The road-going racing car - Sam McKee's BMW E36 328i
Discussion
Ah, OK - I was just taking a quick glance to see what the prices were like, but going further the postage alone is £37 from them and as you say, there's a risk of customs charges too. Many thanks for the UK-based supplier!
The brand names are often thrown around, but sourcing these things can be tricky. Perhaps that's why EBC are so common, they're very easy to get hold of here.
The brand names are often thrown around, but sourcing these things can be tricky. Perhaps that's why EBC are so common, they're very easy to get hold of here.
I was eventually planning to get a nice bend in the air feed pipe and run a duct from the bumper, using either a takeoff from the brake ducts or removing the foglight, but now you've pointed it out, a foglight shell might make a really good, well-fitted and semi-discreet inlet, I like that idea! 
I have an aluminium heatshield I made for the E46 (Dave F type of design), but it doesn't really match properly onto this car - everything is mounted in slightly different places relative to the suspension turret - and I'm loath to cut it up to make it fit.
Surprisingly, the 270° wraparound aluminium jobbie I got from ASH seems to do a decent enough job. When on the E46 without a heatshield, you could really feel the filter surface was hot even after light use, whereas here after a session on track it was absolutely fine. I appreciate this is an extremely rough gauge of what might be happening to the inlet temperature, but as this car has no OBD2 port I can't use my scanner to monitor the temp properly, which is annoying!
I'm planning to dyno the car completely standard anyway, to get a baseline before any engine modifications are made, but while I'm at it I would also test with this inlet system to investigate the effects. From inside the car it feels golden, but I'd like some data.
I have an aluminium heatshield I made for the E46 (Dave F type of design), but it doesn't really match properly onto this car - everything is mounted in slightly different places relative to the suspension turret - and I'm loath to cut it up to make it fit.
Surprisingly, the 270° wraparound aluminium jobbie I got from ASH seems to do a decent enough job. When on the E46 without a heatshield, you could really feel the filter surface was hot even after light use, whereas here after a session on track it was absolutely fine. I appreciate this is an extremely rough gauge of what might be happening to the inlet temperature, but as this car has no OBD2 port I can't use my scanner to monitor the temp properly, which is annoying!
I'm planning to dyno the car completely standard anyway, to get a baseline before any engine modifications are made, but while I'm at it I would also test with this inlet system to investigate the effects. From inside the car it feels golden, but I'd like some data.
I'll definitely have a play around with the intake, there may be some slight loss of low-end torque but I drive the car very rarely so it's hard to be sure. In any case, it's never really below 3500-4000rpm on track. An M50 inlet manifold is on the list but as you can see, I'm operating on an extremely tight budget and focusing on everything but power first!
On that note, rear brakes looking good:
Annoyingly, while I managed to get the right-hand rear bleed nipple to crack off with judicious application of molegrips, the left-hand one is well buggered and even if I tried to file flats onto it, they'd be tiny. So I'm going to borrow the services of a mate with a welder, stick a nut on the end and try to get it off that way. If that's no good, there are some replacement calipers floating around for £20-30. I really want to get at least the fluid changed and preferably braided hoses on before Bedford.
On that note, rear brakes looking good:
Annoyingly, while I managed to get the right-hand rear bleed nipple to crack off with judicious application of molegrips, the left-hand one is well buggered and even if I tried to file flats onto it, they'd be tiny. So I'm going to borrow the services of a mate with a welder, stick a nut on the end and try to get it off that way. If that's no good, there are some replacement calipers floating around for £20-30. I really want to get at least the fluid changed and preferably braided hoses on before Bedford.
If experiences I've read (and the dyno plots I've seen) are to be believed, a decent remap sees all the mid-range torque restored with no loss to the greatly improved top end! For this car, with it being track-only, I wouldn't mind so much but raising the rev limit to 7300rpm or even higher seems common and that'd be nice.
Anyway! We had a very successful outing at Bedford Autodrome on 1st November, using the GT layout, which I really like. Having done Palmersport three times all of the corners are familiar, but stringing the best bits of the four circuits together into one big lap is great. The day was run by Javelin who were very good, we only had to queue to get out on track once, there were no red flags and any suspect driving seemed to be dealt with pretty swiftly. The weather was awesome for this time of year, a bit damp first thing but drying up into a lovely sunny day!
The car was fantastic. We got over 150 miles done without any issue, it hasn't even used any oil and we drove back on that same set of Kumhos that just won't die! I'm very happy with the balance at the moment, it has perhaps a little too much understeer off-power, but as soon as you start opening the throttle it becomes neutral and transitions really nicely to playing funny buggers if you so choose. That gentle understeer proves useful for tuition, and I shared the driving with my fiancée, who acquitted herself very well for her first time on track! She loved the day and I don't think I'll struggle to find someone to come along on any future events
Looking decidedly filthy in the pit lane mid-morning:
And, of course, here you can find a little highlights reel from the day.
I realised when going through the footage that I didn't string together a single quick lap, but a traffic-free one at 8/10ths or so was 3:22, so there's a benchmark for future comparison.
