E30 to be entered at Thunderhill 24 hours of lemons this DEC!!!

[84 332i]

Thanks for th suggestions...the tires we have to use 200 treadwear rated or better tire so nothing too aggressive. We are planning for rear quarter windows to get changed... I'll look for lexan.

332i? 3.2 motor in an e30?

Absolutely! The saying go's "No replacement for displacement. Yes I'm sick! I'm going to run BMWCCA, SCCA, and NASA. Hey at first I wanted to install the 4.4L engine and I was talked out of it because of reliability issues. But I'm now installing a 99 M3 (S52) engine and trans. Looking for a 3:23 gear. My X's youngest daughter is now a race driving instructor. Her DD is a 97 M3. She was hitting almost 140 mph. on the back straight at Road Atlanta (after turn 9). Her M has full interior plus a stereo and full exhaust. I'm thinking I should hit between 140 and 150 mph. The E is almost 700 lbs. lighter, no exhaust except headers, and I have no interior except race seats and cage.

Wanna make a splitter? Take a 55 gallon drum (Plastic) preferably a black one cut the top and bottom off and shape it under the front of Sylvia and trim as you see fit! Ta dah! You have a splitter!

[2wheelsoff]

I definately understand where you are coming from. I have a 4.4 in my 540i-6speed and it has amazing torque. I had daydreamed shoehorning in the v8, but in all reality I will be happy with a 325i motor from our donor car. The S52 should be tons of fun. We were running some decent times yesterday for our second day of test n tune...the other 2 teamates got to drive the car, and we found out we have a ringer in our group! He turned in a 2:19 (buttonwillow ccw race 14) and felt there was more time he could shave off. Riding with him made me want my mommy and a diaper change.

Thanks for the trash can suggestion, i was thinking a vinyl office wast basket would be smoother (no ridges), though I would probably need to buy 2.

LOL I posted this in our "for sale" thread for our parts...woops!

Here it is:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_4flsrDlyI[/ame]

This is a 2:30 lap with our chill driver Chad...he could shave off a good 5-8 seconds with more practice. Our Ringer posted a 2:19 and made me want to cry.

That video will be up soon too.

[lazz]

Thanks for the trash can suggestion, i was thinking a vinyl office wast basket would be smoother (no ridges), though I would probably need to buy 2.

I plan on using the 6" black plastic garden edging stuff like this car (Ron Harness, nocral spec e30), except we'll make it wrap around the edges:

[thesalboy]

We caught and passed that new M3, and he and his buddy in a new Evo had trouble getting past our ringer despite being pointed by.

Now we need people to buy our stuff so we can bring this puppy home! http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1115938

[LTDScott]

You and your fancy "windows." We had to remove all of the windows (except the windshield) from our car for Altamont and sold them all. Arse-freeze-a-palooza indeed.

[Lance Racing]

The only things I can add, based on some enduro racing in an E30.

A spare oil pan is good insurance in case one of your drivers puts 4 wheels off at some point and hits a rock on the pan.

Yes on having some spare mounted tires. Though if on a tight budget you could get away with 2 tires as the fronts will wear out sooner than the rears.

I didn't see what you are using for brake pads. Pagid Yellows will get us 12 hours in a PRO-3 car.

Good luck guys, sounds like a great time. IF the event is sold out, that means the track will be full of cars and be very busy, especially in the first couple of hours. Best strategy is to take it easy out there and stay out of the way of other people's poor decisions.

I'm assuming there will be drivers will little track driving experience in an event like this?

[2wheelsoff]

Lance Racing; Definately will try and stay out of troubles early on. There will be tons of people without wheel to wheel expirience before, and ALL of our team will be in that group. Our Wives/girlfreinds/fiances will all be taking out life insurance policies on us before we go!

LTDScott - yes...I know we are wimps...we are even going to keep the heater in the car. I am trying to think of a way to rig up a seat warmer or use the sheepskin seat covers if we don't sell them...We want to takeout the quarter windows and were debating teh rear too, and replace it with the cheapest see through material we can get from home depot...trouble is; we weighed the car and wea re 1375 front and 1045 lbs rear...we are taking out the rear tar too and that will lighten up the rear even more. There isn;tmuch of a way to get the front lighter. We are thinking of removing the hood and the fenders and use metal flashing for aerodynamics. The bumper needs to stay to keep the from crushing the front in an incident.

