Scottish Borders
Ditto on the Z3!Got to say Peter, you really are committed to that car. Fair play to you!
Atacama Yellow 35is build thread
- Thread starter B21
- Start date
After 51 pages... is there any of the original Atacama Yellow 35is remaining?
I know 1 thing, it's taken an awful lot of building!
Reminds me a bit of Trigger's broom, or the painting of the Forth bridge.
I know 1 thing, it's taken an awful lot of building!
Reminds me a bit of Trigger's broom, or the painting of the Forth bridge.
Bodyshell, wiring, seats, carpets, glass, core engine , gearbox, prop shaft, drive shafts…
Attleborough, Norfolk
I thought most would be happy that Peter and I are getting along!Will you two get a room…you’re making me feel fair bilious….
I'd be really interested in the running total of expenditure after this epic build journey - that's the thing that always puts me off a mission like this.
Years of effort tweaking & many thousands of pounds.... I get it as a kind of mad inventor type hobby, I feel that's justifiable for some.
Are you keeping track of spends?
Years of effort tweaking & many thousands of pounds.... I get it as a kind of mad inventor type hobby, I feel that's justifiable for some.
Are you keeping track of spends?
Normally I would yes Pondy, but this is like Herman Munster getting it on with one of the clangers….its not chuffing right…I thought most would be happy that Peter and I are getting along!
Whilst waiting for another can of Phoenix Gold paint so I can remount my 370mm/M5 rear BBK I tackled another first world issue.
The Audiotec-Fischer Director control box had been misbehaving with the touch screen becoming more erratic.
www.audiotec-fischer.de
Most aftermarket DSP/amps are configured and set up then to rely on the headunit for volume, loudness, tone control etc.
The Director allows up to 20 different acoustic set ups to be held and called up in real time on demand.
I have ones for roof up, roof down, low speed, high speed, more bass, lots more bass etc
In addition it does a variety of superlative audio controls well beyond what a head unit's normal tone controls can do.
Fortunately in my usual 'its good to have a back up to my back up) I had a spare unit.
For various geeky reasons the firmware had to be updated to work with the AF Match 10 DSP/amp and later DSP Tool PC set up s/w
Being sad and cause it can be done, I uploaded a personal bmp pic for the display..yes yes I know the M Police will have a field day..other bmps are available.
The Audiotec-Fischer Director control box had been misbehaving with the touch screen becoming more erratic.
Audiotec Fischer DIRECTOR - Display Remote Control
Remote Control with Touchscreen
www.audiotec-fischer.de
Most aftermarket DSP/amps are configured and set up then to rely on the headunit for volume, loudness, tone control etc.
The Director allows up to 20 different acoustic set ups to be held and called up in real time on demand.
I have ones for roof up, roof down, low speed, high speed, more bass, lots more bass etc
In addition it does a variety of superlative audio controls well beyond what a head unit's normal tone controls can do.
Fortunately in my usual 'its good to have a back up to my back up) I had a spare unit.
For various geeky reasons the firmware had to be updated to work with the AF Match 10 DSP/amp and later DSP Tool PC set up s/w
Being sad and cause it can be done, I uploaded a personal bmp pic for the display..yes yes I know the M Police will have a field day..other bmps are available.
I get really pissed of with (Chinese) crap that just doesn't do what it says it does!-; )
I bought some LEDs to replace the old incandescent bulbs that were still fiited to cars back in the 2009-2016 period.
So I used these canbus ok bulbs for the boot light and the thee bulbs in the cabin light unit ( 2 for each side for reading and a central cabin illumination)
All the flockers flickered when ever on..really annoying.
Anyway..moving on..tried these critters in a fetching blue colour..and ..voila they work.
Not sure if blue is the way to go..in aviation style ordered a couple of red one for the reading lamps..will try that
Maybe a combo of red and blue (as well as white footwell and door puddle lights) maybe too much?
First world issues..!-
I bought some LEDs to replace the old incandescent bulbs that were still fiited to cars back in the 2009-2016 period.
So I used these canbus ok bulbs for the boot light and the thee bulbs in the cabin light unit ( 2 for each side for reading and a central cabin illumination)
All the flockers flickered when ever on..really annoying.
Anyway..moving on..tried these critters in a fetching blue colour..and ..voila they work.
Not sure if blue is the way to go..in aviation style ordered a couple of red one for the reading lamps..will try that
Maybe a combo of red and blue (as well as white footwell and door puddle lights) maybe too much?
First world issues..!-
Great advantage of time is it gives you time to think..
Now like a dog with a bone focussed on sorting out for good the ride height and posture of the Yellow Peril.
As some will know the E89 rear suspension is a carry over from the E85 which was pretty close to the E46.
I've spent more hours than I care to mention following various Z3s, E85/E86 and E89 all with their bottoms sat down and the rear wheels with acute camber. Clearly almost all these cars did not have their suspension set up for the actual load carried.
(The semi trailing arm design 'suffers' from excessive camber change as ride height changes..lower ride height more camber, fortunately with more toe in...otherwise there would be a lot of fatalaties)
Almost everytime I've seen a geo set up / wheel alignment it's done with the car empty and probably not a lot of fuel in.
BMW in their geo set up callls for two 68kg occupants and 15kg of luggage in the boot with full fuel..
So the known issue is ride height changes with additional mass and as ride height reduces negative camber increases and toe in increases too.
But by how much and where?
