Polished "The Beast"

[vyh]

When both of you out of 'P' plates (ie. when you both drive like you stole it ?

 

[ricardo]

Yo Rich. Nice to see you've joined the board! Yeah I do feel for those SA guys but they say some funny things don't they.

The Turbo is lookin' sweet as I must say. What's it putting out at the moment? Bummer you couldn't get the Tornado ute! That thing would actually be a deathtrap.

The pics look awesome man.

240Kw/320hp. Torque is still strong, and seems to still be at least 450Nm (330 ft.lbf for our US friends) from 2000rpm to redline. I think the new one has a slower turbo ramp-up time set on it, as its not quite the jack rabbit my old one was. If I get around to uploading software, I should be able to take care of that Apparently it will then increase from 75kmh in 1st to 91 as redline can be upped to 6700rpm! (Oh how I would like to get 100kmh in 1st!).

Measured the 0-100 times with my G-tech, and seems to be close, but maybe 0.05 to 0.1 secs slower than my 1st one.

The 6 speed box is unreal. Much better. Still not as quick between gears as Id like, but is *very* solid.

The 18" wheels make a huge difference. Grip levels are much higher and roll is less on corners due to lower profile Dunlop SP 9000 245/40 ZR18's. They are actually pretty good tyres I must admit.

I think these tyres might last longer than my old car's 17" SP3000's. I have done about 4700km and the rears still look good. My old car religiously chewed up rear tyres every 9000km.

Fuel consumption is a little worse. Old car: 23L/100km. This car about 24.5L/100km. I get about 210km to a tank of 65-70 litres of premium....beat that!
(But if I drive normally, which I dont, I would get excellent economy, and can easily see 7-8L/100km at 110kmh on the freeway as its 2000rpm in 6th). But the engine is still tight. I'll give it some more time and see how it loosens up. More power to come too no doubt. But to be honest, I dont care....having endless fuel has its advantages!

I did the sums for my first car: at $1/litre I went through $9000 worth of fuel over the 2 years I had it...and that was to cover only 33,000km! Also about $1500 in tyres at $260 each. (These new ones are twice that price).

When I see you next, will get you to take it for a spin and see what you think.

 

[Chesty Bonds]

A few more pics just for shits and giggles:

Enjoy

 

[deutsch100]

Hey Pete!! Your car and your mate's car look ABSOLUTELY amazing!! To me it doesn't matter that it is 10+, 15+ years old....it looks better and more maintained than many people 2004 or 2005 cars. The E30 is still one of the best looking cars on the road. I like the E36 a lot...but I think the E30 has a special place in my heart.....it was my first BMW (1989 325 cabrio, 3rd owner .

Keep up the good work. Doesn't matter that it rains (well actually it can make me cry)...but at least it rains on a clean car.

Amazing!! Just beautiful!!

 

[Chesty Bonds]

Hey thanks Adam. Yeah old cars in good nick certainly have a little extra charisma I think...although your Interlagos blue M3 is pretty damn hard to beat.

Maybe I can follow a similar path as you starting with an E30 and then moving onto an E46 M3! Stranger things have happened no?

Thanks for the compliments bro

 

[DrPierceMD]

Yeah Eric, I'm not too sure how much those headlights sell for around here as I've never seen them for sale anywhere! Luckily though, our E30's came with the updated ellipsoids and they work quite well. Look good too.

In terms of the suspension, I've never really considered doing anything with it. I'd love to but I'm not exactly sure where to start and what sort of geometery I should be looking at. I do agree that my car would look awesome if it were lowered a little and had slightly bigger alloys (16's would look about right I think). My mate's car (the black one) has 17's which are rather large but they do look pretty cool.

Other than that, I'm a bit of a stickler for standard parts and settings (so is my mechanic) but I would definitely consider some suspension work, foglights, 16" basketweave alloys, E30 M3 seats, and some ATE powerdisc rotors and ATE pads, braided steel brake lines... It could go on and on. I can only dream, I guess...

Thanks for the response! Aint E30's just the bomb?

The E30 318is' actually come stock with sport suspension which is lower than normal. I beleive that they are blue springs. My first BMW was a 1990 E30 318is. I loved that car so much. And then I crashed it. As I finished striping all of the good parts of it and the fork lift took it out of the bay I almost cried. Now I own a 2004 325ci and 2 1988 325i's with MTECH 2 kits. My gray 88' 325i has been chipped, has ATE powerdisc all around, ATE pads all around, 20/40 lowering spings, and 16x9 keskin rims w/ 215/40 toyos on the front and 225/35 yokohama's in the back. That is my track car. Still got a ways to go before it will be a worthy track car, but right now I take it to hockenhiem every thursday and race it around.

FYI in germany I was able to get the ATE discs and pads cheaper that OEM.

Eric

 

[Chesty Bonds]

Yeah it did come with sport suspension and the chassis was changed from the 318i to be stiffer, lower and with a less roll. So, the chassis was adapted from the 325is which fitted these criteria. This suspension set-up is to M-Tech specifications:

* -15mm front springs, -17mm rear springs, appoximately the same ratings as the M3
* Firmer Boge gas dampers (shocks)
* Stiffer 20mm front anti-roll (sway) bar
* A 14.5mm rear anti-roll bar was fitted, although many US models had just 12mm
* Larger diameter 51mm front struts (and therefore dampers)

Depite all that, I do think my car looks a little high on its springs which is most likely attributable to the puny 14" alloys...

I'm sorry to hear about the demise of your E30... I'd be bawling my eyes out too if I was subjected to the same experience! And I'm really considering getting some of the ATE powerdisc (gas-slotted) rotors for my car. How do they work in street conditions? Do they give a little more pedal feel than the standard setup? I want a little more braking power and more feel!

What did you pay for the ATE rotors? I wish I lived in Germany so bad... All those awesome tracks; Norisring, Hockenheimring, not to mention the Nordschlieffe... I've heard its only $15 to do a lap of the Nurby so I was thinking when I go on my overseas trip next year we might rent a car and belt it to within an inch of its life!

Thanks for the response.

 

[DrPierceMD]

I'm sorry to hear about the demise of your E30... I'd be bawling my eyes out too if I was subjected to the same experience! And I'm really considering getting some of the ATE powerdisc (gas-slotted) rotors for my car. How do they work in street conditions? Do they give a little more pedal feel than the standard setup? I want a little more braking power and more feel!

What did you pay for the ATE rotors? I wish I lived in Germany so bad... All those awesome tracks; Norisring, Hockenheimring, not to mention the Nordschlieffe... I've heard its only $15 to do a lap of the Nurby so I was thinking when I go on my overseas trip next year we might rent a car and belt it to within an inch of its life!

The ATE disc and pads are awsome. The only problem that I have had with them is that the day I got them I took my car to the track and it heated my pads up so much that whenever I use my brakes now there is an ungodly screeching noise. I am going to have to get some new pads. As far as what I paid for them I don't know off the top of my head. When I get back home in 2 weeks I will post the prices. I am not sure about nurnberg, but hockenheim cost 12 euro to get on the track for about a half an hour.

 

[Chesty Bonds]

Cool, thanks for the response. I'd definitely be interested to see what you paid for the rotors.

And I can't wait to hit the Nurburgring!