E36 328 Kumho Race Car - Pre Season Mods

[Tommo Two]

Good work. Watching with interest. One day, when kids appear and with them a more sensible road car, I suspect my ///M will become a track-only car.

I wish i had the money to do that! tracked my Z a couple of times, but only ever 80% full speed, was nervous the whole time so didn't actually enjoy it as much as giving the 328 full beans not fussing if it brakes or crashes (within reason obviously)

did u calculate how much weight you removed???

Yea i weighed everything stripped out and every part i added. So i've got an accurate record on a spread sheet, so i know exactly how much i'm towing with regards to towing weight & limits etc! Scarily i've also done the same with parts i've bought sold etc, so got a running total of costs.

Do you guys remember Jethro Bovingdon from EVO trying to track his E36 M3 stripped out in 8.00 mins. Can it be done?

http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evolongtermtests/213582/bmw_e36_m3.html

I've clocked a 11.52 in my old Z! TBF i was seriously lacking in tallent and balls!

 

[mrlozzer]

Now that is how I'd like my driveway to look...

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday... and a zed for the weekend

 

[Richard!]

Looks like a fun project.

Other changes you could consider include:
Solid or poly lower wishbone bushes.
Replace any worn out bushes / ball joints on the front and rear suspension, will make feel like a new.

Another upgrade is an m50 intake manifold and big bore throttle body. I did this on my 328 compact it added a good 40bhp to my engine with an ecu remap. You can see how restrictive the m52 intake manifold is in the first picture here: http://www.328compact.co.uk/m50-intake-and-bbtb

You've already got the xbrace which a good addition.

 

[Tommo Two]

After a few spreadsheets and calls to the bank manager i've worked out I can afford atleast 1 season in the Kuhmo BMW Championship.

So being more committed to getting the car ready to an MSA approved standard by march, i've being doing some more work on it.
No major updates, they'll come in the winter, more weight stripping though, window motors out, and fabric door handles fitted

New (to me seats) these are out of date versions of the seat i will be using, so gets me used to it and got the brackets sorted (oh and they were dirt cheap....wonder why!)

Filled a hole created whilst rolling rusty arches!

Also got a car trailer, saves the hassle of hiring one and cheaper in the long run.

Been hassling various companies for sponsorship, got a couple of discount deals: RPM - Race Performance Modified, and Opie Oils (not a hard one to get!) Managed to collect a few stickers off them aswell. Working on a major sponsor still, in the mean time any one got any ideas with regards to where I should stick them? I might hold on till i get some more for fear of the car looking silly only part stickered!

If any one owns a company that is doing really well in the recession and has lots of monies that they want to sponsor me with just drop me a PM :wink:

 

[BMWZ4MC]

Looking good. Glad you're going ahead with your plans and aren't too afraid of the cost!
Will you be at Abingdon in mid September? I hope to be, so may see you there

 

[mrlozzer]

Good luck with this... enjoying watching progress on the car!

 

[Tommo Two]

Looking good. Glad you're going ahead with your plans and aren't too afraid of the cost!
Will you be at Abingdon in mid September? I hope to be, so may see you there

I am afraid.....very afraid, lol but i don't think I can not do it for atleast 1 season! the main thing is that i wont be getting myself into debt doing it!

Yep 14th! i'm giving my brother 1/2 a days seat time for his 21st! He has a 1.0 1976 mini and has driven our Mum's 1.1 pug! So i cant see what could go wrong!

I'm going this friday aswell! These will be my last 2 for a while as i'll be fitting rollcage, and other saftey stuff over the winter

Good luck with this... enjoying watching progress on the car!

Thanks

 

[Tommo Two]

More parts fitted: fiberglass bonnet on bonnet pins (less than half the weight of the original)

Painting is pretty crap, but I did it with a rattle can, a smart paint job doesn't make you go faster! Played with a stencel of a german eagle in the corner, not sure if i'm keeping that yet, might just blow over it with blue!

M3 race exhaust bought, needs modifying to fit, no pics of that yet.

Gave the rear some more camber using the oem camber adjustment bolts. Easy job to do, 18mm socket and spanner, bit of WD40 aswell to free it up 1st!

Max camber

Min camber

Removed the dust guards on the rear, let some more air get involved to help cooling.

 

[Tommo Two]

More updates, got the cage going in soon so I've been stripping the wiring loom back and removed the dashboard.

Started by taking out the fuses for all the bits i don't need, sunroof, interior lighting, electric windows, etc. That way I know all the wires I cut wont be live. When I did cut a live one I heard the fuse go so replaced it then taped up the end of the cut wire.

So far!

Chased the wires as far as the dash, but removed the dash to make removing the wires easier, fitting the cage easier and lightened the dash.

I knew i had a cracked manifold! It sounded horible and the fans sucked fumes in. So my temporary fix whilst trackdaying on not using the fans was fine. Would have been interesting on a wet day with the car steaming up, but all was fine.

