A buddy of mine has a friend with a early 90's 240 with an S13 SR20 swap. We've been trying to set up a race for a couple weeks now, but he blew up the stock tranny, and I havn't had time due to school. Last night we finially got a chance to do some highway rolls.

His car: Early 90's 240 with S13 SR20DET
MODS: Greddy 4 row frontmount
MBC running 14 PSI
3 1/4 inch catless turbo back
Intake
Stripped trunk and some sound deadening removal (he estimates the weight to be 2200, but I doubt that. I feel it's probally around 2600lbs)

My car:
Most people that read my races know my car is almost stock.

Fisrt run: Both in 3rd gear @70mph
I honk.....beep...beep...beep and we're off. I insantly pull about a car on him due to NA torue and continue to pull 2 1/2 cars or so. We let out at 120ish

2nd run: 60mph. BOTTOM of 3rd for me...he had a big advanage.
I honk again (his horn's broken). 3 honks, he slowly pulls about 1 car on me, around 100-105 the pull stops and I start reeling him back in at a decent rate. He shuts it down once I pull all the way back and end up 1/4 of a car in front of him.

3rd run: 45 MPH 2nd gear for both of us
3 honks: I pull about 1 full car right off the bat and continue to pull 2-3 cars by the time we're around 120.

4th run: 70 mph again:
Same result as the first race.

I'll get some video if he hasn't sold it yet (was planning on selling it today, i'll do some more races and post up videos if he hasn't. He's trading it for a turbo sabb 3000 with a slew of parts + bigger turbo.)

Good races overall

(his horn's broken)

you didnt need to say anymore

Something is wrong with his car.

An NA E36 M3 should not be able to keep up with an SR S13 running 14 psi on the stock turbo. For an idea of how fast that is, quite a few people have run high 12's with full interior and the stock turbo at 14 psi(250rwhp, 250rwtq). If his car is a coupe it's probably around 2450-2500 lbs with a little lightening.

I pulled a little bit on a '95 M3 with a few NA mods(euro HFM, exhaust, pullies etc.) with my S13 when it was at STOCK boost(205rwhp, 200rwtq - weighed around 2500 lbs at the time). The stock turbo at 14 psi was very noticeably quicker than that, and it doesn't have any turbo "lag." My car could go from full vac to 14 psi in a little less than a second when above 3k RPM, with any kind of brake boosting(which isn't hard) the car would go from about zero boost to 14 psi in less than half a sec or so.



Anyway, glad you had fun, but either your friend can't drive or his car is running on 3 cylinders.

I generally agree... on paper it looks like an easy kill for the SR, but recently a few friends of mine lined up for some highway runs. A stock 95 M3, Bone stock (even stock boost) RB25 240 and an somewhat modded RB20 240 running 12psi. All three were almost dead even on various highway rolls.

I wish I would have been there with my car to see what would have happened (gtir t28 SR20 in a 240).

I pulled a little bit on a '95 M3 with a few NA mods(euro HFM, exhaust, pullies etc.) with my S13 when it was at STOCK boost(205rwhp, 200rwtq - weighed around 2500 lbs at the time).

A S13 Sr engine with stock boost puts 205 hp, and 200 tq at the crank not the wheels.

that seemed like high numbers for an sr20 at stock boost to me too, but Def is one of the top dogs for actually knowing something in FI and he definitely should know what sr20's in any arrangement are capable of so :help us understand please. I as well thought that a sr20 on 14lbs should be a handful for aclose to stock m3?

I'll race you with my SR20 powered BMW. :)

Something is Def. wrong with his tuning. My friends S13 setup is almost identical to that (with tuning and rebuilt turbo) at around 14psi, and runs high 12's with most of his interior.

Has he ever had custom tuning for his setup?

A S13 Sr engine with stock boost puts 205 hp, and 200 tq at the crank not the wheels.


I said stock boost, not 100% stock(i.e. down to the exhaust). I had a 3" exhaust and a GReddy turbo outlet with those runs. Freeing up the exhaust like that makes boost go from 7 psi to 8 psi when running off the wastegate.

I even attached the dyno, and I drive an E36 M3 every single day. Trust me - any kind of S13 with an SR20 at 14 psi on the stock turbo will blow away an E36 M3 that has anything less than a supercharger on it. Even then I'd give the S13 the nod over many M3's with CF Superchargers.


If he was at stock boost and maybe you had quite a few NA mods I'd say it's plausible if he wasn't the best driver, but with him at 14 psi he could pause a half a second between shifts and still pull car lengths on you.