BG 182
great progress. wheels look alot better
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TrackCar & F30 330d
The car looks much better with the original wheels back on!
Brakes look huge too!
I assume you are but are you going to weld a full cage into it?
Brakes look huge too!
I assume you are but are you going to weld a full cage into it?
DC2 TypeR / E36 328i
E46 330d brakes a direct bolt on mate? I have some in the garage I'm selling so will put E36 compatable in the description if so
great project btw
great project btw
Only 325mm x 25mm, not toooo big. Eventually, just want to use it for now.
Yep direct bolt on, even the E36 lines screw straight in. Dreamers on eBay try to sell them for £100 a caliper, and forums even more due to this fact. Luckily I found a breaker and got the pair for £50 from a low miler!
Got round to sorting a number of bits sorted over the past couple of days. First up was to sort the electric cooling fan that didn't work at Oulton, then when trying to free it up broke off. Far easier to fit a slimline item than mess around fitting second hand BMW items so I picked one up.
Gave me the chance to remove the air conditioning radiator also, a bit more weight saved.
Fitted the slimline to the radiator then wired it up..
Ran it up to temperature to check the fan cut in and out as it should with the lower temperature fan switch. 87deg on, 82deg off.
Next up I decided to wire up the fog lights to the brake lights, so they come on at the same time to give a bit brighter 'full' light from the back under braking. The spoiler hides the rear window 3rd brake light, and the standard brake lights are quite small..
Whilst the front bumper was off I decided to do a similar mod as I did on the Clio, some ducts in the fog light which I can eventually use for the brakes. Take 2 x pieces of black guttering for £6..
Cut top and bottom, and adjust to shape..
Check fitment..
Once it was good enough marked up the holes which were already present from the fog light bracket, then drilled them through..
Bolted into place with some M6's and then sealed with some black adhesive sealant..
From the back the outlets can be seen, to which I'l be able to add ducting to in the near future..
Finished by fitted the bumper back to the car..
Job done. Booked on to Blyton next weekend, couple of bits to sort before then but nothing major :boring:
Gave me the chance to remove the air conditioning radiator also, a bit more weight saved.
Fitted the slimline to the radiator then wired it up..
Ran it up to temperature to check the fan cut in and out as it should with the lower temperature fan switch. 87deg on, 82deg off.
Next up I decided to wire up the fog lights to the brake lights, so they come on at the same time to give a bit brighter 'full' light from the back under braking. The spoiler hides the rear window 3rd brake light, and the standard brake lights are quite small..
Whilst the front bumper was off I decided to do a similar mod as I did on the Clio, some ducts in the fog light which I can eventually use for the brakes. Take 2 x pieces of black guttering for £6..
Cut top and bottom, and adjust to shape..
Check fitment..
Once it was good enough marked up the holes which were already present from the fog light bracket, then drilled them through..
Bolted into place with some M6's and then sealed with some black adhesive sealant..
From the back the outlets can be seen, to which I'l be able to add ducting to in the near future..
Finished by fitted the bumper back to the car..
Job done. Booked on to Blyton next weekend, couple of bits to sort before then but nothing major :boring:
Everything that has been done, including the car (excluding the seats which I already had), owes me around £1600. Thats including the new set of wheels and Federal tyres. That total will go down once I've sold the 18s (Approx <£200). Trailer stands me at £1100 after rewiring the entire thing and converting it to full LED.
Final few bits finished to get it ready for Blyton today. The exhaust has been wonky since I got the car, and it was simply down to the terrible mounts that the Scorpion systems have. It had 'DTM' style upswept tips, which I hated, so I decided to cut them off and sort the exhaust properly.
The whole thing needs replacing at some point with a better system, as its been messed around with by previous owners and I had many issues with the manifolds/downpipes a couple of weeks back. But for now its staying until I see the right system come up for the right price.
How it was:
Started by cutting the tips off, then the brackets. Bolted the rubbers onto the car, then jacked up the backbox into the right position. Cut two pieces of 3mm plate with a hole drilled in one end, and bent them to the shape of the backbox and welded them on. Now the backbox was in the right position, I cut two pieces of 3" straight pipe and tacked them on in the position I wanted. Welded them solid..
Much better and finally level. Thats about it for now!
The whole thing needs replacing at some point with a better system, as its been messed around with by previous owners and I had many issues with the manifolds/downpipes a couple of weeks back. But for now its staying until I see the right system come up for the right price.
