m50/52 powered e30's in autocross?

[portlandareae28]

ANybody running M50/m52 powered car in SCCA events? How do the cars class out? or do they just run in the BRING YOUR CHECKBOOK category?

Anyhelp is greatly appreciated

Brian

[bmws50b30]

i run in SM. pretty competitive class which helps me push myself to the limits. i have an s50 and it's too much for my azenis tires. it spins the tires if you can't control the accelator.

[SchnellerVert]

Depends on the sanctioning body. But pretty much you are in umlimited catagory.

[Jean]

I also autocross in SM locally with pretty competitive drivers, champs. Currently I am 2-3 seconds off the first place from the guys with 300hp+ cars and 225-255" wire DOT R V710 or BFG dot R tires. I am on street tires, in a fairly light e30 318i chassis with way underpowered engine though.

SM is still a "whoeverhasbiggestcheckbookwins" class, especially so on the national level. At least's it's not a prepared class though ;)

I think S52 or even S50 is more than enough to make an e30 very competitive in SM class atleast locally. A few years back there was a really worked e30 m3 (with s14 but pretty much maxed out in all the allowable mods) locally who was battling for 1st/2nd place with the same driver who is currently holding 1st/2nd in SM locally and SF region.

I am slowly building my E30 for SM, it needs more power thats for sure but if you stick with it I think you'll be happy. I really like how e30 handles even on rt615s, 1st place driver had positive things to say about it also.

SM or XP are your options unless you stick with same engine, then DSP . Surebimmer on this forum autocrosses his e30 with s52 also, look him up .

Go for it :)

[matt]

X-mod? X-prepared?

There's some class that allows crazy stuff. It's been a couple years since I ran with the SCCA so I'm sure it's all different.

[iflytii]

X-mod? X-prepared?

There's some class that allows crazy stuff. It's been a couple years since I ran with the SCCA so I'm sure it's all different.

I bumped from SM to X-Prepared XP allows you to run a gutted interior and since my car went to a full time racer, that was my lowest point of entry. The other thing X-mod allows is motor swaps from different mfgrs. So a LS1 e30 could be pretty competitive there! :D

[Jean]

I bumped from SM to X-Mod. X-mod allows you to run a gutted interior and since my car went to a full time racer, that was my lowest point of entry. The other thing X-mod allows is motor swaps from different mfgrs. So a LS1 e30 could be pretty competitive there! :D

Nice! pretty much anything with ls1 is competitive ;) Post pics of your car :D

[iflytii]

Nice! pretty much anything with ls1 is competitive ;) Post pics of your car :D

From last year:

[portlandareae28]

what flares are on that car? and how much tire are you running??? that thing looks Great!!

Brian

[Brew]

I run with the BMW CCA and my car is classed as an E36 M3 plus all the points for the various modifications. This puts me in the highest street tire class, against some very fast and well prepared E36 M3s. I'm not very competitive yet... mostly because of my skill (or lack of) and my car's inability to put the power down, but with some work the car certainly could be.

[iflytii]

what flares are on that car? and how much tire are you running??? that thing looks Great!!

Brian

Those are IE flares. In the pic I was running 245/40/17 A06 Hoosiers. I'm currently running a 250 yoko slicks and I still have a little more room.

[portlandareae28]

are you running a different front bumper with the flares or do they tie in pretty well?

Brian

[rob_e30]

Those are IE flares. In the pic I was running 245/40/17 A06 Hoosiers. I'm currently running a 250 yoko slicks and I still have a little more room.

How are you doing on wheel bearings? Any pics of the installation of those flares? I've got a set on order.

[whakiewes]

Local E30 M3 with an S52 runs in SM and is very competitive. He may take the title this year, I don't know. Car is lightened, cage, seats, suspension, wheels/brakes, built S52, and I am sure more I can't see from the outside. Every event I have been to he takes the SM class.

Even with my 325i with the M20 its hard to be competitve in my class. All of our courses are fairly tight and my 3.73 gear always puts me in the wrong place. If I am maxing out first ping at 7000rpms and left foot braking, I can do okay, but as soon as I shift to second I lose time. I think the car would be much better with a 3.25 or a 3.46. I don't do Auto-X competitively, but more as a cheap/fun way to enjoy my car. I also found that my car was substantially quicker with and open diff over the current 3.73LSD. Of course an M50/S50 would just pegleg the course with an open diff, but my measly 140-150whp did just fine.

Wes

[matt]

Alex McHenry's old car?