New to Spec E30

#1

Hello to everyone in the Spec E30 community! My name is Damien, and I plan to start racing an E30 in some capacity in 2011. I am coming from a 6 year stint cutting my teeth in various karting classes on the local, regional, and national level, so I am just looking to gather as much information as I can from the regulars about making the transition to these cars. Thanks in advance for everyone’s help and information!

#2

Welcome,

These cars are bigs heavy slow pigs realtive to karts. The fundamentals of racing are the same though and we do have a lot of fun.

Where are you from?

Don

#3

I’m from Charlotte County, FL. I have a racing buddy that is a motorsports engineering student and volunteers a lot at BMWCCA events at VIR. He suggested E30 or E36 racing, with Spec E30 in his opinion more fun and competitive.

#4

I would check out the SouthEast forum as well. I actually live in the NW corner of Florida, and there isn’t much action in here and very few SpecE30 cars while the SouthEast has tons of SpecE30 action, so that is where I am cutting my teeth.

#5

Welcome. I am in Sarasota (work) and my SE30 is at my house in Bradenton. Would be happy to have you around anytime.

-Scott

#6

Hello Damien, I will follow your lead and identify myself. My name is Ivan and hope to have a spec E30 ready by fall. Will have to get evaluated and see when I can get the provisional license, hopefully be able to race with you next year. I am also in Florida (north central Pasco county) getting to know the community through this forum. Hopefully we can help the Florida region grow to mirror the SE and Mid-Atlantic regions. Scott set a Sebring record last summer, so I guess he is the leading target… :slight_smile:

#7

I hope the Florida region grows as well. I definitely plan to make it down to Sebring.

#8

Chris, the Florida region looks very promising for next year. Scott M. is fast. Damien, with his background should not take to long to push Scott. Natalie and John just need somebody to go after. Don Stevens, Michael(??)are right there with them. Have no idea if Gary Nilsen will make it back. Don’t know your background, but if your learning from the SE region, you should also be a fast driver. I am helping two other builds (slow going but coming along). They should both be front runners. Who knows who else will show up from other Florida areas. There should be at least 8-10 cars by summer 2011… Nat Black will be happy… :slight_smile:

#9

I am glad to hear that interest is growing in the Florida region for next year and beyond. I appreciate everyone’s input and hopefully will get to see some of you soon if I get to visit and observe at one of this year’s events.

#10

I will likely have the SE30 on its second shakedown run at NASA-Homestead this weekend if anyone is interested in coming and hanging out. Hopefully I fixed the gremlins that plagued the car at PBIR a month or so ago.

I have no real speed secrets. Just hundreds and hundreds of hours in cars. That’s really all it takes. Spend a lot of time in cars and run the same tracks a lot and you will find speed and time. It really is that simple.

I will make a full scale attack on the track record at Homestead this weekend. I have the record at Sebring and PBIR already. I am going to try hard to put down a flier at some point during the weekend, and look forward to racing with Natalie and the other SE30s that might come out. Look forward to meeting the rest of you.

-Scott

#11

Is there any procedure requirement as far as drivers / owners keeping a log on a car’s crash history, or would this be voluntary?

#12

Also, does anybody know how hard it is to swap an E30 from an automatic to a manual transmission? Advice from anyone who has done this before would be greatly appreciated.

#13

I think the biggest thing in the swap is to make sure you do the pedal/clutch hydralics while the dash is out, otherwise it is a major PITA. Everything else is easy, flywheel, clutch, trans, driveshaft.

Al

ps, the dash will be out to do cage/removal of crap behind/under dash…

#14

Welcome Damien!

I’m always so glad to hear about a prospective new FL racer :laugh: You’ll enjoy SpecE30 - like Don said, they’re pigs compared to karts, but we have a hell of a good time racing 'em!

Ivan’s right, there’s so much going on for this region for next year - I know of five cars (now six, including yours) that are “in progress”. If we could get them “on track” that would be awesome!!! We’d had a bit of a numbers setback for this year with Andrew P moving to the SE and Gary’s car being totaled at RRR last fall. Such is life and racing.

Please feel free contact me with any questions you might have ( natblack AT sunburnracing DOT com ) and I’m sure you’ll find the forums here a valuable asset.

Hope to see you at the track SOON!

BTW, we’re in the Tampa/Clearwater area and the garage door is always open.

#15

WinnMotorsports wrote:

Hmmm, not that I know of. Any major incident during a NASA event would likely end up being recorded in the car’s logbook.

WinnMotorsports wrote:

My car originally began life as an automatic, so it can and has been done. We had someone do that work for us, so I can’t help with specifics, but you’ll need to double check your diff to ensure that it’s a 3.73 not the 4.10. All the automatics I’ve seen (including our donor car) have the 4.10 which is a no-no.

#16

King Tut wrote:

Being where you are in the state, I certainly can see why you’ll end up racing with the SE boys more often - but we’d love to see you get down to Sebring and run with the FL guys when the schedule takes us there.
Any chance you’ll make it to the June event? It’s always a hot, but fun weekend!
Registration is open now: https://www.nasaproracing.com/event/1116

#17

IAP wrote:

Last I heard from Gary his plan is to be back for 2011 - he’s closing on a new house in June so that, no doubt, has to be a priority for him. Good to know he’s planning to come back to play :slight_smile:

IAP wrote:

B) :cheer: :laugh:

#18

natblack wrote:

[quote]
Being where you are in the state, I certainly can see why you’ll end up racing with the SE boys more often - but we’d love to see you get down to Sebring and run with the FL guys when the schedule takes us there.
Any chance you’ll make it to the June event? It’s always a hot, but fun weekend!
Registration is open now: https://www.nasaproracing.com/event/1116[/quote]

The cage is going in the car in June so I am out for that month, but I am hoping to make it to Sebring in October. I’m still in HPDE though, but I hope some of the FL Spec E30s will be there.

#19

King Tut wrote:

[quote]natblack wrote:

[quote]
Being where you are in the state, I certainly can see why you’ll end up racing with the SE boys more often - but we’d love to see you get down to Sebring and run with the FL guys when the schedule takes us there.
Any chance you’ll make it to the June event? It’s always a hot, but fun weekend!
Registration is open now: https://www.nasaproracing.com/event/1116[/quote]

The cage is going in the car in June so I am out for that month, but I am hoping to make it to Sebring in October. I’m still in HPDE though, but I hope some of the FL Spec E30s will be there.[/quote]

We’ll be there and will count on seeing you there too :slight_smile: Hope the cage install goes smoothly for you!

#20

I might be able to make an appearance at the June event. I will be racing at Mid-Ohio the week before, but I don’t see that affecting the Sebring race. Looking forward to possibly meeting some of you.