e30 autox car. v8 vs s52 vs m52 turbo

[Jean]

I have such a hard time understanding why people build such monsters for autox, around here a GOOD day is a 50-60 second course and you get 5 runs. All day for under 5mins of seat time, what a waste. Just run some coil overs on a stock m20 and dominate STS.

Not my cuppa I guess.

LOL. Sorry, e30 will not dominate STS. Civic SI's do.

[papajetta]

im tired of "dominating" my class. i think its time to chase FTD

[nando]

I have such a hard time understanding why people build such monsters for autox, around here a GOOD day is a 50-60 second course and you get 5 runs. All day for under 5mins of seat time, what a waste. Just run some coil overs on a stock m20 and dominate STS.

Not my cuppa I guess.

because it's fun and competitive.

Lapping days / HDPE's are more involved for sure, but you're not being timed. basically you're just going in circles (albeit really fast, fun circles), and the competition aspect is completely absent.

[ptownTSI]

for the cheapest you could run a carb'd 5.0 motor and T-5 trans. plenty of power, they will do 400hp with stock cam, $1300 heads and $300 roller rockers. just go to AFR's website and look at the article car craft did.

[Jean]

because it's fun and competitive.

Lapping days / HDPE's are more involved for sure, but you're not being timed. basically you're just going in circles (albeit really fast, fun circles), and the competition aspect is completely absent.

x2, unless you go into time trials and get a license hpde is not the place to go 10/10th. in Solo2 you can do that safely.

Tell these guys they are wasting their money and time for autocrossing ;)

[asubimmer]

the wings and splitters on those e36's are just rediculous. Are those even class legal?

[Jean]

Yes, to the limit.

[asubimmer]

I guess they have to be insane huge at that low of speeds to be effective

[Hick]

LOL. Sorry, e30 will not dominate STS. Civic SI's do.

Find Andy Bashem [sp?] on here. He runs STS locally and is DAMN fast!

[AlarmedBread]

Just my opinion guys. I do like autox, but if I was going to go all out and build a car like any of those, I'd be looking at getting into club racing. Much more fun way to waste your time and money imo. I actually did piss off one of the guys who is really into this last week, he bought the elise that won nationals or whatever, I was working with him and another guy and said basically the same thing track days > autox. He didn't appreciate that very much.

In this area, most of our event locations are smallish and theres usually tons of cars out so you only get a few short runs. Maybe I should make the trek to KC and see what it's like out there. FWIW, the reason why I complain about only getting a few runs is because its fun and I want to do more laps ;)

[Brew]

You're wasting your time trying to build a competitive auto-x car if you're starting with a convertible. Plus, you're limiting yourself if you ever want to take the car on a road course.

If I were you, I start off with the cleanest 2-door chassis I could find and focus on suspension and tires first. And I think for auto-x an S50/2 is the way to go- less weight, smoother power delivery. These cars have enough traction issues as-is.

[redhatpat]

Keep in mind a lot of race tracks wont let a convertible run due to safety issues.

[whiltebeitel]

And I think for auto-x an S50/2 is the way to go- less weight, smoother power delivery.

S50 is heavier. The 2.8 aluminum block is the only one that may be lighter than the M20.

[asubimmer]

S50 is heavier. The 2.8 aluminum block is the only one that may be lighter than the M20.

the s50 is about 40lbs heavier than an m20

[rsafier]

Yeah if you want to lose weight LSx swap. you drop about 50#s from the M20