ILC's 1991 318 S50 track rat

[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.

[straight6pwr]

this is a track car right? even with the slight twist, just drive it! adjust suspension to fix any slight pull you probably won't even notice when you get it all back together.  someday maybe you fix it or do a chassis swap.

[i_love_cars]

straight6pwr said:

this is a track car right? even with the slight twist, just drive it! adjust suspension to fix any slight pull you probably won't even notice when you get it all back together.  someday maybe you fix it or do a chassis swap.

yea corner balancing would be likely able to compensate for the very minor tweak the car currently has. I am still gonna try to have it pulled by a friend for cheap and then weld in a new core support and probably run the bitch and just get track insurance so if it goes wonky on me at the limit I can at least get paid out on it lol

[1990m3]

Pinkeys has experience repairing a seriously messed up e30, I've seen pics of what they have done to one car and also seen it in person after the repair.  Talk to them, might be worth your time. They can straighten it out me yoj can rattle can it, might be worth your money

[i_love_cars]

Well friends, the E30 is officially sold. The answers to the standard questions are as follows:

1. Where did it go?  David Spears bought the car and will be tracking it all this season while Dan Frodl is working on his LS E46 build. I will likely be driving the car as well at some track events this year as the future of this E30 is to exist as a backup/spare track car for our group of friends who regularly do HPDE. 

2. Why did you sell it?  dastuz and I are planning some larger investments likely in commercial real estate, and I need to free up and save as much capital as I can over the next 3-6 months. Keeping the E30 means I'm also committed to buying a trailer, and then making it worth my while to have the car by doing a lot of track events and that + consumables + insurance adds up quick. Doing the math, I'm saving myself $10-12k in 2017 including the price of a trailer, plus the cash I get back from selling the E30 (about $9k)

3. Are you going to track the M3?  Yes I will be tracking the M3 at Road America, and likely paying for consumables/track time/insurance on the E30 for 1 or 2 events at Blackhawk Farms

4. What about your truck?  Tax writeoffs are important when you're just rich enough to be poor like me. The truck stays for now

5. Will you buy another track car?  It will be at least 2-3 years I would say before I buy myself another dedicated track car.  dastuz and I own several rental properties together that we bought back between '08 and '11, but since late 2011, the only real move we've made is buying our own houses to live in which is really not an investment. Tracking is an expensive hobby and considering I have the E92 to play with, I think the track car/trailer money can be better spent elsewhere for the time being. 

6. Will you be living the E30 life vicariously through Mitch and Ben?  It would be hard not to.

[Earl]

You summed that up pretty perfectly=) Congrats on the sale and the luxury of still being able to track the car

[MattY]

i_love_cars said:

Tax writeoffs are important

i feel this. can't wait till i hit 25 if im still on the 1099 life

[suspenceful]

Sounds like a win-win for everyone. Congrats and best of luck.

[Boris3]

Glad it all worked out.

[YoungCR]

good deal! What's on the to do list yet?