ILC's 1991 318 S50 track rat

[i_love_cars]

Boris3 said:

Tough call. The car did look good but probably not worth redoing everything to make it pretty if it's going to be a just a track car and you're going to keep pushing the envelope. Put $$ into go fast, cornering and stopping.

Just an FYI for folks doing DE / track day events (non-timed) with a car they're not willing to ball up and walk away from. Stuff does happen, rare in a well run event but it does. Lockton sells track day insurance. Adds $100-200+ to your cost for an event budget depending on the track and the value you place on the car and there are also deductible options 10-20%. But if you've got some serious money wrapped up in your ride it's something to consider.

yup, good advice. When I still tracked my 135i I *always* used Lockton. If whatever you paid for your car will ruin your life or make you cry if you ball it up at the track, definitely be sure to run with track insurance.

Part of why I bought the E30 was because I was sick of dropping $300+ per event on insurance for $35k of coverage on the 135i, given that I'd be popping $5k out of pocket anyway for the deductible before Lockton kicked in anything. I'd need to seriously fuck that car up to get a return on paying for the insurance.

[1990m3]

sorry to see my old car in this condition!  I both hope and expect you plan to have the frame checked before assuming it's still straight.  e30 frames are old and not that stiff, in an impact them can be tweaked easily.

[i_love_cars]

1990m3 said:

sorry to see my old car in this condition!  I both hope and expect you plan to have the frame checked before assuming it's still straight.  e30 frames are old and not that stiff, in an impact them can be tweaked easily.  

The good news is that Big Bear was able to align it with barely any adjustment. The car feels as it did before, and at 60 mph on public highway I can let the steering wheel go and it drives straight. Unfortunately that doesn't tell you what the car will do at the limits when taking hard corners 

So I'm still going to just run it over to a place like IA in Waukesha that has a laser they can run over the frame to verify, but given what is known from having it at Big Bear, I'm betting the worst case scenario is that the car has a really minor tweak which would likely be worth fixing as the cost of that is a lot less than a harsh bend. 

Rest assured she'll be back on track next season in proper running order....and probably with a cooling system overhaul because I want to get a radiator in there that will allow fitment of an electric fan so I don't watch the temp gauge skyrocket on hot days while waiting in the grid  

[1990m3]

Didn't it still have a electric fan in front of the radiator?  It used to stay cool no problem if you turn it on manually on the grid with the a/c button.

[i_love_cars]

1990m3 said:

Didn't it still have a electric fan in front of the radiator?  It used to stay cool no problem if you turn it on manually on the grid with the a/c button. 

oh damn seriously? yea that fan is still there but I was told it isn't entirely doing that much. It's pretty hot today so I'm going to run the car and see if the a/c button does the trick. 

You may have just saved me a bunch of time and effort  

[1990m3]

the a/c buitton works, it's the fan switch.  i built the car.

[B C]

1990m3 said:

the a/c buitton works, it's the fan switch.  i built the car.

[i_love_cars]

1990m3 said:

the a/c buitton works, it's the fan switch.  i built the car.

ironically the one guy that I don't know   I bought the car knowing it had a stamp of approval from Charles, john morgan, dan frodl, and our local forum spec racer Boris. I know it works - everything works on that car. I should have used different words - I really meant I was just excited to go test it out. 

I bought this thing for the long haul knowing it was put together basically perfectly for what it is intended to do and should be able to get another 10 years out of it at the track. I respect your build a ton or I wouldn't have thrown $11k at Charles for the car  

[1990m3]

Snap said:

I did

jordan - you'll enjoy the car, it's strength for me was always the suspension setup worked well and didn't require a lot of fine tuning. Off the shelf j-stock setup is a great setup and very neutral. It had been developed years ago and still works at a fraction of the cost of fancy coilovers where most people screw up their suspension balance achieving a look instead of performance. 

I built it in '07, daily drove it as a full car for a year or so, then tracked it once. About a week later I gutted it, got a bolt in cage and drove it at the track a ton for about 3-4 years. I sold it to Charles when he crashed his Mini  

You should be able to run about 2:40 at road America and 1:20 at BHF in that car without pushing it too hard in brake zones. 

What part of town do you live in?

[i_love_cars]

1990m3 said:

I did

jordan - you'll enjoy the car, it's strength for me was always the suspension setup worked well and didn't require a lot of fine tuning. Off the shelf j-stock setup is a great setup and very neutral. It had been developed years ago and still works at a fraction of the cost of fancy coilovers where most people screw up their suspension balance achieving a look instead of performance. 

