E30 with SR20DET

[Jhonno]

The groove just creates a stress raiser.. Plain ftw.

[Theo]

A vid from last August at the Ring;

[youtube][/youtube]

I've got a few plans for the car;

-Bigger front brakes, 2 piece discs
-Stack dash or similar
-Some sort of front undertray
-Replace the horrid bonnet with a slighty less horrid one which is in my garage

[keri-WMS]

Hey dude!

Did you get any in-car at the ring?

[Theo]

Hello mate!

No in-car footage, sadly. I remember I had just fitted Karan's camera to my car only to drive up to the entrance to the circuit and be told that the day was over.

[redcar]

Hello mate!

No in-car footage, sadly. I remember I had just fitted Karan's camera to my car only to drive up to the entrance to the circuit and be told that the day was over.

Awesome car Theo!

[Theo]

Had another great day at Snetterton on Sunday, car was entertaining on old slicks which took alot of warming up - I will hopefully have a video soon to demonstrate how bad they were cold!

Found the car to be quite oversteery mid corner so I decided to crank the front anti-roll bar from soft to hard (bypassing the middle setting!) and it really improved the balance, quite why I haven't done this before I don't know. Actually that's a lie - it's because I'm really lazy.

Some random pics; (yes, that's my ugly mug in the second photo)

[keri-WMS]

Sweet! Not sure what line that Renault is taking?!!

[Theo]

He probably saw how wayward my driving is and got well out of the way!

[bss325i]

Hartgeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?

[Theo]

Hartgeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?

Buried in my garage and as such, much less interesting!

[redcar]

Hi Theo, awesome day! Your car was amazing!
Have you seen the video yet? Karan's slow overtake on the straight is very funny. It looked very good from outside. SR20 Powah!!!

[redcar]

Sweet! Not sure what line that Renault is taking?!!

Letting the SR20 past!

[Theo]

Yeah was a great day, not seen the video from my car yet - have you uploaded it?

I need a gt2871r so I can keep up with your brother! (in a straight line)

[Karan]

I've tried 4 times to upload your vid but about 6hrs in it gets an upload error!!!! And I have no idea why. I'm going to try again in a bit

[Theo]

Ah man, sorry it's been such a hassle! Is there any way you could email it to me, maybe I could crop it so that it's not so long?

[Karan]

Its almost 2gb after croppings

[Theo]

Oh bugger, I'll have to bring a memory card round next time I see you.

Let's get a day booked for May soon.

[Karan]

I plan on doing the drift day at lydden with James.......

[Theo]

Oh cool, I'll come along for that then. Are you going to be drifting the Silvia?

[Karan]

Dude do you have a link for the intercooler you used?

[Theo]

It was a 530x235x65mm cheapo from ebay - this is the seller: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/tuningpartsbay

[Karan]

Hmmmm there's a 550 one...,???

[Theo]

Judging by the above pic that could be ok.

[Karan]

Do you reckon there's less room on a chrome turd though? Potential massive cuttings I think....

[Theo]

No I think it will be ok, you will need to chop the front valance but that goes without saying.

[Theo]

Right then, a weekend of tinkering lies ahead. I've got a gearbox from a Skyline R33 GTST (the rwd one), matching front section of prop and custom adaptor plate to bolt this straight on to the SR20DET engine. Gear ratios are more or less the same but 5th is a touch longer so I should get fractionally better cruising MPG and also an increased top speed to 160mph from 150mph.

Will try to get some pics over the weekend...

[winx]

How did you get on then?!
Are you still in London? Be good to have a catch up soon, and let me knw if you need to get the car up on a ramp

[Mines78]

Nice conversion Pal

[Theo]

It was a resounding fail in terms of taking photos! Got it all stripped down, and have mounted the adaptor plate after some minor fettling. Need another weekend to re-fit the flywheel and clutch (incidentally, the clutch which was relined last year for £50 or whatever it was shows no sign of wear) then slap the gearbox on and determine what I need to do to get the gearstick in the right position. I also need to have a new front section of prop made so need to find an e30 prop to bastardise.

I'm in London, where's your ramp? How's your project coming along, did you ever choose an engine?

[appletree]

I can highly recommend these for prop work. Took me for a tour of there workshop when they did my e30 to e36 m3 prop work.

Top notch work at a good price I just did all the drawings for them to work to which was simple enough

http://www.baileymorris.co.uk/

[winx]

Ramp is just round the corner from Mercedes benz world in byfleet, Surrey. About 39 minutes from Putney. Barry and I share the unit but there are a few zone regulars who come over, there were 5 of us there tonight!
Front end is stripped on the touring turd waiting for fettling. An intermediate m52 is waiting to go in to get it running again and will then decide what to do, keep and go for power or move it on and buy an e46 m3.

[Theo]

Nice, that would be great - will definitely pop over some time. Do any you lot have some e30 props knocking about?


Appletree, thanks for the link - will keep them in mind but the local(ish) guy I used for the original propshaft did a decent job so I will probably take it to him again.

[winx]

Think we might have a spare rear section. Will double check with bazzla when he returns.

[Theo]

Thanks Henry.

Here's a short vid from Snetterton in April, not great but thought I'd post it.

[Theo]

Time for a thread revival!

I've hardly used the car in the last few years, last outing was October 2014 at Silverstone (which was awesome in the drizzle). In a bid to renew enthusiasm for the car I decided to spend some money on it - man logic at its best.

First up, I've changed to E30 M3 5 stud suspension. I've got for AVO coilover suspension which uses a mono tube damper with 3 way adjustment on the fronts and 2 way on the rear.

Changing the suspension necessitated new brakes and I thought I would splash out on some AP Racing parts. There are no off the shelf kits available so I contacted BG Developments and they came up with a design which would enable me to run 304mm discs with the CP5040 caliper inside 15" wheels. Discs are 304x28 and fully floating through use of bobbins. I have increased the bell offset to move the disc inboard, the net result is that I'm only increasing the front track by about 6mm either side.

The rears were much more straight forward so I designed the brackets myself and had them made by a mate. I'm running 2 pot 'CP5111 family' calipers originally from a TVR Cerbera I think. The discs are 300x22 and come from an E34 M5/540i. I've done away with the mechanical handbrake mechanism as the car is no longer used on the road so I can make do with a hydraulic handbrake instead. I'm using Performance Friction 01 compound pads front and rear, like I did with my previous brakes.

I've posted a few pics, I'm currently in the process of fitting everything and these were taken during the mock up so you may notice bridge pipes and bleed nipples missing/in the wrong orientation etc.







Inside 15" ATS Rallye wheels


Inside 16" Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2










Currently in the process of ordering the parts for the new brake hoses and generally fitting everything and recommissioning the car for some track action.