Friday 27th March 2015

The £900 E36 track project: PHTV

PHer McSam with a great vid on his adventures in a 177,000-mile BMW 328i. Top work that man!

---

If the American dream is to live off the fatta the lan' (or something similar), then the PH dream must be to live off the enjoyment of a cheap track project. All the fun of thrashing round circuits without the expense of a big bucks circuit toy.

And that's exactly what PHer McSam is doing here in a clip plucked from the Members' Vids on PHTV. Beginning with a bog standard, Shed-spec BMW 328i, he's added a few choice little upgrades to create what looks a brilliant bit of track fun. In the eight minutes you'll see how the car was as stock, the difference all the modifications have made and also when it hasn't gone so well. Credit to you McSam for sharing the less heroic exploits!

Just goes to show what can be achieved with a fairly modest budget and a GoPro. And also how good an old 328i sounds with a new air filter! For more detail on the car, see McSam's build thread in Readers' Cars. Finally, please keep submitting your clips to PHTV, we love to see 'em!

Watch the video here.
Not Bad For A £900, 177k-Mile Saloon - E36 328i  

 

[ST150HB]

I don't know how either!

Looks like a lot of fun, keep it coming.

[Christophano]

Fantastic. Some really ace catches there.

That's the way to have fun on a budget.

[arkenphel]

Off to peruse the classifieds for an E36 now...

[Michael77]

Decent cheap 328's are getting hard to find! If anyone is aware of one for sale around the Yorkshire area, let me know!

Edited by Michael77 on Friday 27th March 16:18

[Crazy4557]

Can't be arsed to wait 17 seconds for a another bludy advert. This site is littered with adverts, waaaay over the top IMHO.
They have enough revenue from car advertising to surely not need to force advertising on us when watching a potentially good vid.
Shame on the greedy shareholders.

[j_s14a]

Nice video But you need to work on your steering

[McSam]

Fantastic to see this humble little work-in-progress featured on the front page, much appreciated!

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I'm thoroughly enjoying the car, and very impressed with how it's performing for so little money. I wanted the most cost-effective way to get seat timebought this while on a placement year out from my engineering degree, so the budget really is tight but it's been awesome value. Since I put this video together, it's been on a track day at Bedford, and I'm planning to go back on 16th April to kick this season off. Can't wait.

You can find the Bedford video and some more clips here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE4jEB3KwxExWZwBS...

I'll be keeping the build thread updated as the car comes back out of hibernation, and there should be plenty more footage to come!

[jiggawhat2k]

Crazy4557 said:

Can't be arsed to wait 17 seconds for a another bludy advert. This site is littered with adverts, waaaay over the top IMHO.
They have enough revenue from car advertising to surely not need to force advertising on us when watching a potentially good vid.
Shame on the greedy shareholders.

I think you'd be surprised how little online advertising actually earns... The more ads there, the more likely it is for us to get decent content and for PH to stay free. Pretty sure the classifieds probably pay for most of the running of the site.

If you're buying media it is per 1000 pageviews (unless it is a site takeover). I'll pay anything from £1-£3 per 1000 pageviews (or 'loads' of the banners). With an estimated 5 million monthly pageviews that means at £3 they only make £15k per month. There will be other ads and premium sponsored posts making a few £k more, but nothing major. This probably only just covers the costs of running the servers and databases.

More ads please and stay running!

p.s. love the Bimmer.

[Motormatt]

328's in a condition that I'd trust to take on a track are hard to find now for reasonable money, especially coupé's. This one looks great though.

Nice video, and has just reminded me how tight Curborough is. I'm going there in April with a Lupo Gti, can't wait!

[DickP]

Car aside, what are the costs normally associated with track days?

Does anyone have a basic breakdown (e.g. track day event cost and also duration, typical trackday insurance etc)?

[Antracer]

You like your taking part in a sprint yet you are wearing a hoody? Please explain.

[aww999]

Dick, it will never be a cheap day out, but costs can be controlled (mainly through choosing a suitable car). The trackday subforum has loads of useful advice, but as a rough guide a full day on track is £100 - £250, fuel might be £50 - 150, tyres, brakes and consumables £100 upwards. The biggest single factor is car choice, a 500kg Westfield or Caterham will cost very little to run, a big-bhp GTR will cost significantly more!

[MrBarry123]

Nice video - really enjoyed watching it.

And well worth sitting through a 17 second advert for...

[X5TUU]

Got bored and switched off half way through ... Thankfully it's free, wouldn't have been overly enamoured if I had paid and that was the quality level of the content.

[McSam]

Keep it coming, you said - I'm only too happy to oblige Bedford GT with Javelin yesterday, another cracking day and another strong performance from the car. I was happily surprised to find someone recognised the car from this article, I hope the passenger ride didn't disappoint!

Some footage from a nice clear lap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETFdF7xXnjU





Next event will be a sprint at Curborough on 22nd May, couple of jobs to do before then but looking forward to it.