Lazz- we don't have a nice lower spoiler to add the edging to. We need to build ours coming out of the bumper. Do you have a front spoiler? The best we have is a shorty off the donor car which slopes way back.

[rjcaptsean]

So I was watching your Video and all I could think was......


WOW.

So that's what it looks like when both your speedo and tach are working!




I must be an e30 owner.

[lazz]

Lazz- we don't have a nice lower spoiler to add the edging to. We need to build ours coming out of the bumper. Do you have a front spoiler? The best we have is a shorty off the donor car which slopes way back.

Boo, early body style sucks for spoilers. You do get the chrome bumpers though, which are definitely better for bumping. I don't have a spare spoiler, you'll have to prowl the hardware store and cook up something good

[2wheelsoff]

So I was watching your Video and all I could think was......


WOW.

So that's what it looks like when both your speedo and tach are working!




I must be an e30 owner.

Here is our cluster...it is from our donor car. OUrs worked fine, but the redline was at 4500 and tach max-ed out at 5000, and we have a 5300 redline from our chipped ECU.

We had to use red tape for our new redline....very ghetto!


Lance racing- forgot to address the other question...we have turner cool willies pads, and really like them so far. had no fade after our testing sessions and ath thunderhll it should be 30-45 degrees so that should be fine cooling wise. We are going to need an extra set just incase we wear them out at the event. How are pagid yellow on rotor? Debating if we should take nother set of rotors....I am guessing the fronts will see more wear.

The easiest way to get more german power in your E30 is to put a German named Sascha in the trunk and give him a BFH!


Here he is pissing off the neighbors as he chips out the trunk tar....33lbs worth not including the spare tire goo which we got lucky on and was already loose when we bought the car. That part pulled out in two pieces and we estimate it in the 15-20lbs range.

[LTDScott]

Good luck guys, sounds like a great time. IF the event is sold out, that means the track will be full of cars and be very busy, especially in the first couple of hours. Best strategy is to take it easy out there and stay out of the way of other people's poor decisions.

I'm assuming there will be drivers will little track driving experience in an event like this?

Sold out? 200 teams applied, only 100 were accepted!

And yes, there is a wide range of driver experience. Three of my drivers (myself included) have track experience, two don't. We just need to take it easy in the beginning.

[thesalboy]

LTDScott - Saw your post on R3V re kill switch. Can you post pics of your install? I'm pretty sure I get it (interrupt the two lines from the battery using a 4-post switch), but in all my searching I couldn't find pics. Particularly curious about where you decided to cut the lines and mount the switch.

Also, are you keeping power steering or not? We're debating if the improved feel without it is worth the extra effort over all that time...

[2wheelsoff]

Ok peeps! Check it out 20% discount to bimmerforum members only on the posted prices....I am posting on Craigslist this holiday weekend for whatever is left over.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1115938

[LTDScott]

LTDScott - Saw your post on R3V re kill switch. Can you post pics of your install? I'm pretty sure I get it (interrupt the two lines from the battery using a 4-post switch), but in all my searching I couldn't find pics. Particularly curious about where you decided to cut the lines and mount the switch.

Also, are you keeping power steering or not? We're debating if the improved feel without it is worth the extra effort over all that time...

Unfortunately I only have a photo of the finished installed switch and not any of the wiring.

Basically if you look at the junction block on the firewall, you'll see the big cables (battery) and the small cables (alternator). The big cables connect together at the junction block basically like a the post on a normal car battery (male) and a battery cable terminal that slides over it (female). Luckily a friend gave me a cheapo battery switch from his old Camaro and the associated wiring. That wiring included large male and female battery post type terminals which complimented the stock battery terminals on our car.

The other end of the wiring he gave me attached had two small terminals to attach to the switch. So that handled the battery side, although the wiring I was given was about a foot longer than it needed to be, so we just shoved the excess wiring into the cowl behind the switch (ghetto I know). On the alternator side, we just had to extend the wiring (luckily one of my guys is really good at soldering), add terminals, and connect them to the remaining two posts on the switch. We tied up all the wiring, bolted the switch into the RHD wiper hole under the cowl grille and called it done. We tested it and it does the job.



