Video Series: E30 as fast as a modern G80 M3 CS?

[parkerbink]

Honestly I never expected to please everyone, so its all good for me if my channel isn't for you. But I would be remised if I didn't say its a shame to make judgements and "not stick around" on things before you even let them play out. We have only dropped our first build episode of 5 build episodes. All I'm saying is that a statement like "...more interesting to see people make things happen themselves than drop off a chassis and a check" is premature, and frankly, short sighted - and puts down the channel before we even have the chance to share all that we've done. Over the past 20 years I've done all my car projects myself and spent years doing my own research and trial & error engine builds and suspension - this build I wanted to also include a good friend like Chris who I could not only learn from, but also show the world the amazing things and depth of knowledge that he has about these amazing cars. Chris is a dying breed, and should be celebrated and highlighted just like the cars he builds.

And just to reiterate, my channel is not a DIYer - never claimed it to be. This build series was intended to celebrate the iconic E30 platform and give some light hearted high level education to people easing their way into the world of track driving and building cars. It can be intimidating for people getting their start. My hope is that one of my videos will make some little kid, like me back in the day, get a spark of interest in building cars and go on to be the next Chris Castro who eats, sleeps, and breathes his craft. Absolute legend.

I hope you, and others - who at first glance don't "like" our videos - will stick around and see how this goes, and join in the community of celebrating the legendary cars and people in this arena.

Or not, that's also okay. Just my two cents.

Cheers!

Outside some of the production choices I liked the video & look forward to more.

I have loved BMWs as long as I can remember, kind of like your Dad, the 507 & 2002 were awesome, I had a 40k mile '72 2002Tii in '80, bought from the widow of the first owner in Malibu. Was virtually perfect. Miss it almost every day.

[e30m3s54turbo]

I also look forward on progress.

[litu]

Episode 3

HHhhmmmm, cool video, cool story...

[2mAn]

e30cs where are you located? Thought you were in SoCal but CAtuned appearance makes me wonder if you’re NorCal?

[ehrawn]

e30cs , I really appreciate what you’re doing here. From what I’ve seen so far, lots to love about the build. Keep up the good work.

[litu]

[litu]

[FredK]

The guy doing the alignment and the test driver definitely had some good feedback to get the car to turn and perform better. Hopefully they spend some time dialing the suspension damping settings before the actual timed lap, and maybe even increase spring rate to a more performance-oriented rate.

[McGyver]

Did CATuned ever have feedback on the quality of the machine work on the head, bottom end issues, and/or missing parts? I would assume they could/should have caught all those issues before selling and shipping an engine. The editing makes is look like they completely dropped the ball on this. Is that the case, or were they just working under an unrealistically short time constraint to provide something functional to meet the video production timeline? On that note, why such a short timeline? Why not initially schedule a little more time and/or push out the track day to get things right the first time?

That tuning session was such a shit show. I can understand something being lost in translation about datalogging vs actual tuning, it seemed like there could have been better communication on both sides. However, I don't understand how the tuner didn't think to ask enough questions to be confident that he was showing up with the correct cables and hardware. That was the exact moment that I lost confidence in him and would be very hesitant to let him touch my car, let alone a rebuilt supercharged s54.

To keep on the Monday Morning Quarterbacking, why wasn't the car aligned and balanced prior to the first track shakedown. It seems like a lot of effort just to conclude, "Yup, the car needs an alignment". Then repeat the shakedown with good baseline settings to get some useful info to hone in on the best settings.

Final gripe, were any of the body panels replaced with carbon fiber? One of the videos took several minutes to describe how many of the g80 panels were made of carbon fiber. I really expected more than the gurney flap to be CF.

On a positive note, the interior and body work looks gorgeous. The whole build is pretty amazing, I'm interested in the total cost.

[Northern]

It certainly looks great.

The comment from Tyler about moving away from spherical stuff makes sense for the "CS" thing, but I don't think it's feasible because there just aren't options.
The only things you left were control arms/tie rods which are reasonable to leave alone.
I looked back at the uprights and they don't look like M3 uprights in the MCS kit? So you lost the roll center adjustment? Not sure what's up, maybe that's needed for the bottom adjuster on the strut insert?

The pedal cover comment, I don't know if he was looking to move the pedals closer together or up or if that comment was just about the crappy stock rubber pads. I know it's common to remove the pad and put grip tape on the underlying pedal, but some people also run aftermarket pedal covers?

Brakes should be fine? I don't know that kit, not sure it compares to the various Massive setups, but at face value it looks like 332x32 and the caliper looks like a big, healthy 4-pot, plus you have ducts. Maybe just the compound?

I appreciate that it isn't a forum crowd-sourced build, like we see some stuff that's different from to the "go to" options you'd hear around here. It's already one hell of a car.


I really hope you have a lull or something once these videos are all released and you can slap some B roll together and fill in some of the gaps.
Spring rates. Rear swaybar (is it helping). CABs (look stock?)