Cheap fun
 

I know a couple of y’all appreciate German engineering and most here enjoy blue collar engineering so I thought I’d share my latest. It’s an 89 E30 with a motor trans swap from an E36/E46. The M50 has S50 cams, chip and tune with some head work, the 6spd with the 3.73 lsd makes this car a ton of of fun to wheel. I’ll mainly be working on my seat time with this car, the po is an instructor and BMW enthusiast who happens to be a friend so it all works out well. Best bang for the buck I’ve ever owned.

Awesome! And it's not a Miata! :thumbsup:

Zoom zoom.

Or Subie or Focus....just sayin. :thumbsup:

Sweet! Anyone who really pushes a BMW without experience driving one is usually quite surprised at how well a basic car handles--they are not at all underrated in the design department. Dig the straight-6, too. It's got such a nice, leisurely way of putting the torque to work. Parts are cheap, too.

Focused engineering gives my piggy 530i something at or near 50/50 weight distribution, which goes a long way toward making it not feel as chunky as it is . . .

Enjoy!

I've only driven my E39 540i for a couple days since it arrived and could tell right away that it's a fun car to drive. Basically, it's everything that I wanted in another car. I know the E30 gets lots of love with the various swaps. You really don't need a lot of power to get them going quickly.

Enjoy the drive, Basher.

I've raced a BMW for a few years in Chump (now ChampCar) - lots of fun!

https://i.hmjimg.com/images/2018/09/...67767_n.md.jpg

It’s so basic. Besides the motor and transmission...and e36 brakes, he’s installed Vorshlag CC plates, Ireland Engineering swaybars, Bilsteins with H&R springs, e36 M3 lower control arms and a few other things I have no clue about. I do know with around 200rwhp and I’m assuming about 24-2500lbs weight, it’s a hoot!

I took both my boys (one at a time, no back seat) for a spirited ride yesterday. The 11yo and I got to mess with a Porsche Caymen on some backroads and I’m pretty sure the other driver was a bit frustrated seeing this beater in his rearview. Now I know Caymans aren’t GT3’s but it’s still a Porsche owner and he was still trying to pull away, which wasn’t working. Dad of the year in my boys mind, just the opposite with his mom. :warning:

Making memories already!

That will be a lot of fun on track.

The po mentioned Champcar and the LuckyDog series, I thought he had said they run on a 200tw tire, is that correct? It seems with a bit more safety gear I’m able to slide right into these series. Eventually.

The first time i was ever on the track was with Greg and Charlie in '14 at one of their Shelby nor-cal events (what a class group). I had an instructor named Bill. A bada$$ behind the wheel, took me out in his Cayman S, went wheel to wheel with a Corvette C6R, man he knew how to drive that thing. Even spun off track at 90 and got to watch him correct it. It was awesome fun. But yeh, momentum car at the least.

Great find by the way. Love those cars. BTW, the windshield in that was the easiest and fastest shield i've ever replaced, like 7 minutes included washing it down. I beleive your model was glued in, slows down the installation but still super easy nonetheless. Probably useless info, but hey, what are forums for lol

Goodness. That sounds like something that would happen at a Norcal Shelby event. :sieg:

:D

And u were there

That’s actually somewhat useful, I have 3 rock chips all up by the rearview mirror. I’ll make sure and tell the glass guy he’s only got 10 minutes to git er done. Lol

I’m meeting with the po/builder the first part of next week, this weekend he’ll be at Thunderhill for the 25hr. He’s developed some parts that he wants to talk to me about....stand alone ABS and something about a big brake kit using newer BMW parts. My question, well one of many, are bigger brakes always better? Does a lil e30 really need 6 piston Brembos?:headscratch:

I already told Dave that I was off cars for the year after the suck that was last Saturday at Laguna, but you know how stupid all of us are when it comes to wheeled things. On to the brakes . . .

I don't know if he posted it here, but R. Sutton had a really awesomely informative brake thread on pro-touring.com that I learned a lot from. It goes into great detail on the realities of sizing, numbers of pistons, and trick looking crap that fills bling wheels vs. marketing BS. Again, it was very informative. It was filled with a pretty shockingly honest bit of info from a guy trying to make a buck selling bling brakes.

Detail: My C4 brakes include 12 inch rotors, all just under an inch in thickness. The calipers are two-pots in front and singles in the back; they are aluminum. With the right master setup, proportioning, and decent pads, they work amazingly well in a 3k pound car (see multiple decades of racing success). I've only just recently gotten my dual masters sized correctly, biased correctly, and adorned with some track pads. With my stupid drilled rotors and warm brakes, it's like stopping a motorcycle now (even with the cool zzzzzzzz noise). Yes, I used to ride sportbikes (and a supermoto) like a real intelligent dude . . .

My instructor also spun off the track on the same day, just over the hill. He did not recover (nor did he break anything), but he had a really nice California Special. Maybe it was the Elvis in the car . . .

I did the same spin last year in the same place, but it was because my brakes were idiotically biased way rearward, not because I went into second gear.

Here's to future racing on dry pavement . . .

I like big breaks and I can not lie...Nope, I get it. I may or may not have read the same article, seems to ring a bell. I have brakes on my 66 that were not good enough for Weld, Charlie never used and Jack originally installed that are similar to your current set up. Charlie and Jack ran the car for years with guest drivers that seemed to think they were great.....Not sure what my point is but I’m on board with little to no bling and parts that work over looking the part. I guess I’ll know more after the weekend, I do know he’s not making parts for the street scene.

Any thought on ABS?

People jacknife bigrig trailers with ABS all the time. They put these stupid lights on the sides, so you know the ABS is working as the trailer comes around to say hi in your mirror. I hate ABS. I also hate traction control--it's great for destroying brake rotors so you don't have to learn to modulate pedals with your brain and feet. I've got to be anti-tech somewhere in life . . .

I really need some Dirtfish training.

Check the NASCAR and TA2 cars running 15" wheels for reasonable brake sizing that kills (and relatively low tech).

Everyone does.
Let me know if you do and I’ll meet you on the ridge for some good food, local beer and decent company.
:cheers: