BMW Compact Rally Car Build

[DaveKern]

I'm getting started on a rally car build.

Figured I'd start with a quick 'how did I get here' rundown. I got hooked on racing about 10 years ago on a frozen lake in the mountains of Colorado. I've been bitten by the auto-x and rally-x bug, racing an Impreza RS, Miata, 323 GTX, and most recently an Evo. After a few years racing in parking lots, I got the itch to get more serious about playing in the dirt and put a cage in my Mazda GTX and brought my wife along...literally...as the navvie calling out the pace notes. We had some fun in the Mazda, but it was old and beat so we upgraded to the Evo IX. We've had great fun with it and some pretty good success, but we're really interested in getting out into the woods with some stage rallies.

After careful budget considerations, we've come to the conclusion that rallying a top level car is a bit out of reach, so we're looking to build a 2wd car and will save the Evo for Pikes Peak. I always had great fun in the Miata, so I knew we'd be looking for a RWD car, but most of the common RWD stuff is 1970s era, and I've had enough with rallying old vehicles after the GTX. After some youtube'ing of rally videos from Europe, I stumbled across the BMW Compact Cup, and I was sold.

I started looking for a 318TI and found one a couple weeks ago on this site. It was a high mileage car at 240,000 miles, but the most important thing was that it is rust free.



Here's a shot of it on the scales. 3100 lbs on the nose with 2 people in it. It weighed 2820 with an 1/8th tank of gas. Waaaaay to heavy, so lets get started!



This is what she looked like after a day in the garage. Most of the interior is gone, but I've yet to tackle the dash and associated wiring.



End of day two, and the motor is almost out. Rear bumper and back half of the exhaust was removed as well.



That's all I've got for now, thanks for reading!

Dave
ps - if you're local and need parts from a decent running 318Ti, LMK.