bmwe21.net forums

Hi all,

Know a few of you, Jacko, kinda know Murran, and think I emailed e21-mark today on ebay about a 316 shell....

Anyway I'll be building my next competition car from an e21 so once I've bought my future tow-car I'll be on the hunt. Don't really want to spend £1k on a minter with T+T since it's going to be murdered anyway, but don't want a rust bucket that'll take me a year to get structurally sound either. So if anybody's got one hiding away let me know in a few months when I actually have some money.

Thought I'd say hi anyway, I'm from Derby. I'll mostly be lurking until I actually get an e21 haha.

Mike

This will be interesting . I've seen you around on DW and it's great to hear you are going to build an E21, do you have any plans you want to share?

I built my E21 with drifting in mind, stripped out, M50B25, custom coilovers, welded diff. I finished about this time last year but things worked against me and I didn't end up drifting it. I hope to have it all caged up and ready to drift towards the end of this year, in the mean time I'll be out in my E32 735i manual. Incase it's of any interest but it's a bit of a boring read, here's my car: http://www.bmwe21.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7756

I have 5 or so E21s for breaking but all of the shells are far too gone, I do have a surplus of bits for reasonable prices

One word of warning with E21s, the driveshafts are weak. Murran has done a few over the years and I did one when launching last year. This seems to be more of an issue with welded diffs and bigger engines...

Welcome here, and feel free to share previous projects as well as plans!

E21 driveshafts are gayer than two men bumming, welcome to the forum. If you wanna twin next year with another e21 with a v8 soundtrack let me know

Ive had loads of BMW's, but won't bore you with past projects. 2x e28's, 2x e30's, 1x e32 and 5x e36's. My most "successful" was my old grey e30 I used in the BDC in 2008. I never really fancied an e21 until recently, as I always saw plasticy 80's bodykits and thin wheels. I now however realise they're just a small 2 door e28 with a less high roof, and I LOVE e28's. Searching brings me to the brown one on stanceworks which is annoyingly almost how mine will look. So visually it'll just be clean lines, no bumpers, only two headlights, skinny 15's up front and wide-as-possible 15's on the back. Really low, revised rear camber. Please note - I'm not on stanceworks I just googled and found that one was on there

It will be my BDC competition car so will have a cage made up and all the gay safety stuff, but mainly will just run a 4-cyl turbo engine, some DIY coilovers, welded diff, hydro handbrake and loads of steering lock. I've got some plans but don't want to share them or any other details just yet, you'll see if/when they become reality though.

As for driveshafts I'm hoping I can butcher some e36 328 shafts on there with a big case e30 diff, or did I hear right that e12 subframes fit with big case diff of awesomeness?

M15KKY, I'll twin with anyone, this car will be at every Buxton event next year even if for some reason I don't get a BDC licence. Come and say hello. This year however I'll just be at the sidelines organising the buxton events and instructing at Oulton events, so hopefully you can wait for your twinning

Wiz0r - i'll no doubt be in touch for your hoard of spares over summer then, as I've got loads of e36 bits but zero e21 bits and only a few e30 bits.

I got a 5 stud conversion kit e12 front hubs and complete e12 rear axle, LSD so you would want another diff to weld up, also got the jigs to make an e28 rear axle fit with the biggest diff and drive shafts you can get in the bmw range.

Rear and front camber easy to do with a bit of fabrication, getting the extra lock will be tricky and a e21 rack is way to slow.

Messing around with loads of axles the other day looks like e36 rear inner cv joints will fit an e21 drive shaft, more modern design so stronger I guess

Got a few other possible drift mods up my sleeve, I take it you know Kyle.

Jason

Yeah Kyle did the cage in my old e30.

I'm not after a 5 stud conversion but will certainly be playing around with the rear subframe. I'll see what makes sense when I get under there, but I think a "big case" e30 or e36 diff will be enough, so will just bodge something in. Would like to use e36 shafts entirely if possible but imagine the track width will be too much. I wouldnt like to start a shopping list of e12 and e28 bits without having a look at the car first, but if I need any bits I'll be sure to give you a shout Jason for some advice. The steering rack thing annoys me a bit with the ratio being long but I'll be just cutting the long-ass steering arm down on the hub and moving the rack forward to prevent going over centre. With shorter steering arms the ratio of the rack won't really be too much of an issue.

I got a potential alternative pas rack option, you just might be the man to trial fit one, e36 drive shafts way to long

What's the option? I think I've still got a nissan rack at my unit so I was thinking I could probably fit that as it has a dead easy output shaft, I think it's a square with a basic square clamp. I don't want to run PAS anyway but a quicker ratio rack would be nice. I don't really like the idea of running a frankenstein car as it normally means it's harder to fix, but if there's a fairly easy option I'll definitely go for it. I'm not scared of the welder

Are e30 325 shafts a better idea then? I don't plan on running standard trailing arms or subframe anyway, but I don't want to run retard arches either so I am semi-limited by track width. You got a figure for the length of the shafts between various cars after your research? I've only got e30, e36 and will obviously have e21 shafts to compare but that doesn't give me many options. You say the e36 CV bearing is similar fitment, does that mean that the splines on all shafts are the same/interchangeable? ie I could fit an e21/30/36 shaft into an e21 diff, or an e21 hub - leaving just the length as the issue?

The E21 shaft itself is unlikely to be the problem, it's the CV joint that blows. So it maybe worth trying E36 CV joints on an E21 shaft? Very interesting. I don't really want to change the track width on my E21 if I can help it and with the welded small case diff in there I'd be tempted to try this...

Ok well that sounds like my other BMW experience then, they seem to snap either on the splined part of the inner/outer drive flange or the cv joint, but that includes e36's. I guess if e21 shafts don't snap then I'll have a go with the e36 joints and go from there. I'll be running approx 250bhp for now but when I get a decent gearbox I'll be running closer to 400bhp. I'm reasonably happy that e36 and e28 big case shafts will take that power but I guess I'll find out about e21 ones haha. I know the small case diff will shit itself though, probably even at 250bhp. I've done a couple of small case diffs with 325 e30's and e36's