E36 cheap track day toy
Discussion
Thought it was about time I started a build thread as I have read most of the others out there.
The story starts summer 2011. I was invited to go to the Nurburgring with some friends who had been the year before. This sounded like my kind of fun, but I really didn't want to risk my daily drive. At this point I should point out I'm a mechanic so I wasn't completely daunted by the idea of buying a car for a weekend of fun. Then it hit me, parked out the back of our garage was an old BMW 318is. It had basically been dumped buy another member of staff. It was black and in terrible condition as it had been sitting there so long it had gone green. I offered the owner 300 quid and it was mine. Managed to get her running in my lunch hour, new battery and some lubrication basically. That afternoon I MOT'd her and was surprised to find very little mechanically wrong. Bit of play in a ball joint, few split gators.
I can't find a picture of her as bought, but this is about a week later parked next to my daily drive.
This is where the spending starts. I hit eBay, looked up some new ball joints. But found it just as cheap to replace the whole lower front arms. While I was there I had a look around. Never had I realised how popular a car to modify I had bought. There is everything you can think of, and some of it is quite cheap. So in the end I came away with 2 lower arms some powerflex bushes and a coil over kit.
I also popped in some new brembo pads and a set of bfgoodridge hoses as the old ones were starting to crack.
She needed three new tyres so I bit the bullet and went for 4 picking Avons as a compromise between price and grip. Seen as I was taking the tyres off, I thought I would give the wheels a bit of a spray up in the spirt of a cheap car challenge.
For a bit of a rub down and spray I was very pleased with them. So that was it. A few silly stickers and we were off.
As you can tell she made it there. Even better it made it round the ring, many times and set an 11.11. For a 15 year old with 139000 on the clock not bad. Also it made it home. Although we were experiencing quite a drop in power by the end of the day at the track, cooked valve seats I guessed.
Anyway when I got home I had a choice, try and recoup the just under 1000 pounds or keep her?
Too late, I was in love. Two year later she has had a few more grand spent and been to Snetterton , Caldwell, Rockingham and back to the Nurburgring again.
The story starts summer 2011. I was invited to go to the Nurburgring with some friends who had been the year before. This sounded like my kind of fun, but I really didn't want to risk my daily drive. At this point I should point out I'm a mechanic so I wasn't completely daunted by the idea of buying a car for a weekend of fun. Then it hit me, parked out the back of our garage was an old BMW 318is. It had basically been dumped buy another member of staff. It was black and in terrible condition as it had been sitting there so long it had gone green. I offered the owner 300 quid and it was mine. Managed to get her running in my lunch hour, new battery and some lubrication basically. That afternoon I MOT'd her and was surprised to find very little mechanically wrong. Bit of play in a ball joint, few split gators.
I can't find a picture of her as bought, but this is about a week later parked next to my daily drive.
This is where the spending starts. I hit eBay, looked up some new ball joints. But found it just as cheap to replace the whole lower front arms. While I was there I had a look around. Never had I realised how popular a car to modify I had bought. There is everything you can think of, and some of it is quite cheap. So in the end I came away with 2 lower arms some powerflex bushes and a coil over kit.
I also popped in some new brembo pads and a set of bfgoodridge hoses as the old ones were starting to crack.
She needed three new tyres so I bit the bullet and went for 4 picking Avons as a compromise between price and grip. Seen as I was taking the tyres off, I thought I would give the wheels a bit of a spray up in the spirt of a cheap car challenge.
For a bit of a rub down and spray I was very pleased with them. So that was it. A few silly stickers and we were off.
As you can tell she made it there. Even better it made it round the ring, many times and set an 11.11. For a 15 year old with 139000 on the clock not bad. Also it made it home. Although we were experiencing quite a drop in power by the end of the day at the track, cooked valve seats I guessed.
Anyway when I got home I had a choice, try and recoup the just under 1000 pounds or keep her?
Too late, I was in love. Two year later she has had a few more grand spent and been to Snetterton , Caldwell, Rockingham and back to the Nurburgring again.
Edited by Hamster69 on Tuesday 3rd November 01:09
Edited by Hamster69 on Saturday 23 January 07:28
Ok so I had a choice, sell it and move on or get ready for the next challenge.
