E30 Zone

Everywhere i seem to look on the internet at the moment i see references to this car.

It seems to have been around for ages with lots of people claiming to have done the mods on it.

Who actually built it?

lee stanard i thik with a griffin head???

karan is the man to ask, as he made a few chnages to it when he owned it.


whats being said??

The engine was originally built for me by Les Stannard. The block is the original one from my 325i Sport.

Les built the engine out to 2.7L using a brand new genuine BMW ETA crank, ETA rods and Mahle High compression pistons (10:1 I believe). At this time, it was literally just the capacity increase and still had the standard head (rebuilt with a new standard camshaft).

I later fitted a Griffin Motorport cylinder head (ported/flowed etc) and Griffin Motorsport 277 degree camshaft. This was later replaced by the current Schrick 284/272 camshaft. After this was fitted, I had the Unichip installed to get the mapping correct. I drove it around like this for several years, but decided I wanted more power, so the engine was removed and sold to Ste Nelson (enter GUG). Ste owned GUG which was running the standard 325i Sport engine. This was removed and my old 2.7 was fitted in it's place. Over the next year or two, Ste fettled this further with the MAF conversion (installed by Bexley Motorworks), and also fitted the BMC intake system. I'm pretty sure Ste was also responsible for the H&R Cup kit as well.

Ste eventually sold the car to his brother Phil, who had the body tidied up and painted, and then sold it to Karan who had it up until very recently.

I guess it was probably the Zone and Karan's sideways antics (c0ck action ) that made it as famous as it appears to be know.

Ian.

I bought GUG from a fella in Bradford.

I'd just written off my Porsche by driving it into a concrete wall. I decided to get something disposable to thrash the doors off and teach myself a bit more about driving as crashing into concrete walls is best avoided. I nosed about for something smallish, RWD with an LSD that was cheap. I spotted a dolphin grey sport for sale and rang the advert. Unfortunately it had sold but the fella said his mate had one that was tidier and he was about to put it up for sale. I rocked up, gave him Ԛ£1900 and had myself a tidy completely standard '89 Sport.

I did a few trackdays in it and it was pretty good for a standard little car.

After I'd gone through the first set of tyres I swapped them for 50 profiles which were much better.

I then fitted some greenstuff pads and EBC discs. These were no better than standard.

Before my next track day I fitted a H&R Cup Kit. I'd had H&R coilovers on a Golf and they rocked. This was supposed to be a cheap car though so coilovers were a bit too excessive. Nobody else had a Cup Kit in the UK at the time and I imported it direct from Deutschland. It worked out pretty well.

That was basically the car until I moved from Leeds down to sunny Sussex. I met ian332isport to buy a steering rack off him to build into a kwikrack. He showed me his 2.7 sat in the corner of his garage and we worked a deal out (very cheap I might add - he'd had it for sale for a while if I remember and nobody had really had a sniff). He even helped me stick it in the boot of my Focus company car along with loads of spares that he no longer needed (gerabox, 3 exhausts lots and lots of bits and pieces) so I could drive it back up to Leeds. I fitted the engine and then moved down South with work. As luck would have it I moved into the same village as ian. How's that for a coincidence.

About that time a group of e30 bods used to post on the BMWcarmagazine 3 series forum. We regularly had a bit of banter with the e36 boys.

A group of us got into various modifications and various things were tried out.

By that time I'd also fitted better brakes, the 6 branch fanimold and maybe a few other bits and bobs? I had Bexleys do a MAF conversion too.

We wanted to know what mods worked and what didn't so I arranged a rolling road day at Bexley Motor Works. Performance BMW mag turned up and we had a feature in the mag. The lads that turned up that day to do the power runs made up the backbone of the e30 owners on the BMWcarmagazine forum and we decided to start up a forum of our own. Hence the e30zone was born.

That was the day that the car saw 213bhp and 220lb/ft. that often gets quoted. It actually went back later as it was pinking badly due to fuel starvation. The head was removed cleaned up and skimmed also at that time and the fuel pressure was upped and it was remapped. It saw better figures but I can't remember what. Maybe the new owner has a print out?

It was quite quick by then. Nottinghamshire constabulary will attest to that. They couldn't catch it.

I pretty much left the car as was except for adding that BMC baked bean can of an induction kit. Oh and I fitted some Dunlop DO1-J cut slicks. Final proper outing for it was at Brands Hatch where it handled itself pretty well against some suppposedly more competent cars.