Job list:
Anyway! We had a very successful outing at Bedford Autodrome on 1st November, using the GT layout, which I really like. Having done Palmersport three times all of the corners are familiar, but stringing the best bits of the four circuits together into one big lap is great. The day was run by Javelin who were very good, we only had to queue to get out on track once, there were no red flags and any suspect driving seemed to be dealt with pretty swiftly. The weather was awesome for this time of year, a bit damp first thing but drying up into a lovely sunny day!
The car was fantastic. We got over 150 miles done without any issue, it hasn't even used any oil and we drove back on that same set of Kumhos that just won't die! I'm very happy with the balance at the moment, it has perhaps a little too much understeer off-power, but as soon as you start opening the throttle it becomes neutral and transitions really nicely to playing funny buggers if you so choose. That gentle understeer proves useful for tuition, and I shared the driving with my fiancée, who acquitted herself very well for her first time on track! She loved the day and I don't think I'll struggle to find someone to come along on any future events
Looking decidedly filthy in the pit lane mid-morning:
And, of course, here you can find a little highlights reel from the day.
I realised when going through the footage that I didn't string together a single quick lap, but a traffic-free one at 8/10ths or so was 3:22, so there's a benchmark for future comparison.
Job list:
- Braided brake hoses! I keep putting this job off, but man alive do they need doing, there is so much sponge in the pedal and it does not inspire confidence. No fade with the Redstuff pads, though.
- Solve a slightly strange faint metallic clunk when the suspension articulates into a hard left turn, followed by a juddering in long lefts. Suspecting ball joint or bushes somewhere.
- A new set of boots: the car feels quite tyre-limited, generating no roll whatsoever but giving up and lower speeds than you might expect. Semi-slicks should solve that nicely!
wackojacko said:
Nice one fella.
I went to look at this car with James when he bought it, one of the cleanest 36 shells I had seen.
I may have an M50 manifold in the shed I'll have a look and let you know.
Cheers! I am extremely impressed by its condition, it's the strongest case for "buy on condition not mileage" I've ever seen. Plenty of scuffs, chips and crap touch-ups but fundamentally very sound. If you do have an M50 going spare I would be very interested, please PM me if you find one! I went to look at this car with James when he bought it, one of the cleanest 36 shells I had seen.
I may have an M50 manifold in the shed I'll have a look and let you know.
CS: Don't worry, I'll sort the manifold out, at the moment the grip/power balance is nice but with proper tyres I reckon I'll be wanting a bit more. As for a lightweight one-piece flywheel, I think you're right, though at the moment I'm happy because coming back to a snappy clutch and a cable throttle from my much more isolated E46 makes it feel wonderful. That said, it's always been my stance that if/when the clutch goes, the flywheel goes with it
Cheers Hamster - do give me a shout if you book a day at Bedford and I'll see if I can bring mine too, it'd be nice to compare, and, well.. any excuse!
Hi Hamster! I had a quick read through your thread last week, but I see you've now updated it with your experience on the Nankang NS-2Rs, very encouraging for me because I was eyeballing them on Camskill the other day! What size do you have, 225/45R17? Annoying they don't do any 225 sections in 16" and I've far too many 16" wheels to buy anything else. Your car looks great in the photos from Oulton.
My car hasn't been out yet this year, poor thing. I was hoping for March but my workload is particularly high at the moment, but happily it should ease off a little from next week so I can get her ready and get out there. I've got a couple of jobs to do, braided brake hoses need to go on (at last) and there's a weird judder from the front right which only shows itself when loaded up in left-handers or under heavy braking. Need to diagnose that, it didn't seem to get worse through my last track day but was more than a bit distracting and I don't want to leave it.
Might finally start getting some weight out too
My car hasn't been out yet this year, poor thing. I was hoping for March but my workload is particularly high at the moment, but happily it should ease off a little from next week so I can get her ready and get out there. I've got a couple of jobs to do, braided brake hoses need to go on (at last) and there's a weird judder from the front right which only shows itself when loaded up in left-handers or under heavy braking. Need to diagnose that, it didn't seem to get worse through my last track day but was more than a bit distracting and I don't want to leave it.
Might finally start getting some weight out too
Hamster69 said:
So how did you wangle a front page write up? Lol.
Heh, that made my day! I sent the "story so far" video in to PHTV and they must have liked it I shall have to see if they fancy sending me some stickers for it now!Hi Alex! Thanks, I feel much the same every time I drive this car. I'm planning to fire her up tomorrow after a winter spent hibernating under a cover, and expect all the same feelings to come back. Your coupé looks absolutely lovely, I bet you're really happy with that purchase! It looks deserving of a thread of its own, we E36 owners are pretty numerous on here and always like reading about another.
I'm currently umming and ahhing about what my first day of the season will be.. Blyton on 9th April, good value but miles away and been there twice already; Bedford on the 13th, familiar ground and good tuition circuit but it's the day after I'm at the Silverstone 6hr; Donington on the 20th, great circuit but expensive and I hear a bit scary if wet; or Mallory on the 23rd, dead cheap and on my doorstep but 3 groups per hour, not open pit lane. Hmmmmm.
