Question on new 318 / 320 race series.

[kerrynzl 3]

Both those muscle car classes have something in their rules that makes my car illegal [My car is schedule K historic with good history] I don't want to modify it from its original form[and devalue my car at a cost of about another $50k] to race in either class .$10k for a Beemer race car is cheap. The Whittakers at manfield had the right format.....TIMED GROUPS, you can never level the playing field, except with a stopwatch. You can get a crap driver in a good car or vise versa, different era's, different levels of modifications, or classes etc but the stop-warch levels them all. The public [those who pay to watch] don't have to tolerate bullshit- handicap races! Every racer is equal [if you want to blow $3k on tyres, you'll end up racing with faster cars etc. If you want to stay where you are, you can] There are over 700 race cars in NZ with T&C COD's [More than in Los Angeles with 10 million population] Where the hell are they all hiding? Face it, If you had an old racer that you didn't need to spend a shitload on,that could WIN, you'd race it', I know I would.[that's why this Beemer class looks appealing to me] The word 'obsolete' was a bad choice by me

[kerrynzl 3]

Forgot to mention.......Speed costs money....How fast do you want to go?$$$$

[conrod 1]

Cain:Hmmmm, I'll have to eat humble pie on the 944 Turbo prices it seems! They have dropped a lot in price from when I last looked at them. (which incidentally, was when I built the last E30 Targa car, we considered a 944T as an option) What do you mean by the VW class being able to evolve their cars? Okay the new E30 series guys won't be able to evolve their cars much, but that is the essence of the class too, cheap racing. With a couple of faster classes thrown in the mix with less restrictive rules, it would enable people (like me!) to build and develop their own "ultimate driving machine" as and when I like, and for me that is a big part of the fun. There are a few places I can run this car I am building, but I think it would be good to have a "BMW only' series, as do the Porsches and RX7's.

Kerry:I understand what you mean regarding your car and not conforming to the rules, it is unfortunate that Whittakers and Southern Festival of Speed are probably the only meetings you can run against similar cars. I also do not like handicap races- what a load of crap! The odd reverse grid race might provide a bit of excitement for the crowd, but I say put the fast cars at the front in their qualifying positions please! And yes, speed does cost money,but hey, if we didn't like it we would all be off playing lawn bowls or something!........... :thumb:

Edited March 22, 2006 by conrod

[kerrynzl 3]

Lawn bowls??? Golf would be better,At least we can Autocross the Golf Carts thru the sand traps. And when I get old, I dont think Late-Braking & Late-Apexing a mobility scooter around a rest home is a good idea

You know you are a racer when...........You complain when the cars in front of you on motorway off-ramps don't stay on the line,causing your exit speed to drop!

[bmwsparkle 3]

so anyway, im looking at going into a series with my car at some point, does anyone have a list of the series avaliable at the moment at manfeild? Wanna know what I have to / not allowed to do etc.

[Aidan 0]

im involved in mazda pro7 racing, one of the series 6 batmobile cars to be exact, this is a one make class which is awesome to be involved with, with cars being sold for $8,000 for a reasonable series one car to $25,000 for a series 4 car and $35,000+ for a series 6 car, we have developed our car from a road car imported from japan in 2003, to start with it was a 13B twin turbo which we pulled down and removed the turbo system and went with rx8 high comp rotors, a link computer, a roll cage and koni suspension.. it was a good start as it was the first pro7+ bat.. from there the car has developed hugely proving ultra reliable and does very good lap times a pukekohe taupo and manfield..

obviously money is required to go fast and be competitive, but people who do not spend loads of money in the class have a great time and enjoy racing, others who spend large amounts of money are proving it with lap times.. so really it depends what you want out of racing.. i think the e30 class should be awesome value for money and will develop similair to pro7s.. which would be great.

[E30stz 0]

thanks for your input, really good insite into things. Its great that its mostly going down to skill not whoever has the deepest pockets.

[topless 7]

Andrew, decided to move this from the other thread as this one is more appropriate.

You can race L-Jet 320s

The proposed rules in the DIXI quote the ECU for the 320 as 14 14 1748 259. I have 6 ecu's from early non-motronic and later motronic 320's (all Bosch) but none of them match this number. They also state that ecu's may be exchanged randomly. Does anyone have one of these ecu's and exactly which model did it come out of?

[E30stz 0]

For all those interested - I talked to Colin and asked him a few things regarding suspension the other day. These are the responses I got.

In regards to using Bilstein Sport suspension: "Yes any brand is OK however I suggest adjustable will give you more flexability for different circuits."

With regard to springs, they we're going through a series of testing as there are going to be control springs, the 318i springs have been chosen (will update soon) and the 320i springs have yet to be determined.

Cheers

Andy

[Guest Andrew]

This is stupid -

What on earth is the point in an adjustable shock - it should remain unadjustable (with a PROPER suspension setup - not a street one!)

[Grant 4]

There is going to be a general meeting at the end of next month where questions etc on this series will be answered.

It will be an open invite for all those interested in competing.

The confirmed details for the meeting will be released soon.

Cheers

Grant

[skidz 196]

My thoughts for what they are worth

1. Why specify that upholstery has to be removed? This immediately makes the car ineligible for any other "classic" race series.

