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Alpine e30 progress/build thread


m42b32

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5 minutes ago, Jdesign said:

Really dig that voltmeter, sucks it took so long to get. 

Yeah its a nice place to put one, that way you don't need to waste a spot for a proper gauge. It sounded like the seller had something come up and got behind, seems like he is back on track now so it wouldn't stop me from ordering again. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

RS's are now mounted (Thanks Andy/Kummrow!) and the width and offset are spot on. I can't run the center caps because the studs I currently have are too long, but for now I don't mind the look. I'm going to clean it up today after work and will get some pictures up soon! I like the Weds better but the offset in the front was going to trash my fenders if I went any lower/cornered hard enough...

Speaking of cornering, I registered for my first first autocross (WAI event #4 at Miller Park) on Sunday! 

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Cleaned up the car:

36683416722_c305c17129_b.jpg

 

And then immediately got it dirty again:

36045417403_59810bb888_b.jpg

 

Pretty much the most fun I've ever had in this car and I can't wait to do it again! Really need an LSD back in this as I was peg-legging it coming out of a number of the corners, so I'll be throwing in a small case 4.10 lsd for the time being. Other than that, it handled everything really well with no real mechanical issues and took everything I could throw at it! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I did a z3 antenna swap a while back and never got a stubby antenna, then I found out BMW makes a 'sport' stubby antenna for the z3/z4/etc and my inner (and a lot of times outer) OEM BMW nerd had to have it. It looks nice, and now I can get more radio stations! 

36800789010_ef32860662_c.jpg

 

More importantly, collecting swap parts is going well. Still looking for a few large items (including a motor...) but I am setting the goal of having a running car for the 2018 picnic again this year. We'll see how that goes 

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59 minutes ago, m42b32 said:

I did a z3 antenna swap a while back and never got a stubby antenna, then I found out BMW makes a 'sport' stubby antenna for the z3/z4/etc and my inner (and a lot of times outer) OEM BMW nerd had to have it. It looks nice, and now I can get more radio stations! 

 

 

More importantly, collecting swap parts is going well. Still looking for a few large items (including a motor...) but I am setting the goal of having a running car for the 2018 picnic again this year. We'll see how that goes 

part number/s?

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Had a blast at the Road America autocross today. Did some experimenting with tire pressures to get more grip and see how it affects the handling, smoothed out my driving a bit over the 8 runs too. Getting faster! The car handled it really well and ran great/cool all day, despite it being hot as hell

37269238152_47854fc63a_b.jpg

 

 

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1 hour ago, patsbimmer1 said:

A co-worker of mine was up there with her son in his mk6 GTI running in SMF.  She was telling me about it this morning and I mentioned you were there and showed her your car and she said "Ohhh I saw that one!  It was such a cute car!"  So you've got that going for you lol.

My mom calls it cute too, I count it as a compliment haha

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  • 2 weeks later...

23729366638_bf14531e7f_b.jpg

 

Finally all moved into the new garage and organized enough to be somewhat functional. Less space overall but the floor is level, the roof doesn't leak, and most importantly it's a lot cheaper. Finally turned my focus back to the car: I've been running Vogtland lowering springs and the rears were too soft and the front sat too high for my liking. Got my hands on a set of IE3's and started swapping them in over the weekend, rears are done and I should have the fronts in tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing the differences at the USAIR autocross next weekend

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7 minutes ago, Snap said:

When do the extra valves and cylinders start happening?

I'll start tearing things apart as soon as it gets put away for the year, probably in a few weeks. Its been too nice to take it off the road just yet! In the mean time I'm going to get started on cleaning things up so I don't have to do it later

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All the new springs are in! 

 

I'm not a huge fan of the springs being shorter than the fully extended length of the struts, but I figure as long as I don't drive like I'm in Dukes of Hazard it'll be fine. The front sits a little bit lower but it didn't come down enough to totally get rid of the reverse rake look, so I'm going to keep my eyes out for a set of stock spring camber plates that drop the car another 10-12mm. On the bright side, the ride is way stiffer so I'm really looking forward to testing these out this weekend!

 

I also got rid of the strut brace because it was rubbing on the intake pretty bad, it'll go back on once the m42 isn't in the way. It'll be interesting to see if the handling is affected at all, but it'll probably go unnoticed compared to the stiffer springs 

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44 minutes ago, Jdesign said:

You know... a larger engine would fix this B)

This is true.... I'll probably wait till the new engine is in to do any camber plate swapping. The M54B30 should be minimally different with regards to total weight, but the CG should be farther forward over the axle so it may make the difference I'm looking for. 

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