Nice problem to have, mind.
Good stuff, look forward to reading more about yours! Thanks - I'm very happy with the soundtrack, finally sitting in the passenger seat at Bedford I found it's even better from there, really quite amazing for such a humble car.
Yesterday, the time finally came!
I got her out from under her cover, checked the battery voltage which was fine, reconnected it, opened her up with the central locking working normally, check all fluids OK, and...
https://youtu.be/DAeiiEgo6-Q
Yesterday, the time finally came!
I got her out from under her cover, checked the battery voltage which was fine, reconnected it, opened her up with the central locking working normally, check all fluids OK, and...
https://youtu.be/DAeiiEgo6-Q
Well, after the success of firing first time after a winter left alone, the E36 is back on the road! It's always nice to come back to this car, the difference from my E46 is night and day. So nimble and responsive, and sounds absolutely mega, it can make the most mundane journey feel exciting which is great
There were, however, a few niggles left to sort out before taking it to Bedford on Monday. A vagueness about the straightahead gave me another clue to what might be causing the judder I had in high-speed braking and hard left cornering, as it felt very similar to my E46 when it had worn out its front control arm bushes. Happily, I already had a set of Meyle ones for it, kindly thrown in when James sold me the car! I figured while I was working on the front end, I may as well put some polybushes in the front anti-roll bar mounts, since that had been on the to do list and they shouldn't take all that long.
The final job was braided brake hoses, which I've had in the garage since I bought the coilovers but have never made it onto the car. Not a job I fancied doing myself, concerned about the risk of breaking a hardline when undoing the unions, so I was prepared to make it the first job that had outside help. Sadly it turned out none of my usual mechanics much fancied it either, for the very same reasons.. Not sure whether to take it as a compliment that the only work I'm not confident to do myself, no other bugger wants to touch! I'll have to brave it sometime, but as my next event is so close, I settled for bleeding them again for now.
Off I go with my housemate kindly donating his time to give me a hand. Figured there's no point doing things by half, so Powerflex Black Series for the roll bar bushes. Dead easy to get the old ones out, two 13mm nuts which undid cleanly with only a 3/8" ratchet, lower the bar, tap the housing off, and the bushes are designed with a split in so they just slip off. I was pretty glad to be doing this job when I saw how worn and distorted the old ones were!
Turns out they trap a bit of moisture, though, as the bar was quite heavily rusted where they'd been. It also appears to be body-coloured, which is a nice bit of quality overkill!
Our next challenge was getting the new bushes over the bar. Black Series have been described as "corpse-stiff", and while I can't claim direct comparison, that can't be far wrong.. They're astoundingly hard, really only a tiny bit more pliable than ABS! I bought the 25mm bushes, as my car has the M-Technic Suspension Package (option 704) which ups the front anti-roll bar from 24mm to 25.4mm and the rear from 15 to 18mm. There was zero chance of opening them far enough to fit by hand, so we took an alternative approach..
Forcing firstly a spanner, then a 3/8" bar, and finally a deep 13mm socket into the split got it open far enough! With liberal application of Fairy liquid (amazingly good lubricant for poly bushes), a lot of arsing about and using the jack to press the bushes over the bar, we made it and got them in place. Fitting the clamps over the bushes was a whole new story, as they seemed pretty badly distorted too, and the bushes were so stiff they simply would not yield to get the bolt holes lined up properly. Hammer, Dremel, jack and swearing all combined to get us there in the end, though. If you're doing this job, my recommendations are to either stick to the normal purple bushes, or get new U-clamps to make the refitting smoother!
Next up, rear end also in the air so we can bleed the brakes properly. Droop? What's that?
We siphoned all the fluid we could get out of the reservoir, filled with fresh ATE Super Blue, and then set about bleeding from each caliper, starting with the furthest from the master cylinder. We put probably 100-150ml through each one, wanting to be sure we flushed it well, but when finished we had little to no improvement in the pedal which was disappointing. I half expected this, put it down to 18-year-old flexi hoses, and convinced myself to have a go at getting the braided ones on when I have a few weeks between events.
Since it wasn't yet too late in the day and Adam has unending patience for helping me dismantle my cars, we decided the front control arm bushes were a goer as well. These are dead easy to do on the face of it, the housings are held on with two 17mm bolts, which undid cleanly but did need a breaker bar. With the bolts out, you can get all the working space you need by rotating the end of the arm down, and then my weapon of choice for removing the old bushes is a gear puller. It's totally perfect for the job and with a bit of effort, walks them right off. This photo is from doing it on my E46, didn't take another yesterday, but it's exactly the same setup.
We did the right-hand side first, which was the one I had most concerns about (since I only had judder in hard left cornering, not right). Turns out that was entirely warranted, as this is how it came away!