So replaced my manifold with a like for like and removed my old 328 exhaust while I was at it. (Chisel & cutting disc.....check) Here it is against the new one. Ive kept the 1st foot or so of the 328 exhaust with the flanges that bolt to the manifold on so i can swap them in for the current 'Y' setup. Weight wise saved abit aswell:

328 standard exhaust - 37kgs (bit more with the exhaust flap pressure wiring & piping when removed)
M3 custom exhaust - 20 kgs

Not a fan of the huge letterbox style tail pipe, so that will be cut off and a roughly 90 degrees down swept (diesel style) welded in. This will keep the noise down aswell, firing it at the floor!

BTW does any one have a 318tds badge laying around........can you see what I'm getting at?

Finished off the wiring & dash stripping and saved weight from that is 8.5 kgs

And expecting roll cage delivery imminently

 

[Tommo Two]

Roll cage arrived its a OMP bolt in looks a bit like this:

had the cage fitter round last night and its booked in for 2 weeks time. Did a trial fit last night only got this far though:

Other half still to squeese in

 

[Tommo Two]

Finally got the back half of the cage in, right pig to get it in :x

Slight overlap about and inch, but the cage is tight against the bulkhead and rear arches.

Oh and new steering wheel

Now that the cage is in, started marking up floor plates for cutting, the floor behind the drivers seat has got some funny ridges in so gunna have to get round that

My little helper rumaging around

 

[G14RRV]

looking good

nice hog

 

[Tommo Two]

Spent saturday working with the cage fitter to get my cage bolting points welded in and a addition to the cage welded on

Apologies for the wanky iPhone pics,

Started by cleaning off the paint sealer and galvanising

Building foot plates to suit the weird contor of the floor plan

Welding on the door bar points

Day over, got A pillar points done, B pillar points done Rear wheel arch points still to do.

You can sort of see the harness bar in this pic that will be behind the driver, thats the little addition to this cage.

I pre painted large sections of the cage so once the cage is in i'll only have to spray bits an bobs.

I went for matt black over gloss black because the finish of matt is far easier to be consistent with rather than gloss.

 

[Tommo Two]

Cage is finaly finished, bolted in with better bolts (12.9 high tensile M-8's rather than the supplied 8.8 and with wider diameter washers) and all painted.

Bit of undersealing!

New purchases:

Had to make a bracket to give the fire extinguisher and cut off, external pulls clearance from the bonnet but not to close to the wiper

Little bracket and nossle for FX

Ran the pipe through a gromet close to the bottom of the fuse box as the FX itself will be roughly around the passenger seat area

Followed the same route for the pull cables

How it looks all finished

Need to mount the FX still so no pics of that yet.

Got my stickers for 'toe' points and in the process of getting some fabric tow straps

Also got my exhaust on, looks a bit wanky its quite loud as well so probably going to have to put a 90 degree down sweep on the end

Seat brakets to be made and internal cut off and pull cable to be fitted

 

[Breaker]

Looks good. 8)

Being picky.

Tow?

 

[Machine monkey]

The guy you got the braces off was his name Nick? Did he live near Abingdon in Oxfordshire?

 

[Machine monkey]

The guy you got the braces off was his name Nick? Did he live near Abingdon in Oxfordshire? Ha just noticed you live in Oxford so i guess it probably was Nick Another local guy

Tommo two as my name suggests i have access to lathes mills if you need anything making machining adjusted PM me. I noticed there is a passengers seat i will work for a ride round the track
Hats of to you for doing this bet its load of fun. Never got off my ass to do it.

 

[Tommo Two]

Looks good. 8)

Being picky.

Tow?

Lol it was intentional, i have a questionable sence of humor! I had to pay extra to get custom stickers made rather than the normal 'Tow' :x

The guy you got the braces off was his name Nick? Did he live near Abingdon in Oxfordshire? Ha just noticed you live in Oxford so i guess it probably was Nick Another local guy

Tommo two as my name suggests i have access to lathes mills if you need anything making machining adjusted PM me. I noticed there is a passengers seat i will work for a ride round the track
Hats of to you for doing this bet its load of fun. Never got off my ass to do it.

Indeed it is, met him a few times, (also live in abingdon) managed to get a passenger lap in one of his CSL's at the dalton baracks track day, and S*** THE BED it was good fun!

You already have a PM

 

[RLiu]

This is one of the best threads on the forum...i have just made plan for my retirement...

 

[Machine monkey]

Looks good. 8)

Being picky.

Tow?

Lol it was intentional, i have a questionable sence of humor! I had to pay extra to get custom stickers made rather than the normal 'Tow' :x

The guy you got the braces off was his name Nick? Did he live near Abingdon in Oxfordshire? Ha just noticed you live in Oxford so i guess it probably was Nick Another local guy

Tommo two as my name suggests i have access to lathes mills if you need anything making machining adjusted PM me. I noticed there is a passengers seat i will work for a ride round the track
Hats of to you for doing this bet its load of fun. Never got off my ass to do it.

Indeed it is, met him a few times, (also live in abingdon) managed to get a passenger lap in one of his CSL's at the dalton baracks track day, and S*** THE BED it was good fun!

You already have a PM

Nick can dive!! He is a crazy mo fo he is the same on roads!!! Great guy and loads of csls or rs4s what ever flavour u want