Talk me down: E30

Rode shotgun in a bone stock E30 for an autocross run over the weekend.
All-seasons, novice lady driver, sliding everywhere, was a freaking blast.

Have been halfway looking for something to tinker with now that the Evo is about as modified as I'm allowed for BS, bonus points for anything north of the 17 MPG (drinking premium) I've been getting.

Questionable idea: 325e
Torque is a good thing, right? Looks to have some of the mods I'd end up doing anyway. Buying an older car from a younger person, maybe not my favorite idea.

Possibly better idea: Coworker (longtime AXer, runs an E30 in Chumpcar, good dude) has a 4-door 325i that he's willing to sell for 2k soon as he yanks the LSD.
'Low Miles' (relatively), I trust him not to throw me under the proverbial bus, but it's got more doors than I'd like. It's being very nearly stock is arguably a good or a bad thing.

Thoughts?
As a second 'project-ish' car I'm looking for something to play with, subject to some 'spirited' driving, and in general worry less about dinging it up.
From what I've read these cars are fairly DIY friendly, even for someone who only occasionally claims to be competent in regards to cars...

the i is a better starting point than the e. And some claim the 4-door chassis is more rigid.

I think the later i head from the 89 bolts right on the E motor and makes it into something nifty. If you can find an 1988 Super-E, that would be best starting point for an E.

If I could get a 325i for that money from a known seller, I would buy it, pronto.

It's a super platform for a project car, and there are lots of recipes out there for strokers using stock parts, etc.

People will say the rear suspension is a bad design and won't handle. I have flogged the ogg out of one on the track, and I totally disagree.

4-door is the better chassis anyway. Stiffer, and you can fit your race rubber in the back seat.

We'll see how much he'll demand to leave the diff in the car, I'm hung-up on having both rears turning for a street oriented car.
Are there any 'must-have' mods other than the 'normal' things people like us to do tighten up older cars?
(bushings/etc)

You should be able to find an LSD fairly cheap - I picked one up for maybe $250 with some other parts that I've since sold off.

If the shifter is wobbly, you'll want to replace all the bushings, which can be a real pain in the ass, even if you drop the driveshaft. There are several available upgrades that have a beefier dual shear selector rod which takes a lot of the play out of it.

They're fun cars - I really want to replace mine, which is slowly returning to the earth, with a 4 door before they get too much more expensive.

The "E" lead us to putting a SBF in our LeChump E30. Don't go down that route...

Brett_Murphy wrote: I think the later i head from the 89 bolts right on the E motor and makes it into something nifty. If you can find an 1988 Super-E, that would be best starting point for an E.

Only on the '88 E motor, on the others you get a drop in compression.

IIRC, it's been awhile since I owned my last of 3 E30s.

Fine, I'll be the one dude that actually abides by the thread title.

They are under powered, have a steering rack from a Peterbilt, will crumble like Iggy Azalea's career if they get hit, and are likely returning to the Earth anyway.

Now PM me your friend's phone number so I can buy his 325.

Z3 shift lever is the cheap way to short throws. Lower it, add big sway bars (with the reinforcements!), sticky tires of your choice and prepare to giggle your way around every autocross course.

Parts are stupid cheap and mine never really breaks.

Photo from 2008--I've since fixed the stripe colors.

I drove a buddys eta powered 325 back when I had my 325is. It was appalling how awful and diesel like it was. There is no way I would ever consider an eta car.... unless it was an 88 and had an I head, ECU and everything else in the trunk.

z31maniac wrote:

Brett_Murphy wrote: I think the later i head from the 89 bolts right on the E motor and makes it into something nifty. If you can find an 1988 Super-E, that would be best starting point for an E.

Only on the '88 E motor, on the others you get a drop in compression. IIRC, it's been awhile since I owned my last of 3 E30s.

I will second this - but it's been a while since I've done the research. That way you get the 2.7 block for a little more displacement, and the revs once you swap the head and DME.

