e30 M3 - Project Bankrupt.

[fuzzy]

What like this one???


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mercedes-190e-Evo ... 240%3A1318

wasnt that up for sale at £5G 2 weeks ago?

[fourmotion]

less is most definitely more in that case! Id love an evo 190 but the prices are sky high and well out of my reach.

Playo: Cheers dude, loving it big time and have so much more enthusiam than when i had the VW in the garage. That Rally was awesome mate when i saw it but i kind of know what your saying. Ive always wanted one but they dont have enough character, and big power is hard with the std charger - the thoughput is very limited. Much better to go for a mk2 with a Rotrex'd R32 lump up front I saw another one of these conversions put out 450bhp on the rollers the other week - bet wet roads are interesting though....
Ill be in touch when the plans and dates are a bit more clear fella. Make sure you get that Audi remapped


One last pic from a few months back when i went to a VW show called Players in Essex.

[sterlingsilversport]

2 seriously lovely motors

[Jindmahi]

[Jindmahi]

I was trying to make the point that the standard car shouldnt have anything done to it!!

well your point don't make sense...so next time you get all excited take a deep breath and try to understand what people write....A SEC grille is a Mercedes item...amg rims mercedes connection?....just like when people put alloy wheels on an m3 from a different series bmw..they suit the car don't they???? also 190e cossie is not standard......if you want standard go for a 190e 1.8 base model...the SEC grille gives the merc 190e a fresh look...find out what it is before you make your ......"point"....!

[e30bmlover]

DONT YOU DARE CHUCK THOSE BBS ON THE M3 IN PLACE OF THE SCHNITZERS!! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING MAN?!?!!?!?!!?!?
two stunning cars you have there mate.. keep the schnitzers.

[Rodderz]

I looked at buying a Mercedes Benz 190 2.5-16 (to state the correct name for them) 12 years ago when they were still the thick end of £20000! I looked at 2 that had SEC grills and both cars had fallen into the wrong hands already and both cars were awfull in general!! An SEC grill is a bit...um.."council" to quote zone terminology!!

[Jindmahi]

So you were looking at them when they were £20000... 12 years ago.... and now you are saying if you had ...£6000...this is what you would buy????? Sounds a bit "council" to me... why were you looking at 2 "Mercedes Benz 190 2.5-16(valve)”a with SEC grilles if you didn't like them...and any way thats only 2 examples...also how can an SEC grille be council its just a bonnet and grille made by Mercedes?????? I don't need zone terminology I can speak read and write fine.... sounds like someone is still a bit excited..... ...I'm not a fan of big bumpers and bodykits but the mercedes 190 evo played a big part in Touring Car Championships......Mercedes and "council" don't go together...only some one from a council home could come up with something so stupid!

[pentoman]

Hello I'm the 190 owner! Thanks for the comments.

Yes I am into e30s too (look at the date I joined this forum, I'm a lurker!)... never had one but love the e30 and was very privileged to drive Warren's. Lovely thanks mate. The cars are so similar in character it's amazing.

Anyway I enjoyed the m3 enough that I'm considering slight modification to my car instead of keeping it standard "for the next owner". I'm pretty picky and also tight though so that won't be good!

Ideas:

This chap is quite tasty


As for clear indicators.... I don't know, I always felt they look wrong with still orange rear indicators?


Evo 1.. sex


Oh yeah on the mercedes190.co.uk forum we have a long running in joke about whether the 2.5 is a real cosworth! Anyway the old story, as stated on this thread, goes that cosworth did the 2.3 and Mercedes did the 2.5. We set out to find proof of this but have found nothing. In fact quite the opposite - we found there's a cosworth internal project code for the 2.5 version as well as 2.5 Evolution, additionally when I rebuilt my engine the head was stamped "coscast" which means that Cosworth cast it. So we do now suspect it was a rumour put out because Mercedes didn't want people to think they had a British engine in their flagship 190! No sense of humour those Germans eh!

Enough rambling on, happy driving

[oakey]

The top one I dont like really. I think the wheels ruin it.
The second one is tasty but I think it would look better with orange indicators,
and the last as you put it is just... sex

[harry_p]

i love the evo 1, a nice subtle agressive update. evo1 wheels on a standard 2.3 or 2.5-16 look lovely too, whilst still in keeping with the factory look.

a friend had a really nice, last of the non evo 2.5-16 manual a few years back. looked really good dropped on deep dish borbet As. great cars, and superb value for money, especially compared to the pretty similar in both mechanicals and character e30 m3s.

the m3 won it for me, purely on looks and a preference for 2 doors. i'm a sucker for round lights and flared arches

[fourmotion]

I absolutely love the Evo 1!! Not a big fan of the wheels though to be honest. Did they do anything in terms of splits for the 190?