I don't think there were to many people in the market for a black and orange 3 with a lack of power. Even if there were, I was hooked.
Now I don't really believe in doing things by half measures. When I was a younger tech I used to restore classic 911s and love a proper engine rebuild as opposed to just sorting the problem. I decided for now I could only really afford to do the top end, so I borrowed a mates unit and got stripping.
Once the head was off, I had it skimmed and gave it a very good clean. I also purchased some cams. I went with catcams as for the money they seemed to provide a fair bit more than Piper or Kent.
So that's the lack of power sorted and hopefully a dollop more besides. Just to finish off I made up a bracket to take a twin cone filter and fitted a suitably noisy back box.
Driving back to work after a couple of weekends hard graft it proved to be well worth all the effort.
Now I had a track day toy with permanent orange bits. So it's time to do the obvious, shed weight. I set about removing everything but the dash.
And fitting an omp steering wheel.
Three tins of hamerite later it was ready for the seats and harnesses to go in.
Found a couple of cheep plastic M3 mirrors to replace the huge metal fly swatters. And she was ready for here first test at Snetterton in early 2012.
We all had a great day despite a lot of snow and sliding around.
The weight loss and top end build worked a treat. After lunch I gave the keys to a mate who runs a 328i. When he returned he had a little think. "To be honest I thought you were going to f*ck it up, but that is now really good fun. It could just do with some more grip". I took this as high praise and went to the pub.
I don't think there were to many people in the market for a black and orange 3 with a lack of power. Even if there were, I was hooked.
Now I don't really believe in doing things by half measures. When I was a younger tech I used to restore classic 911s and love a proper engine rebuild as opposed to just sorting the problem. I decided for now I could only really afford to do the top end, so I borrowed a mates unit and got stripping.
Once the head was off, I had it skimmed and gave it a very good clean. I also purchased some cams. I went with catcams as for the money they seemed to provide a fair bit more than Piper or Kent.
So that's the lack of power sorted and hopefully a dollop more besides. Just to finish off I made up a bracket to take a twin cone filter and fitted a suitably noisy back box.
Driving back to work after a couple of weekends hard graft it proved to be well worth all the effort.
Now I had a track day toy with permanent orange bits. So it's time to do the obvious, shed weight. I set about removing everything but the dash.
And fitting an omp steering wheel.
Three tins of hamerite later it was ready for the seats and harnesses to go in.
Found a couple of cheep plastic M3 mirrors to replace the huge metal fly swatters. And she was ready for here first test at Snetterton in early 2012.
We all had a great day despite a lot of snow and sliding around.
The weight loss and top end build worked a treat. After lunch I gave the keys to a mate who runs a 328i. When he returned he had a little think. "To be honest I thought you were going to f*ck it up, but that is now really good fun. It could just do with some more grip". I took this as high praise and went to the pub.
Edited by Hamster69 on Sunday 27th October 08:34
Cracking use of an unwanted car.
Can I offer some constructive criticism with regards to how your harnesses are mounted?
After a heated group debate over one of my friends cars having them mounted as yours are, it concludes that for optimum safety for yourself that they should be mounted parallel to your shoulder.
Can I offer some constructive criticism with regards to how your harnesses are mounted?
After a heated group debate over one of my friends cars having them mounted as yours are, it concludes that for optimum safety for yourself that they should be mounted parallel to your shoulder.
Always pleased to get constructive critism Martin. I know the best mount for the torso straps would be to a cage. But I don't have one, yet. Which leaves the parcel shelf or the original rear belt mounts. The shelf is in no way strong enough to take any real force, so as the rear seat belt mounts were designed for this kind of stress I opted for them. When time and especially funds allow a cage is high on the list though.
Edited by Hamster69 on Saturday 23 January 07:34
Right first track day done all seemed well. Now for more grip. I know the best thing is better if not bigger rubber. But having not worn a mm of the Avons yet I didn't really want to shell out again. Not unless a bargain came along. So lets search eBay again and see what's out there. Well the brembo pads that have done the ring and Snett are getting low. Late braking into a corner has to be almost as much use as grip. So new brembo front discs and DS3000 pads all round is a good start.
