Initial set-up advice.

[Hoobs]

Just about to start using an e30 in sprint events (next season) and have got a few test days and track days planned.

The car was prepped by previous owners and and current spec is as follows.

OMP cage
Powerflex purple poly bushes all round.
E30 m3 eccentric front lollipop bushes.
E36 steering rack (no power steering) and solid steering guibo.
3.91 LSD
Miltek exhaust.
Chipped ECU
Gaz gold coilovers.
Adjustable front top mounts and rose jointed rears.

My questions are;

I'm planning to fit poly windows and fibreglass bootlid & bonnet (M3 Evo slitter/spoiler) but should I also fit strut braces?

What spring rates? Was thinking 600lb fronts and 295lb rears.

Tyre pressures for 888's? 26psi cold? aiming for 31psi hot.

What camber / caster etc? Ride height?



I'm trying to learn as I go so please excuse my questions if they're a bit obvious or whatever.

[Black_Potato]

OMP cage, just a bolt in ? if its bolt in the strut braces maybe more desirable.

Strut braces of limited value IMHO, if I need to keep the car to a weight I would probably use them, however I would expect the performance increase of using them is less than the impairment of the weight you add.

For Sprints you need things to come up to temp fast and you want have too much time to get heat in the tyres. so starting with some thing like 26psi is probably about right, however on track I would suggest 23-24 PSI to reach 31 PSI Hot.

Brake pads are also a consideration, sprinting on cold tyres to go from no brakes to snatching brakes with cold tyres isnt good. Pick something that comes up to temp fast and has good modulation. DS2500 could be a good call but they dont last long on track.

Front ride height I would set with the lower control arms parallel, that will give 50-60mm of clearance. Camber or around 3.5 degrees, maybe .5 of a degree less passenger side. toe out maybe 1mm overall. run car fairly level and try to reduce rear camber to 1.5 degrees or their about. Caster around default (9 degrees from memory)

Boot and bonnet.. you can reduce them by as much just by removing the structure/2nd skin of metal ( we should get a weight of the glass fibre ones and I can check against my stripped ones)

Springs, 600 max at the front I would say, I would be inclined to play with any rates from 450-600 and see what you like. Rears, again I would go softer, 275-325 for inbounds is the range I would run. I have a stack of springs for sale on fleabay you might be interested in... look up item 140640855434 and check out other items for sale.

General point of note.. weight is your enemy in motorsport, do everything you can to keep it down. Being beaten by 5x 1000’s of a second is easily covered by keeping the stereo in, running 10ltrs too much fuel etc. etc..

[Hoobs]

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Cage is currently bolt in although I had planned to weld it before the first event next season. I removed the passenger seat and am going to see where else I can lose weight. (including myself as am a bit of a lump)

Is there any benefit to running larger rims? Maybe 16x7's?

What's the most reasonable brake upgrade? Wilwoods?

[Black_Potato]

The main benefit in changing rims is weight reduction and arguably a slightly wider offset and or tyre. rim diameter will not help in its self. Personally I would leave the 15"BBS on.

Brakes, main thing here for me is endurance ut that isnt an issue for sprinting I would keep them standard and just service them, i.e. replace the seals, lines, fluid. Spend the money on brake pads.

[Hoobs]

I do trackdays as well as sprints which is why I was thinking of a brake upgrade. I guess I'll see how the standard set up copes first. I've replaced fluid, braided lines etc and ordered EBC blues. I've no idea what they're like although reds were OK in my last car.

[TouringTash]

This guy is good for brake overhauls, though I just order the kit and get scrubbing.
P&P on a pair of callipers isn't cheap

http://www.biggred.co.uk

[DasChin]

Hoobs

I am running 600 springs up front and 325 rears on my e30 on GAz Gold pros

seem very good and very stiif so ideal for what you need

I have an OMP bolt in cage too like you.

front fibreglass bonnet and rear FG bootlid. M3 Evo boolid set up from Martin Holland.

you might want to think about 4 pot brakes

I have got a good friend that does the polycarb windows so send me a PM and I can get a very good deal for you on a full set including rear windows. well worth doing.

[keri-WMS]

EBC Blue is really an indurance pad, might not be what you need from cold. If you got them using a credit card it might be worth swapping them back for Yellows or something else that doesn't need heating up.



If you do go down the 4-pot route, the 280mm kit here goes under the 15" BBS: http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=209737

And the 2-pot rear kit here does too: http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=209738

Ask around if you need some feedback, a lot of guys here use our stuff.

[rix313]

Rears, again I would go softer, 275-325 for inbounds

Tad soft for inbounds?

[Black_Potato]

For some reason I get form errors if I try to edit posts at work.....

Your quite right, that's coil over rate. Inbound something like 500/550

[UweM3]

For some reason I get form errors if I try to edit posts at work.....

Your quite right, that's coil over rate. Inbound something like 500/550

But not with a 600 lbs front.

500/550 inbound rear is still quite soft for race / trackday IMHO.

[rix313]

I am running 600 springs up front and 325 rears on my e30 on GAz Gold pros

What engine do you have?

[Hoobs]

Well I have made a bit of progress getting bits together for the car and did a test day back on December 10th at Brands.

