BMW E34 in Nordschleife set-up
Discussion
Yes, I'm one of the rare idiots that buy's an E34 and builds it up for track use. This often laughed at model that is seen as heavy,slow,lazy and useless on the track is actually , what I believe to be, one of the best BMW's ever build.
The E34 was a very modern car upon launch back in 1988. It was one of the first car's that had been very thoroughly tested on the Nordschleife as was the car that needed to save BMW from going bust.
I bought an 1991 E34 525i 24V for approx. 1800 Pounds. For UK standards that might be expensive, for Belgian standards, it is reasonable. Reasonable, especially regarding the state it was in. It was mint ! It had always been serviced by the official dealer and the car felt remarkable fresh after doing 235,000 kilometers ( divide number by 1.6 to get miles
). Needless to say the car had the typical E34 issues. These issues are ; Very indirect steering, wobbely bushes,worn bushes, boat-like suspension and old-men's seats.
Isn't she a classy girl.
Center console. It even has the very fancy computerthing that does things 8)
All very cute but it was no where near the way I wanted it to be. I knew it was gonna be a long journey getting this car suited up the way i wanted it to be but luckily I had help from the best E34 M5 driver on the planet, Dick Hoekendijk. A Dutch NS enthousiast why gives driver trainings with his purple E34 M5. Avid Nordschleife visitors must have seen or even spoken with him.
So, what were we going to do with the car?
1) 17'' Wheels
2) M5 stabi's front and rear
3) M5 brakes all around with steel brake wires and Ferodo DS3000 pads. Also new discs up front.
4) Change the most important bushings to Powerflex BLACK ones. Seriously the single most important upgrade to any car when going to visit tracks
5) M5 3.91 LSD rear Diff. Btw, i still have a very rare 3.64 LSD diff for sale
6) Rear M5- subframe since the 3.91 LSD has the big housing and bigger driveshafts.
7) Bilstein B12 suspension kit. For the price ABSOLUTELY briliant. It is such a nice and progressive kit, very lovable indeed.
8) New waterpump
So, i had all these things fitted at my friends at www.offenga.nl This is a small BMW E34 M5 specialist shop that can provide good parts at very good prices.
In the meantime I had some problems with the LSD. It was difficult to find the right one. Eventhough I have 24V car, the E34 has a 12v gearbox and diff. Yes, that gave some problems there the tag on the original diff was damaged and I was to stupid not to calculate the ratio by simply turning and counting the rounds the prop makes compared to the ones the driveshafts make.
Anyway. A lot of testing and stripping further the car started looking something like this.
Just some random crap I took out of the car. Not that the mat lying on the grass weights over more that 10kg ( like about 25pounds ).
After the diet I think I managed to get the weight down to about 1300 / 1350kg's. I think that is fairly good compared that an E30 M3 is not that much lighter, nor is a Z3 MQP.
Since I'm still a very poor student I had a lot of trouble getting decent tyres. My local shop happens to discard a whole lot of used tires so I was more than welcome to look for tires. I started with Dunlop SP 9000 225-45-17 tires. I thought these tires were good. Well, guess again. Whenever it is warmer then 25 degrees the tires turn into slush and i had whole lot of understeer. Hell, put them on the rear axle and you be drifting even when parking your car! They do make for good raintires though. After that adventure I decided to get decent tires. A friend of mine gave me a great deal on a set of Dunlop SP SportMaxx 235-45-17 tires. Oh My God, what a difference. These are the tires I was looking for. Massive grip, both in rain and on try tarmac.
During the time being I noticed that the M50 was getting a bit hot when idling and after a good trashing. Particulary drifting was something he did not like. The water temp. rose quickly and befor you know it you head gasket is gone. So i decided to get an electric fan. I bought one with enough power to suck in small children through the grille. Whenever I'm drifting or drive on the tracks I just keep it running the whole time to make for a even temp under the bonnet. Cooling the enige to hard could also result in a bust headgasket, and I don;t want that.
Also the M50 liked to let you hear the valves do their work. So I changed the Oil and I was very suprised when changing it. The old oil was still gold-ish coloured. I did not expect that. That oil was in there for at least 6000 kilometers. In other words, the engine must still be very clean inside. I had the same luck with my rear LSD diff. When changing the oil the old one was also looking like new.
Since the car was now, after proper reallignment, capable of doing extremely high cornering speeds I needed a decent chair. I bought a second hand Corbeau Racing seat from a friend. It is very light and also extremely wel suited for trac-use. it is both comfortable as well as tight to keep the driver in check behind the wheel.
