Project Ring-shed E36 325i

[sniff petrol]

Had this a couple of weeks now so thought I'd better post some pics. After having modified my 205 GTi too far for it to ever be road legal again I needed something cheap but still quick and reliable to take to the Ring. I've always wanted to go but never really had a suitable car, so when member "matt21" mentioned in a thread about a well cared for 325i that had just failed an MOT on a couple of minor items I got in touch and we did a deal.














It's a very tidy car mechanically having had a replacement engine less than 2 years ago, the rest of the car having done 142k. Picked it up on the way home from the Festival of Speed, felt like we were on a Top Gear cheap car challenge with the GF following us in my diesel estate.



After £60 of welding and a couple of drop links it was MOT'd earlier this week. Gave it a full service myself and then started removing any unnecessary bits. Now I had to be careful as I need to keep the car road legal and not too noisy for a +1000 mile round trip.



Removed the towbar (for sale if anyone wants it)



You can see the rust is starting to take hold of this car like many other E36's. Make me feel less guilty to doing this to it I suppose. Must have removed 100kgs of trim to be honest, it definately feels livelier on the road now.






You never know what you'll find under the back seat:



Removed the catalytic converters, didn't make any difference to the power just made it a lot noisier as the only silencer now is the large back box. Got £80 for the old cats though so that seemed a good enough reason to ditch them, plus they weighed a ton.



Any ideas and suggestions on what else I could do with it to make it any quicker for not a lot of money would be most welcome.

to be continued...

[shouldbworking]

Rear suspension looks a lot lower than it ought to be? and thats not proper rust

[Baby Scuff]

shouldbworking said:

Rear suspension looks a lot lower than it ought to be? and thats not proper rust

They do tend to sit lower on the drivers side but also suffer from the rear springs snapping



My God Man, put some clothes on!.

[Munter]

Nice one Sniff. I'd suggest "Homer Simpson Speed Holes"tm to make it go faster.

[L100NYY]

Good work Herr Sniff,

This is the sort of project I like to see on PH's, a real 'enthusiasts' kinda thing.

[absolutely]

I would have thought a 2 door would have been a better option, greater stiffness for a track car.

[L100NYY]

absolutely said:

I would have thought a 2 door would have been a better option, greater stiffness for a track car.

More money though mon amis. Besides, worked okay in the 90's so why not now?

[MrFlibbles]

Has it got an LSD?

Don't worry about it being too noisy - the 'ring is actually that far. Just wear earplugs if you're that bothered.

[L100NYY]

MrFlibbles said:

Has it got an LSD?

I doubt it as I think that it is an SE, I am happy to be proved wrong though.

Great project though

[absolutely]

L100NYY said:

absolutely said:

I would have thought a 2 door would have been a better option, greater stiffness for a track car.

More money though mon amis. Besides, worked okay in the 90's so why not now?

But that was built by Schnitzer, a professional race team, not a guy in the UK probably in a small garage.

[L100NYY]

absolutely said:

But that was built by Schnitzer, a professional race team, not a guy in the UK probably in a small garage.

Did you take your 'criticise other peoples projects' tablets this morning or something?

[absolutely]

L100NYY said:

absolutely said:

But that was built by Schnitzer, a professional race team, not a guy in the UK probably in a small garage.

Did you take your 'criticise other peoples projects' tablets this morning or something?

No, I am like that all the time! Hell, my little project started in late 04 and still hasn't finished! I have good reasons for it not being finished, money, time and illness.

[minimatt1967]

Looking good dude , drop it, cage it, tubular manifold K&N filter and some decnt rubber should give some decent poke! I know its an E30, but the theory is the same http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... seems to be quite capable on track!

[sniff petrol]

shouldbworking said:

Rear suspension looks a lot lower than it ought to be? and thats not proper rust

It's got the optional M-tec suspension so guess it's a touch lower as standard.

[sniff petrol]

Baby Scuff said:

shouldbworking said:

Rear suspension looks a lot lower than it ought to be? and thats not proper rust

They do tend to sit lower on the drivers side but also suffer from the rear springs snapping

My God Man, put some clothes on!.

My E36 estate is lower on the drivers side too - dunno why. The springs are fine on this, they show no evidence that the coils have touched. I had to change the ones on my estate last year so knew what to look for.

In my defence it was the hottest day of the year so probably not the weather to be working on cars. didn't realise I'd caught my reflection on the picture.

[sniff petrol]

L100NYY said:

Good work Herr Sniff,

This is the sort of project I like to see on PH's, a real 'enthusiasts' kinda thing.

Cheers Ben. I can honestly say I can enjoy driving this as much as my old 964, I think the fact that it cost less than a service on a 911 helps.

[sniff petrol]

L100NYY said:

absolutely said:

I would have thought a 2 door would have been a better option, greater stiffness for a track car.

More money though mon amis. Besides, worked okay in the 90's so why not now?

Not sure about stiffness (oo-er missus) but on the Autocar tests the 4dr comes in about 30kgs less than the coupe but according to the handbook they're both the same at 1330kgs with a full (65l) tank of fuel. A coupe was never an option for me as they tend to be more expensive and generally more likely to have been Barried. Also a 2dr has frame-less door windows so I wouldn't be able to replace the glass with 3mm polycarbonate and save even more weight...

Any one that thinks the coupes are better looking then take a look here and tell me that's not one of the most memorable cars on PH:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[sniff petrol]

MrFlibbles said:

Has it got an LSD?

Don't worry about it being too noisy - the 'ring is actually that far. Just wear earplugs if you're that bothered.

No LSD unfortunately Russ but neither does my estate and that's still able to hang the back end out and even do doughnuts (on grass admittedly - never tried on tarmac) . Also being a pre facelift this one doesn't have TC or stability control.

I did try it with the door seals removed (they must weight 10kgs between them!) but that was too noisy for me so I put them back on.

[sniff petrol]

minimatt1967 said:

Looking good dude , drop it, cage it, tubular manifold K&N filter and some decnt rubber should give some decent poke! I know its an E30, but the theory is the same http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... seems to be quite capable on track!

A first my intentions were to do that kind of work to it, but after pricing things up it's amazing how it all adds up: Coilovers £1k, big brakes £1.5k, Cage £620 + fitting, 17" rims with Toyo R888's £1k, bucket seats and harnesses £450 etc. I reckoned I could have easily ended up spending over £6k on it if I'd have wanted, and then I'd probably want to drop an M3 engine in there, so another couple of grand. With the rust that mine has I'd be better off starting off with a car in better condition, or even better get one that someone else has built.

[matt21]

very interesting story and having known the car most of its life i will follow this closely

wonder if that towbar would fit my 1994 E34 touring??