The E30 325i Track Car

[Daan]

Drove up to sheffield to view/collect this with my Dad Saturday afternoon and it turned out to be pretty much as it was advertised, so we bought it! The guy wanted £1000 for it but we settled on £860 in the end, which im happy with! Me and my dad have gone halves on it as it will be a shared track car sort of project. Fix a couple of bits up, modify some bits and then go driving

Heres some proper photos I took of it this afternoon. Bearing in mind this is completely un-cleaned after the 160 mile drive home, in the drizzle!





















Current 'spec' is as follows...

320i with a 325i M20 engine fitted last year (171bhp standard) with ECU chip
Original 2.0 gearbox with shorter ratios
Lowered 40mm on springs/shocks
17" Dymag racing wheels (Try and find another set of these for sale, I bet you cant)
Cobra buckets and harnesses
OMP steering wheel
Stripped out interior except dash and front doors
Welded diff
Scorpian stainless backbox




Unfortunately my dad got to drive it back because I couldnt get insured - But I cant wait to give it a proper drive on an airstrip/track soon, I love it already!

If theres anything worth checking out on one of these then id love to know because im a toal BMW newbie and all of my other cars have been diesel

Thanks for reading, Dan.

[Duke137]

Lovely car mate, but ruined by a welded diff. Get an LSD on there if its a track car

Love the wheels, really suit it!

[Rtaylor2208]

looks brilliant especially for £860. Nice way to start E30 ownership.

[capri_rob]

Lovely car mate, but ruined by a welded diff. Get an LSD on there if its a track car

Love the wheels, really suit it!

THIS

Looks like a great basis for a track project

[Daan]

Thanks guys

My dad said the welded diff certainly makes it interesting in the corners, but we assumed an LSD would be alot better for track driving, so il look into that.

One of my mates said that the diff might not be welded, but might instead have had a prong stuck in it to effectively lock it. Iv not had a chance to get it jacked up and have a look yet but is that a common 'mod', or is it just likely to be welded? Also a RWD newbie incase you cant tell

Cheers.

[Duke137]

It will be welded more than likely. It's a common mod for those that want cheap drifting action. Proper track cars have LSD's IMO.

Nowt wrong with a welded diff if you want to go sideways alot but that car looks a bit nicer than your average "trampdrift" type car.

Looks a lot of fun for the money you paid

[Daan]

This should be having its first proper outing in a couple of weeks time, 'PPC in the park' at Mallory park (19th May). So me and dad have set about tidying up some parts, stripping more crap out and making sure the engines ready for it.

So far iv managed to remove about an extra 30kg of useless interior gubbins, door cards, center console, loads of wiring, sound deadening tar, sun roof motor/rails etc and still got to remove the electric window motors and replace the glass windows with plastic/polycarbonate jobbies. Also decided to freshen up the interior by painting the floorpan/interior white, some photos of this at the bottom of the post.

Also, we have removed the rear diff (which was welded) and decided to have a go at grinding the weld off and re-profiling the cogs, to basically make it a standard open diff again - which should be much better for track driving. This meant having to completely disassemble the diff, which was quite tricky but interesting none the less.

And lastly, its due a cambelt and oil change so we've made a start on that but probably wont have time to finish it until text weekend.

Anyway, the exciting bit, photos.........





















So fingers crossed that will work, as we haven’t tested it yet and its probably the most pikey lash up iv ever done on a car

And the interior”¦”¦.







And since then the rest of the floor has been painted and the holes all welded up, looks good

Need to get cracking next weekend to finish it off and check its all okay, but hopefully she’ll be a good’un. Looking forward to the track time a lot”¦

Cheers, Dan.

[staley_turbo]

Where are you based? Ill be at ppc, should be good!

[Daan]

Live in Norwich, Norfolk. We'l be driving to Mallory friday afternoon and camping both friday and Saturday night. I guess you wont be camping seeing as you live in Leicester?

Im really looking forward to it though, best show of the year in my opinion. Are you doing any track time? If so in what car?

[staley_turbo]

No I only live 5 mins away, I should be taking both the e30 and the 306 as ive got loads of track time.

