a coilover setup using the following:

51mm housings, shortened 1.5"
Koni 8641-1198SPORT Fronts (Corrado). These are ~3.5" shorter than stock
Koni 8041-1186SPORT Rears- Mustang SN95, top adjustable
600 (6")/800 (5") springs
IE coilover sleeves front and rear
Ground Control race camber plates
AKG spherical RSM's







Pretty big improvement IMO- Need spacers now



I've also been messing with these 5 lug pieces I drew up in CAD a few years back, forgot that my friend made them for me. They are a tight slip fit to the stock bearing surface, but also thread onto the spindle. The intention was to weld these on at the base of the spindle. Still need to figure out what brake setup I'd want to run with these... They add less offset than the other similar products on the market, but that means that you start running into issues with rotor clearance at the tie rod end. Just need to mess with this some and figure it out.







Also did a cut and polish. The paint is gone on this thing, but it still shines up pretty nice... Super thin in some spots unfortunately

[MyE30]

Also preparing to get serious on some e30 m3 5 lug solutions. I have access to a FARO arm and Romer arm at work to scan some e30 m3 struts and tie rod arms, also considering looking into e28 struts. The two alternatives I'm considering are 1) clamp style upright similar to e39 m5 This would be a pretty hefty 5-axis part, but I think you could build it to be cheaper than the cost of a set of e30 m3 struts these days. 2) adapter tie rod arm to use e28 strut. I need to look further into this, it seems like it should work but I'm not sure about the geometry side of things.

i'm really interested in seeing what you come up with.

e30 m3 front struts, even if you can find them, would seem to be cost prohibitive. if only there was an aftermarket solution for the NLA tie rod arms similar to these puppies


then again although the strut housings are still available they cost an arm a leg as well.

[me_john85]

Nice car, hope to see you around.. If sell those Ronals since your thinking about 5 lug let me know. :)

[Joeyz31]

Awesome! Subscribed for sure. I am glad someone picked this thing up. Super tempted when I saw it pop up, a few months back or whenever it was.

[808ETA]

Very nice! I like your style. I have a stock 84' 325e and I want to go in the same direction as you are.

[Jb325is]

Got home from the married-life holiday runaround (1000+ miles on the m5 in a matter of days) and immediately got the slave cylinder swapped out and put the Ronals on. Still on the not great Kumho tires, but don't have a good feel for 15" tire sizes yet, so holding out a little longer. I think I'll go with something 200TW in 225/45 when the weather turns

Also preparing to get serious on some e30 m3 5 lug solutions. I have access to a FARO arm and Romer arm at work to scan some e30 m3 struts and tie rod arms, also considering looking into e28 struts. The two alternatives I'm considering are 1) clamp style upright similar to e39 m5 This would be a pretty hefty 5-axis part, but I think you could build it to be cheaper than the cost of a set of e30 m3 struts these days. 2) adapter tie rod arm to use e28 strut. I need to look further into this, it seems like it should work but I'm not sure about the geometry side of things.

[moatilliatta]

Noice!

[rzerob]

Nice addition. Subscribed.

[Staszek]

Really nice place to start, now you can have a daily and a track monster.

[325isman]

Great looking car. Sweet

[2mAn]

Nice, I remember seeing that one. Good deal and congrats. I am excited to see the changes to make it yours

[drulle]

I like it. Black e30's look the best :)

[jeenyus]

looks great!