Will's long term search for an E30 M3

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The Dark Side of Will
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Will's long term search for an E30 M3

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

So I think I have Bad Idea figured out. I'll get the car together and have 400 ponies in a sub-3000# AWD car with gears tall enough to turn under 2500 at 80. Sweet.
However, the practical max tire size on the AWD E30's is 225. The max width offset requirements are different front to rear. Most people get four wheels with the same offset, which limits the car to about 8" wide wheels and 225 tires. I might be able to go 8.5" with different offsets front and rear. Because of the transfer case mechanism, it needs the same size tires at all four corners.
I have not done the diligence to figure out what the rear limit wheel/tire fitment is myself.
Since the E30 community is still afflicted with the poke and stretch aspect of Stance, j0! (I shit you not, I've read build threads in which somebody puts 225 tires on 10" wheels. Crack heads.) it's hard to find out what the actual limit fitment on the rear is with a realistic relationship between wheel and tire width.
I suspect that if I use different offsets front to rear, I can go *maybe* to 8.5" and maybe 235's. Dunno.

Options:
A)
Bad Idea is a late body, which means the rear wheel arches are slightly lower than they are on the early rear quarters. My right rear quarter has been dinged and has a poor quality repair on it, with cracking body filler starting to show. Since that needs to be repaired, I could just swap to early quarters with the higher arches. BMW didn't bring early body iX's to the US, but they built them in Europe. Thus the iX specific urethane fender "flares" to fit the early quarters are available for order from BMW.
Because the arches are higher, and the semi-trailing arm rear suspension has a lot of camber gain, the early quarters allow wider wheels/tires than the later ones, basically because they end up with a wider fender gap at the same chassis ride height. This means there's more suspension compression distance over which the suspension can pull the top of the tire inboard and still clear the fender.

It also ends up looking like a 4x4.

On the front I'd go with a pair of aftermarket M3 style fiberglass fenders with flares appropriate for the size wheels/tires that the early quarters would allow me to run.

So after a lot of work, the car ends up as a hodge podge of body parts without a significant increase in resale value.

B)
Use aftermarket bolt on urethane fender flares.
I'm not a fan of these. They require cutting the quarters and the fenders, which I don't like. AND they scream I'M RACING! GIVE ME A TICKET!
They also don't increase resale.

C)
Eventually move everything into an M3 Body.
Kinda like this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/162476105667
$15k seems steep for a non-running rust bucket with a broken engine and salvage title, but the market for these cars is FUCKING INSANE.
If I could sell the original engine and trans for $5k, I'd be at $10k net, which is about where expect I can be for an engine-less hooptie rust bucket, but I'd really like an engine-less hooptie rust bucket with a clean title. There must be one out there.
I can also sell off the M3 suspension & wheels, since I'll be going either Z3M rear or E36/E46 M3 rear with E30 AWD front. I don't know if that could be me down to a net $5k or $6k in the remaining body or not.

I've heard I can go as wide as 10" on the rear wheels and may be able to fit short 275's or 285's. On the front I can use fiberglass +1" or +2" fenders to fit whatever offset I need to pack that much width on the AWD front struts.
The resulting combo would still be a 400 HP <3000# AWD car, but it would have the TRACTION and GRIP for be a lot more terrifying on the street. If I can get the handling to balance out enough that it doesn't kill front tires, it might even be a good One Lap of America car.
It would also have hella more resale than putting a lot of work into Bad Idea's body.
I guess Bad Idea's drivetrain in an M3 body would be... Worse Idea.
I could then build a Franken Getrag 260 and drop an S54 into Bad Idea :roll: :wink:

But anyway... if anyone catches wind of an E30 M3 shell (rolling or not, rusty or not) with a clean title, I'm putting out feelers.
The Dark Side of Will
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Re: Will's long term search for an E30 M3

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

$25k for a car that's been hit and needs a clutch?
How insane is this market? We'll see.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222531655468

If the title hasn't been branded yet, then it might be interesting.

ETA: Looked more closely and it does mention that the title is branded Rebuilt/Rebuildable/Reconstructed.
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Emc209i
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Re: Will's long term search for an E30 M3

Post by Emc209i »

You don't have anything better to throw $25k at.....?


............. (lots of periods for emphasis).


Seriosly dude.....
The Dark Side of Will
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Re: Will's long term search for an E30 M3

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

I certainly do... that's why I'm maintaining my pipe dream of finding a basket case shell for $10k.
The Dark Side of Will
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Re: Will's long term search for an E30 M3

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

Clean title, extra parts, not perfect paint, mileage is pretty high... $22k right now, but may go to $40k.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/292144221696
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