Tidied up the calipers while I was in there. Then I came across an LSD from a 328i. I bought it as the guy only lived just up the road. Little did I know what a world of work I was letting myself in for. There are 3 sizes of e36 diff, not including the compact. Small, medium and large. I knew a large was out of the question. But the 328 runs the same LSD as the M3 but in a medium case. Which means it will fit in my rear axel. So I happily started stripping out my old little diff. Managed with some struggling to get the new one in, then found the drive shafts didn't fit. More research later I found that the 328 drive shafts would fit in my rear hubs. So along with new nuts and bolts I found 2 used 328 shafts. eBay is very useful some times.
Finally I got it all bolted together. Drove out the door to hear one hell of a knocking noise. So back on the ramp. Where I pushed the prop so far back to fit in the new diff I had ripped the center bearing apart. Ordered a new bearing, and set about making a modified bracket to hold it. My gearbox not from a 328, meant the whole prop was slightly further back and the bearing had to be moved. Once again I drove out of the workshop. Success.
Time for some more fun, this time Rockingham
Unfortunately we didn't get many pics on the track but we did have a great day. It rained all morning, but the afternoon was dry and the track kept getting quicker and quicker. For the first time I felt like I could push the car beyond its original road going limits. The LSD and brakes making it more forgiving but also simply faster.
Tidied up the calipers while I was in there. Then I came across an LSD from a 328i. I bought it as the guy only lived just up the road. Little did I know what a world of work I was letting myself in for. There are 3 sizes of e36 diff, not including the compact. Small, medium and large. I knew a large was out of the question. But the 328 runs the same LSD as the M3 but in a medium case. Which means it will fit in my rear axel. So I happily started stripping out my old little diff. Managed with some struggling to get the new one in, then found the drive shafts didn't fit. More research later I found that the 328 drive shafts would fit in my rear hubs. So along with new nuts and bolts I found 2 used 328 shafts. eBay is very useful some times.
Finally I got it all bolted together. Drove out the door to hear one hell of a knocking noise. So back on the ramp. Where I pushed the prop so far back to fit in the new diff I had ripped the center bearing apart. Ordered a new bearing, and set about making a modified bracket to hold it. My gearbox not from a 328, meant the whole prop was slightly further back and the bearing had to be moved. Once again I drove out of the workshop. Success.
Time for some more fun, this time Rockingham
Unfortunately we didn't get many pics on the track but we did have a great day. It rained all morning, but the afternoon was dry and the track kept getting quicker and quicker. For the first time I felt like I could push the car beyond its original road going limits. The LSD and brakes making it more forgiving but also simply faster.
Edited by Hamster69 on Monday 8th September 21:45
That looks like a well sorted car! Good work
I had an e30 2.0 as a track car a few years ago, 180'000 miles and it still went to the ring, did 15 laps in one weekend averaging 9.30 btg.
Drove the wheels off that car, maxed it out in top gear into the foxhole approx 125 mph up the other side lol, loved it.
Wish I had never sold it, you can't beat BMW, simple to work on, parts readily available and cheap!
I had an e30 2.0 as a track car a few years ago, 180'000 miles and it still went to the ring, did 15 laps in one weekend averaging 9.30 btg.
Drove the wheels off that car, maxed it out in top gear into the foxhole approx 125 mph up the other side lol, loved it.
Wish I had never sold it, you can't beat BMW, simple to work on, parts readily available and cheap!
Right so that's Rockingham done.
Was starting to feel like I was happy. No the car is not the fastest thing in the world. I do work for Mercedes and used to work for Porsche so I know what a fast car feels like. But she is now a lot of fun and went to the Nurburgring, round all day and home on three tanks of fuel. So a cheap toy she is. Also the next step I feel would be some better rubber and amazingly the Avons are still like new. So like I said before unless a bargain comes along I'm not going to shell out on bigger wheels and tyres because anything decent would double the cost so far.
Then this happened.
There I was happily skimming through our own pistonHeads classifieds. There was a set of 17" team dynamics from an old e36 rally car. Now I still wasn't going to throw money away and delivery of these could have cost a bomb. But I phoned the seller. Who turned out to live 10 miles up the road and offered to drop them off on his way home that afternoon. Oh go on then! I really can't remember what I paid but I know it was about a quarter of the new price.