Now, I don't have any pictures of the end of the arm, but about half an inch protrudes out of the back of the bush, so is exposed to the elements and corrodes like buggery. We tried our luck with the new bush, again with liberal application of Fairy and a small sledgehammer, but it wasn't having any of it. We could get it maybe a third of the way along, but no further, so decided to pull it off and take the Dremel to the corrosion on the end of the arm. This worked wonders, we got it really nice and cleaned up, and the bush went on with only four or five good taps. Perfect. If you're doing this yourself, don't worry about the scare stories about rubber bushes being impossible to fit without getting the wishbone in a press, just make sure you can clean the surface up really well and lubricate it properly! Our fitting technique was to tap it halfway on using the hammer and a block of wood, and then because of the arm protruding out, you need to switch to a suitably sized socket and tap against the hardest section of the rubber bush. 27mm was ideal for this.
With this lesson learnt, the other side got the same treatment straight away:
And voila. Probably took us fifteen minutes in total for that side. Proper surface prep is the answer!
So we got the wheels back on (damn sight quicker with my new battery impact gun, now my favourite tool
), dropped her down, and went for a drive. Feels great, the steering is back to being precise and direct, I get a bit more feedback, and couldn't replicate the judder at all. The ride has improved somewhat too, feeling a lot more "solid" over sharp inputs, which makes sense. Very happy to get those bits done, and now feel like the car's well prepped for Bedford, can't wait to get out there!
Huge thanks to Adam for his help through the day, I'd have been buggered trying to do any one of these jobs on my own, and his Dremel saved the day more than once
There were, however, a few niggles left to sort out before taking it to Bedford on Monday. A vagueness about the straightahead gave me another clue to what might be causing the judder I had in high-speed braking and hard left cornering, as it felt very similar to my E46 when it had worn out its front control arm bushes. Happily, I already had a set of Meyle ones for it, kindly thrown in when James sold me the car! I figured while I was working on the front end, I may as well put some polybushes in the front anti-roll bar mounts, since that had been on the to do list and they shouldn't take all that long.
The final job was braided brake hoses, which I've had in the garage since I bought the coilovers but have never made it onto the car. Not a job I fancied doing myself, concerned about the risk of breaking a hardline when undoing the unions, so I was prepared to make it the first job that had outside help. Sadly it turned out none of my usual mechanics much fancied it either, for the very same reasons.. Not sure whether to take it as a compliment that the only work I'm not confident to do myself, no other bugger wants to touch! I'll have to brave it sometime, but as my next event is so close, I settled for bleeding them again for now.
Off I go with my housemate kindly donating his time to give me a hand. Figured there's no point doing things by half, so Powerflex Black Series for the roll bar bushes. Dead easy to get the old ones out, two 13mm nuts which undid cleanly with only a 3/8" ratchet, lower the bar, tap the housing off, and the bushes are designed with a split in so they just slip off. I was pretty glad to be doing this job when I saw how worn and distorted the old ones were!
Turns out they trap a bit of moisture, though, as the bar was quite heavily rusted where they'd been. It also appears to be body-coloured, which is a nice bit of quality overkill!
Our next challenge was getting the new bushes over the bar. Black Series have been described as "corpse-stiff", and while I can't claim direct comparison, that can't be far wrong.. They're astoundingly hard, really only a tiny bit more pliable than ABS! I bought the 25mm bushes, as my car has the M-Technic Suspension Package (option 704) which ups the front anti-roll bar from 24mm to 25.4mm and the rear from 15 to 18mm. There was zero chance of opening them far enough to fit by hand, so we took an alternative approach..
Forcing firstly a spanner, then a 3/8" bar, and finally a deep 13mm socket into the split got it open far enough! With liberal application of Fairy liquid (amazingly good lubricant for poly bushes), a lot of arsing about and using the jack to press the bushes over the bar, we made it and got them in place. Fitting the clamps over the bushes was a whole new story, as they seemed pretty badly distorted too, and the bushes were so stiff they simply would not yield to get the bolt holes lined up properly. Hammer, Dremel, jack and swearing all combined to get us there in the end, though. If you're doing this job, my recommendations are to either stick to the normal purple bushes, or get new U-clamps to make the refitting smoother!
Next up, rear end also in the air so we can bleed the brakes properly. Droop? What's that?
We siphoned all the fluid we could get out of the reservoir, filled with fresh ATE Super Blue, and then set about bleeding from each caliper, starting with the furthest from the master cylinder. We put probably 100-150ml through each one, wanting to be sure we flushed it well, but when finished we had little to no improvement in the pedal which was disappointing. I half expected this, put it down to 18-year-old flexi hoses, and convinced myself to have a go at getting the braided ones on when I have a few weeks between events.
Since it wasn't yet too late in the day and Adam has unending patience for helping me dismantle my cars, we decided the front control arm bushes were a goer as well. These are dead easy to do on the face of it, the housings are held on with two 17mm bolts, which undid cleanly but did need a breaker bar. With the bolts out, you can get all the working space you need by rotating the end of the arm down, and then my weapon of choice for removing the old bushes is a gear puller. It's totally perfect for the job and with a bit of effort, walks them right off. This photo is from doing it on my E46, didn't take another yesterday, but it's exactly the same setup.
