Project E36 - Track Day Car
Discussion
benny.c said:
Cheers boys. This thread keeps cropping up from time to time, so sorry to everyone who's sick of seeing it 
[when's the next run out Ed?]
Are you not coming along to the Wheatsheaf meet next Thursday?[when's the next run out Ed?]
Go on, it'd be great to see (and hear) the 'Stang again!
I'm going to try and organise another of my runs sometime in the next couple of months - I'm already working on a route, I've also got my eye on a trackday at Oulton.
Benny, just to show what influence your car had on me, I'm picking this up on Sunday on the way home from Goodwood:
On a bit more of a budget than yourself so will be doing the work more gradually and with mainly second hand parts (if anyone knows of any decent E36 parts going cheap please PM me)
Will start my own thread once I get started.
PS: When are you getting yours out on track next? I'll be at Oulton on Tuesday 15th, only £150 for a full day open pit lane from here:
http://www.trackdays.co.uk/tracks/oulton-park.htm
On a bit more of a budget than yourself so will be doing the work more gradually and with mainly second hand parts (if anyone knows of any decent E36 parts going cheap please PM me)
Will start my own thread once I get started.
PS: When are you getting yours out on track next? I'll be at Oulton on Tuesday 15th, only £150 for a full day open pit lane from here:
http://www.trackdays.co.uk/tracks/oulton-park.htm
Nice one
We've got a few bits and bobs to sort out before we're on track again. Would have liked to have done the 15th at Oulton but I'm at the Le Mans classic this weekend so we wont have time to sort the car out.
For second hand bits BTW, check out;
http://www.zonemotorsport.co.uk/forum/
http://www.bmw-rallying.co.uk/forum/
We've got a few bits and bobs to sort out before we're on track again. Would have liked to have done the 15th at Oulton but I'm at the Le Mans classic this weekend so we wont have time to sort the car out.
For second hand bits BTW, check out;
http://www.zonemotorsport.co.uk/forum/
http://www.bmw-rallying.co.uk/forum/
Edited by benny.c on Tuesday 8th July 10:00
Sniff, nice work mate!
I'm trying to work out what way to go with my cars currently as money is a bit of an issue, i just want something fun all to myself!
toying with making the ALfa track worthy, or the Bravo... or the Saab. plus a mate and myself will be building a Locost soon (as soon as the donor Sierra is bought and collected... fortunately, I have paid very little for the cars but i still think its a tad excessive.
benny, your a git for giving me far too many ideas
congrats mate, still read the thread every now and then to reming me how much of a decent job you did
I'm trying to work out what way to go with my cars currently as money is a bit of an issue, i just want something fun all to myself!
toying with making the ALfa track worthy, or the Bravo... or the Saab. plus a mate and myself will be building a Locost soon (as soon as the donor Sierra is bought and collected... fortunately, I have paid very little for the cars but i still think its a tad excessive.
benny, your a git for giving me far too many ideas
congrats mate, still read the thread every now and then to reming me how much of a decent job you did
benny.c said:
It's belongs to Mike and his dad. It went well round Oulton - way more relaxing than the E36 
Andy - what about a Volvo T5 estate in touring car guise? Parts may be tricky but it would look awesome
Volvo T5 would be very cool plus you'd have plenty of room for spares. There's a few out there with about 400bhp too Andy - what about a Volvo T5 estate in touring car guise? Parts may be tricky but it would look awesome
Bit of an update. We're taking the E36 up to Oulton next Tuesday for it's second outing, so we've been doing a little bit of tinkering.
Last time out, we had a rather horrible noise coming from the diff area on the last lap I did. I was all for taking it to a garage as the cylinder head incident from our last outing has mentally scarred me. Mike then spotted that a solid brake pipe had worked it's way loose and was resting on the prop shaft
Fortunately no damage done but it could have been nasty. It's amazing how much noise the pipe was making when the prop shaft rotated - it really sounded like a gear or bearing had been destroyed. Anyway, that's now been fixed out of the way and sounds fine.
