conrod

another...

another...

A bit of BMW.v.Ford action at Ruapuna............

I remember seeing this for sale maybe 10 years ago in Auto Trader, I also remember thinking WTF?!!!!!

As hard as I have tried, I have never been able to hid one of those bastard minors, I thought it was impossible until now! Car looks V.cool!

Uh yeah, I meant chain!.........

Pull the head off and have a look. Sounds like a broken timing belt, you may be lucky and get away with a few new valves and a gasket set.

I have built several sets of coilover E30 struts with parts from Stocks. Use a 325 strut to start with, they are a bigger diameter. Buy the threaded platform and top mount from stocks, remove the shock insert, carefully cut off the original spring platform, the threaded part will need boring (about 1mm larger from memory) tack weld the threaded part on, refit the insert (or Koni's if you have bought them) and you are nearly done. Only other job is to sort top mount, I have used the adjustable camber plates from Stocks, which fit the top spring mount they sell you.Otherwise you can modify it to fit the stock top mount. From memory it was about $1500 to do the front struts,with Koni inserts,but not including labour.

Okay, maybe I was oversimplifying things a bit here,Motec M48 is centre market, but the M800 is towards the top end, along with the Autronic SM4.Incidentally, both offer advantages over the other, but Motec is still more user friendly, and installation friendly, but CAN be more susceptible to electrical interference. A large part of what I do for a living is fitting these systems, and I have seen the advantages and pitfalls of all of these systems. The REAL top end of the market is the likes of a Pectel T10S, which will give you complete engine control, and will also control a semi-automatic gearbox, and active diffs as well, will cost you more than your car though! I am curious though, exactly what market are you aiming at? With both ends ends covered in NZ (and around the world) you will have to be offering a competitive advantage to try to knock off some of the established players.And a WRC team or professional race team cannot afford to be a "guinea pig" for a new system, which is where I gather you will be pitching your product price and specification wise. :confused:

Hmmm, interesting comments here..... I was watching BBC's "Top Gear" a few months back, and they did a track test on all of the top 2 litre sedans available at the time, including the BMW E46 320i, Honda Accord and (current) Ford Mondeo. They picked the BMW would be the fastest around the test track, followed by the Honda, then the Mondeo, with all others trailing in their wake. In fact, the Honda came third fastest, the BMW one second faster in second place, and the Mondeo trounced the BMW by OVER 2 SECONDS to come in first! So quite happy with that, as I had just bought a Mondeo Wagon, and have to say its a pretty good car. And for something a bit faster, my 14 year old Escort Cosworth is pretty damn quick and can still turn a lot of heads.

silly question, of course it will!

This is cool, there is nothing like excessive turbo power!

Great stuff, thanks for that and I'll take all of that on board! No, not an ex F1 engineer, but I have worked in motorsport for about 15 years now, circuit and rally cars mainly, here and overseas, and always learning! I am not building my car to any set of rules, so it will be whatever I want it to be. I would like to use it in tarmac rallies, possibly Targa, the endurance series (circuit) and circuit racing (plenty of classes that I can run a "hotrod" in) It will have to be road legal to compete in tarmac rallies, and any external mods must be in keeping with the overall look and period of the car (my rule!) Emphasis will be on light weight, good suspension and big brakes. I will run the engine basically standard to start with,(321hp should be a good start!) and once the rest of the car is sorted will look at developing it further. Should have my wheels in a few weeks, some nice 18"magnesium OZ supertourer wheels, I'll post pics when I get them, they look pretty cool! cheers conrod :thumb:

Hmmmm, damn good question, been pondering that one myself. Front spolier would have to be quite deep, I was thinking maybe an Alpina one (if I can find one or a good copy) or maybe an M3 front bumper/spoiler, to which I will add a splitter. As for the boot spoiler I really don't know. It currently has a tiny BMW boot spoiler fitted, which would do sod all. The M-Tech looks good, but is heavy, and is not a proper wing in cross section, so would just create drag and add weight.But it would have to be in keeping with the look of the car- nothing ricey. Any suggestions? :confused:

I stand by my previous comment that it is better not to need it in the first place. If water injection is the only thing between your expensive turbo engine and a meltdown, then you only need the thing to stop working, or run out of water, then bye bye engine. WRC rally cars only use it because of massive boost (3 bar plus) high static compression ratio, an intercooler that has a maximum size restriction, and a team of engineers to make sure it keeps working! We don't have any of this, so better not to need it! Oh, and Motec is top of the range alongside Autronic, definitely not in Link territory, and priced accordingly, horses for courses really.........

And another:

Haven't fogotten about the brakes, and at the moment thinking is I won't be using them, Maybe use stock rotors, and fit AP calipers, or fit AP rotors as well. Meanwhile, I have finally found and bought the car I will use as a base. Kinda pleased with this, bought it from Turners damaged Auctions in Hamilton, over the phone. Had only seen pictures of it, so wasn't sure of its condition.I got it very cheap, and when it turned up at my place on a flatdeck, i was amazed at the condition. Only damage is front valance/ radiator support panel pushed back, and broken sump. Rails are perfect. It is a 1988 318i Auto,white, no sunroof, only 140K's, interior perfect, paint really good, four new tyres fitted plus unused spare/jack/tools! If anyone is after an M40/auto I will be plucking it out shortly, it will be cheap, just needs a sump. Here is a couple of pics:

A minor but important detail, a BMW 325 is known as a "3" series, not a "300" series, and so on for the 5,6,7 and 8 series. :confused:

Hello there, yes I am. Going to check a car out tomorrow, which looks like it might be suitable, but am still open to suggestions/offers. Only stipulation is: must be tidy 2 door shell with no rust,facelift OR pre facelift, no sunroof, and white would be a bonus! cheers conrod :thumb:

already had a bid on it last week . private entry , guy has a $900 reserve (dreaming) you can buy complete car going for that price I was at that auction too, I saw the bidding stop at $275, which I thought was about all it was worth, I was there for the blue 318i 2 door, but at $1800 plus auction fees with a blown engine, I let someone else have it.

Hence "Lambo v.2"!! A case of bank balance exceeding driving talent!.......... Yeah I didn't see that part until after.I was only kidding about the Auckland driving thing. As an Aucklander, I certainly take no offence to any of this, it is all just a bit of fun. As a side note, when you have 1/3 of the countries population living in Auckland, then it stands to reason that there is a much greater chance of this sort of thing happening here, than anywhere else! Never a dull moment in Auckland! :thumb:

Hence "Lambo v.2"!! A case of bank balance exceeding driving talent!..........

more.

more.

more.