Eta motor is tractor like, but I don't think it's that slow relatively speaking - the torque rating is about on par with an i car, you just don't get the revs. Chip it and it'll go to about 5500, adds about 20hp (as I recall) and I think even bumps the torque value.

That would've been the last thing I'd done (ours is a 325es, so I think it had marginally more gear than a standard eta), and I think 20hp would've made it a boat load more fun.

Sadly, the daughter has pretty much killed this car - given how stout they are, quite a feat....

Thanks for the info gents, I'm going to see about crawling in, under, and around coworker's car after my weekend.
(Which - of course - does not in any way coincide with the actual weekend, yay retail!)

No...I will not talk you out of it

Do it. Or send me his number so I can

If it's not rusty & the cosmetics are as good as they look in the pics, I'd definitely do it.

An e36 steering rack is a huge upgrade. You'll want to do that!

ross2004 wrote: The "E" lead us to putting a SBF in our LeChump E30. Don't go down that route...

All this.

"Torquey" is apologizing for being gutless. "Sure it's slow, but at least you won't have to downshift!" (because there's no point, it's slow up there too)

Nobody ever got excited over the sound of an engine revving really low. Fun engines don't rev to 5500rpm. Fun engines drop to 5500rpm after an upshift. (And really fun engines drop to 7000 after a shift...)

There was a video of this from some mainstream show, but instead of putting sticky tires on it and adding power, put it on donuts all around It will be tons of fun just driving to the grocery store. You can slide around corners like a fool, roast the tires with ease, and you can start the next trend for the stance crowd.

In reply to jere:

I have long posited that there should be an autocross class that is no holds barred with the exception that the vehicle must run on four temporary spares that were OE for that exact model. No classing except for 2wd/AWD. Vehicles that did not come with temporary spares are excluded, which automatically prevents the usual class-killers from being eligible.

Fords are also banned, because they did not have temporary spares but "temporal spares" which implies some sort of time travel is involved when in use, which could be used for cheating purposes.

In reply to Knurled: Lol Yes! Theres the answer beyond the answer

NO!

A nice, clean, proper "i" car is expensive these days. It is also slow as berkeley. An "e" car is garbage unless you are building something. Even then, it's kinda garbage if you didn't get it as a shell and priced accordingly.

A bone stock E36 328i at the same price will make you weep with gratitude you didn't spend $5k on an E30. You should buy one and spend $400 on an LSD.

In reply to Huckleberry:

Slow doesn't bother me, I DDed an (underprepped) STR Miata for nearly three years.
Seems that - around here at least - E36es are sketchy, automatics, in Canada, or some combination of the three.
Not that I'm opposed to buying from Canada (My Evo is metric) but I'm getting the impression that 2k for a 'known quantity' E30 is worth thinking about.
Especially when 'speed' isn't a requirement for this vehicle.
2k + 'a reasonable amount up to but not immediately exceeding 1k' in maintenance/mods seems to = good times for what I 'require'

I paid $400 for this 325e, yes it's sluggish compared to an M, yes it has taller gearing and yes, no one wants them.

Until I purchased a pre owned chip for $50!! Holy crap! Redline went from 4200 to 6500 and the "seat of the pants" dyno says hoowaaa.

Sorry, that wasn't talking you down was it? It's not a troll, anything about the car (gears, engine) can be changed.

Just have a good time.

I have a 1991 318is that I will never sell, and is by far the car I have owned the longest. Gutlessness was fixed with boost. 280k miles and counting, with thousands of miles on track with a turbo, and the only failure I've had even with extra power was a transmission when it puked all its oil out somehow and I didn't realize it. Trans #2 has been fine ever since.

We also have a 325e lemons car that we ran as a slushbox last season. 5 speed swapped over the winter so we'll see if that helps, but I really don't mind that engine. Chip does hugely amazing things for the eta. I'm used to slow cars though. E36 rack swap is, IMO, the single best thing you can do to make it feel more modern and fun to drive. The stock rack is indeed very slow and doesn't have much feel. Deleting power steering and M3 or poly control arm bushings will give you the rest of the feel that is missing.

Sorry, not going to talk you down from this one.