Yet Another E30 Project Car---Unlike Any Other E30 Project Car---The M-Touring.
As mentioned in the Introduction and in Part 1: Suspension, we started this project with a 1989 3-series Touring, one of only three known E30 Tourings in the United States. We are converting it from a suburban grocery getter station wagon to a serious performance MACHINE. Nothing novel or new is needed for this change since the BMW Motorsports Division made all the pieces we need and assembled them in the form of the M3. We are simply analyzing the E30M3 to see what makes it great and then we're taking the best of the M3 for our Touring.
The handling characteristics of the E30 M3 are legendary; the car is famous for its balanced behavior and its pure driving enjoyment. Simply put, the car goes where it's pointed.
Part 2. Steering and stuff
The conception that a car goes where it's pointed and does so easily and upon command does not arise from any one part, and it definitely is no accident. It is designed into the car by some very smart engineers. It may seem like it's just a steering thing, but that 'feeling' starts with the driver sitting in the right place, at the right angle, in comfort, in a seat that helps retain that combination throughout a wide range of cornering situations. In other words, M3 steering superiority starts with the driver seat. We have transferred the M3 sport seats into our Touring---a simple bolt-in swap.
Next comes the steering wheel---as you would expect, it's the right size for your hand, it's the right diameter to give reasonable steering effort, and, of course, it's beautiful. It bolts right on in place of the plebian normal steering wheel.
Finally, we get to the steering rack. M3 steering rack has about 10% faster response than other E30 cars. That means fewer turns of the wheel lock-to-lock, but, more importantly, it means that any command the driver makes happens a bit quicker in a car with an M3 steering rack. The M3 rack is a direct swap for any E30.
That's it for steering mods. Do they work? You bet.
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