[e30polak]

All my friends know that I come up with tons of ideas and plans for project cars all the time. Mechanically I knew exactly what was going on the car, I wanted to simply make this a slightly better, Ti version of my old S52 E30. I had a spare s50 and another custom built motor m52 bottom end, a spare ZF trans, and a couple differentials to swap in, so the power plant and drive train were pretty straight forward. Here's the spec sheet on the motor and drivetrain:

Engine + Power Mods:
m52 block
Custom 3.3L m50 diesel crank shaft (by a former race shop that RMS used in the late 90s)
135mm s52 rods
s52 bore 11:1 JE forged pistons
0.080 - 1 step oversize MLS head gasket (to drop compression a bit for 91 octane)
ARP2000 head studs
Custom M50 non Vanos head by Bimmerheads: rebuilt, ported and polished and modified to accept a Vanos unit
s52 camshafts
All new engine gaskets, belts and timing components
Stewart water pump
New aluminum thermostat housing, with lower degree thermostat
Mishimoto aluminum radiator
Ported Schrick intake manifold
OBD2 m3 throttle body
Dinan 3.5" cold air intake
s52 injectors
Racleand long tube headers
3" custom single exhaust - 2 resonators, and 1 Borla ProXS muffler
Off there shelf RK-Tunes OBD1 s52 tune

Drivetrain:
ZF 320 5 speed trans
RMS DSSR
z3 2.8L shift lever
F1 racing chromoly lightweight flywheel and stage 1 clutch
New clutch master and slave cylinders
2.93 LSD
Z3 MCoupe axles

Since this is an e36 chassis, I knew I wanted to swap in m3 front suspension with brakes. I initially put together some coil-overs that I ended up selling to another Ti guy, to fund the TC Klines that are currently on the car. At the time I had futureroadracer's former 5-lug E30 chassis, which I had snagged stupid cheap and initially planned to build before buying the Ti. The nice part was that his car had a full Z3 MCoupe 5-lug swap with all the polyurethane bushings already done! I thought about taking the full suspension and brakes off the E30, including the Ground Control coil overs that Ryan had on the E30. The problem was that the entire GC set-up was e30 specific, and the fronts wouldn't work on my Ti. Therefore I left the front suspension alone and decided to take only the complete rear suspension and brakes, and swap my Ti rear suspension onto the e30. Luckily I had front e36 M3 spindles, strut housings and brakes, and the Ti had new 96+ M3 control arms on it already. Castro Motorsport had various pairs of coil-over springs and lowering springs that I could use, the best option was 400# 7" fronts, and some progressive rate rear springs from an e36 m3 Bilstein PSS9 set-up. I had Chris order me new coil-over sleeves and adjusters from AKG and I got a great deal on some used Vorschlag camber/caster plates through my buddy. I already had a pair of brand new, full height KONI top adjustable struts that I bought on the forums, and then used some spare used Bilstein Sport E30 shocks for the rear. For brakes, I went ahead and ordered some new stainless steel brake lines for the car through Ireland Engineering. Then I got some Ate rotors and pads all around and Ate Super Blue brake fluid.

Suspension & brakes:
e36 m3 front subframe, suspension and brakes
Z3 MCoupe rear subframe, trailing arms and brakes
Vorschlag camber/castor plattes
AKG front coilover sleeves and adjusters
400# 7" Hyperco springs (front) / Bilstein PSS9 progressive rear springs
New lemforder front 96+ M3 control arms with bushings
Ireland Engineering polyurethane rear subframe and trailing arm bushings
e36 m3 front sway bar / 318ti factory rear sway bar
Ireland Engineering stainless steel brake lines
Ate rotors and pads all around
Ate Super Blue brake fluid

Having owned an e36 m3 previously, dealing with various e36 builds at Castro Motorsport over the years, and being inspired by a few Ti builds online, I had a general idea of the look I would be going for. Also I hoarded quite a few sets of wheels over the years, most sets were low offset, which meant I had to go with wider fenders. I loved the subtle look of the Hard Motorsport rivet-on flares, and based on my research, they could accommodate decent wheels specs with a bit of work. I purchased a coupe set of flares that I was going to have modified, but shortly after Adam came out with the Ti version of the flares. I told him about my project and he gave me a great deal on a set of Ti specific flares. I hadn't seen another Ti with river on flares before, so that was one of the ways I planned to set my car apart from the rest. I definitely wanted to run an m3 front bumper and the car already came with an unpainted Mtech rear bumper. Nathan also included a brand new set of NLA Ti specific Mtech moldings with clips, which I had to have for this project. As for side skirts I was a bit torn. One of the things I ***** about the e36 for years were the m3 "twisty" side skirts! Reason being is that the skirts noticeably hang lower front and rear, than the m3 and Mtech bumpers! I really wanted some AC Schnitzer skirts after falling in love with whitecord's white Ti. Those are pretty much unobtanium, so I had to figure something else out. My friend had some Racing Dynamics skirts for cheap, so I decided those would be different and still give me the look I wanted. I also sourced a BNIB set of AC Schnitzer mirrors for $300 through a forum member, which I was really stoked about!

For the front lip, I hated how played out the LTW adjustable lip was, and I loved the Racing Dynamics adjustable lip that m3mobbin had on his sedan when we met. He later sold that lip to Alex at Castro Motorsport, and I loved it on his wide body coupe as well, so I had to find one for myself! I found one for $150 shipped a few weeks later and it was in pretty good shape. One thing I was adamant about was to put a spoiler on the hatch, to take away from how awkwardly square the bare rear of the Ti chassis look. The car came with a factory Mtech spoiler, which I liked, but wasn't in love with. If it came off the hatch at least an inch more I probably would've just stuck with that. I also loved the way that the AC Schnitzer 3 piece spoiler looked on whitecord's Ti (along with normal e36s). I found a Ti specific spoiler online for $100, and jumped on it. Since I wanted to set my Ti apart from the rest I'd seen, I spoke with Victor from Excel Motorsports (from Kings Auto Body Shop at the time) about extending the ACS wing at least 2 inches to make it look similar to an e30 Mtech 1 spoiler. Another thing I was excited about was that Nathan had the sunroof panel turned into a slick top! He also had a couple small details changed on the car - the rear windshield wiper, and the windshield washer nozzles on the hood, were all shaved and I loved the clean look. Finally, for lights, I sourced some used ZKW headlights, got some clear smoked corner lights and the car already came with euro spec clear tails that were mildly smoked. I added some 35W DDM 6000k HIDs for the low beams, and some fog light delete covers for the time being.

Exterior & Lighting:
e36 m3 front DDM bumper w/ luxury slats
Ti specific Mtech rear bumper
Racing Dynamics side skirts
Racing Dynamics adjustable 2 piece front lip
AC Schnitzer side view mirrors
AC Schnitzer 3 piece rear spoiler
Hard Motorsport Ti specific rivet on fender flares
Fog light delete covers
ZKW glass headlights
35W DDM HIDs