How fast is a 24v E30 on a road course?

[mach schnell]

Noticeably faster?

Not much faster?

What kind of cars can they run with, when you have a 24v swap? Mini Cooper S's? S2000's? E36 M3's? 944's?

[Massive Lee]

Depends on the driver. A good driver with a 318is could be faster... Really. My 1969 2002 was much quicker than Twin Turbo Porks with bad drivers.

[Holland]

lee is right, work on your driver mod.

[Jonny Cash]

Theres quite a few videos out there (1990m3's track videos come to mind) They seem to get around very well. It will depend alot on gearing, and the track in question also- given equal drivers.

[jlevie]

This is much more a matter of driver and track than car. Whether the car has a well tuned M20B25 or a 24v swap. A competent driver can run with cars that "should" be faster if the driver's skills are better than the competition.

[mach schnell]

I appreciate the info. I am getting tired of my M20 and thinking of either an M50 swap of some kind, or just selling and getting an E36 M3 or S2000. Something that makes some more HP and can take bigger tires.

[Massive Lee]

Don't blame it on the M20. It's a good engine and I have seen very quick e30s on their M20 motor. Lap times have less to do with engine than they are related to picking the proper line, not upsetting your suspension and keeping as much momentum as you can.

If your take on speed is that it is related to motors, then there will always be cars with bigger engines. Concentrate on the driving, and you'll kick some butt. Other drivers with twice your motor will respect you for passing them, and possibly you'll get laid by their teenage daughter...

[E-Thirty]

If the e30 is in good running order, I would keep it for learning on the track. Much easier on the wallet, leaving you less to worry about than something like an M3 or S2000.

[mach schnell]

Other drivers with twice your motor will respect you for passing them, and possibly you'll get laid by their teenage daughter...

Excellent! Can't argue with that....

[tehwickerman]

Other drivers with twice your motor will respect you for passing them, and possibly you'll get laid by their teenage daughter...[/quote]

that is awesome.

[bloodshot-e30]

depends completely on the driver!
i was "playing" with an E46 M30 in my M52 car and he could not lose me finally i just passed him gave a nice little wave and a thumbs up!

[Emre]

Personally, I don't think there's a significant drop in lap times going from a stock M20 to a stock M50. There may be other reasons to do the swap (better reliability, less maintenance, ease of tuning, availability of bolt-on upgrades etc.) but I don't think sheer speed is significantly different.

If we're talking about an S50, then that's a different story.

Just as a point of reference, a buddy of mine from Ottawa has an E30 with an M50 swap. I've got a stock M20. We run the same suspension, same brakes, same tires. We were running Tremblant in the rain and we were running bumper-bumper for an entire session. I finally edged past him in Corner 10 (barely) just before the session ended. He's also a pretty experienced driver (Lee would know who I'm talking about). Really, there was no significant difference in speed.

[Skafrog]

The benefit of an m50 is better reliability and the potential for mods. Stock to stock, its not much faster. However, once you do a few things to an m50, it becomes pretty noticeable.

[balooshinakus]

The benefit of an m50 is better reliability and the potential for mods. Stock to stock, its not much faster. However, once you do a few things to an m50, it becomes pretty noticeable.

Why not just do an s50 which doesn't cost much more and definitely makes more power? For me at least, the majority of the cost of swapping wasn't the motor, it was all the other stuff I needed. I didn't have a parts car though, so that would have made it cheaper I suppose..

[nrubenstein]

The real truth is that the extra power of, say, an S50 is really only worth a couple seconds off your lap time on most tracks.

It will feel a lot faster, but it won't actually be *that* much faster if you are a good driver.