E30 vs other cars on limit

[Bill 84 318i]

yeah its a 91 318is so it should have one. I have driven a few cars with lsd's and i can defenitly tell its not working

LSD's were optional on the 318iS.

[BMW BMXER]

LSDs are damn fun. :D

[eeki]

Tervetuloa. Ma asuin suomessa kaksi vuotta. Mutte en ole kaynyt suomea kymmenen vuotta. Ma en puhu suomea hyvin enaa. Siis, ma kirjoittan englaneksi.

Kiitoksia.. Ihan hyvinhän tuo suomi tuntuu sujuvan vieläkin. :)

I still haven't sold my current car, but after that I propably start looking for a nice E30. This time I'll spend some more time looking for a good one, I've had to replace waaay too much stuff on my Golf.. It's been quite reliable for a long time, though, I propably shouldn't sell it. ;)

I've been thinking a lot about getting an iX, after hearing all the positive feedback from owners and magazines. How reliable it is driveline-wise when driven somewhat hard on tarmac? I'll propably attend 3-4 trackdays next summer and I like to drive hard-ish on backroads. I've heard that some splines in the transfer case wear, is it common? The reason I'm even considering one is that we have 4-5 months of winter / year. The extra traction would be helpful, especially as LSD is quite rare on 325i's in here.

Tuff240, I was thinking about 240 Turbos too. Too bad most of them (in here) seem to be from ~'80-'84 and have a LOT of km's (around 300k). Still, my friend has a 240 Turbo that has been in his family from brand new, I've been trying to make him sell the car to me. :)

[boom-monkey]

Mine's a 91 318is and it did not come with an LSD. Still handles very well and only rarely does it only have traction with only 1 wheel. Most of the time, either sideways or burnout, both wheels are smokin'.

[Tuff240]

Tuff240, I was thinking about 240 Turbos too. Too bad most of them (in here) seem to be from ~'80-'84 and have a LOT of km's (around 300k). Still, my friend has a 240 Turbo that has been in his family from brand new, I've been trying to make him sell the car to me. :)

240 turbos were only made from 81-85. It is pretty easy to turbo a later car though. Probably cost you $500-700 in parts to do a basic conversion and you will have 160-200hp depending on the bits you get. 160hp (5-7psi) would be about all the fuel system could handle in stock form, but that's pretty easy to bump to 200hp. I've seen people do the entire conversion for $100-150 as well. Just depends on you hook-ups and how lucky you get.

My daily beater for instance, I picked it up for $250 with a blown cam plug. Poured oil out almost as fast as you put it in. BUT, it cost me $5 for a new plug and took me 10 minutes to install (pays to know these things ;) ). Had the A/C charged and a gave her a full-tune up for another $250 (did the tune-up myself). I went to the local Pick N Pull wrecker here and pulled a turbo, turbo exhaust manifold, intercooler, intercooler plumbing from a combination of 240 and 740 IC pipes and all the little brackets and extra stuff I would need. Cost was about $250 at PnP. Put it all on and had a new exhaust built for $200 at the local muffler shop. Had about $50-100 in misc gaskets and such.

So there you have it, a reliable daily beater for just over a $1k. 190hp and above will require much more tinkering and I would consider that not reliable just because the maintenence aspect goes up making sure everything is always in top form. 160-190hp is a set it and forget it type deal......very reliable.

Either way you go, I have nothing but praise for the e30's or the Volvo 240's.