My E30 Track Car Build Costs

[Higgt00l]

I posted this in the e30 forum, but thought it might be of some value here too. I am building a track car primarily for HPDE use. I may eventually use it in time trials and/or a few spec e30 events. The car probably has between 220,000 and 250,000 miles, but I can't be sure because the odo was broken when I bought the car, and I have since changed the guage cluster.

While I have seen alot of posts on this forum about which mods should be made and how much they may cost, I have never seen a comprehensive list of what people have actually done and how much they truly have invested in their e30. For the sake of discussion, I am sharing my e30 build costs.pdf. My next mods will likely be sway bars, strut tower bars, wheels, camber plates, and maybe a chip.

You can see before and after pics of my car on a parallel thread.

Other than the fact that this summary does not reflect all of the weight reduction that I have performed (which is significant), it is a pretty good summary of my car's current condition. Eventually, I plan to post some video from my recent trip to VIR, but it may be a while.

In the meantime, and at the risk of being flamed, I invite your comments.

[jayhudson]

Shut up! It's against the rules to add up costs.

Jay

[Gleb]

Car looks good, I would upgrade wheels/tires.

[Gleb]

Shut up! It's against the rules to add up costs.

Jay

Ain't that the truth, I don't do it...anymore

[tammer]

Much as I hate to see the numbers, I'm on a pretty tight budget overall and I have a spreadsheet with everything on it. It ain't pretty, and the car, while trackable and "just fine" for a DE car isn't race-ready yet (no fire system, center net, transponder, and a few other minor things). I shoulda bought a kart.

-tammer

[Higgt00l]

I'm on a tight budget too and I understand I'm nowhere near race ready. I expect I'll be doing DE's for years to come. However, for people who are interested in comparing the costs associated with building a car versus buying one already built, I thought this would help. Plus, my wife doesn't visit this site, so I should be ok posting this info.

I would definitely like new wheels, but will likely stick with the Falken Azenis or a similar DOT tire for a while. They are much better than my old, all-season, tires, and I'm not in a hurry to get true R-compound tires.

[S.Lang]

I totalled up the costs from my last build. I just won't share with anyone as I'm against publicly publishing how fiscally irresponsible I am.

[indyzhp]

Nice car! Thanks for sharing.

[BETO]

Well, you are half way there. I stopped adding up when I broke the $10k barrier, since I was told that was all I needed, HA!!! I should be around $15k, and I need to replace some safety items that are or will expire soon (suit, gloves, helmet, nomex underware, cool shirt kit, harness, seat, etc)
BTW, if you are going to spec E30, forget the chip.
In addition, you can get a great deal from Konig if you are looking for wheels, check the NASA site.

[arctice]

Thanks for sharing all of that info! My boyfriend is looking at building a car for HPDE and later spec e30 and this really helps him to see how big of a budget to set aside. Good luck with the car, it looks great!

[DaveCN]

I just bought my latest e30 for $75 - another 1990 325i. I ought to start tracking the costs - I'll have to estimate some as it will be getting a lot of things swapped over from my current car which is being retired due to rust issues arising from some poor body work done before I got the car.

[essejM3]

I totalled up the costs from my last build. I just won't share with anyone as I'm against publicly publishing how fiscally irresponsible I am.

Agreed. My wife said to me, WTF did you spend 5 grand on your car for, and WTF are dampers? Then she proceeded to say you are slow anyway. Tough love I guess