Hi, My name is Mark and I've been lurking around here for a couple of months now. I have a friend who has been bitten by the rally bug and is now building his first Rally car up out of a 1985-1988? BMW E30 (325is) and is interested in suspension for his car. I am wondering if JVAB has something for this car, as I haven't seen much listed for this model car in gravel spec suspension.

Thanks,
Mark Bullock
Plan B Racing

John what was the bmw stuff you just did for? They look good

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TSSFAB.US No HYPE just parts!!!! And check us out on Facebook!!!

gpbullock Wrote:
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> Hi, My name is Mark and I've been lurking around
> here for a couple of months now. I have a friend
> who has been bitten by the rally bug and is now
> building his first Rally car up out of a
> 1985-1988? BMW E30 (325is) and is interested in
> suspension for his car. I am wondering if JVAB has
> something for this car, as I haven't seen much
> listed for this model car in gravel spec
> suspension.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark Bullock
> Plan B Racing


Hi Mark, just sent last week some nice upside down 40mm struts and coiulovers for the PNWs rad-est 2002.

And JUST got off the phone about doing a stronger bottom plate for their adjustable camber plate.

We were fortunate that they had some of now rather rare 2002 Tii front spindles with the "big" spindles. (Oddly enough the "big" bearings were the same diameter as the AE86 set I just finished for 'my cousin' Jason Lawson down in Jamaica.

If I could upload to my web site I could show you the '02 stuff, but shoot me an email and I'll send you details.

Much as some silly people think, I'm not anti BMW, I just worry about the the sizes of the components like the ball joints, the bearings, the thickness of the metal wher the control arms bolt up but that's pretty easy to cure now that we have William just above ^ who can plasma cut doubler plates.

Let's talk as much as we can here cause I'd like to look at the E30 closer so we can see what we can do to make it gravel suitable. (like what is stock suspension travel, what is the limit to any increas in travel...)

What motor you guys thinking of?

janvanvurpa at F4 doooot CA

or 206 431 9696

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I believe the motor is a 2.6 ltr. V6. Redlines at 6-6500 NA. Has a factory LSD, RWD which is nice, not to short or too long a wheel base. Looks like it could be a decent little rally car. Also, there were thousands produced so parts are everywhere. Suspension travel looks to be around 4+ inches, give or take. Honestly haven't looked too hard at it yet. He belongs to a BMW forum so I asked him to get as much information as possible from the other BMW gearheads so we can address your questions. I'm just glad he got his own car instead of having to use my Crown Vic cop car/shop car to run our rally course on.

gpbullock Wrote:
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> I believe the motor is a 2.6 ltr. V6.

V6?????
Really?
I thunk them thar thang were famous for their inline 6s.

Wonder what the largest 4cylider in line could be?


Redlines at
> 6-6500 NA.

No!! That's was lame, must be an inline, they have long ropey cranks, long taffy like blocks.
Seriously 4s have some major srtrength advantages just cause they're shorter.


Has a factory LSD, RWD which is nice,
> not to short or too long a wheel base.

Only problem is getting a ring and pinion ratio short enough to be an advantage. Many of those E30s are geared for "gerade aus, immer gerade aus ganze tage!!!"
Ya know?



Looks like
> it could be a decent little rally car.

On paper they look pretty good.

Also, there
> were thousands produced so parts are everywhere.
> Suspension travel looks to be around 4+ inches,
> give or take.

I will bet right here, put my skillsa t guessing on the line and venture 160mm travel front and maybe just under 7.75" rear.

Honestly haven't looked too hard at
> it yet. He belongs to a BMW forum so I asked him
> to get as much information as possible from the
> other BMW gearheads so we can address your
> questions. I'm just glad he got his own car
> instead of having to use my Crown Vic cop car/shop
> car to run our rally course on.

Hey crawl under and start taking photos of all the suspension stuff i mentioned from all sorts of angles. Post it all up here.

Lets do this!

And find out about big 4s

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Just got my JVABs and are lookin good. Havent mounted them yet as i will opt for the subaru mounts and havent been to a junk yard yet!
Cant wait to test em but i have more important things in life these days.

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rally gods would turn in their graves if they ever knew Lada's were now part of EU rallying!!!

My bad, it is inline 6. I found a list of specs on the E30. It is the 325is, 2.5 ltr. inline 6, 6200 redline. I'll take photos and post them here. Here is the spec. list.

http://e30world.com/specifications/BMW-E30-specs-table

turoc Wrote:
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> i have more important
> things in life these days.


Impossible

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Matt Smith

Racing in glorious black and red

My daily life is a Saab story (sold!)

gpbullock Wrote:
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> My bad, it is inline 6. I found a list of specs on
> the E30. It is the 325is, 2.5 ltr. inline 6, 6200
> redline. I'll take photos and post them here. Here
> is the spec. list.
>
>
Yeah that'sd what I stunk.
And therein is the problem of self made type that I think a wise person would work to find a simpler and better solution for.
Inline sixes are Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.
And that means Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong crankshafts and
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong blocks, not to mention
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong cylinder heads.

And remember 6 pistons cost 50% more than 4

See why I'm wondering what suitable compact stiff, rigid 4 cylnder motor could be pressed into service to make the car be cheaper AND handle better?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

The SOHC 4 is 89 x 71.
The DOHC 4 is 84 x 81.