That diff is awful, I have a spare open if you want me to bring it?

[Daan]

Ah sweet, im into the 306's alot too, il be driving up there with 2 mates who have them and will be camping with the 306oc. What 306 have you got?

And if you could that would be really good mate. Any idea what ratio it is/what it came off? And how much would you want for it?

[staley_turbo]

Theres no CW/P, just the open gears. Not sure what to call it... £10 will do it.

Ive got a 306 rallye, Need to sort a few things on it before i go so hopefully it will be done in time.

[Jos]

change the diff, the heat from the welding will have ruined the gear hardening. Also gets my vote for: strangest place you've ever found a wheel bolt!!

[Daan]

Cheers staley, sounds like a plan - il bring a spare tenner along for you!

Look forward to seeing the rallye too, all my friends are rocking tuned DT's but noe of them are gonna be on track

And thanks for the input JOS. If I can get them spare gears off Staley then we'l throw them in We knew it wouldnt run as good as new, we were just hoping it would be better than the welded jobby for track driving...

[DanThe]

Driftcock alert!

I wouldnt expect that diff to last long grounded out, im assuming your taking the car on a trailer?

[staley_turbo]

I think a track side diff change might be on the cards!

[Daan]

Yeah very nicely bodged up And the welding wasnt the best tbh. The weld hadnt actually bonded into the cogs, most of it just chiselled off because it looks like normal welding rods had been used. We'l see how the diff lasts though. And yeah its getting trailered there, then having 6 15minute sessions throughout the day

[Jhonno]

I wouldn't expect that diff to last long at all..

[Daan]

Dont be so pessimistic It'l be fine.....

[Demlotcrew]

Dean, I have an open diff cage going spare.......

Nice camera

[ross_jsy]

Christ that is a bodge you did to that diff! Wouldn't want that letting go.

Apart from the pikey repairs, looks like a good car

[Daan]

Time for an update!

First of all, the diff above - that has now done over 1500 miles like that, pretty much all being abused Gonna get a spare soon for this summer though, don't want it going during a trackday with no back up.

Secondly, its been in the garage a lot over winter for a bit of a makeover. Stripped around 60kg more weight out of it (Front bumper insert, windows/motors, dash, wiring, sound deadening, rear spoiler and bonnet hinge/strut/release) And also got some extended rear arches and some coilovers.

The rear arches took a bit of cutting, trimming and test fitting but they are on now and serve their purpose well, no more scrubbing tyres.

The coilovers are only FK cheapies but in comparison to the worn out standard shocks and ancient 40mm springs they are much stiffer and have dropped the car nicely, body roll was a big issue before but that should be sorted out now.

Also got some polycarbonate sheet and made up front and rear side windows, easy enough and saved around 15kg.


Few photos I got when it was outside the other day. Bonnet currently off while we fit bonnet pins but other than that its in its 'finished' state ready for summer.


The BMW by Daan!, on Flickr


The BMW by Daan!, on Flickr


The BMW by Daan!, on Flickr


The BMW by Daan!, on Flickr


The BMW by Daan!, on Flickr


The BMW by Daan!, on Flickr


The BMW by Daan!, on Flickr

Also, front wheels are hideous, I know! But they were cheap and came with some fairly decent Yoko Paradas on, so they are staying until the tyres are polished off

[capnmchl]

Looks like a fun little project. Shame about the diff, but if it's held this long it'll last a bit longer. Can't imagine it sounds too healthy though.

Keep thinking I should get along to some track days, but I couldn't take my daily on there Which means getting another car, a trailer and a trailer license, plus something that can tow.

[Daan]

Doesn't whine or grind at all tbh, I am surprised aswel but there you go

[capnmchl]

Have you had it on the track then? How did it do?

[initial_g]

Spot on daaaan seems a steel at the money you payed, where abouts are you based? Im also liking the alloys alot as for the diff I ran for two years with a m20 engine/2.0 gearbox and open diff on my track car. ive swapped to a 3.91lsd for this year so will see how much better it performs this year after the rebuild.