Project Ring-shed E36 325i
Discussion
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...
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...
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 snappingMy God Man, put some clothes on!.
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.
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?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...
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.Don't worry about it being too noisy - the 'ring is actually that far. Just wear earplugs if you're that bothered.
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.
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 said:
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??
Matt - please don't show this thread to Bill. I feel like I'm wrecking his pride and joy, although it absolutely flies now it's been stripped.wonder if that towbar would fit my 1994 E34 touring??
All E36's use the same towbar apparently, not sure if it'll fit an E34.
dan101smith said:
absolutely said:
I would have thought a 2 door would have been a better option, greater stiffness for a track car.
A subject of much controversy, but the 4dr is said to be the stiffer of the two.From memory, it sits lower on the driver's side due to it being developed in LHD form, and the extra drop on that side levels out when you have just a driver in LHD form. Apparently. Dunno if I buy that.
Project looks great, if you can be bothered to strip out the heater and all the gubbins that go with it that's a fair weight saving.
WRT the heater, apparently you need a working screen demister for the MOT. I know a lot of rally cars use heated front screens (a la Ford Quickclear) but they cost several hundred quid. Hence to keep a working blower and demister I've had to leave the entire upper dashboard.
matt21 said:
I wont but spoke to him last night, he is glad its gone to an enthusiast who will enjoy it for a while rather than someone who just abuses it and doesnt care.
I bet it flies, it was always quick, remember trying to keep up in my Cooper S and was a bit baffled as he slowly pulled away in his 16 year old BMW
Cool, good on him - I'd dread to think what condition some of my old cars are in now. This thing is deceptively swift, being as there's so particular sweet spot in the rev range there's no sudden perceived change of rate of acceleration, and with a cable operated throttle the response is perfect. I bet it flies, it was always quick, remember trying to keep up in my Cooper S and was a bit baffled as he slowly pulled away in his 16 year old BMW
I guess the standard PWR is about 10bhp/tonne up on the MCS. Will be getting it weighed in the morning so will find out for definite, BMW quote 1330kgs with a full tank (what does 65 litres of petrol weigh?)
Remember the EVO Grand challenge from earlier this year? Theirs was dynoed at 187.1bhp and 175.4Lb/ft against a quoted 193bhp and 181Lb/ft. Theirs had also had a replacement engine so I'd hope mine was putting out similar figures. The fact that the mechanic that fitted the engine was keen to buy the car when he heard Bill was getting rid suggests to me that it must be good'un.
Greendubber said:
What about one that plugs into the fag lighter and sticks on the screen with 2 suckers?. Seen a lot of them in old VW's due to the screen demister being rubbish. Could mean you can ditch the heavy original and just slap this one on to keep the MOT tester happy perhaps?.
You could be onto something there - got any links to a website? Only other thing as Benny.c found out on his Jagermeister track car is that the cooling system becomes a b
h to bleed without the heater matrix as it contains a bleed screw apparently.benny.c said:
What did you use to remove the cats? Looks like a flexible fitting at one end? Do you think it'd be too loud for the noise test up at Oulton?
Yeah Ben it's just a couple of 90cm lengths of flexible exhaust tube. To be honest it doesn't add any power, just noise. My mate's got a noise meter so I'll get it tested to find out for you. Your's all ready for next Tuesday?
Had it weighed yesterday and it came in at 1300kgs* including myself (80kgs) and just under half a tank of fuel, so I reckon 1200kgs empty. That still includes the full dashboard, all the seats and window motors, sunroof panel and radio and 4 speakers (I need my sanity on longer solo trips) so I reckon 1150kgs would be possible with 2 racing bucket seats, polycarb windows and a aluminium panel replacing the sunroof. Not sure what the full dash and heater matrix would weigh and whether it's worth the hassle of removing them.
- the weighbridge rounds off to the nearest 20kgs apparently, so it could be anything from 1290-1310kgs really.
RatLad said:
sniff petrol said:
dan101smith said:
absolutely said:
I would have thought a 2 door would have been a better option, greater stiffness for a track car.
A subject of much controversy, but the 4dr is said to be the stiffer of the two.From memory, it sits lower on the driver's side due to it being developed in LHD form, and the extra drop on that side levels out when you have just a driver in LHD form. Apparently. Dunno if I buy that.
Project looks great, if you can be bothered to strip out the heater and all the gubbins that go with it that's a fair weight saving.
WRT the heater, apparently you need a working screen demister for the MOT. I know a lot of rally cars use heated front screens (a la Ford Quickclear) but they cost several hundred quid. Hence to keep a working blower and demister I've had to leave the entire upper dashboard.
Having said that, I'm beginning to wish it was still there.
To be honest I think I've taken it as far as I want to for the trip to the Ring next month. If all goes well there then I might have a few more plans for it.
benny.c said:
... our next work will be some cheap new headers off ebay, de-catting and losing the middle boxes. Don't want any hassle at track days with the noise though. Like you say, no performance gains but will make it easier to hear the engine in a helmet.
I'd have thought that you'd be better off spending the money on an M3 engine now your car stops and handles more than well enough?cg360 said:
Re stiffness, I remember when the M3 saloon came out, a couple of mags mentioned the 3-door being stiffer.Apparently you need more chassis rigidity when there are two holes in each side, than if there is only one. Does that make sense?
I remember seeing some Nurburgring laptimes between the M3 coupe and convertible and there wasn't a lot between them, about 2-3 secs so enough to take into account the extra weight of the cabrio but not the stiffness. If I did cage it up anyway it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference between a 2 or 4 door, and I'd rather have the extra access to carry spare wheels and stuff to trackdays.benny.c said:
sniff petrol said:
I'd have thought that you'd be better off spending the money on an M3 engine now your car stops and handles more than well enough?
That'll be coming next year once we've run the car for this "season" and are happy with it. Some cheap headers and a couple of straight pipes will only cost us £200.
Update
Picked up these yesterday evening off a canceled race car build:
Whiteline adjustable antiroll bars:
Gaz Gold coilovers:
Not sure whether to wait and fit them after getting back from the Ring just in case I write the car off or it breaks down over there. If I've fitted expensive bits to it then I'd have spend loads getting it recovered.
Picked up these yesterday evening off a canceled race car build:
Whiteline adjustable antiroll bars:
Gaz Gold coilovers:
Not sure whether to wait and fit them after getting back from the Ring just in case I write the car off or it breaks down over there. If I've fitted expensive bits to it then I'd have spend loads getting it recovered.
iguana said:
sniff petrol said:
Not sure whether to wait and fit them after getting back from the Ring just in case I write the car off or it breaks down over there. If I've fitted expensive bits to it then I'd have spend loads getting it recovered.
Fear not Mr Sniff, got a dead e36 out there now to be picked up soon, could always do you a deal do do 'em as a pair 
P.S. Did you see your old E30 for sale again not long after you got rid of it?
PurelyRetro said:
Any more developments sniff?
Been working hard on it today as it happens. Will do a little update later once I've uploaded a few pictures.Had a change of plan with the car after taking on a new job as a train driver. I'll be training until June 2009 so won't have the time to get to the Ring until then. The plan at first was to keep it a disposable car in case I suffered any mishaps at the Ring and could just leave it there, now I'll be turning it into my full on track car and will get rid of my 205 GTi.
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