So at the moment the car has from wheel centre to botton of the wheel well (Ohlins preferred way of measuirng) as follows
Unladen (full size spare wheel, roof down, full fuel)
371 FL / 366 FR and 365 RL / 367 RR
I added around 70kg in the pax seat and 90kg in the driver seat ie 160kg of extra load. ( Yes I took into account the specific gravity of the oil, petrol and diesel in their containers)
Now we have..
370 FL / 263 FR and 357 RL / 356 RR
As suspected the weight mostly affects the rear suspension..
So the impact of the crew weight is
-1 FL / -3 FR and -8 RL / -11 RR
Which is more or less you would expect given the fact that the driver side was 20kg heavier than the pax side
Camber actually wasn't too bad given how much messing around with the linkages etc there was.
1.2 FL / 0.2 FT and 1.6 RL / 1.5 RR
I can't easily measure toe in but I'll wait for a proper geo set up.
I'm not sure how much impact the ARB drop links not being correctly set is..
That's a real faff and I'll have to get the trestles out to sit the car on them whilst twiddling with them!
Now like a dog with a bone focussed on sorting out for good the ride height and posture of the Yellow Peril.
As some will know the E89 rear suspension is a carry over from the E85 which was pretty close to the E46.
I've spent more hours than I care to mention following various Z3s, E85/E86 and E89 all with their bottoms sat down and the rear wheels with acute camber. Clearly almost all these cars did not have their suspension set up for the actual load carried.
(The semi trailing arm design 'suffers' from excessive camber change as ride height changes..lower ride height more camber, fortunately with more toe in...otherwise there would be a lot of fatalaties)
Almost everytime I've seen a geo set up / wheel alignment it's done with the car empty and probably not a lot of fuel in.
BMW in their geo set up callls for two 68kg occupants and 15kg of luggage in the boot with full fuel..
So the known issue is ride height changes with additional mass and as ride height reduces negative camber increases and toe in increases too.
But by how much and where?
So at the moment the car has from wheel centre to botton of the wheel well (Ohlins preferred way of measuirng) as follows
Unladen (full size spare wheel, roof down, full fuel)
371 FL / 366 FR and 365 RL / 367 RR
I added around 70kg in the pax seat and 90kg in the driver seat ie 160kg of extra load. ( Yes I took into account the specific gravity of the oil, petrol and diesel in their containers)
Now we have..
370 FL / 263 FR and 357 RL / 356 RR
As suspected the weight mostly affects the rear suspension..
So the impact of the crew weight is
-1 FL / -3 FR and -8 RL / -11 RR
Which is more or less you would expect given the fact that the driver side was 20kg heavier than the pax side
Camber actually wasn't too bad given how much messing around with the linkages etc there was.
1.2 FL / 0.2 FT and 1.6 RL / 1.5 RR
I can't easily measure toe in but I'll wait for a proper geo set up.
I'm not sure how much impact the ARB drop links not being correctly set is..
That's a real faff and I'll have to get the trestles out to sit the car on them whilst twiddling with them!
And I have a match
Yes good idea..sadly lost on many..
We have standby generators..in a post apocalyptic world we'll have power for a month to watch the end of the world on TV...
Today’s Holy Grail is the pursuit of geometric setup perfection…
Disconnected the front ARBs drop links to let the front suspension settle..
Realisation that BMW’s nirvana of two 68kg occupants didn’t match reality of 2026’s hooning plan..
So 100 kg in the driver seat ..Billy no mates in the pax seat…
Revisiting the spring set up..
About to jack the rear left but the wheel won’t come off…paint is a wonderful thing..
Disconnected the front ARBs drop links to let the front suspension settle..
Realisation that BMW’s nirvana of two 68kg occupants didn’t match reality of 2026’s hooning plan..
So 100 kg in the driver seat ..Billy no mates in the pax seat…
Revisiting the spring set up..
About to jack the rear left but the wheel won’t come off…paint is a wonderful thing..
So I added some more preload via adding a spacer back
to the right rear to try and level everything up
So now I got it to
374/364 front
365/363 rear
That was loaded with 100kg in the driver seat , roof down and spare wheel
No driver load
375/369 front
366/371 rear
I was quite depressed till I saw the Ohlins service agent attempt…
664/650 front ..different datum..unknown load but assumed empty
666/558 rear
They are using a different datum but the delta changes are numerically the same values..
The front left is the difficult child…heavy n54 engine leans to the right…driver on the right ..
So mine is all within 1 mm bar the right front that’s 10mm out..
The other guys were 14mm out on the right front and 7mm and 11mm out on the rears ref front right
This is with all front arb drop links loose..I don’t think there’s much effect..
Calling it a day prior to test ..but need to get the front toe sorted…now the front is up higher it’s sent the toe way out..
to the right rear to try and level everything up
So now I got it to
374/364 front
365/363 rear
That was loaded with 100kg in the driver seat , roof down and spare wheel
No driver load
375/369 front
366/371 rear
I was quite depressed till I saw the Ohlins service agent attempt…
664/650 front ..different datum..unknown load but assumed empty
666/558 rear
They are using a different datum but the delta changes are numerically the same values..
The front left is the difficult child…heavy n54 engine leans to the right…driver on the right ..
So mine is all within 1 mm bar the right front that’s 10mm out..
The other guys were 14mm out on the right front and 7mm and 11mm out on the rears ref front right
This is with all front arb drop links loose..I don’t think there’s much effect..
Calling it a day prior to test ..but need to get the front toe sorted…now the front is up higher it’s sent the toe way out..