I think dished RH toplines would look pretty slick, or Borbet A's as mentioned above would look

Harry - is yours the M3 i keep commenting on, on s14power? Sat next to the yellow Integrale? If so that car is unbelievable..... (ive done it again)

[fourmotion]

DONT YOU DARE CHUCK THOSE BBS ON THE M3 IN PLACE OF THE SCHNITZERS!! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING MAN?!?!!?!?!!?!?
two stunning cars you have there mate.. keep the schnitzers.

Haha ive know they are awesome wheels. Its just ive always wanted a set of RS's so im going to chuck them on and see what they look like. I dont think ill let go of the Schnitzers until im sure its the right move.

[harry_p]

Harry - is yours the M3 i keep commenting on, on s14power? Sat next to the yellow Integrale? If so that car is unbelievable..... (ive done it again)

i very much doubt it, mine's a red m3, and the lancia is a black non evo integrale. used to be a bit of a pic whore, but haven't posted any far ages


you know BBSs make sense

[pentoman]

"Dished RS toplines"?? "Borbet As"??? You're talking another language man!

Anyway actually came over to share this which got posted on the 190 forum but it's got E30s in it as well (and a really expensive accident with an Audi)



EPIC! Weren't the old DTM days just the best??

[fourmotion]

Harry - is yours the M3 i keep commenting on, on s14power? Sat next to the yellow Integrale? If so that car is unbelievable..... (ive done it again)

i very much doubt it, mine's a red m3, and the lancia is a black non evo integrale. used to be a bit of a pic whore, but haven't posted any far ages


you know BBSs make sense

Stunning car dude!

Are they 16's or 17's?

[harry_p]

17in style 5s, not proper RSs

[fourmotion]

Thought id update a little on what ive been doing with the e30.....

Since Players ive managed to sort out a set of H&R coilovers which arrived 4 weeks ago. I finally managed to get them fitted over 2 weekends and the fronts were an absolute bitch mainly because of the top strut nut which is recessed in the strut top which made it impossible to even make a tool! In the end we resorted to drastic measure and drill off the old nut as the old struts are going back to H&R to have new inserts welded up anyway....
Before i started i priced up a set of wheel bearing which turned out to be rather expensive. £190 each +VAT!!!!! This is apparently down to the auminium ABS ring and the very low numbers produced. The workaround to save myself some cash involved e28 front wheel bearings and all i needed to to was use a gear puller to pull off the ABS ring (below) and refit my M3 ABS ring (which has diferent spaced notches) back on to the new wheel bearing / hub. Total cost of 2 wheel bearings - £120.
After that it was on to the rears and that was really straightforward. I changed the std worn strut mounts for rogue engineering items.




After me and my mate thinking we were shit hot by managing to push the std rubber suspension bush into the metal coil height adjuster by using a vice and a special tool. It suddenly dawned on us after perusing a shite picture with a german turotial, and subsequently ringing the friendly chaps at Evolve for some advice minutes later that we didnt need the rubber bush at all and then spent the next half an hour trying to get them back out. COCKS!

Anyway its all finished now and the handling is transformed - no more squat and dive under acceleration and braking and the steering is much more precise and instant. FANTASTIC!


You should be able to notice its a lot lower at the front!! Excuse the pic, it was a typical wet winters day and full of road salt!

About 4 weeks ago my BBS RS's arrived from Malaysia. They are RS 212' and 197's with an ET of 13 all round which should give me a pretty much perfect stance. 8.5" at the front, and 9.5" at the rear with big fat dishes . They do need a refurb so the stainless outers will be on order in the new year, along with recessed centre caps, and carbon caps. The AC Schnitzers will sadly be going to cover (some!) of the cost of the RS's rebuild.




Ive booked the car on a trackday at Bedford Autodrome for January the 17th and in preperation i spoke with the guy who orginally did the work on the car to fit the carbon airbox, and Dastek UniQ ecu so that i could get the engine fully checked out beforehand. I also plan to have the Sport Evo large capacity injectors fitted. He mentioned a friend of mine had posted up results of the car on Pistonheads. Unfortunately he did say that the car might be down on power as much as 35bhp.

Powerstation's RR dyno'd my car at 255 and he reckons that their dyno always consistently reads 15bhp over and above his dyno. He would expect for mine to be around 285bhp mark and it seems its well short of that.
Hes going to do a leak down test and compression test tomorrow and fingers crossed all will be ok. Apparently it is common for the e30 M3 exhaust timing to jump a tooth if its overrevved so it may be that. Im hoping its just a air fuelling issue because it does seem to be using lots of fuel and absolutely fuckin stinks of the juice when its driven hard....

Anyway ill find out soon enough.. hopefully it wont be to much because im hoping to get the larger injectors and remap done too which should hopefully see it to around 275bhp.....