This is what she looks like now.
The funniest thing is the car's turn-in. It is very tight, point it to where you want to go, and it does that. Note, in order to get an E34 to turn in tightly u are required to tension the steeringbox ( Don't know how you guys call it in english ). Fact is that these boxes get some play on the internals and you need to tighten a special alan key in order to get that dead piont out of the system. Not many people know that but it is one of the most important changes when wanting a tight car. Also, the balance in long fast corners is fenomenal. The car is so well balanced and so easy to steer with the throttle you might think you are driving a modern, small, sportscar.
Drifting, the car just loves doing that. At race track Zolder in Belgium I had a 2 hour rain session and had the best tim fighting the oversteer in third gear. Never experienced that before, doing 75-80 whiles fighting the oversteer. Absolutely thrilling. Driving in the rain sure is my favourite and it still seperates the men from the boys
Yes, it is thirsty
A small video of a very wet Zolder track.
http://vimeo.com/1535424
hence the entry speed of the E34 being significantly higher than those of the other participants. I blame the very good SportMaxx tires, the e34's brilliant balance and perhaps also a bit of my driving skills.
To answer your question ''why not just buy an E34 M5 and save yourselve the hassle?''. Well, M5's are expensive in Belgiu, Taxes are high ( 1000 pounds a year ) not to mention insurance. I'm only 21 and insuring an M5 means i'd be bankrupt. The E34 525i 24v is just right. It is fast enough, the engine is not to heavy so it does not really compromise the turn-in and the car is now properly set up for serious hard driving. Yes, there still is a to-do list as well. I'll tell you guys more about that later.
The E34 was a very modern car upon launch back in 1988. It was one of the first car's that had been very thoroughly tested on the Nordschleife as was the car that needed to save BMW from going bust.
I bought an 1991 E34 525i 24V for approx. 1800 Pounds. For UK standards that might be expensive, for Belgian standards, it is reasonable. Reasonable, especially regarding the state it was in. It was mint ! It had always been serviced by the official dealer and the car felt remarkable fresh after doing 235,000 kilometers ( divide number by 1.6 to get miles
). Needless to say the car had the typical E34 issues. These issues are ; Very indirect steering, wobbely bushes,worn bushes, boat-like suspension and old-men's seats.Isn't she a classy girl.
Center console. It even has the very fancy computerthing that does things 8)
All very cute but it was no where near the way I wanted it to be. I knew it was gonna be a long journey getting this car suited up the way i wanted it to be but luckily I had help from the best E34 M5 driver on the planet, Dick Hoekendijk. A Dutch NS enthousiast why gives driver trainings with his purple E34 M5. Avid Nordschleife visitors must have seen or even spoken with him.
So, what were we going to do with the car?
1) 17'' Wheels
2) M5 stabi's front and rear
3) M5 brakes all around with steel brake wires and Ferodo DS3000 pads. Also new discs up front.
4) Change the most important bushings to Powerflex BLACK ones. Seriously the single most important upgrade to any car when going to visit tracks
5) M5 3.91 LSD rear Diff. Btw, i still have a very rare 3.64 LSD diff for sale
6) Rear M5- subframe since the 3.91 LSD has the big housing and bigger driveshafts.
7) Bilstein B12 suspension kit. For the price ABSOLUTELY briliant. It is such a nice and progressive kit, very lovable indeed.
8) New waterpump
So, i had all these things fitted at my friends at www.offenga.nl This is a small BMW E34 M5 specialist shop that can provide good parts at very good prices.
In the meantime I had some problems with the LSD. It was difficult to find the right one. Eventhough I have 24V car, the E34 has a 12v gearbox and diff. Yes, that gave some problems there the tag on the original diff was damaged and I was to stupid not to calculate the ratio by simply turning and counting the rounds the prop makes compared to the ones the driveshafts make.
Anyway. A lot of testing and stripping further the car started looking something like this.
Just some random crap I took out of the car. Not that the mat lying on the grass weights over more that 10kg ( like about 25pounds ).
After the diet I think I managed to get the weight down to about 1300 / 1350kg's. I think that is fairly good compared that an E30 M3 is not that much lighter, nor is a Z3 MQP.