Given a close look you can see why. They had obviously been rallied hard, with huge chips in what I counted to be 5 layers of gold paint which had been applied with a brush. But they were round, unbuckled and considerably bigger than my orange wheels. Now I really couldn't afford to get them refurbed, especially to go on a toy. So time to get out the die grinder, glass paper, scotchbright and hit the music.
About 2 weeks of lunch hours and evenings later I had some very clean wheels. Originally I was going to go orange again. But as the Rockingham pictures show, the new brakes were very dusty. Which made the car just look dirty before we even arrived at a track. So black it is.
Found myself a set of part worn 225/40/17 bolted them on and off we went to Calwell park.
Oh yeah I forgot before we went I stripped out the kidneys, painted the oil cooler and fitted some new black grills. Suddenly starting to look a bit more like racer and not a toy.
Both of my other e36 owning mates came along and another good day was had despite the terrible weather and watching a guy in a 911GT3RS completely mangle it on the main straight.
Was starting to feel like I was happy. No the car is not the fastest thing in the world. I do work for Mercedes and used to work for Porsche so I know what a fast car feels like. But she is now a lot of fun and went to the Nurburgring, round all day and home on three tanks of fuel. So a cheap toy she is. Also the next step I feel would be some better rubber and amazingly the Avons are still like new. So like I said before unless a bargain comes along I'm not going to shell out on bigger wheels and tyres because anything decent would double the cost so far.
Then this happened.
There I was happily skimming through our own pistonHeads classifieds. There was a set of 17" team dynamics from an old e36 rally car. Now I still wasn't going to throw money away and delivery of these could have cost a bomb. But I phoned the seller. Who turned out to live 10 miles up the road and offered to drop them off on his way home that afternoon. Oh go on then! I really can't remember what I paid but I know it was about a quarter of the new price.
Given a close look you can see why. They had obviously been rallied hard, with huge chips in what I counted to be 5 layers of gold paint which had been applied with a brush. But they were round, unbuckled and considerably bigger than my orange wheels. Now I really couldn't afford to get them refurbed, especially to go on a toy. So time to get out the die grinder, glass paper, scotchbright and hit the music.
About 2 weeks of lunch hours and evenings later I had some very clean wheels. Originally I was going to go orange again. But as the Rockingham pictures show, the new brakes were very dusty. Which made the car just look dirty before we even arrived at a track. So black it is.
Found myself a set of part worn 225/40/17 bolted them on and off we went to Calwell park.
Oh yeah I forgot before we went I stripped out the kidneys, painted the oil cooler and fitted some new black grills. Suddenly starting to look a bit more like racer and not a toy.
Both of my other e36 owning mates came along and another good day was had despite the terrible weather and watching a guy in a 911GT3RS completely mangle it on the main straight.
Ok, so this is the last of the back story bringing us up to date. Caldwell had gone well. But I did have an issue, well two. The first and most worrying. The tyres were touching the wheel arches over bumps. The offset on these wheels is huge, which seems to be great for handling, but not so great for keeping the wheel inside the arch. I gave the arches an experimental role. It went well on the fronts but the rears were not going to role. Mostly because of the rust. The only really bad bit of the body. It was time to decide. Back to the old wheels or some major body work. I'm no painter either so it could be expensive. After a lot of looking around I found the answer. Hard Motorsport produce rivet on flared arches. Which means I can cut out the old rust arch underneath. Yes even I thought I was mad but I went for it.
So the process basically involved me cutting out the arch, then rolling the inner skin to meat the outer. Welding the two together. Painting the whole thing with hamerite then mounting the new wings over the top. A long and hot job.
You get all four in a set so I proceeded to cut the fronts off as well. Much easier without the welding as its only single skin.
Managed to get the arches sprayed by servicing our body shop managers wife's car. I don't mind a bit of a barter.
The other problem. With all the weight loss the back end was becoming a bit lively. The new tyres had loads of grip, just needed to get it down. Oh we'll seen as I was doing some bodywork anyway.
This time painted myself with spay tins, but I'm very pleased with the out come. It defiantly works to.
