Craig's 328i Sport - e36 Track Car Build Thread

[whopwop]

aH bOLLIX......................
I was scrolling down through the pix and thought thats stunning until I got to post 96............. tough luck :bigcry:

[mattCSLnut]

Bad luck Craig but I hope you're OK :thumbs: Would be a real shame to brake this car :bigcry: after all the hard work you've put in, especially on the interior. Surely most of the panels you need are bolt on and cheap enough now to source second hand, then send them off individually to the body shop and reassemble at home. Everything else, except perhaps the A/C rad. you can source off fleeBay/ BMW breakers s/hand as well :thumbs: Unless of course the chassis is bent, then I'd say get another E36 328i coupe and transfer all your bits over :thumbs: Keep us posted.

[shimmy]

Sounds and looks bad Craig, but surel you can't need all that stuff, Inc 4 rims and Tyres?

I was hoping you'd have her all ready for Spa in October:bigcry:

[Craig]

It’s with great sadness I post the following pictures;











Driving home late last night, having been up since 04:00 due to work, I simply had a temporary lapse of concentration when on a road I’m vaguely familiar with.

I was travelling down a country lane in the rain and mild mist, this road has a T-junction in which I would normally turn right and then immediately left on to continue down the same road. On this night the junction appeared to come out of nowhere, bearing in mind I was only travelling at around 50mph, I panicked hit the brakes and just slid straight up a high kerb and into a tree-like hedge.

Gutted doesn’t really describe how I feel, I’ve crashed cars before and obviously felt bad about it but this literally feels heart breaking knowing how many hours worth of work has gone into the car over the last 20 months not to mentioned all the memories it’s made too.

I did a damage assessment this morning and to get the car back to where it was before it’ll need;

- 4x Wheels & Tyres
- 2x Front Wishbones
- 2x Anti-Roll Bar Drop Links
- 1x Rear Camber Arm
- Air Conditioning Radiator
- Power Steering Pipe
- Front Slam Panel & Bumper Bar
- Headlights & Indicators
- Bonnet & Grills
- 2x Wings & Arch Liners
- Inner Arch Work
- Front Splitters
- Paintwork

From the above list I can’t really see it been viable to repair the car, if I could do the bodywork side myself I think I’d have give it a go but this is one area I’ve always had to enlist the help of friendly body shops.

Maybe it’s time to break and move on?

[mattCSLnut]

Great work there Craig :thumbs: The car looks :smokin:

[Bounce]

Looking good Craig,you aint done a bad job there.:thumbs:

[Craig]

Just a few snaps of the car parked up outside the house, the neighbours must think ‘WTF!?’ sometimes especially when they see all 6ft3 of me jumping in and out of it over the roll cage daily.

[Craig]

News in brief; got bored, clean bolts...



Used a bench grinder with a wire wheel attached to it to painstakingly clean 160 nuts and bolts, take precautions such as safety glasses as those little wires like flying all over the shop, most ended up stuck in my torso!!

Once cleaned, all threads were checked and a few nuts and bolts had minor thread imperfections removed by use of a tap and die set or thread file. I also split the BBS centres down so there is no plastic left in the centre cap lock nut, this will allow them to be acid dipped, shot blasted and powder coated.



Planning to powder coat them over the next few weeks... a local wheel specialist who appreciates the work I’ve put into the car is willing to let me help out with the refurbishment, whilst teaching me a few new skills along the way!!

[s.mac]

sounds like you are really enjoying the car, best of luck which ever way you take it, car looks :smokin:

[Craig]

Here’s a quick report from the cars first major outing of the year, a track day at the Nurburgring.

Set off on Friday 15th on route to Hull to catch the overnight ferry to Rotterdam, arrived in Germany on the afternoon of the 16th after a flawless drive of over 340 miles. The drive over was the car’s first long run for over 8 months so it was a great relief that nothing went wrong. Here are a few pictures of my car outside the hotel, for anyone who is planning a trip to the ‘Ring I highly recommend staying at Hotel Burgstube with Martin & Heidi the service you receive is first rate, it’s always a pleasure to stay there!





