Long Time Dream Fulfillment: E30 Street and Track Car Combo

[CubbyChowder]

Small update, not too much has happened with the car lately, I've just been enjoying daily driving it and working on some little things here and there. I have two Buttonwillow track days coming up, one this Friday (Oct 1st) and then another that following Sunday (Oct 9th) which is exciting.

I've been on the lookout for a couple months and finally scored a decent deal on a car hauler trailer which is also exciting! It's nothing crazy fancy, but it's a 2020 model so it's practically new, 16ft with a wider 7' deck between wheel wells, has a dovetail which will help for loading lower cars and it's got a tool box and winch plate. I plan on adding a winch at some point and adding a couple other things. Stoked that I found it and that I no longer have to borrow/rent trailers from friends:



I've been completing the interior too. For the past few months I've been running a half completed dash swap with no door panels or A-pillar trim and it just looked ghetto, so I finally took it upon myself to put it all back together and also repair my broken glovebox. The plastic tabs in the back where they mount to the big metal hinge were broken:



So I cut up some sheet metal plates and bent them to conform to the glovebox tab profile and JB welded them into place:




Forgot to take finished pics of the repair but once the JB weld cured, I drilled some holes, painted it all black and installed the metal hinge. Then it bolted right up and worked as it should so I finally have a complete looking dash again.

I wasn't really happy with my shifter setup (I've learned that I'm not really a fan of how Getrag G260's shift in general). I wanted something taller that's closer to my hand when it's on the wheel, so I started looking into chassis mounted shifters and came across the Lithuanian dude on the R3vlimited Facebook group that makes and sells his own style of chassis mount shifter. People seemed to like them and I didn't feel like spending $500 on a Coolerworx or IRP so I gave this one a shot. It was only $130 shipped and that included a custom shift knob design of my choice. I was actually really impressed with the overall quality and finish for the price:



I got that installed and it took a little bit of work to get everything fitting and working properly but we got there in the end. You can see how everything is starting to come together:




Overall, I'm really happy with the shifter itself. I love how tall it is and the throw is super short, which will be very nice on the track. It definitely takes some getting used to though, you have to be pretty precise with your movements. The shifts do take quite a bit of effort and they feel very notchy/clunky, which has kind of always been my experience running short shifters and DSSR's in a G260 equipped E30. For now, I'm content with it and looking forward to seeing how it feels at the track on Friday.

The steering wheel situation is frustrating. This current Mtech 1 wheel is a loaner from a friend. I sent my Mtech 1 wheel out to Jordan at Stitched Wheels back in early May and haven't heard from him since. He has my wheel and $300 and won't respond, and quite a few others out there are having the same experience. It's a bummer, I know he does great work and that he's going through a lot in life but he's just handling the whole situation very poorly. I've been really patient and will continue to hope that he eventually does the right thing and responds to me and ships me my wheel back...

[CubbyChowder]

Muffler sounds good. Im pretty sure there are pics of when I finally welded the rear valence on the Aluminum Monster like 5-6 years ago. The sloping down angles of the early and late are different so its not just an extension, it changes completely. My solution wasnt the best, but I had a joke of a garage to work in. Im sure yours will look much better. I have some ideas that might make it a huge improvement that I thought about later on when I was looking for those minor improvements.

I see, I'll have to look back on your thread to see what you're talking about, thanks for the heads up!

[2mAn]

Muffler sounds good. Im pretty sure there are pics of when I finally welded the rear valence on the Aluminum Monster like 5-6 years ago. The sloping down angles of the early and late are different so its not just an extension, it changes completely. My solution wasnt the best, but I had a joke of a garage to work in. Im sure yours will look much better. I have some ideas that might make it a huge improvement that I thought about later on when I was looking for those minor improvements.

[CubbyChowder]

Have you done the conversion before? I’m sure you have a plan and that you can make it come out right. As someone who’s done it, I’d skip the rear valence altogether and just do the bumper properly and leave it at that

Honestly to me the rear valance is what makes the whole conversion worthwhile. It's always bothered me how early models don't have one and I think it totally disrupts the flow of the car. I've already cut the rear valance out of the late model vert parts car (which was a massive pain in the ass by the way haha) and I plan on welding it to the car after fine tuning the fitment of it. It'll be a lot of work and I'll absolutely hate myself for it but the high fenders and early tails with the plastic rear bumper and valance has always been my E30 dream lol.