I built it in '07, daily drove it as a full car for a year or so, then tracked it once. About a week later I gutted it, got a bolt in cage and drove it at the track a ton for about 3-4 years. I sold it to Charles when he crashed his Mini  

You should be able to run about 2:40 at road America and 1:20 at BHF in that car without pushing it too hard in brake zones. 

What part of town do you live in?

That's what I love about the car. It's completely neutral at all times and has the right amount of power for the way the chassis is set up right now. I took note of all the parts listed for the car but if I ever can't figure what something is that needs replacing, I'm coming to you lol. 

I'm also coming from a world of previously tracking my 135's, which is utterly incomparable to how good this E30 is. And obviously we're not talking Mike Clemens level of 1-series. I spent my first few years on a car that is soft, vague, and honestly the completely wrong engine platform for the track before jumping into something like the E30. Words cannot express how happy I am driving the E30 now because I can appreciate how good it is after driving a less competent car. 

I was not disappointed considering I bought the car in May and even being so new to the car I was still able to put down 2:47's at RA and mid 1:22's at Blackhawk this summer. It's incredibly easy to drive. I showed Charles some RA footage that I took and his first reaction was "you've found a natural fit with this car, it's great to see you so comfortable with it at the wheel", and honestly so much of that is just because of how predictable the car is. It is unfortunate that I caught a bad beat on a damp part of the track at Blackhawk, but I've had it at like 10 other track days this year on dry pavement and it has *always* been completely predictable. The few times I had the backend wiggling at RA as I was picking up more speed while getting familiar with the car, were very easy to correct because the car is so communicative. 

I live in Hartland

[i_love_cars]

Updates - some of you know I found a used door locally that is black and no power windows. Still deciding if I'm going to swap all the wiring over and the regulator/motor. I also got a driver fender from Mitch, and as you can see the paint is pretty close. My plan is to cut the rusted bottom off and just weld in mine because I've got no rust and that part of the panel is still intact. 

Door is now removed, so that should be the end of any exterior prep for new body panels. I lined up the new fender from Mitch and it looks pretty good. 

[KaiserRolls]

Still waiting for the wheat pennies lol. Glad it'll work!

[Boris3]

Two red doors, gutted but good price esp if $85 for the pair.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/sox/pts/5807526985.html

[KaiserRolls]

That's a good deal on the doors

[i_love_cars]

Haven't updated this thread in a little while but things are still progressing slowly.

i did source a friend who paints for my panels locally who will throw straight brilliantrot (unblended) on for like 200 bucks total. 

So paint was the hard part - hopefully I can source already painted parts over winter but at least I have a guaranteed fallback of buying a new passenger fender and valance and getting cheap paint. I should definitely be in business at the start of track season next year

[i_love_cars]

Well FML

I trailered the car to a body shop for frame measurement and while there wasn't any buckling on the front frame rails, they were shifted slightly to the right and the driver side is low by about 11mm and the passenger side is down about 5mm.  Body shop was generic and I really just wanted them to measure the frame for me, but they gave me an estimate anyway and were like "we don't really know what to do with this car and are afraid it will break if we pull it because there are some spots that are starting to rust" and wanted $2500. 

Well they are afraid because they are a volume body shop and are going to want to heat the metal rather than just brute force pulling the frame, and in the case of any areas with some amount of rust, heating it will greatly reduce structural integrity while pulling. I know guys in the racing world who can do it the right way and not ruin shit, so I will be contacting them for a price as a "cash on the side" job. 

In the meantime, I just threw the car up on RacingJunk for funsies asking for $7,000 OBO as basically a full track setup for swapping because there's still $12k worth of parts including the motor, or for someone to repair - and see what happens. If it hasn't sold by spring, I'll see about having my guy pull the frame and if he can't be troubled then I will part the thing out.

[YoungCR]

Not interested in shell swapping?

[KaiserRolls]

Every e30 now-a-days is worth $8k, you shouldn't have any problem getting money out of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if every e30 out there is a tad off lol. They are old and relatively twistable.

[Boris3]

This. Yours is probably in better shape than most e30 track cars out there. Most common method of frame straightening is chains, a pickup, a BFH, and a stout tree.

[i_love_cars]

Boris3 said:

This. Yours is probably in better shape than most e30 track cars out there. Most common method of frame straightening is chains, a pickup, a BFH, and a stout tree.

Yeah I just want to do it as close to "right" as possible. 

The body fixes are super easy once you get past the pulling of the frame. I can get a brand new core support from ECS for $320 which isn't bad.