Having fun at Morgan Park
The car has now been sold.
Although this car continues to completely delight me each time I get it out on a track, the way life is working out means I almost never manage to get out with it. In the last twelve months, I've had one track day. It seems pointless keeping it for such limited use and I've now come up with an alternative approach for those rare occasions when I can get to a track day.
So, in the hope that there is somebody out there who might be able to get some fun out of a very nice little car, here is the chance to buy it.
The base car is an E30 318i (build date October 1986) which I have owned for twelve years.
The engine is an almost-new BMW S14 — the 2.3 litre four cylinder twin overhead cam 16-valve motor featured in the original E30 M3 model. It is controlled by a MoTeC M4 ECU. The engine did its first 1,000km as a race motor and then was fully rebuilt according to BMW standards (supervised by Simon Harrex of RX Automotive). Since then, it has done about 8,000km of which approximately 40 per cent were on the local race tracks and the rest in travel between home and the race tracks.
The engine has been meticulously maintained by RX Automotive with frequent changes of Mobil-1, oil filters, coolant, etc., and has only run on Shell Optimax (now V-Power) or Shell V-Power Racing (once that fuel became available).
The gearbox was replaced before the last track day and is in perfect condition. The clutch (from a BMW 528) was recently replaced and the 2002 flywheel was lightened. The diff was replaced by a nice limited slip unit with a 4.27 final drive, which works well on the tracks in reach of Brisbane.
Suspension is adjustable all around and is currently set with 4.5 degrees of negative camber all around, which works well on the track. The rear is pretty standard with the addition of a camber kit and Koni shocks. The front came from one of Justin Wade's race cars and consists of coil-over King springs on Koni gas dampers.
The steering is the standard rack and pinion without power assist.
Front brakes are four piston Skyline calipers on brand new Peugeot rotors. The rear brakes use standard calipers on EBC rotors. The pads are track-oriented units from Race Brakes. There are approved braided brake lines all round. The master cylinder is a slightly larger bore to handle the larger calipers.
The exhaust system went through several iterations before the current setup. It now runs ceramic-coated extractors made by Exotic Exhausts which have proved excellent. They feed dual 2.5 inch pipes through dual catalytic converters into a two-in two-out stainless steel muffler. It's noisy but sounds very nice.
The car comes with two sets of 16x7 inch alloy wheels. One set has barely used Michelin road tyres for transport runs. The track wheels have Dunlop D01J track tyres with about three or four more track days left in them.
The driver's seat is a lightweight race seat fitted to the BMW seat rails for adjustment. The front passenger seat is standard. The rear seat is not normally used (but can be supplied if required).
The standard seat belts are fitted, but there is also a five-point race harness for the driver. The combination of race seat and harness makes a big difference in track times.
The steering wheel is by Momo and the gear lever is now a "short shift" unit.
The original compliance plate is fitted, together with an engineering modification plate for those modifications that require it.
The car looks as shown in the action picture at the top of the page. It has sadly faded Zinnover Red paint and a very small ding at the front edge of the left hand front guard (visible in the photo). The rest of the body is straight and sound. The intake visible below the front number plate is for air flow to the engline oil cooler.
I've spent about $50k to get it where it is. Shannons have valued it at a fixed $23k. Its market value is obviously what somebody is willing to pay.
The deal is this: the first person who offers a sensible amount of cash gets to buy it — I'm not going to hang on waiting for somebody else to offer a few dollars more.
Because I just want to get it sold without hassles, the car is for sale as is and without registration or safety certificate (although it is currently registered, driven on the road, and believed to be fully street legal). I'm happy to deliver it anywhere in south east Queensland for free. Purchasers from further away will have to factor in transport costs.
If you want some unbiased opinions about the car, you might like to contact Simon Harrex at RX Automotive, Unit 5, 30 Lensworth St, Coopers Plains. Simon has handled all the maintenance and repairs once the original engine transplant job was completed, so he has a good understanding of the car. He has also driven it in anger on several race tracks, so he can provide a race driver's view of its performance and behaviour.