I havent been to GRM for a while, which is sad because its a great place.
Anyways this is my 1984 325e build which I have had for about three years. I originally got it for free out of a friends driveway. Used it as a DD car for a year while I went to school in WA, got back to CA and bought a 1985 Toyota SR5 22re powered truck for DD duty, and started building my BMW for autox and hopefully some HPDE events.
First thing I did was all the maintenance, and then I started with suspension and safety parts.
Upgrades:
-M20b25 (SSSquid Tuning chip)
-Driveway welded exhaust, stock diameter pipe, Magnaflow glass pack center, Magnaflow mufler
-Stock 5 speed
-373 LSD Diff (need to change for longer 2nd gear)
-Condor Speed Shop drive train mounts
-Z3 1.9l steering rack (2.7 turns lock to lock linear rate)
-Catuned Coil Overs (7KG Front/ 8KG Rear, 36 way adjustable dampening, adjustable ride height, camber plates)
-Ireland Engineering 25mm front 22mm rear sway bars
-Condor Speed Shop solid bushings
-Ireland Engineering rear camber/toe weld in tabs
-TIG welded group A stile half cage tied into the rear strut towers w/ a battery box
-Momo X-Large Super Cup Seat (driver)
-e21 Sports seat (passenger)
-G-Force 5 point harnesses
-MOMO Monte Carlo wheel
-Sparco quick release
-TRM C1 15x8 wheels
-Dunlop Direzza ZII tires
-rperformance e30 trunk spoiler
-325es air dam
Next step will be some slotted rotors, braided lines, and Hawk HP + pads.
I am waiting on an engine swap for power till I can drive better, and I am back in WA where smog laws are easier to work with.
At some point Id like to take the entire car apart and rebuild everything with new paint and body work. But ones again that will have to wait till I move back to WA and have my own garage.
First question. Currently my car runs out of gear in 2nd when I am on a straight away at autox, and there is not quite enough room to change to 3rd.
What diff could I run to make second a longer gear?
Oh and I ran my first ever autox this weekend at Marina Airport (near Monterrey CA) with BMWCCA Golden Gate Chapter. My fastest time was a 53.308 which seamed to be an avrage time for lots of the people that attended. Fastest time was a 47 something in a Honda S2000. The guy was poetry in motion hahaha
Here is a GoPro video of one of my runs. Sorry for the wind noise. It was gusting really hard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtTqskqfItM
Another SF person? I'm in Sunset, come to the dark side. Once you start running HPDEs you'll never want to autoX again.
Here's my track rat.
Oh, I just re-read, are you back in WA now? That'd be too bad (well, save for the smog BS), there are so many good tracks close by.
Hahahaha. In that case I cant wait. What events do you like to run?
Not in WA yet
deutschman wrote:
First question. Currently my car runs out of gear in 2nd when I am on a straight away at autox, and there is not quite enough room to change to 3rd.
What diff could I run to make second a longer gear?
I saw in the first post that you have 3.73 gears in the car right now, if you want more mph in 2nd gear it'll be at the cost of some acceleration but you would want to go down numerically. A set of 3.55 gears is still performance oriented and should net you a few more mph in 2nd.
BTW, how do you like the SSSquid chip?
Nitroracer wrote:
deutschman wrote:
First question. Currently my car runs out of gear in 2nd when I am on a straight away at autox, and there is not quite enough room to change to 3rd.
What diff could I run to make second a longer gear?
I saw in the first post that you have 3.73 gears in the car right now, if you want more mph in 2nd gear it'll be at the cost of some acceleration but you would want to go down numerically. A set of 3.55 gears is still performance oriented and should net you a few more mph in 2nd.
BTW, how do you like the SSSquid chip?
I think I am going to stay with the 373 gears for now. I ordered some new clutch plates to put in the diff, because after watching my autox video and thinking about how my car felt in corners, I dont think my LSD was locking up correctly. I am thinking that was the feeling (loss of power) in corners that I had previously thought was fuel starvation.
Also I have a corection to make on my autox time for the last event.
Turns out my best time was a few seconds faster. I checked the official times online today after realizing I only had 6 time slips and I had done 7 runs. My best time was a 49.880 
The 3 e30s in my class
Michael Kolesar with a 49.159
Me with a 49.880
Stephen Kolesar with a 50.020
I ordered some new diff clutches. I think that will help me out. Also have a bunch of brake parts showing up in the mail.
Pictures speak for them selves. Brake upgrades. I decided on the Stop Tech street performance pads because I really only drive autox and track pads wont be much good on an autox cores because they will never get the heat they need.
Also got new clutches for my diff. :)
It should all be going in on Friday.
I also want to start planning some pieces including a splitter and some air ducts for the brakes which will go where the original fog lights fit in the 'is' air dam.
hmm...I do love me that spoiler. May have to put that on the Christmas list...
EDIT: where would one find such a spoiler?
irish44j wrote:
hmm...I do love me that spoiler. May have to put that on the Christmas list...
EDIT: where would one find such a spoiler?
http://rperformance.blogspot.com/p/product.html
Considering the time difference, emails were fast and responsive. Payment is through PayPal so you have assurance that you will get your part or money back. My spoiler showed up in good shape with some basic sanding needed.
Thank you sir. So that's fiberglass then? Interesting.
Just found this. 40% diff lock up kit. I wish I had known about this before I ordered from Bimmerworld!
http://www.bimmerdiffs.com/collectio...-kit-40-lockup
Did my rotors, pads, and lines today.
One question. WHY THE F DID BMW PUT THE REAR BRAKE LINES BETWEEN THE SUB FRAME AND THE BODY!!!? They DO NOT need to be there. Took me WAY to long to get them undone. So I re-bent the lines a bit to make it easier to take them apart in the future.
Looked at the diff and thought about taking it out for new clutches, then looked at my watch (3:40pm) and said hell no. Ill do that another day. If I had a garage I could have started. Poop
My buddy came by to work on his Suzuki 250 as well. Took this epic picture of me at my best.
Im going to rebuild my diff a bit this saturday. Should be fun.
Next weekend I am re-re-building my exhaust with some vband clamps and better hangers.
Untill then.
Tow straps because race car 
I have a very busy weekend ahead of me. I want to get my exhaust rebuilt, and my diff rebuilt in two days. My next autox is the 14th and I wont have time/space on week days to do any work.
Got some replacement parts from Summit. Mandrel U bend, 2 v-band clamps, CA legal cat, and a length of pipe. V-bands are super cool, and way more affordable then they used to be. About $30 on Summit. Cant wait to get it all welded up.
Hey, direct links to videos work well.