Lastly i ordered new oem headlight inserts today to replace the tinted ones and will hopefully arrive after Christmas!

Thats it for now. Im gagging to get it resprayed but im going to wait until after Nurburgring next Summer before thats done.....

Thats it for now...

[maxfield]

Powerstation's RR dyno'd my car at 255 and he reckons that their dyno always consistently reads 15bhp over and above his dyno. He would expect for mine to be around 285bhp mark and it seems its well short of that.
Hes going to do a leak down test and compression test tomorrow and fingers crossed all will be ok. Apparently it is common for the e30 M3 exhaust timing to jump a tooth if its overrevved so it may be that. Im hoping its just a air fuelling issue because it does seem to be using lots of fuel and absolutely fuckin stinks of the juice when its driven hard....

Anyway ill find out soon enough.. hopefully it wont be to much because im hoping to get the larger injectors and remap done too which should hopefully see it to around 275bhp.....

Lastly i ordered new oem headlight inserts today to replace the tinted ones and will hopefully arrive after Christmas!

Thats it for now. Im gagging to get it resprayed but im going to wait until after Nurburgring next Summer before thats done.....

Thats it for now...

To get 275 hp you're talking lots of money!

What is the spec of the engine I can't really remember but it's a 2.3 with cams and airbox IIRC?

[fourmotion]

It was dyno'd at 267bhp at the beginning of the year without the larger injectors. I was hoping for more but obviously i may not get it. Fingers crossed eh?
Its had cams, more than likely headwork and possibly forged pistons. Its also running the carbon airbox with Dastek UniQ mapped by Paul Shephard at Circuit Motors. The engine's history in terms of modifications is a bit a dilemna. From what i've been told the previous keeper to Playo was an engine builder and rebuilt the one in my car. Its largely unknown what has exactly been done but to put out 267bhp it must have had quite a large amount of work, but without taking it apart im not going to find out!

[maxfield]

Hmmm, the internals can't be standard.

I remember when Paul mapped it and the figures were pretty high for what Playo claimed what the engine was.

I suppose you could measure the stroke by shoving something down the spark plug hole.

2.3 should be 84mm, 2.5 should be 87mm.

Definitely seems high if it's practically a standard engine.

[ShepsEvo3]

Hmmm, the internals can't be standard.

I remember when Paul mapped it and the figures were pretty high for what Playo claimed what the engine was.

I suppose you could measure the stroke by shoving something down the spark plug hole.

2.3 should be 84mm, 2.5 should be 87mm.

Definitely seems high if it's practically a standard engine.

It did give 267bhp, around 225bhp at the wheels... but as I couldn't get any more fuel into it at the time, I backed it off. But at the time it showed a consistent 260bhp again and again with 195ftlbs.

It definately is a 2.3 ;) Has a nut on the end of the crankshaft.

I also suspected the figures it pushed out, but it had 237bhp before we put the airbox on and the Unichip, suggesting that alot of work has been done to the engine. But I suspect its head work and cams. It was rebuilt by a race engine builder so who knows whats been done? The graph profiles when I laid them out ontop of other 2.3's look pretty similar, except there is healthy space between now Warrens graph and the highest other 2.3 at 241bhp.

Powerstations dyno certainly used to measure about 15-20bhp more than ours, but a couple of runs on my dyno yesturday showed pretty close numbers. It actually gave 248bhp and 185ftlbs as presented. Still very good for a 2.3! But running lean at 13.5:1 at the top end. So looking at the more recent figures, I would say Powerstation may have recalibrated thier rollers recently as the figures are pretty damn close now.

Leakdown and compression checks to be done and the we'll go from there. But it still pulls very strongly for an M3 let alone a 2.3!

Darren, I don't think you could have sold the car to a better chap, he's really looking after her for ya!

[playo]

Darren, I don't think you could have sold the car to a better chap, he's really looking after her for ya!

True! Warrens a real gent and enthusiast

And I'm glad the old girl is still causing confusion even if it's a little "Down" on power

[Rial_e30]

IMO i think the schnitzers look better then the bbs , bbs are a bit common however your car so what ever suits you fella

[motorsport786]

lovely!

[stale30]

hi nice ride!
Whats the size and offset of your AC's?

[fourmotion]

Wheels now on







Engines should be sorted in a couple of weeks and hopefully soon i will be in a position to pass to car to shepsevo3 for a remap with the Sport Evo injectors.

[ImysE30]

Absolutely stunning M3

[maxfield]

Sex...

[Rav335uk]

Fooking Stunning car and wheels

[feens]

Thats the shot!!! i wan tit

[Rav335uk]

i wan tit

Whos TIT

[Theo]

Awesome.

Needs an MPH speedo now Warren.

[spook]

Thats the finest car ive seen on the zone

[shazE30]

Fekin sweet