2. Why does the car have to be registered and warranted? With no upholstery (see #1) who is going to drive it on the street?

3. Why allow an overbore? I have yet to see a BMW block that needed a rebore, but allowing it means everyone has to do it to gain parity.

4. There was some comment about making the car eligible for Targa. Hmmm. Unlikely aniyone would build one of these cars for this series and then use it for the Targa, where your performance would be compared against thioose in the similar looking but very different performing 325i's, M3's et al. I know that is not what Targa is all about but still...

Still, that is not to say it wont be a great series, if there are enough cars. And the cars will look good. Lets see how it goes!

[Aidan 0]

andrew, as to your comment on suspension i think you will find 99% of race cars run adjustable shocks, if you stick with one shock where dampening and ride height is not adjustable the car will behave badly on any track. to gain handling advantage an adjustable shock is required for rebound etc that can be altered for each individual track, and alot of the guys also change spring rate and ride height. i know from experience that ALOT of fine tuning is required to get a suspension setup right.

[Guest Andrew]

I think its fairly easy to find a mildly comprimised suspension setup that will work well for all e30s (at least on these top 3 north island race tracks).

I run a non-adjustable control suspension from an American race series in my car - it handles pretty good - I admit its slightly lacking at Taupo - but the sway bar adjustment could overcome that. I'm not suggesting that my setup should be used (its much too expensive for a low cost series)

I just think - for a control series - you should run non-adjustable control shocks/springs to make handling even (at least from the suspension point of view). Also fixed sway, fixed camber etc. If they're going so far to make sure that roll cages have the same pickup points so that people dont' get handling advantages - then it should be the same with the rest of the vehicle.

[smokenbaby 0]

I have a rather good relationship with Grant from Stocks in Auckland and Alf at Stocks in Wellington is a godd friend of mine. Grant is helping to develope the suspension for the class and by the sounds of it the shocks will be a controlled part (more and likely Koni adjustable - same with Pro7 Plus cars) and the springs will be free (spring rate upto the driver/team to test and use their best spring set up for the track). Sway bars will be a standard item to keep costs down and the diameter will be the spec.

Running a non-adjustable shock would not be of any great disadvantage as the Pro7 Series 1 cars only use a standard valved KYB non-adjustable. These work great and we tent to changed them out half way through the season. Very small cost involved.

[Aidan 0]

we run koni adjustables in our pro7 plus batmobile as our class is sponored by them also.

they work very well and are very flexible between tracks and alot of guys in series 4 cars actually run no sway bar at taupo as it improves the way they handle but i guess its up to the individual driver.

stocks do a great deal on shocks and springs for racers.

[E30stz 0]

have just heard that “on next week’s Sangyong Speed Week we feature the upcoming E30 series” - Sky Sports 2 Thursday 1930

[conrod 1]

And there will be an anouncement or two in the next few weeks, regarding the E30 series and ANOTHER NEW BMW class, which will be run in conjunction! Remember where you read about it first!

Edited July 7, 2006 by conrod

[Steve K-B 51]

Just keep us updated with meeting dates etc.... It would be good to hear about all it from some one in person.

E30stz, is that as in the 13th of this month?

Ive only just started reading this thread, but my understanding was that all E30s could race. 318,320,325,M3 etc.... Or is this the anouncement that Conrad is talking about??

[Silver Fox 43]

The BMW E30 series is being set up by Original BMW Parts, and is for E30's, manual F/L 318's and all 320's only. At this stage it's being called the Original BMW Parts E30 Challenge. Sounds like Conrad has got wind of another class being set up as well, there was talk of running all ineligible cars in races at the same time as the E30's, under a staggered start system so you would have races within races..

[E30stz 0]

They we're thinking of running an open class to help fill up the grid. Race on the same times / same track. Yeah Steve its on the 13th, its actually not on at 7:30, I was told they said around 8:15 but I mean you dont want to flat out miss it so watch from teh start.

Cheers

Andy

Edited July 7, 2006 by E30stz

[conrod 1]

You are all correct- to a point! Earlier in this thread I mentioned that it would be great if we ran an "Open" class to allow any existing BMW race cars somewhere to play. Well, I put this suggestion to certain members of the BMWCC, and to cut a long story short we formed a "sub committee" at the AGM, to run this new class, as well as the E30 class. Both classes will be run in the same race in the first year(but staggered start) and when we have sufficient numbers, we will separate them.(probably next year) Both classes will be given the attention they fully deserve- neither will be treated as "filler!"- we have over 50 BMW race cars in NZ,and a great deal of those are full blown ex- factory race cars, so we are pretty excited about getting this off the ground.

We have had our first meeting, dates are being finalised, series sponsors are being talked to, rules have been written (Open class by yours truly!) and I anticipate we should be announcing race dates within the next two weeks. There is more to come, but that should keep you all fizzing for now! If you are building an E30 race car and aren't on Colins register, please get in touch with him with your details so you can contacted. Any other race car owners can email me and I will make sure you are included on the list if you wish to be in the open class. I will post rules and regs for the open class shortly for those who are interested.

cheers Conrad

conrod@callplus.net.nz

Edited July 7, 2006 by conrod