E30 Zone

In the handbook it says that the top speed of a 325 manual is 135...obviousley this would have been for a shiny new car...anyway, has anybody reached this magic number or come close? (on private tracks/runways of course)

Seen 145 on the speedo down a big (offroad) hill!!

Yep, when i bought my 1st 325ise(White, 4 door), coming back from manchester, the car manged 142 and was still pulling, but didnt carry on... But did end with some points and fine etc... But this was one strong engine i had, which i didnt know at the time cos i had nothing to compare it to, but now that ive had around 6, that was the most impressive one for me...miss it though

Speedo accuracy is not fantastic, Better way to get a idea is using a gps system.

Anything over 140 would need a tuned 325 imo. Aerodynamics of a house.

d6dph wrote:Speedo accuracy is not fantastic, Better way to get a idea is using a gps system.

Anything over 140 would need a tuned 325 imo. Aerodynamics of a house.

Couldn't agree more! I had a skyline for a while it used to show 130 on the speedo and 119 on the sat nav!! I think the faster you go the bigger the difference??

jay1980 wrote:

d6dph wrote:Speedo accuracy is not fantastic, Better way to get a idea is using a gps system.

Anything over 140 would need a tuned 325 imo. Aerodynamics of a house.

Couldn't agree more! I had a skyline for a while it used to show 130 on the speedo and 119 on the sat nav!! I think the faster you go the bigger the difference??

Correct

Sat nav is as accurate as you can get at the moment.

I know mine was 100% accurate, i was the 2nd owner, and everything on that car was solid, apart from a few very minor rust due to it just been sitting and the owner not really driving it much, had full service history etc etc. Plus i did check it with a sat nav later on and the speed was the same on the sat nav as it was on the speedometer....

i'v seen 140 on my speedo which was 135mph real money, and it was red lining in 5th (325i Sport, so shorter gears ???)

140 on the clock with 17s on.

Think the 17s might get rid of some of the optimism in the speedo, as the speedo would have been calibrated for 15s.... i reckon, could be talkin crap though!

nope.. same ratio in 5th..

when you increase the size of the rim you reduce the profile of the tyre, so usually the car ends up running the same outer diameter.

Jhonno wrote:nope.. same ratio in 5th..

My car was standard and was @ 6600rpm so not on the limiter, but surely this would mean that the gearing and the rev limiter would define the overall top speed?

box is 0.83:1 in 5th iirc, and if its a facelift the diff is 3.91

but yeah, the revs and gear ratio define the top speed.. (rev limiter is the theoretical top speed, but often wont reach it due to drag..)

Whats the rev limit on a standard facelist B25?

6400 rpm

It's around 6250rpm as standard. I had an indicated 140 out of my '88 325iSE with the early 25 6E high compression engine, with a Zone Mild chip, open 3.64:1 diff and 14" bottlecaps (on a private runway).

The speedos are not at all accurate at high speeds Ive had an indicated 150mph a few times

It all depends on the actual car imo.

I've had an indicated 142mph on a german autobahn...I would have estimated around 8-10% over-read, so about 130mph...
It probably would've gone a bit more if I hadn't bottled out.

That was with 15" BBS and 225/50/15 S02s

Gearbox is standard as is diff

Not wanting to put a downer on the thread..but...can you imagine how catastrophic a crash would bein a e30 doing 135

kinda why I bottled out!

I've also tried to reach vmax in a Porsche 944S2
Managed an indicated 150mph and then had a big scare when a truck moved out into lane 2 (of a 2-lane autobahn) doing 80Ks!!

But I reckon at over 100mph almost any crash in any vehicle (on a public road) would be catastrophic

id rather crash at 130 than 70 atleast you know your going to be dead (well an extremely high chance) where as at 70 you going to be loosing you legs and all sorts unless your really spawny and make it out with superficial injuries. others may not agree but id rather die than become majorly disabled.

mikekean wrote:id rather crash at 130 than 70 atleast you know your going to be dead (well an extremely high chance) where as at 70 you going to be loosing you legs and all sorts unless your really spawny and make it out with superficial injuries. others may not agree but id rather die than become majorly disabled.

At least there is a chance of you surviving without being maimed! I'd rather have the option of living or being maimed or dying rather than just dying

i have had 130 in 4th that was on my road angel and 130 on the speedo 2

318iS, 140mph on Speedo, slightly downhill Autobahn.

Didn't believe it for second tho.

Satnav GPS is fairly inaccurate too its affected by many factors main one being rarely do you travel at a fixed constant speed on flat ground in clear weather, your always turning and on the pedals. Few years ago tested it on a runway doing top speed runs just out of curiosity, proper flashy timing gear was the control speedo over read on all cars between the beams and tom tom under read, simply cannot sample fast enough.

oakey wrote:

mikekean wrote:id rather crash at 130 than 70 atleast you know your going to be dead (well an extremely high chance) where as at 70 you going to be loosing you legs and all sorts unless your really spawny and make it out with superficial injuries. others may not agree but id rather die than become majorly disabled.

At least there is a chance of you surviving without being maimed! I'd rather have the option of living or being maimed or dying rather than just dying

well ive been in an rta where i nearly lost my leg, when they said that to me that i may loose it i was like no way and luckily i got blood supply back to it so they didnt have to cut it off. but trust me untill your put in a situation like that you dont really know what decision you would make. think about it you could never drive a manual e30 again, life wouldnt be worth living

my rev limiter was 6750 standard, and now 7k with a chip

6750rpm isn't the standard BMW 325i rev limit!

that what mine was reving to, and i'm pretty sure the previous owners didnt put a chip in it. Were the Maps the same for the sport?

Yep, same engine as the standard 325i, and same ECU/EPROM.

My dad had a brand new E30 325i se way back in 1989, He got caught doing the exact number [135 mph]
I used to have a 325i sport and i had upto 130 but my arse went coz it was pissing it down so i slowed down.

if i'm using a 535 sport engine and box in my e30 and a 3.91 diff what top speeds will i have then roughly? i want more than 135 as my rs turbo red lined at 145 with 4 people! i want more speed. i'm not happy untill i see 170+ maybe i should buy another saph cossie

d6dph wrote:Speedo accuracy is not fantastic, Better way to get a idea is using a gps system.

Anything over 140 would need a tuned 325 imo. Aerodynamics of a house.

and better gearing, my 3.91 lsd seems to limit my top speed as around 140 even though the same engine/gearbox in a different car achieved 162

BeemerShmeemer wrote:if i'm using a 535 sport engine and box in my e30 and a 3.91 diff what top speeds will i have then roughly? i want more than 135 as my rs turbo red lined at 145 with 4 people! i want more speed. i'm not happy untill i see 170+ maybe i should buy another saph cossie

Yes , you definately should buy another staffy !

BeemerShmeemer wrote:if i'm using a 535 sport engine and box in my e30 and a 3.91 diff what top speeds will i have then roughly? i want more than 135 as my rs turbo red lined at 145 with 4 people! i want more speed. i'm not happy untill i see 170+ maybe i should buy another saph cossie

I'd say 3.91 is way too low for an M30B35. My E34 535iSE (manual box) had a 3.64 diff, which I thought was quite low geared for such a big engine but it would reach an indicated 147ish flat out, not bad for a 20 year old car that weighs 1.5 tonnes.