What are your thoughts on the muffler sound? I should've done a couple drive bys

[2mAn]

Rear bumper and valance will go on in the next couple months here, it's one of the next things I want to do with the car.

Have you done the conversion before? I’m sure you have a plan and that you can make it come out right. As someone who’s done it, I’d skip the rear valence altogether and just do the bumper properly and leave it at that

[CubbyChowder]

2mAn & moatilliatta - Sound clip - here is a link to a quick cell phone video I took earlier of a couple revs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDn_LH8bREY

You'll notice how white the tips are, they got hot to the point where the powdercoat finish turned white and flaked off haha great.

Rear bumper and valance will go on in the next couple months here, it's one of the next things I want to do with the car.

lambo - dude right?! I'm in love with that wheel/tire setup. The tires are wearing out super quick though I must say. Will probably only get 5 track days total out of these.

[lambo]

Man those Falkens look great on the stock weaves... now I need a set

[2mAn]

Still waiting on the sound clip... and whens that rear bumper going on?

[CubbyChowder]

Got track day #3 under my belt yesterday at Buttonwillow. Unfortunately I misunderstood the schedule and ended up completely missing my first session haha IDIOT.

It was hot, right around 100 degrees all day and I was trying a couple new things that I wanted to work on. I was making mistakes and flew off track again twice, one time going about 75mph. I felt less confident yesterday than my previous track day, I found that I was understeering quite a bit and the tires wanted to break loose sooner than expected (due to high track temps and tire wear I suppose) but I'm sure that's all mostly driver error. A lot of traffic on track too, getting stuck behind cars a lot, which feels distracting.

This time around my main focus was to be more deliberate about rev matching my downshifts through corners, because I wasn't doing that at all previously and it was upsetting the car mid corner and probably hard on the trans too. This added a new layer of concentration and proved to be pretty challenging. I am not ready to start trying the heel-toe method on track as it's a new concept to me and I need to practice it off track more to really understand it, but that will come in time.

So yeah, the more time I spend out there, the more I realize how much left there is to learn. I'm looking forward to developing my skills.

The car itself has been an absolute champ though! Between the constant WOT 6k+ RPM abuse, hard braking and the turbulent off-track mishaps, this little thing just perseveres and wants to keep ripping. I love this E30.

[CubbyChowder]

E30auddie - Same!

moatilliatta - I'll try to do a proper sound clip video soon

[moatilliatta]

May want to extend the tips to keep from burning, and soot if the bumper.

We need a sound clip!

[E30auddie]

I have admit that I'm extremely vain when it comes to the exhaust note of any motorized vehicle lol. If it doesn't sound good, I don't really want it haha.

New exhaust looks awesome though!!

[CubbyChowder]

^^ thanks guys!

I have my third track day coming up on Sunday and I finally had some time to get my new Vibrant muffler installed today! It's the $120 Vibrant 1148 and honestly I'm super happy with how it sounds, it's exactly what I wanted.

The stock muffler was beyond ugly and falling apart:




I ordered a y-pipe to merge from the stock dual 1.75" pipes into the Vibrant's single 2.5" pipe, it took some modification to work and I had to fab up some hangers but I got there in the end and hit it with some header paint:



So much better!



As for the sound, I took a gamble with this one and lucked out. It's exactly what I was hoping for. It's not obnoxious, it's not raspy, it's not even really that loud. It's slightly louder but deeper/throatier now, and sounds especially nice in the higher RPMs, which I spend a lot of time in out at the track. This modification does absolutely nothing for me other than make me smile when I hear the noises and I'm perfectly fine with that.

[Jb325is]

Really like your approach to this, and the fact that you're starting off with a well-prepped, mildly modded e30 to develop yourself before the car.

[econti]

I ended up going off track multiple times throughout the day

Just call it accidental rallying