Thanks guys, its been a long road getting this far with the project.
Btw, Merry Xmas people.
I built the car over three years, the aim was to have a light RWD car with enough power to have a bit of fun. My family are right into racing but they all have E30's. Two E30 M3's and one 325. I've grown up around motorsport as my old man has been doing it since he was young.
So following the family trend it had to be a BMW but I didn't want an E30, A friend pointed me out to the "compact cup" they race over in Europe and I was sold. The car is nothing like the cars they race over there but it gave me a starting point.
The fiberglass body kit is from a UK company called Harry Hockley. Originally I chose the 2.8ltr M52 as it was fairly cheap and was alloy so was light but I was always underwhelmed with the 171 HP it made. The car has always been fast winning its class in events but I'm not really fussed about class wins (sounds like I may have a big head? but I can guarantee you that I don't). I just enjoy driving fast, doing my own thing that often involves doing skids and mixing times with the pointy end of the field.
The front suspension has E46 arms with AKG rear bushes that allow the hex of the E46 arm into the E36 lollypop. This pushes the hub/wheel out by about 25mm so no need to run wheel spaces to fill the guard out. I had to change rack and rod ends to longer versions but cantr remember what car they actually came out of... Something I need to find out so I can get some spares. Both front and rear suspension is a Koni two way adjustable set up. Need to do some work in this area as its getting coil bound and am at the max setting for bump in the rear.
Rear suspension is coil overs with strengthened towers (all suspensions points tie into the roll cage). It has solid alloy bushes pressed into the rear sub frame but diff mount is solid rubber. The diff is a medium case 188mm with 3.91. That gave me 197Kph top speed with the old M52 as we are limited to 200kph for tarmac events here in New Zealand so it was ideal. Axles are out of an E30 325, they bolted straight in.
Brakes are AP 4 pot up the front with 300mm by 32mm rotors. Brembo callipers off a Mitsubishi evo on the rear with E36 M3 rear rotors. I run a lot of rear break bias but find my self changing it through out stages depending on conditions. Wildood pedal box with Titan master cylinders.
Biggest change this year was the install of the S54 with 6 speed gearbox. Both came out of the E46 M3. I bought a wiring harness adaptor from Kassel Performance that worked well. It took longer than expected to make but once I finally got it in my hands I was pleased when the car fired into life on the first attempt. It was a real rush job to get it done before the NZ Targa rally I had entered. I've made the car so I can swap engine setups with the idea being I can keep the M52 as a spare during a long event. The car is a lot faster with the S54 but I feel I'm taking less risks as its so easy to make up time on the straights as apposed to the corners.
I've always got a long list of upgrades for the car but the next thing on the list is sorting out stronger axles and possibly diff. Installing a power steering cooler, larger PS pulley, getting some decent power out of the new engine.
If any one knows anything about the Z3M axle swap or has info about any of the super charger kits I'm all ears although I'm not quite sold on the super charger idea yet...
If you have any other questions, please ask.
Thanks |