We did the right-hand side first, which was the one I had most concerns about (since I only had judder in hard left cornering, not right). Turns out that was entirely warranted, as this is how it came away!
Now, I don't have any pictures of the end of the arm, but about half an inch protrudes out of the back of the bush, so is exposed to the elements and corrodes like buggery. We tried our luck with the new bush, again with liberal application of Fairy and a small sledgehammer, but it wasn't having any of it. We could get it maybe a third of the way along, but no further, so decided to pull it off and take the Dremel to the corrosion on the end of the arm. This worked wonders, we got it really nice and cleaned up, and the bush went on with only four or five good taps. Perfect. If you're doing this yourself, don't worry about the scare stories about rubber bushes being impossible to fit without getting the wishbone in a press, just make sure you can clean the surface up really well and lubricate it properly! Our fitting technique was to tap it halfway on using the hammer and a block of wood, and then because of the arm protruding out, you need to switch to a suitably sized socket and tap against the hardest section of the rubber bush. 27mm was ideal for this.
With this lesson learnt, the other side got the same treatment straight away:
And voila. Probably took us fifteen minutes in total for that side. Proper surface prep is the answer!
So we got the wheels back on (damn sight quicker with my new battery impact gun, now my favourite tool
), dropped her down, and went for a drive. Feels great, the steering is back to being precise and direct, I get a bit more feedback, and couldn't replicate the judder at all. The ride has improved somewhat too, feeling a lot more "solid" over sharp inputs, which makes sense. Very happy to get those bits done, and now feel like the car's well prepped for Bedford, can't wait to get out there!Huge thanks to Adam for his help through the day, I'd have been buggered trying to do any one of these jobs on my own, and his Dremel saved the day more than once
Hamster69 said:
Good work. So glad I don't have to do this kind of thing on the floor!
To be fair, these jobs weren't any harder for being on the floor. We would have really struggled to do the roll bar bushes without being able to apply force with the jack, so that was easier than it would've been on a ramp! I'm pretty used to working on the driveway, it'll only bother me when I get to really serious stuff like clutch/flywheel or changing the diff.
Hmm, Phil, you're hardly filling me with confidence on the brake hoses
I'm hoping that plenty of Plusgas and a flared spanner should allow me to get them undone without rounding off the nuts, most of them look OK, but I won't know until I try. Thanks for the tips though, will bear them in mind and double-check the length of my hoses - front end packaging is quite tight already!Now off for a karting enduro this evening, WEC Silverstone 6hr tomorrow, and finally Bedford on Monday! Maximum motorsport this weekend, I imagine I'll be glad I still have the comfy standard seats in..
That sounds like no fun at all! I'll do a bit of exploratory work and see how many of the nuts I can crack off before committing. The Brembo Max discs, before Bedford I'd have told you I'm pretty happy with them, but now that I've completely nuked a fairly new set of Redstuff pads I'm not so sure... The rear brakes were running hot, so I don't know whether to blame the pretty excessive pad consumption on that or the discs, but I wasn't that impressed to have my wear sensor light come on at half past three! I'm going to try Mintex next, unfortunately they don't do 1155 for the rear, so it'll be 1144 rear and 1155 front.
Other than brake wear, though, everything went smoothly at Bedford yesterday, had a really good day and we notched up another 150 track miles which isn't bad going in my book turns out that judder wasn't cured by the lower wishbone bushes, but has now become really obviously a front wheel bearing, complete with howl at motorway speeds so that's now on my to-do list. Having looked at some DIYs it seems doable, and a lot easier than the rear one I had done on my E46.
Living in luxury in a garage for a change
Keeping in the spirit of family inclusion, this event was my mum's chance to try the car! She came as a complete novice, but progressed rather nicely from extremely nervous passenger to very smooth and tidy driver, and really enjoyed herself so that's what counts.
I did go out for a couple of solo runs, and here's a video from my quickest lap of the day, a 3'04.69 according to my video. The car felt great on the limit, really comes alive. It responds well to trailbraking and nicely adjustable on the power, I'm really happy with the balance. Not totally convinced by the new layout on Bedford's West circuit, the hairpin is much better but this new chicane doesn't flow properly for me and I liked the fast left/tricky braking/right-left transition of the old section.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETFdF7xXnjU
Next up, sprint at Curborough on 22nd May.
Other than brake wear, though, everything went smoothly at Bedford yesterday, had a really good day and we notched up another 150 track miles which isn't bad going in my book
turns out that judder wasn't cured by the lower wishbone bushes, but has now become really obviously a front wheel bearing, complete with howl at motorway speeds so that's now on my to-do list. Having looked at some DIYs it seems doable, and a lot easier than the rear one I had done on my E46.Living in luxury in a garage for a change
Keeping in the spirit of family inclusion, this event was my mum's chance to try the car! She came as a complete novice, but progressed rather nicely from extremely nervous passenger to very smooth and tidy driver, and really enjoyed herself so that's what counts.
