My S14 powered E30 320iS

[Jeroen]

Just to make a little start on this new section some info on my E30. Not an official ///M car though, it's the 2 litre tax dodger for the Italian and portugese market called 320iS. The chassis is stock E30 but the engine and driveline is 100% ///M. The 2.3 litre S14 engine from the E30 M3 had a different crank, conrods and pistons fitted, for the rest the engine remained pretty much the same. Some minor adjustments made this sweet little 7.300 rpm revver poor out 192 BHP which is an impressive job even 20 years later. Back then it meant reigning the 2 litre touringcar racing class as well!

More info on this special car can be found here and below there's some pictures of my own 320iS from Italy. Nothing new lately, just to make a start on the new ///M forum!

[Jeroen]

Finally took the car out of hibernation and did some work. Always good if you have stuff laying around anyway when the insurance appraisal is coming up. What did I do:

- fitted M-Tech rear view mirror (the one with the lights and with the extension that keeps it from juddering)
- refreshed drivers' seat (usual left bolster damage)
- fitted rear seat with armrest and headrests, and the skibag (removed the headrests again because of limited rear view)

What's left:
- fit oem oil pan protection rack (hope to fit that later this week)

At a later stage I'd like to fit uprated anti roll bars like from Eibach or H&R. Any experiences with these?

[uwbuurman]

Looks like the 320Is' have the same wheel arches as the 325Ix??

Nice car, nice color too!

[TopCat]

Dear Jeroen
I would recommend without hesitation the Hartge suspension set up for the E30- Kevin Bird in England can supply
http://www.birdsauto.com/

I have a 1991 325i Sport to Hartge H26 spec- will try to find some pictures- I have only just started to recomission it after a 5 year layup (I have owned it for 16 years!)
It needs to go through the test again
love the colour of your car

Should we have a Hartge and an Alpina section within the E21 site- like this MPower section?
WDYT

[Jeroen]

Well I'll stick to this setup for the forum for now

What does their suspension include? I now have Bilstein & Eibach whcih works well, I'll just add some bigger sway bars I guess

[TopCat]

It was a whole kit
long time ago when I had it done- 1996!

[Jeroen]

As mentioned in the M5 topic, I've had this car for little over 10 years now, about time for a little tribute and history on the car similar to Raymond's story.

All started in March 2002 when I set out with my friend Steve in his E28 to have a look at an E28 535i that I fancied. Since it was way up north we also checked the internet for a few other possibly interesting cars on the way. Glad we did because when we arrived at the seller of the E28, the car was just sold. On our way back the first potential car on the list was a car advertised as an E30 320i M Power. But with the added info of the car being imported from Italy, there was a tinsy winsy chance of that car actually being a 320iS so we decided to check it out to make sure. At our meeting point a muddy 4-door with very 316i looks pulled up and asked us to follow. Well, that's no 320iS. Until the car pulled away from a traffic light. WTF? Two smiling faces in that E28!

So yes, that silly looking car turned out to be a 320iS with the current owner (Irishman) being the 2nd owner who brought the car with him when he moved from Italy to Holland. He was amazed that after having the car for sale for a few weeks, only a few traders called him to offer him peanuts, no serious interest while he knew the car wasn't just the average E30. It might have been different if he'd advertised the car differently but on the other hand, the 320iS was not as known back then as it is now. Anyway, the car was dirty but no rust or damages, looked pretty clean under the hood as well and a full history was available. A deal was soon made and I took the car with me. Back then it had 177.777 kms, a remarkable sight I had somewhere down the road back home that's why I remember.


First, I started to give the car a thorough cleaning to see what attention the car needed, well the body wasn't asking for any attention! But, it could definitely do with a better suspension and 15" alloys. Picture below was taken after a few weeks of ownership, still on its original 14" bottlecaps!


What I found soon after, is that the car still had all it's original hoses. After having 2 torn coolant hoses I decided to remove the intake and replace every single gasket and hose that was within reach...


Yes, the intake gaskets were replaced as well, injectors were cleaned and after a full throttle synch the car was something else. She wasn't slow to start with, but all this work has given the cars performance a new dimension, amazing! After a brake overhaul and a fresh suspension with new bushes all round, Bilstein shocks and Eibach springs, the car felt ready for some trackdays as well. The car has seen a few and it was wonderful every time! I had some nice days on the tracks at Zolder, Zandvoort and Assen as can be seen below.




I'm sure I have more trackday pics, will do some digging for those! But this is a nice pic taken at the parking field behind the Nordschleife entrance of the Nurburgring.


After a bunch of trackdays I also had several experiences of other drivers messing up, nearly crashing into my car (ok I messed up once or twice as well lol). Reason to decide not to do too many trackdays with it and get an E30 325i for the track action. From that date, I did take the 320iS to the track a few more times, but no more than that. There are other places where the car feels pretty at home as well, with less risk of wrecking a wonderful car. Like... the Alps! Took the car there a few times and forget what they say about S14's being no good there, lacking low rev torque. A fresh and well adjusted 320iS has no trouble outpacing a 325i there, even uphill. Or other fun cars! And behold...








After a few days of Alps, she might look like this...


(was using a blue trunklid for one trip while my own was at the painter's for a respray getting rid of some scratches)

In the meantime, some minor modifications were done to make the car even more to my liking, a larger mod was adding a CF airbox. No major HP gains, perhaps slightly because of a lower intake air temperature, but I did gain some wonderful extra intake noise!


Also decided I wanted to have the original sales brochures. Not easy with a car that was only sold in small numbers in Italy and Portugal, but I managed even though that did require some patience.