We've fitted a short shift kit as the stock shift is quite long and imprecise. The rubber gaiter has been replaced with an aluminium plate which should hold the whole assembly even tighter and make the shifts more accurate. It'll probably vibrate like crazy but we'll see.
Last time out we had visibility problems with our "DTM" mirrors. They look cool but you can't see naff all out of them. To help things a little we've fitted a large NASCAR style rear view mirror (or OAP style - seen them in a few Micra's
). It does distort things a little but you can see objects as far forward as the front side windows.
We've taken delivery of a set of second hand ex BTCC wets. They are ex Matt Neal (never mind) and are un-used. These will go on a second set of Racing Dynamics rims which unfortunately wont be here in time for next week.
Finally, we've fitted a mount for a video camera so we should have some footage this time round. I got it from these guys www.b-hague.co.uk/ Very good quality Manfrotto kit and only £50.
The new Shifter
The big mirror
Nice wets
Camera mount
Last time out, we had a rather horrible noise coming from the diff area on the last lap I did. I was all for taking it to a garage as the cylinder head incident from our last outing has mentally scarred me. Mike then spotted that a solid brake pipe had worked it's way loose and was resting on the prop shaft
Fortunately no damage done but it could have been nasty. It's amazing how much noise the pipe was making when the prop shaft rotated - it really sounded like a gear or bearing had been destroyed. Anyway, that's now been fixed out of the way and sounds fine.We've fitted a short shift kit as the stock shift is quite long and imprecise. The rubber gaiter has been replaced with an aluminium plate which should hold the whole assembly even tighter and make the shifts more accurate. It'll probably vibrate like crazy but we'll see.
Last time out we had visibility problems with our "DTM" mirrors. They look cool but you can't see naff all out of them. To help things a little we've fitted a large NASCAR style rear view mirror (or OAP style - seen them in a few Micra's
). It does distort things a little but you can see objects as far forward as the front side windows.We've taken delivery of a set of second hand ex BTCC wets. They are ex Matt Neal (never mind) and are un-used. These will go on a second set of Racing Dynamics rims which unfortunately wont be here in time for next week.
Finally, we've fitted a mount for a video camera so we should have some footage this time round. I got it from these guys www.b-hague.co.uk/ Very good quality Manfrotto kit and only £50.
The new Shifter
The big mirror
Nice wets
Camera mount
Edited by benny.c on Wednesday 30th July 09:34
Benny, are you getting the wets fitted ready for tuesday? Most of the time at Oulton they have the mobile fitter guy there in his van if you did need to swap tyres round on the day.
Don't suppose those wets are road legal are they? In that case it looks like you'll be needing a third set of wheels and road legal tyres if you ever want to get it MOT'd. (I'm guessing the original 15 inch wont fit over your monster brakes)
Don't suppose those wets are road legal are they? In that case it looks like you'll be needing a third set of wheels and road legal tyres if you ever want to get it MOT'd. (I'm guessing the original 15 inch wont fit over your monster brakes)
Not getting them fitted yet as the weather forecast looks like it could go either way at the moment. Our plan was to find a local tyre place to swap them if it got really wet but if there's someone at the circuit then great. They're not road legal.
Think we're going to scrap the MOT idea for now - the car handles like a pig and shakes you to bits on the road. We'd never drive it even the short distance to Oulton, and there's no sort of meaningful set up that could be done on the road anyway.
Think we're going to scrap the MOT idea for now - the car handles like a pig and shakes you to bits on the road. We'd never drive it even the short distance to Oulton, and there's no sort of meaningful set up that could be done on the road anyway.
Edited by benny.c on Wednesday 30th July 11:09
benny.c said:
Not getting them fitted yet as the weather forecast looks like it could go either way at the moment. Our plan was to find a local tyre place to swap them if it got really wet but if there's someone at the circuit then great. They're not road legal.