So the process basically involved me cutting out the arch, then rolling the inner skin to meat the outer. Welding the two together. Painting the whole thing with hamerite then mounting the new wings over the top. A long and hot job.
You get all four in a set so I proceeded to cut the fronts off as well. Much easier without the welding as its only single skin.
Managed to get the arches sprayed by servicing our body shop managers wife's car. I don't mind a bit of a barter.
The other problem. With all the weight loss the back end was becoming a bit lively. The new tyres had loads of grip, just needed to get it down. Oh we'll seen as I was doing some bodywork anyway.
This time painted myself with spay tins, but I'm very pleased with the out come. It defiantly works to.
Edited by Hamster69 on Sunday 4th August 08:59
So there she is one year on from the Nurburgring trip. Quite a different car really. Before we hit the autobahn there was only one or two things I wanted to do. I had a few clutch problems at Cadwell I suspect from the clutch pedal over traveling after the footwell floor was removed. Anyway I made up a pedal stop. Then I decided to remove the gear box and inspect as I suspect it was the original clutch. The center plate was far to thin to risk another trip to Germany on it, it had to go. As you can probably tell I'm not doing this very cheaply any more. So stage 2 Kevlar clutch, in you go.
Checker plate floor also to give back a flat footwell.
That's it then we are off. Back to the Nurburgring.
My friends displaying there inability to communicate, standing around Will's GTR and my box of bits on a train to France.
Another great trip was had by all. We all came away in one piece with huge smiles. This year she set a 9.52. A fair improvement from 11.11 last year. But what a fun toy now. I genuinely believe its all about the grip. If you have the confidence in the car. I'm proud to say we hustled two 911gt3s, overtook two e46 m3s and an SL55. In my little 15 year old 1.9. I'm not saying she is quicker than those cars, she isn't. But at that moment in that set of corners, if you have the grip and they don't. Great fun!
After the track we all parked up our assorted ring weapons, quick pic then beer!
She made it home again to. No lack of power this year.
Checker plate floor also to give back a flat footwell.
That's it then we are off. Back to the Nurburgring.
My friends displaying there inability to communicate, standing around Will's GTR and my box of bits on a train to France.
Another great trip was had by all. We all came away in one piece with huge smiles. This year she set a 9.52. A fair improvement from 11.11 last year. But what a fun toy now. I genuinely believe its all about the grip. If you have the confidence in the car. I'm proud to say we hustled two 911gt3s, overtook two e46 m3s and an SL55. In my little 15 year old 1.9. I'm not saying she is quicker than those cars, she isn't. But at that moment in that set of corners, if you have the grip and they don't. Great fun!
After the track we all parked up our assorted ring weapons, quick pic then beer!
She made it home again to. No lack of power this year.
Edited by Hamster69 on Monday 8th September 21:54
Unfortunately this year funds are keeping the toy in the garage. But I have booked Donington for later on in the summer. Two weeks ago I thought I should start her up and have a run. Started on its own battery first time. Not bad after 2 months laid up. Took her into work and had a general look over. Seem to have a bit of play in the o/s/f bottom balljoint. Another thing to sort before she is track bound again. As I had her on the ramp I took a few pics of the bits I hadn't really shown before.
Limited slip diff wedged in.
With the larger driveshafts to fit. Still bearing the breakers marks.
Engine with the new top hose temp switch and electric fan fitted. It has a half speed switch on the dash which I like to flip when we come of the track. Not really to cool the rad as the system works fine, but more to fan the whole engine bay as everything gets very hot when hacking around in the summer.
Wearing her track stickers with pride. Would like to get a few more different places on there when I can. Obviously the Nurburgring sticker had pride of place.
Limited slip diff wedged in.
With the larger driveshafts to fit. Still bearing the breakers marks.
Engine with the new top hose temp switch and electric fan fitted. It has a half speed switch on the dash which I like to flip when we come of the track. Not really to cool the rad as the system works fine, but more to fan the whole engine bay as everything gets very hot when hacking around in the summer.
Wearing her track stickers with pride. Would like to get a few more different places on there when I can. Obviously the Nurburgring sticker had pride of place.
Edited by Hamster69 on Sunday 4th August 09:09
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