Total cost to me was about Ԛ£2.5k after selling on standard bits I removed whenever I upgraded anything. I think for that money it was a good little motor.

I then decided to start racing so sold GUG to my little brother to fund building a racing car.

enough credit to whom built the car and the previous owners,but this has to be said,i went to view this car last week i think up in slough,was really looking forward to purchasing this vehicle(GUG),when i arraived the car was looking nice from a far away distance,but when i actually went nearer and nearer i stated noticing things like scracthes,bits missing,BLAD tyres and felt let down,anyway the owner started the car and i felt even more let down,exhaust was blowing as if there was a plane right on top of my head(that loud)the idle control vavle was half out of the samco hoses,there was wires hangin down from where the electric fan was,and when i got inside i put the heaters on,which were also making some funny sounds,there is alot more but i just cant be bothered,all i can say is that i was kinda pis*ed off because i thought id buy that car i would have have some power,but what can you say,when a car is left in the wrong hands theres bound to be some fu*ck ups.

It was a nice car whe Ste owned it and Karan maintained it aswell.

I had a drive in the car a few months ago and was taken out by Karan - it seemed good back then.

The exhaust will probably need changing.

As for scratches etc - it is an old car so do expect this.

Handling on the car is fantastic and the ride is ok too considering its got poly bushes and 205/50 tyres.

I think people need to understand one thing - its a quick sport. If it ws mint and had no issues it would be alot more money than it is now.

The mods alone are worth so much money.

It was quite quick by then. Nottinghamshire constabulary will attest to that. They couldn't catch it.

defensive driving helped too

shaz your not buying that sport to look good, it's a car to be driven hard and enjoyed like everyone else has with it

if you say so simon,but i personally would like to have fun in a fast car also look good at the same time,and im pretty sure other zoners would agree,im not putting this car down at all,all im saying is that it wasnt up to my standards and must i add that everyone has their own opinions.

shaz as i said to you the reason its priced to sell at that is because of that engine, thats why i bought it. the bodywork has a couple of issues i agree, but that car is how exactly i bought it from the previous owner, i didnt do any thing to it, i didnt put the electric fan back on, aint sprayed the front bumper etc

like sal says it would be worth much more if it was A1..for a sport its the best iv ever been in. The engine is a work of art imo, once its on song it goes well. But as a everyday car it may not be to everyones liking it low its loud and it idles a tad lumpy but who cares at that, this was built to be driven and not built to be a southall bass cruiser

Deep down its a shame i have to sell coz i know i wont come accross a sport like it again

hmmmm i had this car for 2 yrs... and di all the work on it myself and spent a lot on it...

ive done:

steering racks, lsds, driveshafts, props, ferodo brakes,shortshift, manifold.....and so many other mainetnance things lie bodywork/welding etc....

the car is awesome and remains the best e30 i have driven to date ive driven a fair few

for a f reg e30 to beat TT's boxsters and stay with e36 m3s....also only lost 2 car lengths against an e46 m3 from 0-100mph

the best thing about the car is the handling!!! this car can hang the arse out in 3rd gear (hence the rear tyres that are always worn out!)

Awesome.

The posts regarding the history of GUG need to be stickied.

One vote.

defo one of the most famous e30s in the uk/////

SHAZ325iSPORT wrote:enough credit to whom built the car and the previous owners,but this has to be said,i went to view this car last week i think up in slough,was really looking forward to purchasing this vehicle(GUG),when i arraived the car was looking nice from a far away distance,but when i actually went nearer and nearer i stated noticing things like scracthes,bits missing,BLAD tyres and felt let down,anyway the owner started the car and i felt even more let down,exhaust was blowing as if there was a plane right on top of my head(that loud)the idle control vavle was half out of the samco hoses,there was wires hangin down from where the electric fan was,and when i got inside i put the heaters on,which were also making some funny sounds,there is alot more but i just cant be bothered,all i can say is that i was kinda pis*ed off because i thought id buy that car i would have have some power,but what can you say,when a car is left in the wrong hands theres bound to be some fu*ck ups.

lol

in that case u should buy a audi TT or one of those yellow MG rover 25 shitters....ure meant to drive this car..... if u want attention from the exterior of ure car to make u look cool then buy something else, everything done on that e30 was done for a reason!