Performance BMW Yellow e21 V8 conversion

[jjgbmw323]

Has anyone seen the famous yellow car with the $Dinan enhanced engine and rims? Is it this months Performance BMW and it is sporting some serious weaponry, a bored out V8, headers, and DINAN rims.

Its the famous yellow car that we have talked about before....

[Eurotrash323]

This one?



Yeah, it's here in Portland, it's at the Historic races every year with a huge price tag attached to it

found this picture also, this is from last years historics.

[jjgbmw323]

Thats it, I quess they spent an incredible about of money on this car, including the bored out V8 engine and Dinan Rims.

[BoomerDJ]

i want pics of the inside

[DrewDude320i]

what kind of incredible price tag?

[Jester323]

what kind of incredible price tag?

approaching 6 figures IIRC. At least half way there. With a price tag like that, you don't even pay much attention. From what I understand, it's hardly an E21 anymore (obviously with the V8 alone) but doesn't handle well and has a heck of a time hooking up. Pretty pointless if you ask me unless you really like pissing in the wind.

But at the same time, it looks amazing in person.

here's a couple more that I have:

2008 Historic Races, PIR:





2007 Historic Races, PIR:

[canfixauto]

love those side skirts, they would look awesome on mine. the yellow isn't even to far off mine. any idea what their off of?

[BoomerDJ]

thats why with that amount of power you need to put some 275 or bigger tires on it, cut out the stock flares and build is some custom box flares, now that would be sexy mmmmm

[Jester323]

love those side skirts, they would look awesome on mine. the yellow isn't even to far off mine. any idea what their off of?

I am told the color is Golf Yellow. Not sure where the side skirts came from.

The body work is top notch. Pacific Motorsports is a great shop. The idea to start this car wasn't theirs, but they finished it. I seem to remember that the original owner who commissioned the work eventually backed out or ran out of $ to finish it.

And that kind of car needs more than just wider tires & track width. The weight balance is all off with that heavy engine & transmission up front. They would have been much better off with a boosted power plant of a much smaller block as a starting point. But there are those who are just stuck on big power from N/A. Which = big displacement.

[charbel]

wow.. that is a very good looking car

[Jester323]

Oh yeah, & I just remembered, they can't run a front strut brace & keep the cowl on the engine & still shut the hood.

[jjgbmw323]

love those side skirts, they would look awesome on mine. the yellow isn't even to far off mine. any idea what their off of?

The skirts are the ones that have been made just for our cars, by Zender.

[canfixauto]

thanks for the info, I've got to find me some of those skirts.

[waferman]

Pacific Motorsports does lots of great E30 conversions- S50's mostly. At the Portland Historics every year in the BMW car section you can see these wonderful cars. Great mechanical artists they have there- they will build anything you wish if you have the greenbacks. Cool to have a resource like this in your neighborhood, IMO.

[340i]

jester323, are these educated comments you're making about engine weights, chassis balance and handling, or is it speculation?

i thought the motors were alloy blocks? surely it is a similar weight to my 1uz, which is also similar weight to a 323i engine. also, he's got a bigger diff and rear wheels, stereo system, etc, so its not all weight up front too.

on the tyre sizes, i've got a bit less power than he does, but my 245's have no trouble hooking up, so i dont see why you'd need 275's. maybe if you're making the same power with a crappy two litre turbo donk, and the power is coming on so fast with the boost, you need massive grip to get it down, but v8's tend to be more linear with their torque curves. he probably doesnt drag race it either, so wouldn't need all that grip 95% of the time.

boomerDJ, he has got custom flares to fit the wide tyres already. And have you seen custom box flares on e21's? they look horrible.

[Madhatter]

the pics ive got of it here looks like it runs a 5 series diff under it. Exhaust is a bit of a worry being so low though, be a magnet for everything more than a pebble in the road.

Personally, I always thought it was a good install.

[340i]

i think the article said he'd adapted an e30 m3 rear end into it.

[Madhatter]

looks like 5 series to me, cover is offset to the side like the 5er, what is the M3 cover like?

[mrbobian]

Well IIRC this car has all 5er breaks and suspension so one would think the 5er rear-end would fit nicely...

[TheNeek]

Wheels are Fikse, not Dinan.

[Jester323]

jester323, are these educated comments you're making about engine weights, chassis balance and handling, or is it speculation?

No first hand behind the wheel time, but the owner of Pacific Motorsports who built the car flat out told me when we were chatting about e21s at the Historics.

[blitzed310]

I admire the wormanship, it looks to be perfect. Love the rear arches as well. But the mirrors are , and front/rear valance need to go.

[JoeZ]

The weight balance is all off with that heavy engine & transmission up front. They would have been much better off with a boosted power plant of a much smaller block as a starting point. But there are those who are just stuck on big power from N/A. Which = big displacement.

Could've went with a motor that has displacement but is compact and lightweight at the same time

[Layne]

The v8 weighs the same as an M30, so it will have the same handling problems as an Alpina or other M30 conversion. It does look like a very clean install, I gotta say. And I especially like the tilton style brake/clutch master cylinder setup. But the price! OMG! There's nothing that special about it. You can't bore out an M62 enough to brag about, so maybe it has an M5 crankshaft? Which would only be good for a little extra tire smoke. No real benefit on a car that light.

[blitzed310]

What is the price they are asking?