Think we're going to scrap the MOT idea for now - the car handles like a pig and shakes you to bits on the road. We'd never drive it even the short distance to Oulton, and there's no sort of meaningful set up that could be done on the road anyway.
He's a little dearer than most tyre fitters (charged £10 a wheel to swap tyres over) but at least it'll save you a bit more track time.Think we're going to scrap the MOT idea for now - the car handles like a pig and shakes you to bits on the road. We'd never drive it even the short distance to Oulton, and there's no sort of meaningful set up that could be done on the road anyway.
Agree about the DTM mirrors, I've got a set on my 205 GTi but after a few trackdays I've got used to them. I've been toying with getting my 205 MOT'd aswell but the thing's so low geared (less than 20mph per 1000rpm in fifth!) that it would do my head in and cost far more in fuel than towing it. Although it would be handy to run it down the road to test replacement parts the money I save on tax, insurance and mot probably pays for 2-3 trackdays a year even if it is a hassle having to load and unload it off the trailer all the time.
sniff petrol said:
I've been toying with getting my 205 MOT'd aswell but the thing's so low geared (less than 20mph per 1000rpm in fifth!) that it would do my head in and cost far more in fuel than towing it. Although it would be handy to run it down the road to test replacement parts the money I save on tax, insurance and mot probably pays for 2-3 trackdays a year even if it is a hassle having to load and unload it off the trailer all the time.
Plus if you you drive to the circuit and bin it, or brake something on the day, you're stuffed for getting home. There's no way we could push ours outside the circuit and convince the RAC man that we hadn't been on a trackday.Well, a successful day out for the E36 up at Oulton yesterday. We still had a few overheating niggles towards the end of the day, but we got plenty of laps in. Still a few bits and bobs to sort out but we're getting there.
It was raining when we arrived and because our second set of rims hasn't arrived yet, we had to go out on slicks to do the installation laps. Although it had been raining for a while, there wasn't that much standing water on the circuit, and the slicks were surprisingly OK to drive on. We couldn't push obviously but it wasn't as bad as you would imagine. There were a fair few offs (not us) - an E30 M3 went off on the installation lap and enough people left the circuit for the organisers to give everyone a talking to.
We went out a few times but by 11am it looked the rain was in for the day. Unfortunately the tyre guy who was supposed to be at the circuit had cried off, so we had to nip out to nearby Winsford to get our wets fitted. 30 minutes and £10 later (nice one Kwik Fit) we had our wets on.....and they were simply awesome. You could push as hard on them in the wet, as the slicks in the dry (well 90%) - I had a bit of a wobble turning into the chicane after Shell Oils, and Mike briefly locked up going into Lodge, but other than that we were fine.
For some reason, later on in the afternoon, our old overheating problems came back but by then it was 4pm anyway. Everything else seemed in good order so we were pretty happy. Many thanks to Rich (Sniff Petrol) who came up for the afternoon and did some spannering. Cheers for noticing the disconnected drop-link and for the bleed screw. Also thanks to Paul (Werewolf) who constructed a bypass in our heating system made from garden hose pipe and 15mm copper pipe. This actually held up OK - we had to call it a day in the end when we broke the rad bleed screw.
Here's some snaps from the day, and a video of a couple of laps. We are very quick through the corners and we gain a lot of time under braking. Unfortunately if people move out of the way for us though, we lack at bit of power to pass (RS4 on the first lap). Once past we're away though.
http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i272/bennydotc/P...
It was raining when we arrived and because our second set of rims hasn't arrived yet, we had to go out on slicks to do the installation laps. Although it had been raining for a while, there wasn't that much standing water on the circuit, and the slicks were surprisingly OK to drive on. We couldn't push obviously but it wasn't as bad as you would imagine. There were a fair few offs (not us) - an E30 M3 went off on the installation lap and enough people left the circuit for the organisers to give everyone a talking to.