How it was:
Started by cutting the tips off, then the brackets. Bolted the rubbers onto the car, then jacked up the backbox into the right position. Cut two pieces of 3mm plate with a hole drilled in one end, and bent them to the shape of the backbox and welded them on. Now the backbox was in the right position, I cut two pieces of 3" straight pipe and tacked them on in the position I wanted. Welded them solid..
Much better and finally level. Thats about it for now!
Megane r26
looking good jord, your project threads are always a delight to read an look at.
See what you mean about the 328 coupes being so cheap an availible an such a capable cars. My mate is currently drifting in the odc (open drift championship) currently running first too, an that car of his takes so much abuse an still pulls over 200bhp on his rolling road at his garage.
See what you mean about the 328 coupes being so cheap an availible an such a capable cars. My mate is currently drifting in the odc (open drift championship) currently running first too, an that car of his takes so much abuse an still pulls over 200bhp on his rolling road at his garage.
Looking good mate! But as I passed my test in the 90's, my inner child liked the DTM's
Ha, I would have left them if the thing was mounted level, but once I had cut the brackets off I decided to just lob the tips off too at the same time! Much prefer straight tips though, lol.
Yeah, I looked around for RWD cars that could be used pretty much 'as is' for a while..
MX5s - Not enough power for what I wanted
200SXs - Many tuning options but more to go wrong
E30s - Been there
E46s - Parts/consumables more expensive and dearer in the first place
...and the best value by far was an E36 328 pound for pound, especially with the power they have standard. The amount of second hand spares for them and ways to improve performance are endless, as seen in the thread.. well worth it really.
Megane r26
Yeah he swears by the beemer 6 cylinders, he uses them all the time for the odc while he's building his ls2 s/c'd vauxhall viva for the bdc.
See what you mean with the 200sx's he took one to the ring which gave him nothing but trouble while we were there, good job we took his car transporter.
If looked after they can be perfectly reliable, but once you start changing parts, turbos, increasing the boost, etc - the reliability just goes down and down. The idea behind me getting another 'toy' was to have something ready to use, half decent amount of power and something that I know wont break every other track day.
The 6cyls seem to get hammered and take it with ease, the Americans love bolting turbos to them and hammering them without issue also. Even better the engines can be picked up ridiculously cheap through the internet, unless you start looking at the S series engines lol.
Megane r26
Yeah the 200 he had had been played with abit, he only brought it to take ring an break for spares afterwards.
Yeah I've seen a few boosted Beemers on forums an YouTube, seems common. Seems like a perfect track car tbh, good power with little effort, take a thrashing an as you said cheap available spares which is ideal.
Any furture plans?
Nothing major this year, just plan to use it - handful of days planned over the next few months. Next job over the coming weeks is probably going to be ripping the ABS pump out and my manual valve putting in ideally, but il have more of an idea how it is bias wise on these wheels/tyres after next weekend.
After that probably trim any other weight off, all the sound deadening is still in which can come out, lightweight bonnet if one comes up cheap, etc. In the long run (probably in the New Year) il probably do the M50 manifold/throttle body, change the exhaust manifolds and exhaust, all in good time though - none of it 'needs' doing, just want to use it!
Megane r26
Awesome sounds like good plans.
Take it the m50 manifold an Thottle bodie are off the 325? What sort of gains will you obtain but doing that? An what's the difference between the manifolds?
Take it the m50 manifold an Thottle bodie are off the 325? What sort of gains will you obtain but doing that? An what's the difference between the manifolds?
Basically the M50 manifold has larger runners, increased flow, especially when combined with the larger throttle body.
Very common mod, if mapped gains from 20-30hp peak can be seen. M3 3.2 exhaust manifolds are straight bolt on to the block, being tubular over cast, giving a bit more if on at the same time
Very common mod, if mapped gains from 20-30hp peak can be seen. M3 3.2 exhaust manifolds are straight bolt on to the block, being tubular over cast, giving a bit more if on at the same time
Megane r26
Awesome, certainly an improvement over standard. Big cost to carry out the mod?
Rob
ClioSport Moderator
Jord, is there any similar mod that's possible on the 3.0???
Car's looking great btw.
Car's looking great btw.
Rob
ClioSport Moderator
I wanted to find more power, drastically.
It's 2003 n54 or whatever it is, shame.