We are leaving the power steering on our car. I have not yet raced Thunderhill, but the turns seem to be fairly wide and easy, so you could probably get away with manual steering (especially since the stock E30 rack is fairly slow ratio). But there's no way I'd want to run my car with manual steering at Altamont where there are two turns that are tighter than 90 degrees. The power steering probably robs a bit of power, but horsepower isn't the key to winning LeMons races, and not having to fight the car makes for less tired drivers.

[lazz]

Only pansies need power steering!

We drove our car at THill last weekend with an open to the air rack. You really won't notice it except in the paddock, and even then it's not at all bad. Disconnect your belt and see how it feels. Note that it'll get easier to steer when you remove the pump from the equation, but belt-less is a close approximation.

[2wheelsoff]

We threw a belt during one of our test drives out in the valley....I couldn't even tell on the highway, I only felt it parking. Now I wasn't driving anywhere near the limit, but the off ramps were fun.

[Shadow86325e]

thought of putting a rock plate under the engine? like fabricating one?

the m20 hangs low.

[LTDScott]

thought of putting a rock plate under the engine? like fabricating one?

the m20 hangs low.

Yeah we made a skid plate out of sheetmetal. Won't stop any major impacts but it's certainly better than nothing.

Regarding power steering, ours works fine and it'd be more work to remove it than it's worth. At most you'd gain a few horsepower and lose a couple of pounds, but I do agree you could get away with manual steering at Thunderhill. If we lose our belt or dump all the fluid, at least I know our car will still be easy to drive!

I don't think that's the case at Altamont, and I don't recall any of the teams posting here at AMP last year.

[kishg]

Yeah we made a skid plate out of sheetmetal. Won't stop any major impacts but it's certainly better than nothing.

Regarding power steering, ours works fine and it'd be more work to remove it than it's worth. At most you'd gain a few horsepower and lose a couple of pounds, but I do agree you could get away with manual steering at Thunderhill. If we lose our belt or dump all the fluid, at least I know our car will still be easy to drive!

I don't think that's the case at Altamont, and I don't recall any of the teams posting here at AMP last year.

i doubt you'd notice it unless your taking those turns at 20mph.

[LTDScott]

i doubt you'd notice it unless your taking those turns at 20mph.

Which is the case at Altamont

[kishg]

Which is the case at Altamont

[2wheelsoff]

Wondering if anyone knows John at evil genius. We have a cage that was supposedly shipped 2 weeks ago, and we haven't gotten it yet. Having no luck emailing him or calling him.

Anyone know his M.O.? Is he just slack with getting back to people...or should we wonder if it is really did ship it?

[LTDScott]

Wondering if anyone knows John at evil genius. We have a cage that was supposedly shipped 2 weeks ago, and we haven't gotten it yet. Having no luck emailing him or calling him.

Anyone know his M.O.? Is he just slack with getting back to people...or should we wonder if it is really did ship it?

John entered a team for the Thunderhill LeMons race, but was turned down due to the aggressive driving he displayed at the last Altamont race in the Jalopnik team Volvo. So I know he's not busy with that, but he is entering a pair of cars for the 25 hours of Thunderhill.

Don't really know what his business practices are like but it's getting near crunch time!

[2wheelsoff]

We got a call finally after a couple weeks..somthing anout a shipping issue. We should be getting it on wed...will keep you posted.

Thanks for the pic and the write up on the cutoff switch!

[thesalboy]

After doing some basic maintenance on the driver's side of the engine, she won't start! We turn the key and she makes a clicking noise - actually, it's more like an electrical "pop" - like the sound a spark makes. We determined the noise was coming from the starter/solenoid, and then noticed a thin-gauge wire to the solenoid had gotten disconnected from its spade terminal, and may have come into contact during cranking with one of the larger-gauge wires going in/out of the starter/solenoid. Reconnecting it had no effect.

Is our solenoid or starter blown? Any other ideas?