Compact tarmac rally car

[Steve K-B 51]

Have been busy on my mates off roader again so havnt had much time.... Only one more month till his is all finished with and I can get back to my own project.

In the mean time, my old man supprised me today. Walked into the garage to this! I thought it was still a week away! Awesome.

[Eddie 66]

I like very much

[Steve K-B 51]

Progress:

Cage is pretty much all made up just not welded. Am still working on the passenger seat bracket and after thats all finished everything will be welded in the new year. Rear boot, spoiler, front bumper and front guards are nearly all mounted up.

The plans are to get this thing going for Targa Bambina in march... Its a push but ill give it my best shot

[hybrid 1044]

Nice work steve. Got any ideas of what wheels / offsets you'll be running ?

[Steve K-B 51]

Nice work steve. Got any ideas of what wheels / offsets you'll be running ?

Good question! I had always planned on running 17 by 8's but as for the off set im really not sure. I was waiting till I got all the gurds on first to see how much space there is. Tnen the plan was to talk to a suspension expert and see what I can do to get the write geometry as theres an option to use an E46 lower arm to push it out a bit further. I have some one I can ask but just havnt got there yet.

I tryed to work out the legal side of spaces and off set via the LVVTA website but I struggle to understand it all. Ill have a chat with a few people in the know and work it out from there

[Eddie 66]

I think that rear offset looks goods

[Steve K-B 51]

Update, Photos to follow soon.

Have ditched the old rubber mounts in the rear sub frame in favour of alloy solid mounts from turners, will also be replacing the rear rubber diff mount with a solid alloy bush once I have my new diff sorted. The two rear bolts on top of the diff are now extending up into the boot with some steel tube and washers (welded onto the subframe) that are acting as spaces between the boot floor and the subframe. This will allow me to tie the diff into the roll cage or strut towers via more steel tubing.... altho I havnt got that far yet. Should be finished by the end of the week. The medium case diff didnt quite fit in so I had to do a bit of chopping, cutting and welding of the body. but its all in now with plenty of room.

Both seats are in looking good, cage is %95 done are in and the car will be going into get welded up towards the end of the month. Will be good once thats alll ticked off.

Engine is apart at the engine builders and we hope the out come will be an M52b30.

Next big job is attaching the rear guards

Edited January 10, 2012 by Steve K-B

[Steve K-B 51]

So here is the new look as of tonight:

Have got the old mans wheels on to see how the ET35 17" by 8"s would fit.

They have filed out the guards ok but am still looking into an E46 lower arm to help.

Solid mounted rear diff

Have just positioned the pedal box and have yet to make gussets.

I angled the door bars towards the outside with my theory being that it will help in a side impact. Landing upside down in water and a side impact has always been my biggest fear. The down side is I think the cage will be weakened in a front impact so I will have to make gussets to stop them from bending in a serious front impact.

Also does any one know if this is from a BMW?? I found it in my car but don't know where it came from. Doesn't look BMW to me...

[thorburn 121]

Nice cage

How have you done the dash bar? is it one solid bar that goes through the steering mount or 2 pieces?

Does it go to the front struts?

[Steve K-B 51]

The dash bar is solid and sits just above the steering column, I just had to chop a little bit out of the steering column bracket but it fits pretty easy.

As the car had an air bag the roll cage had to go through to the front turrets. Its only one bar on each side but have been playing with the idea of adding a second from the roll cage foot up to intersect with the turret bar. Had to move the fuse box a bit to get it in.

[OLLIE 26]

Hey Steve, looking awesome dude, can't wait to see the finished result, pushing it for bambina but fingers crossed.

What events are you thinking of running in other than targa's, which clubsport events did you have in mind?

Are you going to be at HD on saturday? it'd be good to catch up

[Steve K-B 51]

Cheers Ollie, No particular club sport events in mind, hill climbs, rally sprints etc. Would love to do the Taranaki rally tho

Ill be down at hampton for the second weekend, are you going just this sat? I should get out of the barn for a bit and come down

Edited January 17, 2012 by Steve K-B

[OLLIE 26]

Yeah I'm heading down on the Saturday. get out of the barn and come down, we could have beers after.

[Michael. 2313]

Nice job reinforcing the rear subframe mounting points with a bit of additional cage work.

[Steve K-B 51]

Made up some more bars on the a-pillar today.

[westy 614]

Looks orsum Steve.

What did you use for tube bending?

[Greg111 13]

Looks great, you've done well!

[Steve K-B 51]

Cheers guys,

The main hoop and front lateral bars were done at Bygone autos so the only bars ive had to bend have been the door bars. I used a mates pipe bender up the road.

[Steve K-B 51]

Have been slow on the project, freeride jetskkiing had kind of taken over my life while summer was here but the cage has finaly been welded! Pedal box mounts all done, diff is away getting the lsd sorted, body kit is getting molds made, fuse box mounted and Front brakes are on the way.

Next is to fit the dash, finish the rear sub frame mounting bars and sort out rear brakes.

Pics to follow this week. I like progress, slow and steady but its progress!

[Steve K-B 51]

[thorburn 121]

That's looking amazing. What size tubing is the small stuff going to the subframe?

Do you have to add that to your homologation drawings?

[Steve K-B 51]

Think it was 25 by 2.5mm but will have to double check. Doesn't have to be included in the Homologation as its not considered as part of the main structure.

Am fitting the dash but have had to cut off a large side section to get it in between the four A pillar bars. Will join the side back together and make it removable so it looks ok and so the whole lot can be removed if need be at a latter date.

[Steve K-B 51]

Dash is done but removed it before I took photos.

A and B pillar gussets are done but am waiting on welding suplies before I can fully weld them in. Going to attack the gear box tunnel and seam weld the rest of the pannel work I created.

[Steve K-B 51]

I got one second hand dummy front E46 arm in! I ordered some special bushes from a company called AKG Motorsport to make the hex end of the E46 arm work with out having to change the original E36 bush mounting bracket. Awesome! They look like there made of nylon and quite loose but once installed they tighten up and I think they should be a good... time will tell tho.

It has pushed the bottom of the strut out by about 25mm per side. This also gives me more camber but I will be using adjustable top plates so should be able to get the correct setting. Next I have to get some E90 rack ends as the E36 rack ends are now to short.

[Steve K-B 51]

Photos:

Standard LHS

RHS with E46 arm and what I think were offset 35 rims??

Front view

Dosnt look like much but here is the freshly rebuilt M52!

Added more gussets to the door bars, would like to do the bottom sections aswell but these took me ages to make, Not sure if I can be stuffed with it.

Edited July 1, 2012 by Steve K-B