I did go out for a couple of solo runs, and here's a video from my quickest lap of the day, a 3'04.69 according to my video. The car felt great on the limit, really comes alive. It responds well to trailbraking and nicely adjustable on the power, I'm really happy with the balance. Not totally convinced by the new layout on Bedford's West circuit, the hairpin is much better but this new chicane doesn't flow properly for me and I liked the fast left/tricky braking/right-left transition of the old section.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETFdF7xXnjU
Next up, sprint at Curborough on 22nd May.
Heh, yes, "Legoland" in Oxley Park is pretty distinctive! I was working in Cranfield when I bought this car, but back up in native Leicestershire now. I saw your thread earlier today, despite the cosmetics it looks like you've got yourself a bargain there! You can certainly have first refusal on the rear seats, they're exactly as you describe and in really good condition. Is it only the rear bench you want, or would you be interested in the fronts and door cards too?
I'm thinking of getting some weight out before my next event, but since the biggest gain will be had from removing the front seats I need to have a serious look at buckets and mounting options. The problem is that I need at least the driver's side on runners, with my other half being eight inches shorter than me!
I'm thinking of getting some weight out before my next event, but since the biggest gain will be had from removing the front seats I need to have a serious look at buckets and mounting options. The problem is that I need at least the driver's side on runners, with my other half being eight inches shorter than me!
geeks said:
Yup cant help but like the Legoland houses, had a look at one when they were being built and nearly bought ourselves one then!
Count yourself lucky you didn't, they might look pretty funky but they're an absolutely appalling design that retains water and then rots from the inside they've lost over a third of their value in five years and there's a huge residents' petition for remedial works and compensation going around! Fortunately I was only renting one for a year. Thanks for your kind offer of mechanical help and a look around your car, I would have been keen to take you up on that but as I mentioned, I'm out of MK now and living back up in Loughborough while I finish my degree. I hope this wouldn't be too far to come if you still want the rear seats, though! I'll send you a PM when I get them out, just depends how much time I have before my next event.
Paul, the saloon front seats are indeed different to coupé/convertible ones, and of course they don't fold forward! I think the mountings are the same, but I imagine it would be a real pain for your access to the rear of the car, even if you do only use it rarely. Mine aren't heated either, unfortunately, such luxury is reserved for my E46
New brake pads ordered, Mintex 1155 front and 1144 rear, £127.50 delivered. Not bad at all, scarcely more than just one set of DS3000s would cost and these seem to have better road manners too. I'll get the rears fitted straight away, and keep the fronts as spares, since there's still some life left in the Redstuff there. I'm going to leave the wear sensor off them as well, it'll get pretty tiresome replacing those, so I'll plug a new one in and just cable tie it up out of the way somewhere. If those Mintex pads are good, they're cheap enough for me to carry spares at a track day so it doesn't matter so much if I wear right through an inside pad unexpectedly!
Thanks for the kind words! It's always nice to hear people enjoy reading about the car.
Nice going on the E46 as your first car. I've had my E46 328i since I was your age, and I agree it's a really capable car but certainly more grown-up. Personally that suits me, as I do a few very long trips every year and I need something that can be a nice cruiser as well as good fun down a B-road, it's a nice balance for me. Everything about the E36 is more mechanical. The throttle certainly is a joy, but I'm always amazed how basic and visceral it is when I jump from one to the other! Definitely take one for a drive before you decide, because for me it's just a little too lacking in comfort and refinement to be an everyday car. It's absolutely perfect for this application, though and I reckon I'm getting a bit soft anyway..
Nice going on the E46 as your first car. I've had my E46 328i since I was your age, and I agree it's a really capable car but certainly more grown-up. Personally that suits me, as I do a few very long trips every year and I need something that can be a nice cruiser as well as good fun down a B-road, it's a nice balance for me. Everything about the E36 is more mechanical. The throttle certainly is a joy, but I'm always amazed how basic and visceral it is when I jump from one to the other! Definitely take one for a drive before you decide, because for me it's just a little too lacking in comfort and refinement to be an everyday car. It's absolutely perfect for this application, though
and I reckon I'm getting a bit soft anyway..Thanks Jordan, I've been watching yours with interest too, it's quite a transformation you've brought about! Never miss an opportunity to get it out on track, they love it
I'm undecided about the value of having a garage. We didn't need it at all, and it was a nice day, but I can definitely see how changing parts in the rain would get old very quickly.. I might take to just doing it on off-season days. More chance of it coming in handy with crap weather, and starting off with a cheaper entry fee makes it easier to justify.
I'm undecided about the value of having a garage. We didn't need it at all, and it was a nice day, but I can definitely see how changing parts in the rain would get old very quickly.. I might take to just doing it on off-season days. More chance of it coming in handy with crap weather, and starting off with a cheaper entry fee makes it easier to justify.
Hooray, a delivery
These certainly look purposeful. Nankang NS-2Rs, 205/55R16 in 180 (medium) compound. Apart from feeling pretty sticky, they're extremely stiff, just as I hoped! These will get fitted and run in next week, possibly on my E46 to begin with.
