I found some cheap but apparently good condition all-red tail lights and picked them up. They have no markings on them and the clear coat seems good. Installed these and a UUC clutch stop this morning.
I sold my Ireland Engineering M20 Performance Wire Set and installed my old “spare” set until a set of black Bremi wires comes next week. They are great wires I just didn’t love red that much.
It was a CG Lock and after the driver showed me how to buckle up the benefit became immediately apparent: the CG Lock stops your lap belt from slackening or tightening. If it’s tight then you are firmly connected to the car and therefore more aware of what the car is doing.
I ordered one, installed it (it clamps on with only 2 small bolts) and tested it while driving around today: works great, feels good. We’ll see how it really performs at autocross tomorrow.
The CG Lock was an excellent addition to my autocross set up and made me feel considerably more “connected”. However, by the end of the day the clamp that attaches the CG Lock to the belt buckle started becoming loose and the whole thing ended up in my glove box. I don’t feel comfortable using it for every day driving but I expect to use it again next time I autocross.
If you look at photos of the intake manifold on a BMW M20 engine in an e30 you’ll see a recurring spot of wear illustrated in this older photo of my car:
This is caused by the black fibreglass hood liner which sags slightly and rubs against the manifold. You can barely see it in this photo:
Also note the red tape that’s being used to protect the powder coated intake manifold which is at best a temporary solution. The permanent solution is to remove the hood liner:
The unadorned hood isn’t ugly but it does allow more noise to escape the engine bay and some armchair mechanics postulate that the heat from the motor will cause the paint on the hood to bubble or wear poorly.
There’s two solutions for this:
I bought my panels from BMP Design. They have a complete DIY on how to install the hood liner which is helpful.
Now a few comments about the product:
Installation was straightforward once I trimmed down the panels:
My car was the oldest to run the dyno that day but also the car with the least HP: 121.6. I’m not upset, in fact it puts an extra wide grin on my face when I put my foot down and out-accelerate newer, more powerful cars.
I’d never been to a dyno day before, and I’ve never seen cars spewing black junk from the exhaust pipes before: As I learned, this junk doesn’t accumulate if you hit the rev limiter frequently. Since the dyno day I try to get out on the highway and hit the red line at least three times a week. Since doing that I’ve noticed the car feels like it’s putting down more power at the wheels… and no more black junk.
I made a video of my 3 runs.
I need to reduce my e30 parts cache so I’m selling some things. I’ve had my OEM tail lights in a box for the last 6 months and decided to put them back on and sell the all red junkyard tail lights.
Here’s the junkyard reds: selling them go for $40.
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