I had saw a cool trick on another forum a while back that worked, so tried it myself.
Take 1 old wheel bolt and cut a few angled slats in it with a grinder..
What a brilliant idea
RC6`s are fantastic pads, I`m not surprised you like them.
If I ever sell my Golf, this is most likely exactly the sort of project I`ll be undertaking, so I`ll be following this with great interest.
See you on Saturday at Blyton
I'll be keeping an eye on this Jord, I'm thinking about getting an E36 328 to tide me over until my money settles down after buying a house and I can buy Jap again.
What a brilliant idea
RC6`s are fantastic pads, I`m not surprised you like them.
If I ever sell my Golf, this is most likely exactly the sort of project I`ll be undertaking, so I`ll be following this with great interest.
See you on Saturday at Blyton
Previously ran DS2500s on the Clio for years, then changed to RC6 on there and paired with Slicks they were the best brakes I had ever used. So with this I decided to go straight for them again - cant say I've had 'proper' use out of them as of yet but the feel is great.
just finished an E36 325>328 conversion and we're doing an E36>S54 conversion at the moment, got LOADS of spares! adjustable direct fit pedal pox, fibreglass bonnet, bootlid, safety devices cages (tacked) poly windows thermoformed, etc etc etc, let me know if you need anything
TrackCar & F30 330d
Exhaust looks much better!
Interesting gains from changing the manifold! Wish they F4R engine was like that!
Interesting gains from changing the manifold! Wish they F4R engine was like that!
Yeah but not got round to putting all the bits together for it yet. Got a bit from Blyton at the weekend as you'l see below..
Cool - may give you a call this week...
Well it was an early start on Saturday..
Got over to Blyton Park in plenty of time, signed on, briefing, etc etc. Out on the sighting laps the car had a bit of knocking from the O/S rear, turns out the top mount thread had sheared off so I needed to find another one sharpish. Whiteley was en-route and managed to stop at GSF to pick one up for me.
Once he arrived I got it fitted and back out onto the track - although not before being moaned at for having short sleeves on in the car (despite it being mentioned in the briefing that if you are in a closed top car this was acceptable), their reason being not having any door cards. Four years of track days in a Clio with no door cards and never a word said which does not make sense, but anyway. Looks like I will have to make some at some point.
First impressions were the 17s are miles better, and as expected having some half decent tyres on makes a lot of difference. There is so much more grip and feel there, getting a bit more of an idea how the car drives after each session.
Just before dinner I started to have a few issues with the steering. Every time I went round a left hand corner the steering would lock up and it would be hard to get the wheel back straight again. It seemed to get progressively worse so I came back in for a look.
Checked the steering rack mounting, track rod ends, bearings, wheels were tight etc. Headed back out to see if it happened again and the issue was still there.
Came back in again and had a look down from on top of the engine to see the steering column linkage was nice and shiny - obviously been rubbing on something. Looking next to it the engine mount had failed and split in two completely - so the engine wasn't actually attached on the O/S. Jacked the car up and then the engine, and there was a good few inches of up and down play in the engine...
So when I had been turning, the engine had been leaning over and locking the steering column linkage - not good really. With no spare engine mount and the nearest factors a good drive away I had no other option apart from calling it a day.
Got a small amount of video footage before lunch, nothing interesting mind. I was surprised at how fun the track was with it being small and flat, it flows really well and there is a good mix of corners. The only thing I disliked was the pit/paddock entry as you will see in the clip below - if a car is still out on track and someone is going in you really cant help having to slow right down, bit of a track design flaw in my opinion..
Hung around for the afternoon to see a few other people on track then got the car loaded up on the trailer and ready to go. Heading out of Blyton through the village there was a massive BANG, followed by a lot of vibration. Turns out the N/S rear on my E46 had blown out.
BMW in their wisdom only put a space saver in as a spare... f*cking pointless if you are towing! Ended up having to unload the E36 on the side of the road, take its back wheels off and fit them onto my E46 so I could carry on. Lucky I have a BMW with the same fitment as a track day car and not something else, or I've no idea what I would have done!
All in all it was a disaster of a weekend, but at least I managed to drive it again and get a bit more feel on proper wheels and tyres. Come to the conclusion that you have to accept that there are going to be teething issues with it for the first couple of outings, especially with the things like engine mount/top mounts/etc, the stuff that can't be predicted.