Now, 10 years later and at the age of 23, the car still looks and runs like a charm, is free of rust and still performs (revs!) without any hesitation. With over 25.000 kms covered with me behind the wheel, the car has passed the 200K mark on the speedo, but apart from those digits, there's nothing that reminds you of that.

Sometimes I do think about selling her. Not using her that much as there's much less fun in using a car like this to cover your everyday traffic, and perhaps I might consider selling again if I find a sweet E28 M5 or B7 turbo to replace her. But when we go for a drive and especially when taking her to the track or the Alps, after all these years she still brings a smile on my face that's hard to match!

[Jeroen]

Bonus shot

[raymondw]

Hello Jeroen,

A very nice story of a unique car; If I remember correctly, AMS wrote that it performed better in acceleration then an E30 M3 at the time. But the problem with those, as well as an E28 M5 or E28 B7 turbo is that these are too rare and too valuable to be driven appropriate. The 320iS simply fits that gap.

I am also confident that your E30 320iS handles much better in the twisties then an E28 M5 or E28 B7. The E30's suspension and chassis have been designed from scratch, whereas the E28 and E24/1 are based on the E12. Throw in the lower weight and the shorter length of the S14 compared to the straightline sixes and you have a beautifully balanced car that is more capable and sophisticated then any of the sharknoses.

IMHO, the E28 M5 and 320iS share the same philosophy of being a true Q-car. They both are much lighter then their modern succesors and are wolves-in sheeps clothes, but for different purposes. An E28 M5 for fun on the larger B-roads and passes in Switzerland and France (e.g Col de la Bonette) and mind you an E30 320iS for for the Italian passes (e.g Passo di Gavia and the Colle dei Morti).

[Jeroen]

True words, thanks. I better hang on to the car for a little longer then haha. And as has been tested, it's still able to come along, I remember a nice test with Simon in his E34 M5 3.8 trying to get away lol. In the meantime I dream of my next car, I say E28S

[Jeroen]

Let me keep this thread alive as well and give you some info on my plans with the 320iS. Plans for 2012 that is, the car is garaged for the winter now.

In june 2012 I'd like to take the car to another round of the Alps again, combined with a little holiday in the Tuscany region in Italy. The past two years we've taken the E21's to the Alps but the poise and balance of the E30 makes it at least feel twice as fast around the hairpins and twisties so yeah E30 it is!

Tyres
The car is on old tyres now, Michelin Pilot SX-GT's produced in the year 2000 and that you can feel, even on a warm dry day with the tyres warmed up roadholding is poor. With original 15" aloys, nowadays the choice in sporty tyres is poor, I wish I could still get some good Pilot Sports or Bridgestone Potenza's but that's behind us now, these tyres are already becoming rare in 17" now and with the average Toyota Yaris on 17" that's understandable but still sad.

So what good rubber is on the market, where I'd like to stick to having 205/50-15 all round. What I found sofar:
Falken ZIEX ZE-912 is good in the dry but only average in the wet, like with most tyres while that's when you need a little extra
Dunlop SP SPORT 01 seems to be better already
Fulda Carat Progresso seems to be in the same league as the Falken, as well as the Goodyear EAGLE NCT 5 while the Pirelli P6000 is even worse
Toyo T1-R and T1-S we call T1-Redelijk (fair) and T1-Slecht (bad) in Holland
Michelin Pilot Exalto 2 is a very good performer to start with, but they wear like an eraser

Continental PremiumContact 2 still seems to be the best overall performer, where the Toyo R1-R's seems to be real good sporty tyres. Need to check on the qualities in the wet of the latter, but I guess the race is between those two

Other
Some maintenance after 3 years of just fresh oil:
-check on valve clearances
-fresh oil (TWS 10W60)
-bleed brakes
-new spark plugs
-TB vacuum sync

So some nice work lined up for spring already, and looking forward to doing some spirited driving with the car again!

[TopCat]

Retyres
I found these Federal 595RS-Rs exteremely good
http://www.federaltyres.com.au/tyres/

In addition there are a stack of brilliant Yokohamas in this size! eg AO48s
http://www.yokohamatire.com/tires/consumer/competition/

E21 owners are very fortunate in having so many tyres in this size to choose from- we are really limited getting e amarked tyres which are big enough for Camaros running 15 wheels!

The E30 came originally with 205 55 15
I put 225 50 15s on the rear of my E30 Hartge- and upset the balance of the car! Went back to 205 55 15s all round and balance returned

[Jeroen]

Thanks! Sad thing is that in Holland only limited sizes are available. The 595RS's are in 15" only available as 195/50ZR15 82W in Holland which is too small for the E30. If I do a search on the Dutch Yokohame website and search on 205/50-15 I get "no result".

They way I'm using the E30, I feel 55-series tyres are too high, 205/50-15 feels spot on so I'm defo going to stick to those. I need to dig up that old vid where I'm driving the 320iS against a full competition spec 325i that cannot keep up lol, was on the Assen TT track, fun day!

[TopCat]

Surely there is nothing to prevent you ordering the tyres you wish from the UK

The Minshaws (who own Demon Tweeks) are chums of mine- I can pm you Guy's direct line (at DT) to order any of these tyres?
Sea shipping is no problem- we face it all the time in IOM?
There have got to be some advantages of having the EU- or the EEC (as it began)

Other supplier would be :http://www.tyretraders.com/tyresearchre ... reType=All

[Jeroen]

Ok it's worth the try. First, I'll start comparing some test results and include these two as well!