BMW 120d Race Car

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Discussion

shirt

22,564 posts

201 months

Saturday 23rd June 2012
quotequote all
the gearbox issue was amusing. didn't help that sam, our most competent mechanic in attendance, was suffering with a storming hangover.

the rear suspension/driveshaft issue was my doing. managed to break a thread tap in the top hub bolt hole and it is too bloody hard to drill into to use a stud extractor. rather than be able to complete the rear subframe / drive assay i had to completely strip the offside rear hub and bring it home with me. should be sorted tomorrow!

IanUAE

Original Poster:

2,930 posts

164 months

Wednesday 4th July 2012
quotequote all
Look what rolled out of the garage last Thursday morning:



All being well the car will on the ship to Holland for last few bits of work before the Barcelona 24hr race in September this week.

Futher details can be found on: http://svdp-racing.co.uk/wp/

V8mate

45,899 posts

189 months

Wednesday 4th July 2012
quotequote all
Is that spoiler available 'off-the-shelf'?

IanUAE

Original Poster:

2,930 posts

164 months

Wednesday 4th July 2012
quotequote all
I think the driver "found" the wing on a shelf, I will ask when I see him next.

shirt

22,564 posts

201 months

Wednesday 4th July 2012
quotequote all
V8mate said:
Is that spoiler available 'off-the-shelf'?
how's your build coming on? there'll be 3 120d's in various flavours at the barcelona race so watch the laptimes and you'll be able to get a good idea of performance wit hthe various specs [we'll be noseying down the pitlane for sure!].

V8mate

45,899 posts

189 months

Wednesday 4th July 2012
quotequote all
Mine's still a cerebral race car. But I'm carefully clocking all the advice and sources and pitfalls etc.

About time we had some in-car video (testing/racing) from you guys!?

shirt

22,564 posts

201 months

Wednesday 4th July 2012
quotequote all
tell us about it!

the car is shipping tomorrow but will spend 3 weeks in the netherlands before heading down t barca. whilst there it will have all the ecu and tuning issues fully sorted.

just couldn't find anyone local who had the expertise. several tried, several failed. instead we're using the engine builder for cor euser's marcos racing team [they run an evora gt4 and a 120d d1]. shakedown will likely be at zandvoort at the end of august.

the other 2 120d's confirmed so far are both dutch and our guy will know both well. he's driving for us though so will no doubt give us his all! oh, and we already know we're the lighttest of the 3 biggrin

V8mate

45,899 posts

189 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
What suspension is the car using?

shirt

22,564 posts

201 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
KW at the moment but one of the front struts is duff so we've sourced a full set from local outfit NFS Racing for free [NFS are currently rebuilding spencer's civic EP3 class1 touring car]. i think spencer said they are penske but i've not seen them as they need rebuilding and re-valving to suit. i'm sure we'll stick a post on the site in due course.

been a really long day today and a lesson in bureaucracy from those masters of red tape - the dubai road and traffic authority. all was lost at lunchtime as we missed the cut-off time to be in the port for monday's sailing. however some fancy talking and old fashioned methods of persuasion has seen the car issued with the correct registration documents and the shippers have allowed us an extension until saturday morning [friday is the equivalent of sunday here, everything's shut].

fingers crossed!


IanUAE

Original Poster:

2,930 posts

164 months

Saturday 7th July 2012
quotequote all
The car will be running on AST shocks. The good news is that we have got all the paperwork sorted and the car was delivered to the shipping firm today for a July 10th departure for Holland. Barcelona here we come...


rabailey

312 posts

150 months

Sunday 8th July 2012
quotequote all
clap


IanUAE

Original Poster:

2,930 posts

164 months

Sunday 8th July 2012
quotequote all
and the latest saga is that the boat the car was booked on has now entered dry dock for repairs. We are now booked an a boat leaving on the 15th. The ironic thing is the rabailey could end up inspecting the ship!!!

I tell you, you couldn't make the stuff up we have / are going through.

shirt

22,564 posts

201 months

Sunday 8th July 2012
quotequote all
it's only a 4 day delay. let's look forward. anyone like to help us design the new race livery?

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

plus our no.3 driver is racing at zolder this weekend.

rabailey

312 posts

150 months

Sunday 26th August 2012
quotequote all
HI All,

Just a few updates.

The Car is now in Holland on route to Barcelona, only a few days to go.

She is alive, well and roaring.
http://svdp-racing.co.uk/wp/?p=719
[img] http://svdp-racing.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/201...
http://youtu.be/Kd9aIJ9Wvng

And a few more mods make her smooth.
http://svdp-racing.co.uk/wp/?p=738


Cheers,
Richard B.

IanUAE

Original Poster:

2,930 posts

164 months

Thursday 30th August 2012
quotequote all
Our associateed Dutch Engineering company took the car car out for a quick blat up and down the road outside their workshop. On Sunday the car is being treated to a track day. Barcelona here we come.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUlwdc-i7Dg

Munter

31,319 posts

241 months

Thursday 30th August 2012
quotequote all
IanUAE said:
Our associateed Dutch Engineering company took the car car out for a quick blat up and down the road outside their workshop. On Sunday the car is being treated to a track day. Barcelona here we come.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUlwdc-i7Dg
...psst. Someone has had the doors away in transit!wink

V8mate

45,899 posts

189 months

Thursday 30th August 2012
quotequote all
Are you using the OEM steering rack? If not, what have you swapped it for or how have you made it quicker?

shirt

22,564 posts

201 months

Thursday 30th August 2012
quotequote all
we'll have to get back to you on that one. the car was orginally campaigned in BTCC and whatever rack was put on then is still going strong. i'll ask wubbe [our dutch tuner] who has built a few before now.

the car is loving being at wubbe's place. apart from tunng the car and fitting the diffuser, splitter and flat floor he's braced the front and rear towers, lowered the boot floor to accept the ATL tank, fabricated a new exhaust, fitted aluminium tubular front suspension arms to widen the track and shortened the front tie rods to improve caster. through his contacts he's also obtained a set of AST race shocks for free. The ones we bought were for a Z8 which we were sold as being compatible but they turned out to be anything but.

friday and saturday will see the car having the suspension set up and corner balanced, and sunday will be spent on track at TT Assen. then it's wagons roll to barca!

still to apply the race graphics but it should end up looking something like this:



being last minute as usual it will be applied in the pit garage on wednesday night. luckily we anticipated this and kept the base wrap as per the current scheme.

Edited by shirt on Thursday 30th August 22:10

IanUAE

Original Poster:

2,930 posts

164 months

Sunday 2nd September 2012
quotequote all
Today was a great day for the team as the car was treated to atrack day at Assen. This test enabled the team to do a full system check, dial the suspension in and give Wubbe time in a right hand drive car. The word on the grape vine is that Wubbe was lapping only 2 seconds a lap slower than a BMW Cup Car.

Wubbe drove the car hard for 1 continuous hour towards the end of the session and the car ran perfectly. Happy days.

The team arrive in Barcelona this Wednesday to set-up the garage, start the paperwork etc ready for the track action starting on Friday.


shirt

22,564 posts

201 months

Sunday 2nd September 2012
quotequote all
i'd like to note that that 2 secs was on a very rough suspension set-up [they only had time to fit the new AST shocks and new cup arms before hitting the track, it was properly aligned and corner balanced afterwards] with the driver both new to the car and new to RHD, and on 2 yr old tyres that were used heavily at the 2011 24H dubai!

touch wood but looks like we're gonna be flying.

any phers in town for the race feel free to come say hi. my better half has her press pass sorted so from friday we'll start posting some pics of the car in action.