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2006 BMW 330i with coilovers ? I think I am reading the rules wrong but does that put the car in BSP or DSP?

Street tires: ST if you have no LSD (and 225mm tires on 7.5" wheels), STX if you have LSD or you want 265mm tires on up to 9" wheels...STU if your wheels/tires are wider

R comps: BSP (I think)....this is the line:

328 & 335 (2006-10)

Which is odd they have the 328 but not the 330 spelled out (or the 325 for that matter).

Then in DSP, there is a line:

3 Series (16v, NOC)

Not sure if that means 16v **OR** Not otherwise classified or 16v **AND** NOC. If the former, then you'd be DSP.

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DSP, I'm almost sure. They wanted E46's in DSP, the E90's in BSP, I do believe.

I assume by "coilovers" you mean it does NOT have stock springs or stock ride height. If so, then yeah, DSP. If, however, it's still got stock springs and ride height, you can run DS. They want the spring perch to be the same dimensions as stock, but unless you're running nationally nobody will get that nitpicky. As long as the thing is really close to stock ride height, you're good.

I have to ask, because when people say "coilovers" these days they do typically mean an aftermarket threaded body shock/strut with an aftermarket spring. However, you can get threaded body shocks/struts and use the OE spring (and there can be good reasons to do so, though obviously an aftermarket spring will usually perform better).

FWIW, EVERY strut and EVERY shock with a spring wrapped around it is a "coilover." Somewhere along the way the term got confused with "threaded body." *sigh*


--Donnie

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Well said Donnie.

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Reading the rulebook, it says STU for "BMW 3 Series (E90 chassis,
including M3) (2006-10)", so it would appear that the SCCA thinks that a 2006 E90 325i belongs in the same street tire class as the 414hp E90 M3 not to mention supposedly being faster than an E46 ZHP which is shorter, narrower, lighter and has more power (STX).

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You mean BSP then since Michael's 2006 is an E90. 2006 is the year when E46 coupes were still sold, so it could have also been an E46. The rulebook does put the E90 cars into BSP as I read it.

Chuck

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Shoot, sorry. I wrongly thought that the chassis change was the model name change. I had no idea there were E90 330's *and* E46 ones. That's so dumb. (I assumed there must be model overlap that year or something and that it would have had to be a 335 to be an E90).

So yeah, a 2006 330 is BSP. As for why, it's because you can update/backdate in SP, so you could put the more powerful motor in there. Why it's that way in ST, where you can't do the motor swap, is beyond me. But I don't follow ST that closely, either.


--Donnie

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Yeah, it's confusing and weird. In 2006, first year of the E90, there was the 325i and 330i (both with 3.0L engine, one with 215hp and one with 255hp). In 2007, they switched to 328i (230hp) and 335i (300hp) which is still the case in 2011.

Also in 2006, the E46 330i was available in coupe from still along with the E46 M3.

For whatever bizarre reason, BMW did something similar back in 1999-2000 when they sold a 323i and 328i E46 sedan prior to it becoming 325i and 330i in 2001. In 1999 the E36 coupe was still sold too in all forms as I recall.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

Hmmm, Donnie seems pretty good at interpreting the rules, but the E90/92 is only excluded from STX in M3 form. The STU section only lists the E90 as an 'example car'. I don't think that requires that the e90/92 3 series (non M) run STU unless they have wider than 265 tires or 9" wheels.

Also, Donnie, why do you suppose that both the 330 and 325 are not on the line with the 328 and 335 E90/92 chassis? Do you think that the SEB meant for that line to be all of the E90/92 3 series in BSP?

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Chuck,
I seem to recall they also ran the E30 platform into 1992 as a convertible, yes? BMW just loves to let the chassis styles blend from one model year to the next!

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So I can't say for sure because I don't know the details of the differences in those cars. But to shed light on the process...

It's entirely possible that there's no reason other than the people writing the rules didn't know for sure and wanted to CYA a bit. That happens. They might not know and thus they default to putting things on separate lines and put it out for comment hoping that someone who DOES know will write a letter saying "uh, them things are the same except for the motor and it's bolt-in compatible, so you should put them on the same line as that goes with the spirit of the class." Or perhaps they did have them on the same line and someone said "uh, that's dumb because while they look the same, in reality they're so different underneath that one couldn't reasonably swap engines under the rules anyway, so don't do that."

I really can't speak to that as that conversation probably would have happened just before I was on the SEB (and I'm off now, so I can't ask any easier than any other SCCA member). There could very well be a good reason, but thanks to it being such a damned closed process we might never know. *sigh*


--Donnie

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That's reasonable, I guess the real issue is that the E90/92 325 and 330 is not listed ANYWHERE in *SP. Does that mean it is ineligible for SP at the moment? It's not an issue of them being on a separate line....they just aren't listed period.

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2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

CSP/DSP/ESP maybe?

CSP


DSP


If under 3.0L doesn't cover 3.0L engines there is ESP

Thanks for all your input

Just to clarify, I kept the car at stock ride height but changed the springs, after reading all the input I am still rather confused as to where I would run next year.

James, I think you are onto something. Appendix A says for cars not classified, you go in order for the 'catch alls'. That said, the car would be CSP. Most definitely not their intention, I'm sure. I'm pretty sure that BSP should have a line in it like DSP:

Instead of

328 & 335 (2006-10)

it would be:

325, 328, 330 & 335 (E90/92 chassis, non-
M3)

_________________
2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B