Best way to prep an E30 for racing

I have spent some time searching the threads for info, but most of what I see is people turbocharging the car, which is not an option for me.

Background:

A few of my friends and I want to throw together a relatively cheap car to run in a class race out here in Bahrain. Labor is cheap here and most used cars are pretty cheap and we would be willing to do most of the work, so costs will be kept down. The race is a series open to anyone with a car that meets the following requirements:

2.0L engine or smaller (2.0L gets an air intake restrictor) reboring is allowed to .5mm, but that is probably too expensive and too advanced for shops here
No FI of any kind
Single throttle body engine only
Roll cage only extends thru the firewall to the top of the strut towers
No chassis stiffening allowed besides the rollcage
Stock body panels
If the engine and transmission are swapped, the must come from the same manufacturer as the car (ie BMW engine in a BMW car) and must line up with the stock mounting points
Min weight is 1000kg or 2200 lbs, roughly, ballast is allowed
Cannot be a convertible, although could be a T-top or targa welded in, but that seems like too much work

And the final consideration to be made is that most of the competitors are running Honda's, and have dropped ridiculous amounts of money in them. I know there is one rich guy who basically hired Spoon out of Japan to do his Integra, and he is putting out over 200bhp. We have no aspirations of beating him, but we would like to be competitive, which means that we should be putting out at least 160, min, preferably 180 if possible.

So I was wondering if anyone knows what would be a good combination for this? I was thinking an E30, 4 door, and engine swap for the M50? Cams, possibly headers, exhaust, intake, reflash, what else? Any other suggestions? Should I just avoid BMW? I mean, I would like a RWD car to have fun while driving, and we would probably use this as a fun trackday car as well, so it doesnt have to be running for 1st or 2nd, but middle of the pack would be nice. There is a guy currently running an E30 320i, and apparently he is always dead last, or close to last. There is also an early Z3, but thats not reliable from what I've heard.

Any thoughts? Sorry for the long post.

S2K and call it a day....

hahaha


but on a serious note..... if you rly dont care about winning.... since you probably wont be able to kill that integra.... well just go for it.... fun is fun..

you said it could only be 2.0 liters right?
your going to have to run a 318i or 320i like that other guy had... m50 is out of the question too many liters

your best bet would be a 2002. although i dont know what size motor they have.

and 200bph out of an integra, not impressed. thats simply a CAI, an exhaust and a chip

I thought the early M50's were 2l? Like, really early, first gen of the engine. What was the engine in the E36 320i? Think I can fit that in an E30?

I dont think the 2002 makes enough power, but I'll look again. Any thoughts where I can check out more about the 2002?

Originally Posted by clark192

I thought the early M50's were 2l? Like, really early, first gen of the engine. What was the engine in the E36 320i? Think I can fit that in an E30?

I dont think the 2002 makes enough power, but I'll look again. Any thoughts where I can check out more about the 2002?

you can get M50B20 (2L M50) right the way through. your correct, that's what powers the E36 320i and also powers the E39 520i. both god awful cars but have good engines. the good thing about using that M50B20 is that if/when you get sick of said series, you could swap an M50B28 in using the same wiring.

I agree with downhiller though on the 2002. E30s are light be 2002 is lighter. hell.. do the M50B20 conversion on that! that would give that integra a go! dont let a honda beat you.. thats the ultimate humiliation!

Any ideas about the power that I can get out of a M50B20, while still NA? Is it possible to do a VANOS delete on that engine? Or is that too time consuming / cost prohibitive?

Road racing then?
Investigate the SCCA's spec E30 series and it's participants for good advice and probably good parts sources.

Well, not so much road racing. We can modify the car, so I dont think its quite the same as a spec series. I will definitely check if those guys over at SCCA have any boards, thats a good tip, thanks.

As for the racing, I dont know if you guys follow F1, but Bahrain has its own GP circuit, and its quite fun to run on. The configuration for the races are 2, the shorter, more technical inner loop and the faster, longer outer loop. I hear it pays to have a different final drive for the outer loop cuase the straight is something like 1.0-1.52 km long, I think.

So, any other ideas? Should I ditch the bimmer and go Japanese?

Originally Posted by clark192

So, any other ideas? Should I ditch the bimmer and go Japanese?

with the 2L restriction there isnt alot you can do. are you allowed to turbo?

Driver skill > horsepower

Originally Posted by markseven

Driver skill > horsepower

Yea, I know. But at the end of the day, with such a long straightaway on the track HP is a big factor. Again, I am not looking to squeeze out 240 hp, but it would be nice to be somewhere up by 200, to keep rather towards the top of the pack. I know of a guy who runs a Renault Clio Sport and he was saying he blew over 27,000 USD on the car to race, and hes not even finishing in the top 3. My buddies and I want to keep it relatively cheap for us three, and relatively competitive.

Originally Posted by Ethrty

with the 2L restriction there isnt alot you can do. are you allowed to turbo?

Nope. No charging.

Originally Posted by clark192

Nope. No charging.

Not alot of option then from the BMW stable. M50B20 is probably your best option. most worthwhile BMW engines are >2000cc unfortunately