My E30 Touring, Daily

[Rigamortiz]

Hi guys,

Thought I'd introduce myself. I'm mainly a VW guy, but fancied something slightly more practical as a daily, and loved the look of E30 Touring's so ended up buying the first one I went to look at. Hopefully I won't end up regretting it! Seemed a reasonable price, and it saves me the hassle of continuing to use my 60s VW as an everyday car.

I have some plans for the Touring, but they'll have to wait for a while now that I'm paying 2 lots of insurance per year.

I've been told there may be some guy on here who makes/sells custom front struts for getting E30's seriously low (jap car coilover mounted in E30 hub or something?) - If somebody could point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

Here's the car in its current guise:

[oomz1975]

Welcome to the zone, looks like you have a solid base to start with.

[BATTS91]

welcome , most of the guys here will say only lower your e30 40mm but thats opinion , youve either got cheap coilovers from ebay aprx £200 or gaz i think prices range from 6-£900 somthing like that. if your going low id use a strut brace and hope you dont suffer from back pain !

nice lookin touring tho ;) have a look in the e30 wiki especially rust points

[dannyb0y]

Looks a nice starting point mate!

[Rigamortiz]

Cheers for the welcome guys!

welcome , most of the guys here will say only lower your e30 40mm but thats opinion , youve either got cheap coilovers from ebay aprx £200 or gaz i think prices range from 6-£900 somthing like that. if your going low id use a strut brace and hope you dont suffer from back pain !

nice lookin touring tho ;) have a look in the e30 wiki especially rust points

Yeaa I had noticed that a lot of the threads I had searched for about lowering an E30 included lots of hatred of slammed E30's haha. What benefits do a strut brace bring then? (Interested as I know practically nothing about E30s so far).

Cheers, yea I'll have to check that out! Unfortunately my rear sills don't look too great, they're bubbling up nicely in fact - but, seems solid enough overall.

Regarding back pain - this is my weekend car (ex daily):

[Rich320I]

nice vw

strut brace just goes between the suspension towers and stiffens them up and reduces flex to a certain degree,

as with anything its all opinion and personnal taste if you want to slam it into the weeds its your car
id invest in a sump gaurd though if your going really low

[bab-91]

karmann ghia

[mani]

That karmann looks awesome

[Rigamortiz]

Cheers for the Karmann comments


Took some pics over the weekend of the Mauritius-blau 318, after waxing it yesterday.


Seriously wanting some 15" BBS wheels... Slamming can wait, I'm enjoying driving it as is - maybe the 30mm everybody suggests might be nice though.

[Alex]

Looks lovely, one of the best colours that

[GemE30]

Nice tidy base to start with.

My tourings dropped by about 100mm and it doesn't affect my back.. most probably cause it's already fucked haha. Strut braces are a good idea. I smashed my first touring up and it held the car pretty well, I'd dread to think what would've happened without it.

[hazd31]

Im dropped 60 and 80 as a daily, yes i occasionally smash a sump and it wears out centre boxes, but 3 exhausts and 3 sumps in 50000 miles isnt bad is it?

[Nobby_N]

Looks nice mate, where you from?

[Rigamortiz]

Cheers Alex - Yea, I do think it is quite a nice colour! Subtle metallic to it is a nice touch.

Ahh wow, that's cool Gem - From the sig picture, 100mm'ish does look a nice height. I've been in slammed old VW Golfs and Passat wagons, and they've been comfortable in comparison to the Karmann Ghia I drove daily - so I imagine I could probably cope with a low modern'ish car, haha.

Hazd, what sort of exhaust do you run for a low beemer then? I really wanna keep my Touring pretty stock apart from the lowering and wheels - so was planning on keeping the stock exhaust - is that better than running an aftermarket exhaust, clearance wise? Also, is an engine raise an option to keep the sump from smashing too often?

Cheers Nobby, I'm from Cambridgeshire - Work just outside of Ely.

[GemE30]

You can use different engine mounts which will help raise the sump. Personally mine's not raised and I'm yet to smash the sump on this one, my old one I went through 3 which is weird lol.

[Captain_Birdseye]

Looks lovely, one of the best colours that

agree, nice looking.