While bearing sizes and bore spacing are not given for the 4's, a quick calculation shows the DOHC crank in the the SOHC block makes for 2015.6 cc.

SOHC valves are 46/38, which is larger than the valves in Volvo's 2.3L motor.

Sounds like you could build a bitchin little 2.0L motor there.

---

Monika Hawkinson
Seattle, WA

Sofa King Wrote:
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> The SOHC 4 is 89 x 71.
> The DOHC 4 is 84 x 81.
>
> While bearing sizes and bore spacing are not given
> for the 4's, a quick calculation shows the DOHC
> crank in the the SOHC block makes for 2015.6 cc.

If it'd go.
>
> SOHC valves are 46/38, which is larger than the
> valves in Volvo's 2.3L motor.
>
> Sounds like you could build a bitchin little 2.0L
> motor there.

AAAAAHhh! But! the potential for power is pretty much the total valve area and there the 16v has 1709 sq mm and the 8v has a paltry, negligible 1661!!! HA!

And knowing what 2v BMW heads have looked like for centuries----a shallow, vaguely wide open chamber, little squish pads if any, hard to make any compression without huge domes, then having torn down a 16v 4 BMW just to see the innards, well I'd have to say the 16v wins on flow efficiency AND thermal efficiency with its nice little compact chamber which would tolerate pretty high comp above the stock 10:1 and make some good pop which starts with P and that rhymes with T and that stands for TORQUE.

There then, it's decided a 4 cylinder 16v it is then, whaddya stink?
>
> Kevin Hawkinson
> Seattle, WA
> 83 Volvo 240 Gp5 (in progress)
> 34-ish

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Well, an engine swap sounds good, however, it's not my car, so I can't speak for the owner. That said, one potential problem is that we live in the communist state of California where engine swaps are looked down on due to anit-smog laws and an oppresive DMV. Due to the necessity of keeping the car street legal an engine swap option might not work.

gpbullock Wrote:
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> Well, an engine swap sounds good, however, it's
> not my car, so I can't speak for the owner. That
> said, one potential problem is that we live in the
> communist state of California where engine swaps
> are looked down on due to anit-smog laws and an
> oppresive DMV. Due to the necessity of keeping the
> car street legal an engine swap option might not
> work.


Now this IS RallyAnarchy and we don't care about language and propriety but calling California "Communist" when your Government is merely repressive does damage to
the language, and is thus an affront to all our sensibilities.

I should point out that even in the "Bad Ol' Days" in the East Bloc that there were flourishing rally scenes in all the Communist countries with HUNDREDS of entries.
Old Leningrad Region events could top 300 entries. Poland had European Championship level drivers that grew out of their home series, Czechslovakia had the amazing Skoda works team which won RAC 1.3 class something like 15 times and was often into the top 10 even in the GpB days.
This was mirrored in the sport I did professionally: motocross which saw for 2 decades numerous Russian winning World Championships in both 250 and 500 class, as well as piles of Czechs in the top 10 on the great Czech made bike CZ. And let's not forget 2 time World Champion Paul Friedrichs from East Germany in the 500 class on CZ.
In the Communist regimes, motorsports were not just encouraged, but the costs and training were heavily subsidised by the Government thru the mechanism of the Local Motorclubs.
Local urban and rural clubs received grants of land, loan of heavy machinery and workers to build their tracks and training facilities, liberal work leave to do the sport and do training camps at specialised facilities, in Russia near Odessa on the California like Black Sea coast so guys could train in the Winter, and on and on.

In terms of Rally or Motorsport, you should be so lucky to have a welcomed, legitimate sport encouraged by the local and regional and central government.

You do not see that sort of support in the West, particularly when the population and government is strongly Authoritarian as is the case in California.

"Tavarich" John "Ivan" Vanlandingham

PS you might note that my willingness to share knowledge and assistance was reinforced and developed in a motorsport environment essentially similar to the system described above where I saw it was clear that FAR MORE could be accomplished by indiviuduals working together, collectively, by combining talents and skills sorta like that old phrase "From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.
Far more than the model we see here where everything is supposedly done all by one individual.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

No offense to communists everywhere. I could have said "facist," but then I wouldn't want them to feel like I was attacking them. Oppressive just doesn't seem to convey to totality of the institutionalized control that CA. has wielded over it's citizenry.

gpbullock Wrote:
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> No offense to communists everywhere. I could have
> said "fascist," but then I wouldn't want them to
> feel like I was attacking them.

Fuck fascists.
The whole country is edging far too close to the interlocking Government/industry/military and far too jingoistic, faux "patriotic", and too much "religiosity" (with none of the attendant moral injunctions to treat others as you would be treated) which combined was the key features of the Fascist regimes.

Oppressive just
> doesn't seem to convey to totality of the
> institutionalized control that CA. has wielded
> over it's citizenry.
Agreed, particularly regarding motorvehicles which clearly a huge majority want to play with, but the overiding tendancy for obedience rules too many people's lives, and despite rampant disobedience to the laws on cars, nobody is organised enough to COLLECTIVELY fight the State.

I cannot begin to understand why anybody would live there.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.