Thanks to Martin & Darren I now have the following either sat here or on route.

Fiberglass bonnet (single skin)
Fiberglass boot (double skin to take weight of spoiler)
M3 Evo type rear wing
M3 type front splitter
A pair of those overpriced winglet jobbies for the front.
Full set of poly windows
Pair of Wilwood 4 pots

I also picked up a 4:1 LSD in an effort to help with acceleration as I will be doing sprint & hillclimb events.

I still need to buy some springs to change the coilovers to 600lb fronts & 295lb rears as a starting point.

Wheels are 15''BBS / Toyo888's although I plan to go up to 16'' Racelines and have some 16'' TSW Evo as a road/slave wheel.

Because I'm not used to the e30 (the only other e30 I had was an M3 which I just sold) I figured I would run it around as a daily for a few weeks so that I can get used to how it feels. I don't mean drive like a tit on public highways, just get used to the extra weight and different feel from what I am used to.

Do the changes I'm making make sense? Is there anything else that I am missing? How much weight will the above changes help me to lose?

Has anyone else got plans to do some track days at Brands in Jan or Feb?

[Hoobs]

Can anyone tell me the free length of the springs used in their Gaz Gold coilovers please? I want to order some new ones.

Also, would a 4.1 LSD give me a noticeable increase in acceleration?

[nick28]

....... Thats me in my old car at Combe ! where the hell did you get that photo LOL
Still going well i hope

[nick28]

Just for the heads up (and not sure what the previous owner did) but i had trouble with the rear springs dislocating so went for helpers and slightly more length, and the front springs are weighted for a 4 pot. I never competed so it is far from optimised and will definitely need correct springs front and back. Hope it all goes well

[Hoobs]

Sadly the chap who owned the car before me died early last year so I got it from his family. I'm not sure what he did to it although it now has a cage.

I did a test day at Brands last month and the handling was 'interesting' which is why I figured I would start again from scratch. I'm not sure the LSD was doing an awful lot either so have now got a 40% 4:1 to go in. The engine seemed sweet though and that exhaust sounds lovely.

We're going to start all the changes I have planned tomorrow. They mainly involve losing a fair chunk of weight, doing the springs & diff and a few cosmetics like the single wiper and spoilers.

Once it's all done and runs/handles as it should, it'll be up for hire for track-days and sprint events.

[anton89]

. optimum latteral g is generaly generated at 0.7-1.7 degrees you can get specifics from tyre manufacturers. as the wheel moves through its ark camber changes. to correctly set the camber you need to asses the wheel travel and camber change through the corner, this allows complete use of the tyres g capabilities for the force your car is able to transmit onto the contact patch. A bassic guide can be calcullated if you know the instilation ratio ( if the tyre moves 10mm how much does the spring compress). if you know how much the spring compresses you can calculate the force transmitted to the spring. this will allow you to optimise the setup for individual circuits. low speed corners with small g generations less static. medium to high speed greater static. as far as spring stiffness, are you using standard ARB or stiffer ARB the sum of your ARB and spring stiffness equals total resistance to roll ( simplified ) if you like riding curbs softer arb stiffer springs, if you dont then vice versa. stiffer resistance to roll means a lower static camber. Whatever you go for invest in a couple of data loggers, g meter and spring travel and use this data to set the car up. alter a setting, go out, check your g readings, higher g you went faster. G plots are also a great way to imrove your driving, the more eliptical the shape the better your use of the tyres capability. set up based on feel results in a lot of wasted money and time and usually makes you go slower. hope i havent waffled

[Black_Potato]

I'm thinking about a track/test day on the 5th of Feb at brands if you fancy it ?

[Hoobs]

I should be up for that. I picked up my fiberglass bonnet, splitter & Wilwoods today. Need to get 600/295lb springs still and then fit it all. 5th should be do'able though.

[Hoobs]

Well my car is pretty much sorted now apart from fitting a decent rev counter and shift light. The OE rev counter only works every now and then so I plan to rip the binnacle out and make a custom item. Has anyone got any suggestions on this please?

The poly windows and fiberglass boot/bonnet have made a huge difference to how the car feels. I also fitted Wilwoods up front and it's great to finally have decent brakes!

Once the new panels were on, although it was all solid, the faded red paint did mean the whole car was looking a bit tired. The cheap 16'' TSW rims didn't help either. They're only for road duties anyway, meaning I can save the 888's for the track. Anyway, we decided to break out the automotive botox treatment and freshen things up a bit.

The fiberglass boot & M3 spoilers look great but the red needs to go.



New screen, single wiper conversion and a proper engine service.







A fifty quid set of rims look way better after the satin black treatment. I think they suit the e30 really well and they balanced up a treat. The ditchseeker specials are only for driving to & from tracks. I have BBS or Racelines with 888's for when I get there.



The pretty much finished result. I also changed the spring rates and it finally corners as I like it. I plan to do some sprint/hillclimb events again this year, so also fitted safety stuff like extinguisher & electrical cut-out switch. I have a bigger seat coming as I am what is often referred to as a ''fat fecker'' but that shouldn't take long to fit. I want to get it as low as possible though. Apart from that, it's just the rev counter / binnacle to sort.







Anyone coming to Brands on the 3rd Feb?