Me again,

Just our of interest, has anyone out there used an e30 as a donor? I suppose the pitfalls would be engine size/weight? What about the difference in the length/width of the chassis? Would it be a case of stripping one down and making chassis modifications on the fly?

It would be good to listen to some of your experiences before thinking about buying an e30 donor,

Ross

As far as I can see the only real problem would be to get the engine in as they go on the slant. Maybe make the chassis 2" wider?

The problem isn't just the width but the length as well. The 1.6 & 1.8 are both 4 pots but 2litre and upwards they are straight six's then from 4litre onwards you have some nice big V8's to play with.
The most common would be the 2 litre straight six, most people who have discussed this issue in the past feel that you would have to go with the McSorley 442 plans (4"wider,4"longer and 2" taller than standard book).
It is a heavy engine but there is plenty of power and an M3 engine would be very quick.
GTS were planning on developing a BMW based car but i don't know what progress has been made.
Cheers.

Shouldn't be too much heavier for a bigger BMW engine than a pinto - remember that BMW have been pioneers of engineering for cars for a long time - not sure, but chances are alloy components will be the order of the day throughout.

we had a viento in a few weeks ago that had a m3 engine in, the chap had to dry sump it to get it to fit below the bonnet and even then he had very little ground clearance, the amount of wires needed to run it was mind boggling, sounded good though, didnt drive it as it was set up for him at 6'6
forgot to add
he used the sierra diff and didnt seem to have any problems

best regards

marc

Personally i wouldn't want all that power going through a sierra diff, i would try to get the one out of the M3 i got the engine from.
Marlin use them in their roadster, their demo car was/is an M3 jobbie.

Height is the normal problem with the BWM engines - very tall with not a lot to play with when it comes to sump mods

Cheers

Peter

Cheers for the replies guys, I had a quick look on the web for the Mcsorley plans and found his website. It is great, and even describes how to put together a custom chassis, step by step....

http://mcsorley.net/locost/

Thanks again, now I just need to decide between an e30 or MEC.

Ross