Compact trackday special [finished - for now]

[K3vin]

The plate I welded in is about 5mm thick.
If I stay on the black stuff I think it should be strong enough? I've never heard of a turret failing on a tarmac car. Maybe it's more of a rally weakness? I think the jumps / potholes are really hard on the cars.
BMW has some reinforcement plates for the M3, so I guess in standard form it is a weak point.

[K3vin]

Car is painted now!

[bruvs1]

nice one kev, look forward to seeing the build photos

[K3vin]

Long time ago I updated this...

After painting I put the car on it's side and stripped the underseal...


I dented the chasis rail, to prevent the rear controlarms from hitting it. I raised the subframe a little bit and the car will be quite low, so want to be safe.


Turned the car upright after painting the underside of the car.


Will be running these wheels. Et -5 with 240mm slicks


Fitting more bit's, it's starting to look like a car again!


Still lot's of jobs to do, but March 2010 the car will be finished!

[Tris-m3]

Looks awesome mate, I'm loving the wheels and the arches!

Where did you get the arches?

[is-si]

with those wheels it looks like a `dutch supercar challenge' runner

how did you lighten your doors ? compact doors seem heavy

keep up the good work

[rearwheelsteercompact]

how did you lighten your doors ? compact doors seem heavy

keep up the good work

There is a very heavy side impact bar (Thick wall tube) which can be carefully cut and removed. Then you can trim the inside panel as much or as little as you wish.

[bruvs1]

nice job kevin, looking good

[K3vin]

Thanks for the nice words! I'm really content with how the car is turning out.

Looks awesome mate, I'm loving the wheels and the arches!
Where did you get the arches?

Thanks! The arches are from Rieger.

with those wheels it looks like a `dutch supercar challenge' runner
how did you lighten your doors ? compact doors seem heavy
keep up the good work

I completely removed the inside of the door and the bar. The window will be fixxed to the folded lip on the outerskin of the door.
It's a lot lighter now, but not as light as a fiberglass door. But I like the added safety of a steel door.

[K3vin]

It has been a while, but the car is almost complete now!

Replacing the roof with a carbon one. It's actually a E36 saloon roof, but with some modifications it fits nicely:


The engine is finally in:


I fitted a flywheel from an early E34 525i. This is a single mass flywheel, instead of the standard E36 dual mass flywheel. The flywheel was lightened to around 6kg.
S50B30 header were also fitted.


For the middle section of the exhaust I used a Supersprint section with two small mufflers, instead of the catalytic converters.

This is a Sebring exhaust for the E46 330. Due to the small length it fits nicely on the compact. Only some new brackets needs to be made.



Building the diffs. The end cap was machined 4mm so that 2 additional plates can be fitted. The ramp angles are modified to 60 degree.


Diff finished. I used a E30 3,73 diff.


Some hammering was needed to fit the diff.

[is-si]

Brilliant work kevin, first class
I've a few questions:
How did you get the S50 manifold to fit against the block? and what model is the Exhaust centre section from?
What front and rear weights are you looking for?
Thanks
John

[K3vin]

Thanks for the compliment!
I didn't do anything special to the S50 manifold. Maybe the RHD car's manifolds are different?
The center section is from Supersprint for the E36 M3. It's not the stainless 'race' version, but the normal cat replacement pipe.
I would be happy to get the car below 1000kg with something like 53/47 FR ration.

[is-si]

Thanks kevin, i think you are right, we tried a rhd s50 manifold on our M54 block and head and its hitting the block....badly!, which is a shame because it looks a good design

I've no experience with the M50/2, have you done any sump mods to overcome oil surge?
We'll modify our sump along the vac/turnermotorsport route just to be sure

[K3vin]

I also copied the vac/turnermotorsport baffles. I hope it will be enough. In hindsight I should have drilled the hole behind return flap a little lower.

[K3vin]

Took a lot of time to finish of all of the last details, but the car is finished (for now)!

I made aluminium plates to close off the bodywork.


Relocating the fusebox, modifying all of the wirering, Fitting the lexan in a nice way and tyding it all up took a lot of time.

I'm quite happy with how the plating worked out:

Will probably paint them sometimes in the future.

And finally after 2,5 years of buiding I was able to drive the compact out of the garage under it's own power!




Some small trouble had to be fixed (including a dead alternator that the the previous owner of the engine (willingly) had swapped on the engine, before selling it).

And on wednesday I was able to test the car at the track off Assen:


The car performed almost flawlessly, with a only a few small thing to be fixed. Even my mixed and matched springs, swaybars and alignment-by-eye performed much better then expected.

Still have some things to do, like fitting the carbon roof, but I'm very happy for now.