I also have one enormous nut.
This is for the new front hub still lurking in the box, all I need now is for my 46mm impact socket to turn up. Also there is a new rear brake pad wear sensor, which is going on the car but not into the pad. Speaking of pads, £120 has got me some well-reviewed Mintex goodness to try out:
Little busy with work at the moment but I'm hoping to get all this sorted next week. Exciting, if rather expensive, times
These certainly look purposeful. Nankang NS-2Rs, 205/55R16 in 180 (medium) compound. Apart from feeling pretty sticky, they're extremely stiff, just as I hoped! These will get fitted and run in next week, possibly on my E46 to begin with.
I also have one enormous nut.
This is for the new front hub still lurking in the box, all I need now is for my 46mm impact socket to turn up. Also there is a new rear brake pad wear sensor, which is going on the car but not into the pad. Speaking of pads, £120 has got me some well-reviewed Mintex goodness to try out:
Little busy with work at the moment but I'm hoping to get all this sorted next week. Exciting, if rather expensive, times
Ah, I didn't know these were now the control tyre for Compact Cup, that's encouraging. It's a shame they don't use an appropriate size for my car, their cast-offs could've made a good source!
I don't run the E36 on the road regularly and my next event is a sprint, so I won't be able to get enough miles on the new tyres to scrub them in properly. That's the only reason for putting them on the E46 for now. Handy advantage of having two very interchangeable cars, but I haven't decided yet, depends how soon I've got all my jobs done on the '36.
I don't run the E36 on the road regularly and my next event is a sprint, so I won't be able to get enough miles on the new tyres to scrub them in properly. That's the only reason for putting them on the E46 for now. Handy advantage of having two very interchangeable cars, but I haven't decided yet, depends how soon I've got all my jobs done on the '36.
JordanTurbo said:
To cancel the dash warning? Why not just solder the two wires together?
I did think about that, but I want to keep the option of the wear sensor. The car's still totally roadable and while I don't want to be using up sensors on track days where I'm carrying spare pads anyway, I might decide it'll come in handy at a later date. For the sake of a £6 sensor it beats running through a set of pads unexpectedly and having to drive home with one the backing plate, done that before!JordanTurbo said:
Cut the plug off of the old wear sensor and join the wires together on that. Then you can fit/remove it when required
Ah, I see. That's a good idea and would save me leaving my new wear sensor strapped under the car while it's not even in use, cheers. It's nice to have such a primitive sensor on a relatively modern car!geeks, how about that, small world.. you have mail
Hi guys - sorry for the delay in getting back to this, I've been very busy recently but having now finished my degree, I have a lot more time to spend on the car!
Thanks for the kind words, TroubledSoul - been enjoying your exploits too! A Z3 rack is on the hit list, and perhaps coming sooner rather than later since my track rod ends don't look too clever. The Nankangs have finally been tested, see below
No worries about bumping, I'm happy to answer anything I can, it's advice from forums that got me this far! First I must confess I haven't been in any other E36 on track, so my direct comparisons are limited, but I have driven a wide variety of other stuff from road to race spec so hope to know whether my car's at least near the mark. I'm very, very impressed with the HSD Dualtechs. Apart from the excellent value - I haven't seen any other reputable coilover that offers half as much adjustment in this price range - they've performed brilliantly. The fit is good, the damper adjustment range is quite wide and is very effective in playing with the stiffness and balance of the car, and the springs seem quite well judged. I would not recommend them for a road car, as they are very stiff. They don't feel jarring or underdamped or anything like that, just very stiff, but of course for a track-only car this is no problem. You can run kerbs without any issue, as you can see in my videos. You do indeed get front and rear top mounts, the fronts are camber/caster adjustable which is very nice, and the rears are useful because the standard ones have been known to fail.
Things to watch out for are the need for front spacers - I have 15mm hubcentric ones, nobody seems to tell you but there's no way they'll fit without - and difficulty accessing the rear brakes. I now can't get any of my tools into the rear caliper slider bolts because the HSD damper tube is much bigger than standard, so I'm currently taking the whole carrier off to get to the pads, but a 7mm hex key of the right size would fit. Additionally, I have the rear springs wound as high as they'll go and they wheels still tuck under the arch quite a bit, if you had 245-section rears this could present a problem but my 225s don't rub.
Hi Rossi - thanks for your kind comments! Your car looks to be in superb condition, a really fine example. Did you happen to dyno it before and after fitting the M50 manifold? I've done the calculations but hard data is tricky to come by. The manifold is certainly on my to-do list, but at the moment the very last thing the car needs is more power - the first thing it needs is a limited-slip diff!
This is from Curborough a couple of weeks ago, where I first got to try out the Nankang NS-2Rs. I have 205/55R16s in the medium (180) compound. Because the sprint series rules place anyone using track day tyres in Class A with the kit cars and the turbo nutter b
ds, I set my competitive times on my Kumhos, but had the NS-2Rs for testing in the morning and I did do some timed runs at the end of the day. Because my Kumhos are getting below 1.6mm in places I actually drove to the circuit on the semi-slicks, then took them off to compete, that's a bit backwards... Anyhow.
