Finally!!! After almost 3 years of waiting...

#1

Got myself into another E30!!

It’s a 91’ 318iS with all sorts of goodies. Picked her up for 1800$. 220k.

Here is the epic thread:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1377830

It feels like I’ve been on here forever, and every time I visit it’s always “ALMOST DONE GRADUATING THEN I’LL BE ABLE TO RACE!”

Well guys/gals, I’ll be out of Film School in April, and I’ve been working my ass off!

I’ll be tearing into this beast as soon as I graduate with all sorts of SE30 goodies. Obviously, dropping in an M20 and doing all that jazz.

I can’t tell you how amped I am about this! Since I’ve still got the 330Ci, I’m thinking I may sell it and/or trade in and get an X5 for a DD and rent a u-haul trailer. Who knows?!

One of the main decisions I’ll have to make is the exhaust. If I run a stock M20 exhaust, I can drive the car to the track. But, that may be more annoying to get a stock exhaust on a swapped M20… so I may just go SpecExhaust and get it towed to the track… So many decisions!

Any input, advice, words-of-wisdom that you may have would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some pics of the beast:


Should be a lot of fun!

Dan

#2

car looks terrific! but if you want to get into spec e30 i think you’d be a lot better off getting a m20 325i/is as a starting platform, preferably a crappy looking tired one as you’ll be ripping out most of the interior and replacing many of the mechanical bits anyway. keep that lovely m42 for street duty.

#3

That will make a nice looking race car! Almost to nice to make into a race car. Are you sure you want to go through the hassle of swapping to a M20? Seems to be it would be a lot easier and cheaper to find a 325i with motor or trans problems. You should be able to find one less than $800. It really does not matter the condition of most items because most will be replaced or removed when building it to spec. I am very glad to hear you will joining us on the track soon. Will you be at Willow Springs in a week?

#4

Go find a beater with a blown HG, nasty interior, but no rust for $400. Your E30 is too pretty to turn into a race car. Heck, it will cost you $700 just to get the M20, ECU and diff. No sense in that.

Buy a trailer instead of renting one. UHaul trailers are heavy, their braking system sucks, and fetching it will be a hassle. You can get a good used trailer for $1500 easy.

X5’s make perfectly serviceable tow vehicles, but they’re less suited for transporting large E30 pieces. I bought an E36 and a pickup truck for $7500, sold my X5 and pocketed $10k. X5’s are nice, but I can’t help note that I went the exact opposite way that you are considering.

#5

I thought about starting with a 325… which I would have, but I jumped on this as I’m using it for my last term at school to commute with.
It’s a clean car, yes, but @ 1800$ I don’t mind spending a few bucks for an M20 swap. It may seem less practical, but it doesn’t bother me.

I’d be more than down to buy a trailer, I just have no place to store it. Since I’ll be moving into a new apt, I doubt I’ll have any space for a trailer; someday I’ll have one…

Don’t get wrong, I love how clean the paint turned out, you guys should check out that link and see the condition that it was in when I first got it!
BUT, there’s nothing wrong with having a clean looking SE30 :slight_smile:

Thanks for all the feedback ! If a beater 325 pops up, I may snag it and use that, we’ll just have to wait and see… so much can happen in so little time (as we’ve seen with this E30;
I bought it in less than 24 hours of seeing it online).

When I graduate, first thing will be to check for 325’s on the market, see where the 330 is at, and see how the 318 is doing. Maybe the 318 will be a DD and I’ll drop in an M30 and use that tow
the SE30 :).

#6

I don’t have anywhere to store my trailer either. So I went to a local autoparts store that had a big parking lot and asked them that if I put some big signs on my tire rack that said racing, could I park my 14’ trailer there? And that was only the first of a half dozen schemes. You just gotta think out of the box.

There’s some folks using dollies, those are cheap and small.

I bet within 10mi. you’ve got 5 stores or companies that support NASCAR. Photoshop a big sign on your trailer that says Home Depot Racing Team, and talk to the manager.

#7

Ranger wrote:

[quote]I don’t have anywhere to store my trailer either. So I went to a local autoparts store that had a big parking lot and asked them that if I put some big signs on my tire rack that said racing, could I park my 14’ trailer there? And that was only the first of a half dozen schemes. You just gotta think out of the box.

There’s some folks using dollies, those are cheap and small.

I bet within 10mi. you’ve got 5 stores or companies that support NASCAR. Photoshop a big sign on your trailer that says Home Depot Racing Team, and talk to the manager.[/quote]

That sounds like an amazing idea… I’ll have to look around.

I keep thinking about how awesome it would be to do an M30 in the 318 and use that to tow an SE30…

So many options! Thing is though, I got the 318 with hopes to make it an SE30 (because I got it for so cheap), and it has so many little annoyances that have been dealt with already.

We shall see, we shall see. I’m off to watch more SE30 videos on Vimeo, I try to hold off for a few weeks so that they pile up.

Dan

#8

You should be able to find a running 325i for about half what you paid for that car. I purchased my 1989 325i for $1,200. It ran and even passed smog. Just keep a eye out on craigs list in LA, OC and San Diego.

#9

I’m always paruzing CL, so I’m sure I’ll find something.

#10

that car looks too nice… find a beater. then again, your in cali, i bet most e30s there look like that :slight_smile:

#11

The car is a good choice for SoCal…
The body looks straight and the registration is obviously good.

Yes, E30’s look good down here…
Not all, but a lot do, this is a particularly nice looking specimen.

The drive-train will sell fast and you can make money off of the interior.

I will likely spend more than most to avoid the normal basket case cars as
I plan to drive the car to events and use it as a weekend “toy”.

#12

kgobey wrote:

+1
Excellent start. Kieran also knows a good source of M20’s.

Looking forward to seeing another build taking place.

Keep us posted.