Since I'm still a very poor student I had a lot of trouble getting decent tyres. My local shop happens to discard a whole lot of used tires so I was more than welcome to look for tires. I started with Dunlop SP 9000 225-45-17 tires. I thought these tires were good. Well, guess again. Whenever it is warmer then 25 degrees the tires turn into slush and i had whole lot of understeer. Hell, put them on the rear axle and you be drifting even when parking your car! They do make for good raintires though. After that adventure I decided to get decent tires. A friend of mine gave me a great deal on a set of Dunlop SP SportMaxx 235-45-17 tires. Oh My God, what a difference. These are the tires I was looking for. Massive grip, both in rain and on try tarmac.
During the time being I noticed that the M50 was getting a bit hot when idling and after a good trashing. Particulary drifting was something he did not like. The water temp. rose quickly and befor you know it you head gasket is gone. So i decided to get an electric fan. I bought one with enough power to suck in small children through the grille. Whenever I'm drifting or drive on the tracks I just keep it running the whole time to make for a even temp under the bonnet. Cooling the enige to hard could also result in a bust headgasket, and I don;t want that.
Also the M50 liked to let you hear the valves do their work. So I changed the Oil and I was very suprised when changing it. The old oil was still gold-ish coloured. I did not expect that. That oil was in there for at least 6000 kilometers. In other words, the engine must still be very clean inside. I had the same luck with my rear LSD diff. When changing the oil the old one was also looking like new.
Since the car was now, after proper reallignment, capable of doing extremely high cornering speeds I needed a decent chair. I bought a second hand Corbeau Racing seat from a friend. It is very light and also extremely wel suited for trac-use. it is both comfortable as well as tight to keep the driver in check behind the wheel.
This is what she looks like now.
The funniest thing is the car's turn-in. It is very tight, point it to where you want to go, and it does that. Note, in order to get an E34 to turn in tightly u are required to tension the steeringbox ( Don't know how you guys call it in english ). Fact is that these boxes get some play on the internals and you need to tighten a special alan key in order to get that dead piont out of the system. Not many people know that but it is one of the most important changes when wanting a tight car. Also, the balance in long fast corners is fenomenal. The car is so well balanced and so easy to steer with the throttle you might think you are driving a modern, small, sportscar.
Drifting, the car just loves doing that. At race track Zolder in Belgium I had a 2 hour rain session and had the best tim fighting the oversteer in third gear. Never experienced that before, doing 75-80 whiles fighting the oversteer. Absolutely thrilling. Driving in the rain sure is my favourite and it still seperates the men from the boys
Yes, it is thirsty
A small video of a very wet Zolder track.
http://vimeo.com/1535424
hence the entry speed of the E34 being significantly higher than those of the other participants. I blame the very good SportMaxx tires, the e34's brilliant balance and perhaps also a bit of my driving skills.
To answer your question ''why not just buy an E34 M5 and save yourselve the hassle?''. Well, M5's are expensive in Belgiu, Taxes are high ( 1000 pounds a year ) not to mention insurance. I'm only 21 and insuring an M5 means i'd be bankrupt. The E34 525i 24v is just right. It is fast enough, the engine is not to heavy so it does not really compromise the turn-in and the car is now properly set up for serious hard driving. Yes, there still is a to-do list as well. I'll tell you guys more about that later.
Interesting to find this thread and rather ironic! I too am about to start an E34 track day project. I pick the car up saturday. Mine is a 540i 6-speed manual with a few modifications done by the previous owner (GTWayne - a regular on here discussing his Z4m Coupe) He has had the following done .......
Vortex supercharger kit - ups the power to about 400 - 410 bhp
6-pot AP front brakes, drilled & vented disks (330mm I think)
Drilled rear disks
Eibach springs
Eibach uprated ARB's
Koni dampers
18" Alpina wheels
Custom made stainless exhaust
Some other bits like stainless braided brake hoses etc.
My plans are ......
Poly bush all round
Stripped interior
Roll cage
Racing seats
Fire system
Track biased tyres
I OP's info on the steering box adjuster looks interesting. I'll need to do some research on that. I'll post up some piccies once I get the car back and sproosed up. (Then I can rip it to bits again )
Paul.B
Vortex supercharger kit - ups the power to about 400 - 410 bhp
6-pot AP front brakes, drilled & vented disks (330mm I think)
Drilled rear disks
Eibach springs
Eibach uprated ARB's
Koni dampers
18" Alpina wheels
Custom made stainless exhaust
Some other bits like stainless braided brake hoses etc.
My plans are ......
Poly bush all round
Stripped interior
Roll cage
Racing seats
Fire system
Track biased tyres
I OP's info on the steering box adjuster looks interesting. I'll need to do some research on that. I'll post up some piccies once I get the car back and sproosed up. (Then I can rip it to bits again
)Paul.B
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