RE: Driven: Gama E30 V8-S

[5678]

Garlick said:

5678 said:

I'd love to see how that breaks down.

Not too often for that price one would hope.

buh dum tish!

[Garlick]

5678 said:

Garlick said:

5678 said:

I'd love to see how that breaks down.

Not too often for that price one would hope.

buh dum tish!

[P4ROT]

Wheels and exhaust ruin it for me...

[anonymous-user]

So in summary:

1) it's an old knackered car (with dodgy electrics)
2) the brakes are borderline dangerous as they havent been designed properly
3) the ride and handling are a bit iffy
4) it's got some grip, but mainly becuase it's on tripple8's
5) it's got 315bhp, but no data to back this up, (same regarding vehicle performance "estimates")

BUT on the otherhand, it's got a V8 in it.............


Is it me, or does this car seem to get a bit too much attention for something that looks like it isn't really finished yet?? If you want a "sorted" V8 bm, then can i point you in the direction of an E39 M5, and on that one, you probably will get most of your money back when you come to sell it ;-)

[RockyBalboa]

So an old E30 with an M60 V8 engine for 8k?

I'll do it for 5k

[Johnpidge]

315bhp in 1000kg's = brown trousers

[Petrolhead_Rich]

Johnpidge said:

315bhp in 1000kg's with crap brakes= brown trousers

EFA!

I'd still have a go

[annodomini2]

M666 EVO said:

I like this sort of thing. A mate of mine years ago put a Rover V8 in an old Capri 1.6S shell, I've heard of people putting Metro Turbo engines into Mini's (the proper one) and the obvious Cosworth lump in mk2 Scorts...

Wish I had a spare 8k to get one of these. Be even better if they could do a convertible version. Either way, good work fellas.

The mini was actually done as a small volume production run, called the ERA Turbo.

[detomaso]

redgriff500 said:

To drop a used (try finding one, let alone 50 below 100k) BMW V8 in I'd expect a sub £4k price tag really.

I wondered this too, they aren't exactly common...

While they say they haven't had the time to get the brakes or wiper sorted, why open it up for review? It was in Retro Cars a couple of issues back and they said pretty much the same thing - two months passed and the car is still the same? If I was interested in something like this I'd prefer the company demo car to be representative of what the finished item would be like, not imagine it with better brakes, stuff that works, blah blah

[E36GUY]

way too pricey. I'd want suspension, brakes and the conversion for £8k which should be realistic.

[Mooster]

BMW 318i - £400
V8 engine conversion - £8000
Exiting this mortal coil in an oversteering cloud of brake dust and smoking 888's - Priceless



ETA - 8k is overpriced IMO

Edited by Mooster on Wednesday 17th November 13:09

[braddo]

As was mentioned in the first Gama thread, £5k is a typical conversion cost (i.e. just the labour) for dropping a Chevy LS into something like a RX7, so £8k for a turnkey conversion doesn't seem unreasonable.

Somewhere around 300hp/ton in a nice compact saloon - yes please.

[soad]

Wish it was a coupe. But fantatic engine all the same!

[Ne0]

Odd choice to put an M60 in it, especially for 8k! As has been said an S62 fits....in fact an S50 would probably have been better given that it's much lighter and is a more powerful engine.

[Cotty]

soad said:

Wish it was a coupe.

Wish it was in my touring

[typezerora]

Some nice E30's out there, like this guys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0rrNx-Jszg&fea...

I love the idea of the V8 as well

[Dagnut]

The real Apache said:

Dagnut said:

Pity about the brakes and the wipers etc, I know these are easily fixed, but unfortunately it gives the impression of an backyard set up rather than pro tuners. 8 grand is a lot of money.

Hang on Daggers, he did say it was the first one and admitted it was a bit of a learn as you go process. I'd imagine the production cars will be fully sorted. This is just what I'm looking for personally

If it was my business I would of waited until it was spot on before calling the press, first impressions. I appreciate the car don't get me wrong, but a couple of weeks a even set of 4 pot brembos off an STI/EVO (get a set for 500 quid)and a bit of time fixing the niggles wouldn't have gone a miss.

[Boggy]

Johnpidge said:

315bhp in 1000kg's = brown trousers

All the Honda'd SC Elise make around 330 bhp min, they are around 900 kg

Very Very quick cars,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpsfhOACVOk&fea...

This one's a bit of a handful

Boggy

[anonymous-user]

Zircon said:

Dagnut said:

Pity about the brakes and the wipers etc, I know these are easily fixed, but unfortunately it gives the impression of an backyard set up rather than pro tuners. 8 grand is a lot of money.

Totally agree. If you were charging £8k ( a hell of a lot of money - decent Chimaera purchase price) for effectively: a new engine, a bit of suspension and some slightly higher spec brakes on such an old, not yet established classic car, I would have been a bit more careful if i were Gama before waving their flag as a business.

1/ Do the work on the 2 door - they are infinitely more appealing in terms of appearance and desirability

2/ Brakes equal to the cars speed ability are just as important as the engine conversion

3/ Fix the small things like wipers before using the car as a demonstrator - shows that you care about the small details.

I love the idea though, I just feel that this is far too much money for what you get. I would take the £8k and buy a hand made v8 TVR in the first place.......

8K is not that much for an engine swap of this type. As for 'investing' 8K in a TVR what do you really get for your money? Average build, an old V8, interesting handling and reliability depending on the time of day it was built!!

[RudeDog]

Ridiculous