I personally probably couldn't put up with the NS-2Rs as a road tyre - they're not as stiff as I expected, but perhaps as this car already feels so stiff compared to my E46 daily I just didn't notice a little bit extra. Where they fall down is road noise, they howl something awful at high speed and generally throw out a lot of resonances you would never normally get. Made me glad I still have the interior in! But this isn't what they're for, nor what you want to hear about, so here's some track action comparing the Kumhos first to the Nankangs afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mlwNMihxow&fe...
Despite my lap being nowhere near as good, I shaved off over half a second with the NS-2Rs. In untimed practice in the morning the car felt far better, with sharper turn-in and considerably more overall grip. These tyres do need a little heat, and I had some understeer and a bit of a slippy feeling until they warmed up. What was most telling was bolting the Kumhos on having been running the NS-2Rs all morning - I immediately found myself sliding around on exit and slightly outbraking myself. The Kumhos been a very good tyre, but the NS-2Rs showed them up good and proper, and they only seem to get better the more you drive them. Absolute potential is certainly over a second a lap, which is a really good result! I'm sure more work on longer runs on track days, and figuring out the ideal pressures for them, will make them perform even better but I'm happy with them so far
Thanks for the kind words, TroubledSoul - been enjoying your exploits too! A Z3 rack is on the hit list, and perhaps coming sooner rather than later since my track rod ends don't look too clever. The Nankangs have finally been tested, see below
No worries about bumping, I'm happy to answer anything I can, it's advice from forums that got me this far! First I must confess I haven't been in any other E36 on track, so my direct comparisons are limited, but I have driven a wide variety of other stuff from road to race spec so hope to know whether my car's at least near the mark. I'm very, very impressed with the HSD Dualtechs. Apart from the excellent value - I haven't seen any other reputable coilover that offers half as much adjustment in this price range - they've performed brilliantly. The fit is good, the damper adjustment range is quite wide and is very effective in playing with the stiffness and balance of the car, and the springs seem quite well judged. I would not recommend them for a road car, as they are very stiff. They don't feel jarring or underdamped or anything like that, just very stiff, but of course for a track-only car this is no problem. You can run kerbs without any issue, as you can see in my videos. You do indeed get front and rear top mounts, the fronts are camber/caster adjustable which is very nice, and the rears are useful because the standard ones have been known to fail.
Things to watch out for are the need for front spacers - I have 15mm hubcentric ones, nobody seems to tell you but there's no way they'll fit without - and difficulty accessing the rear brakes. I now can't get any of my tools into the rear caliper slider bolts because the HSD damper tube is much bigger than standard, so I'm currently taking the whole carrier off to get to the pads, but a 7mm hex key of the right size would fit. Additionally, I have the rear springs wound as high as they'll go and they wheels still tuck under the arch quite a bit, if you had 245-section rears this could present a problem but my 225s don't rub.
Hi Rossi - thanks for your kind comments! Your car looks to be in superb condition, a really fine example. Did you happen to dyno it before and after fitting the M50 manifold? I've done the calculations but hard data is tricky to come by. The manifold is certainly on my to-do list, but at the moment the very last thing the car needs is more power - the first thing it needs is a limited-slip diff!
This is from Curborough a couple of weeks ago, where I first got to try out the Nankang NS-2Rs. I have 205/55R16s in the medium (180) compound. Because the sprint series rules place anyone using track day tyres in Class A with the kit cars and the turbo nutter b
ds, I set my competitive times on my Kumhos, but had the NS-2Rs for testing in the morning and I did do some timed runs at the end of the day. Because my Kumhos are getting below 1.6mm in places I actually drove to the circuit on the semi-slicks, then took them off to compete, that's a bit backwards... Anyhow.I personally probably couldn't put up with the NS-2Rs as a road tyre - they're not as stiff as I expected, but perhaps as this car already feels so stiff compared to my E46 daily I just didn't notice a little bit extra. Where they fall down is road noise, they howl something awful at high speed and generally throw out a lot of resonances you would never normally get. Made me glad I still have the interior in! But this isn't what they're for, nor what you want to hear about, so here's some track action comparing the Kumhos first to the Nankangs afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mlwNMihxow&fe...
Despite my lap being nowhere near as good, I shaved off over half a second with the NS-2Rs. In untimed practice in the morning the car felt far better, with sharper turn-in and considerably more overall grip. These tyres do need a little heat, and I had some understeer and a bit of a slippy feeling until they warmed up. What was most telling was bolting the Kumhos on having been running the NS-2Rs all morning - I immediately found myself sliding around on exit and slightly outbraking myself. The Kumhos been a very good tyre, but the NS-2Rs showed them up good and proper, and they only seem to get better the more you drive them. Absolute potential is certainly over a second a lap, which is a really good result! I'm sure more work on longer runs on track days, and figuring out the ideal pressures for them, will make them perform even better but I'm happy with them so far
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff