Nikhil’s E30: Nikhil and Diming

Since Nikhil Kovelamudi got his start sim racing in 2016, he’s been crunching numbers. His attention to the economics of our sport allowed him to progress into real-world track driving, but only modestly. However tight his budget was, he was able to make his real-world transition a reality though, and by determining how to best spend his hard-earned money, he’s learned that real skill can be acquired without spending a fortune.

“I bought an E30 about the same time as I started racing sims, but I only thought about modifying it as a street car then. At the time, most of my friends couldn’t care less about cars, so I had to learn everything from forums. I took a bottom-up approach in how I believe in car maintenance, and I think it served me well. This gave me a sense of confidence when it came to driving long distances to tracks without a truck and trailer. I was confident that, despite the car’s age, I’d be able to fix whatever problems I’d encounter.”

At the time, Nikhil’s home was in upstate New York, where he felt the odd man out. “On the east coast, it felt like motorsports were slowly losing the younger generation. Whenever I went to an event, most of the people seemed a lot older. The few people my age who did get into racing had a hard time managing the costs. Once they realized how much it cost with their then-current setup, they concluded that track driving was too expensive for them. I felt that did them a massive disservice.

Being able to work on the car myself helped with my finances, but so did my approach to tuning. I became adamant about people spending the majority of their allocated track money on entry fees and not on parts or consumables. I think anyone needs a lot of driving to get to a respectable level of performance.

“Even driving something mundane can be special when you’re pushing it to the limit,” he declared.

To maximize seat time, I only got things that were absolutely necessary and/or saved on costs, like the LSD upgrade kit, which included parts to turn a two-clutch diff into a six-clutch unit. diff spacing pack. It removes the stock spacers and adds a bunch of clutches, since the stock two were getting burned out too quickly. Only two clutches can only take so much abuse.

As for the Ground Control coilovers, I was just modifying the car with the anticipation that I’d autocross it. I did luck out – I happened to end up at settings that were reasonable because I consulted with Ground Control and got the right rates because it feels good to me after having driven it a lot. I’ve been running with them for six years now, and they’ve been fine.

There isn’t a cheaper coilover kit unless you go to BC, and this kit came with the knuckle already welded in, unlike the cheaper ones. Ultimately, it was a cost consideration that pushed me to buy. I didn’t want to ruin the car, but I didn’t want it to be expensive.

These basic mods and a decent alignment are what most track cars need to become precision instruments, I believe. Unfortunately, this car’s MacPherson strut assembly is its Achilles’ Heel: if you lower it, you lose a lot of camber in compression unless you’ve already spent a good amount on offset balljoints. Still, it’s a lively and exciting car that rotates readily.

Adding the rear subframe risers was done to try and correct the rear suspension geo problems when lowering the car. The reason I run 0 toe all around is mainly to save the tires over long drives. Some wouldn’t recommend that because of the way this makes the car a little nervous in the rear, but I find it’s what makes the car fun to drive, if not a little inconsistent.

Because it’s still effectively a street car, the Powerflex street bushings are another compromise I made for daily comfort, which unfortunately makes the handling a little idiosyncratic at times. In conjunction with the trailing arm rear end, it tends to on-throttle understeer unless you commit to the throttle totally. Similarly, it toes out when lifting off throttle at high revs due to engine braking. Under compression, it toes the outside wheel out and toes the inside wheel in; causing an odd crab walking-style behavior at corner exit, and then straightens out abruptly.

I can anticipate these weird tendencies now, though the correct fix is to install more rigid bushings to mitigate this behavior. Along with that, I might go for a real bucket seat. The E30is sport seats provide some support, but I’m still bracing my right leg against the trans tunnel in Thunderhill West’s T2.

“The Z3 rack is a very standard modification. The standard rack is four turns lock-to-lock, and this rack brings it down to 2.7 turns lock-to-lock,” he added.

Parts availability is a bit challenging, so if I went back to do it again, I might go with a more popular platform, like a Miata, which is more consistent due to its suspension design. Nevertheless, it’s been a solid, cost-effective car because I set it up to be cheap and dependable. It’s also light and balanced, so the tire wear is decent. That said, I recommend drift tires nowadays for track days because track tires are getting more expensive.

It must seem paranoid to focus on the budget so closely, but I believe this aspect is the key to the growth of this hobby. I feel as though the true floor to how cheap this hobby can be is rarely discussed. If this knowledge was more widespread, track organizations wouldn’t be struggling to fill their rosters.

For every track driver running economy tires, there are a dozen running RE71RS. I’ve seen many drivers casually spend the equivalent of a brand new IPhone 16 Pro in tire consumables alone in a single day. If I want to tout this sport as being attainable to the average car enthusiast, I need to practice what I preach.

If I’ve proved anything, I hope it’s that, If you really want to, you can afford it.”