Category: e30 project

styling

I’ve always pulled a lot of my styling ideas for my personal cars from other makes and styles. I don’t like to surf any one particular forum for ideas. I feel like the reason why you see a lot of similarly modded cars on the same forums is because that is all people ever look at. If they know A + B is the combo to set up their ride then why take a harder road? My personal style is function always following the looks of the vehicle. Now that doesn’t mean it will be the fastest around the track or have Rcomp tires on it 24/7, but I always set my rides up so that I can hop in them at anytime without worry. My newest project the E90 is a great example. I stretched the tires and have the wheels millimeters away from the fender lip, but at the same time the car rides excellent and doesn’t rub no matter what happens. To me a car is not complete if it only looks a certain way. Making it perform (whether that just be driving on the highway without issue) is just as important. I don’t mind a dedicated car (for performance or looks) either, but for myself I need my cars to be used on or off the track and parked or doing 80. I’ve always liked old school Toyota’s that are drift inspired. They typically look good and are meant to be used also. I feel like you get a bit of that influence by looking at my E30 drift/street car.

e30front

spaced out

I finally got around to ordering longer studs so I could replace the 10mm rear spacers with 20mm. The fitment now matches the front nicely and the car sits pretty good. I am eventually going to switch out the entire suspension setup for something a little stiffer and better for going low without bottoming out.

wheel

wheel3

wheel4

stretched

I picked up some new and cheap rear tires for drifting fun for the E30. I go through tires alot so keeping it cheap and fun is perfect for what the E30 does. I went with 195/55/15 to go on the 15×10 so it would match the stretch that the 185/55/15 has on the front 15×9 wheels. The tires come in at about 10-20 bucks cheaper a tire than the 205/55/15 I ran previous. I will be spacing the rear wheels out another 10mm to even things out also.

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the life of a grippy

As always I am going to keep you guys posted on what’s going on over here. It’s been busy lately so my updates have been more spread out, but I figured I put a few things together real quick. I recently took on a 4 month old puppy which takes a chunk of your time in itself. He’s learned so much already, and has turned out to be an awesome dog. His name is Max.

The car stuff will always be my passion. Once the E30 got messed up a bit from my travels up to the Bay Area I figured it was time to just fix it for now and park it. Take it off of daily driver duties and keep it for special purposes.

I quickly ordered up stuff when I got my Fiat 500 to get it low and looking good. There was a few things I didn’t know about the car when getting it. It’s not the easiest vehicle to get low, and then it’s difficult to drive at any height that would be considered that. The rear is a solid beam setup which runs out of travel very quickly, and the front of the cars subframe sits extremely low even at moderate heights. If you want to tuck tire you will certainly lay frame on nearly flat ground. The BC coilovers I ordered have been great, but I felt there was a few things they could improve on. I think they set the suspension up to be safe still at maximum dropped levels, but for guys like myself sometimes you just want to turn down the coilovers to an unreasonable height for a meet or show. The length of the front coilover spring and collar adjustability leaves you wanting a little more. I ordered some new shorter front coilover springs which are just slightly uprated. I wanted to do the same for the rear, but the awkward spring size is making it nearly impossible without spending a ton to have something manufactured. For now I’ll just have to play with the rear collars like I did before.

I decided if I lightened the duties of my E30 I would need something fun but cheap with some potential. I’ve always wanted to mess around with a Cressida. I found a great price on one so I grabbed it before it was too late. It’s turned out to be a good running car so far. It is definitely a beater in the strongest sense. There isn’t hardly a panel, switch, lock, handle, or speaker that hasn’t been destroyed. The paint is faded, but the body is straight. The motor and trans seem to be smooth so that’s good enough for me. I’ll be able to get this sitting low and somewhat fitted on the cheap, and that’s the only real plans for it now.

killin it

This last weekend was an awesome trip up to the Bay Area for Hellaflush/Word Up drifting at the Vallejo Fairgrounds. I went up with a good friend from San Diego, and we met the rest of our WFC friends there in Norcal. The weekend went very good, but there was a little mishap. I happened to fold my wheel over and pop the tire while drifting. I hit this one in a million little pothole while completely sideways and mid-corner. I had my helmet on so I thought my car just bottomed out and spun. I kept on drifting and felt that something was really off about the feel of the car. I get back to the pits and see that my wheel and tire are toast. Luckily my 21 year old spare still holds air so I was able to throw that on and get back on the road the next day to Los Angeles. I thought everything was going nicely until I was about 45 minutes from home. There was some strange rotational noise that started, and then a loud thud and bang. The car was still driving ok after that so I figured getting back home was better than pulling over and risk getting hit or something at night on the busy highway. Turns out one of my axles blew and my rear diff took a dump.

Yeah that’s me drifting on no tire haha!

Not bad for hitting a pothole and getting slid on around the rest of the track.

The leaking diff, blown axle, and blown mount which you can’t really see.

smashed up

It was a sad day for Grippy’s Garage. The E30 got smashed into by a lady not paying attention in a parking lot. The door is toast. Luckily there is nothing else damaged. The hard part is sourcing a door since they don’t make them anymore. I’ll need to get it painted, and I’ll fit it on myself like I did the other side when I got the car. Projects never end whether you like it or not.


Recaro x Sparco

I finally got the passenger seat in after having it for over a year. I was waiting to get a fixed position driver’s seat first. I wound up with a Sparco and a Recaro, and I totally love it. I also had a clean black suede dash mat made for the car to cover up all the nasty cracks. It looks so much better now inside of the car. I ordered some clean floor mats also since it never had any.

got lip

I’ve been wanting an “IS” lip for the E30 for some time. The only real reason why I didn’t get one yet is because it would only be good for shows and events. It would not survive my driveway or daily driving in my area. I decided to pull the trigger on one, and as I suspected it looks great. I will go back to the “I” lip for daily use, but when you see my car from now on at events it will be rocking the new look.