Next outing is Anglesey late September, so going to aim to get the engine mounts sorted by then (poly or solid replacements), along with a collection of common spares (top mounts, front hubs, etc) in case of anything similar on the day again. :boring:
Last edited by a moderator:
Donny_Dog
ClioSport Club Member
Jim's rejects
I guess this is the 'con' of not having a track car that is road worthy. For the tax + insurance (money saved from trailer + tow car etc) I can test my car on the road so I can get the maximum out of the track day. But having said that - I have to keep with in road worthy mods - or at least keep them interchangeable on the track day.
Good old Whiteley, he seems like a sound chap. I will Pm him about being betroved to my daughter.
Good old Whiteley, he seems like a sound chap. I will Pm him about being betroved to my daughter.
Its not so much just tax and insurance, you have to have a set of road tyres, MOT, and the rest. Not to mention if you f*ck it up on a track day its the getting it home (been there and done that many times before I started trailering!) I suppose you could have it on the road and still take it on a trailer, but thats paying out for both so its costing you double and not saving money like you usually would!
The thing that sways it for me is there really isnt many places you can 'test' things like you would on track, i.e driving style/speed/etc, without the looming risk of being stopped/caught and getting points/fine. I need my licence for my job, if I get points/loose it = no job!
The thing that sways it for me is there really isnt many places you can 'test' things like you would on track, i.e driving style/speed/etc, without the looming risk of being stopped/caught and getting points/fine. I need my licence for my job, if I get points/loose it = no job!
Donny_Dog
ClioSport Club Member
Jim's rejects
R888's and AA cover for winners
Unfortunately thats what I used to think too, lol.
Indeed I've had R888s, A048s and Pilot Sport Cups. All road legal but all last a long while after the wear markers, I've ran r888s bald + further in the past. Not something I want to be replacing just to be able to drive it on the road, especially when there are better (track) tyres out there for less money through various people, especially slicks. I'm not bothered about having 2-3 sets of wheels, but I dont want to be paying for road tyres just to be able to use it on the road.
AA, RAC and Flux Rescue... been there and done all three. RAC refused to recover me from Cadwell Park, I ended up having to drive the car with no clutch for 30miles to get far enough away for the AA to recover me through a friends policy. AA have refused from Mallory and Oulton before too. Its all down to who you get showing up when you call out, sometimes you will get away with it and others not. It seems from my own experience and others that do track days with us its more common nowadays (compared to when we started 4 years ago) for them to refuse, they seem to be cottoning on to the track day malarky unfortunately. This is the sole reason I decided to start trailering, and its saved me many times since I did!
Indeed I've had R888s, A048s and Pilot Sport Cups. All road legal but all last a long while after the wear markers, I've ran r888s bald + further in the past. Not something I want to be replacing just to be able to drive it on the road, especially when there are better (track) tyres out there for less money through various people, especially slicks. I'm not bothered about having 2-3 sets of wheels, but I dont want to be paying for road tyres just to be able to use it on the road.
AA, RAC and Flux Rescue... been there and done all three. RAC refused to recover me from Cadwell Park, I ended up having to drive the car with no clutch for 30miles to get far enough away for the AA to recover me through a friends policy. AA have refused from Mallory and Oulton before too. Its all down to who you get showing up when you call out, sometimes you will get away with it and others not. It seems from my own experience and others that do track days with us its more common nowadays (compared to when we started 4 years ago) for them to refuse, they seem to be cottoning on to the track day malarky unfortunately. This is the sole reason I decided to start trailering, and its saved me many times since I did!
bad luck with the car.
Couldn`t you have made a temporary `solid mount` with a length of threaded bar and 4 nuts ? :S
I suppose these teething problems are to be expected. Never saw you out on track. I came across the other 2 E36`s, I`m not sure if you were together ? Some of their driving was `interesting`..
If you didn`t have the same wheels on the track car, could you have put the space-saver on the front (less load) and the front wheel onto the rear ? Thats what I`ve have had to do.
Couldn`t you have made a temporary `solid mount` with a length of threaded bar and 4 nuts ? :S
I suppose these teething problems are to be expected. Never saw you out on track. I came across the other 2 E36`s, I`m not sure if you were together ? Some of their driving was `interesting`..
If you didn`t have the same wheels on the track car, could you have put the space-saver on the front (less load) and the front wheel onto the rear ? Thats what I`ve have had to do.
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