We went out a few times but by 11am it looked the rain was in for the day. Unfortunately the tyre guy who was supposed to be at the circuit had cried off, so we had to nip out to nearby Winsford to get our wets fitted. 30 minutes and £10 later (nice one Kwik Fit) we had our wets on.....and they were simply awesome. You could push as hard on them in the wet, as the slicks in the dry (well 90%) - I had a bit of a wobble turning into the chicane after Shell Oils, and Mike briefly locked up going into Lodge, but other than that we were fine.
For some reason, later on in the afternoon, our old overheating problems came back but by then it was 4pm anyway. Everything else seemed in good order so we were pretty happy. Many thanks to Rich (Sniff Petrol) who came up for the afternoon and did some spannering. Cheers for noticing the disconnected drop-link and for the bleed screw. Also thanks to Paul (Werewolf) who constructed a bypass in our heating system made from garden hose pipe and 15mm copper pipe. This actually held up OK - we had to call it a day in the end when we broke the rad bleed screw.
Here's some snaps from the day, and a video of a couple of laps. We are very quick through the corners and we gain a lot of time under braking. Unfortunately if people move out of the way for us though, we lack at bit of power to pass (RS4 on the first lap). Once past we're away though.
http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i272/bennydotc/P...
Edited by benny.c on Wednesday 6th August 13:28
Excellent day out, thanks a lot for the passenger laps - it's given me renewed enthusiasm for mine now. Agree about the lack of power versus the immense grip, especially when we caught that red bike engined Fury.
It may be worth you looking at getting a differential with a lower final drive as they're geared to hit 150mph in top IIRC and you never needed to go above 4th yesterday. Maybe a be chance to upgrade to an LSD at the same time. Failing that like you said with some decent manifolds on and maybe a remap you could be looking at around 220bhp for about £500 spent.
Hope the bleed screw and a U-bend pipe fixes your problems. I've just had a look and that spare 320i radiator I've got has the same part number so it's yours if you do need it but to be fair your existing rad looked in good shape anyway.
It may be worth you looking at getting a differential with a lower final drive as they're geared to hit 150mph in top IIRC and you never needed to go above 4th yesterday. Maybe a be chance to upgrade to an LSD at the same time. Failing that like you said with some decent manifolds on and maybe a remap you could be looking at around 220bhp for about £500 spent.
Hope the bleed screw and a U-bend pipe fixes your problems. I've just had a look and that spare 320i radiator I've got has the same part number so it's yours if you do need it but to be fair your existing rad looked in good shape anyway.
Edited by sniff diesel on Friday 2nd January 01:18
sniff petrol said:
Excellent day out, thanks a lot for the passenger laps - it's given me renewed enthusiasm for mine now. Agree about the lack of power versus the immense grip, especially when we caught that red bike engined Fury.
It may be worth you looking at getting a differential with a lower final drive as they're geared to hit 150mph in top IIRC and you never needed to go above 4th yesterday. Maybe a be chance to upgrade to an LSD at the same time. Failing that like you said with some decent manifolds on and maybe a remap you could be looking at around 220bhp for about £500 spent.
Yeah, we were talking about gear ratios on the way home. Want to go to Spa at some point thoughIt may be worth you looking at getting a differential with a lower final drive as they're geared to hit 150mph in top IIRC and you never needed to go above 4th yesterday. Maybe a be chance to upgrade to an LSD at the same time. Failing that like you said with some decent manifolds on and maybe a remap you could be looking at around 220bhp for about £500 spent.
M3 engine is the way to go I think but it's fantastic fun anyway for now. Can't wait for the next day out and the nice thing now is it makes no difference to us if it rains. There is a guy I know of selling a few race/trackday bits from a cancelled E36 project - I'll e-mail you the link.
Have you got a problem with your Photobucket account BTW - can't see your pics?
Hi Ed
I've been hoping to get up to the Wheatsheaf but work keeps getting in the way. Will get up there soon hopefully Edited by benny.c on Wednesday 6th August 14:41
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