Sunday was a day of Touristenfarten, we spent the day spectating and taking photos as I was saving the car for Monday’s track day. Later than night we decided to head out to Mullenbach for dinner at one of my favourite places; LaLanterna where the car was also left in good company.





Monday morning came fast; it was day one of a double header track day at the Nurburgring. The weather had been a bit hit and miss all weekend, but fortunately for me it was pretty sunny with only the odd showery spell.

The car again performed without so much as a niggle, and completed 264.6 miles on track, so around 18 laps. Here are a few pictures taken by a friend who just happened to have his camera handy whilst having lunch, thanks Johnny.









Rest of the holiday was spent relaxing, final picture of the car loaded up and ready for the journey home.



It still amazes me how well this car does perform, the overall value for money factor is exceptional... remember I used to heavily track a brand new Lotus Exige S and an M3 CSL.

I’ve now hit a point with the car where I feel as if I’m at its limits of the parts it’s currently running. I’m going to take it on a few more track days where I don’t know the track, that way I won’t keep getting frustrated knowing how I want the car to feel, turn and brake... after that I’m thinking the car is going to get progressed slightly further, to an even more track focused chassis set-up.

Ideas which I have floating around my head are;

- KW V3 Clubsports
- Porsche 4-Pot Callipers / AP Racing Brakes
- Semi-Slick / Slicks on Spare BBS Rims

But we’ll see what comes in time, happy just to be using the car for the moment... and yes, it’s my daily driver too.

[Craig]

That was the photographers worry, he said there was some amasing fast road shots and he hopes the editor decides to use them but said sometimes the BMW scene mags can be more about show than go.

Anyhow, now the pretty pictures were over with, it was time to get down and dirty with the car again starting with, as previously mentioned; Viscous Fan Removal.

I figured with my car having A/C I could get away by replacing the current 92 degree thermostat for an 80 degree thermostat from the M30 engine at the same time I’d fit the lower 80/88 fan switch, this would allow the A/C radiator fan to be used as an engine cooling fan when stuck in traffic. The parts and tools required for this job are as follows;

- 80c Thermostat (from M30 engine)
- 80/88c Fan Switch (from M44 engine)
- Thermostat Gasket
- Thermostat Housing Gasket
- Fan Switch Crush Washer
- Coolant Drain Plug Crush Washer
- 32mm Spanner
- Larger Screw Driver
- 10mm Socket
- 13mm Socket
- 50/50 Mix of Coolant & Distilled Water

First up was to remove the viscous fan, this was done by locking the water pump with a large screw driver (or the BMW approved tool if you’re feeling flush) and then using the 32mm spanner on the viscous coupling, remembering that it’s a left handed thread. With this loose the fan could be dropped out the way and the plastic fan cowling could be removed too.

Next up was the drain the coolant, this is done by loosening the plug on the bottom of the radiator and removing the drain plug from the drivers’ side of the engine, just under the headers near the oxygen sensor. Once the coolant was fully drained both plugs were re-fitted. Next the thermostat housing was removed; this was simple it’s only held on by three 10mm bolts and two 13mm bolts that hold the engine removal bracket.

With the housing removed the new thermostat could be fitted, and everything put back together using the correct gaskets, also remember to make note of the ‘up-arrow’ on the thermostat make sure its mounted the correct way round! It’s worth noting that if your water pump has never been replaced, it would be worth replacing this at the same time for the superseded item that has a metal impellor as the plastic ones are prone to failing.

Now onto the fan switch; like everything else this only takes a matter of minutes to change, simply un-screw the old and replace with the new. The only modification you will need to make here is to the plug that connects to the switch, you need to cut off a small tab using a sharp Stanley knife blade, this will be made clear when you look at the two switches together and try to connect the new one to an un-modified plug.

With all the above done you’re now ready to fill it up with coolant, bleed it through and enjoy your latest modification. Once bled, I tested my car and it got up to temp, then when stood the fan kicked in, it cools off a touch then it cut back out whilst the temp gauge stayed slap bang in the middle where I wanted it to be, so I see this as a very successful way of doing the viscous fan delete modification.

[mattCSLnut]

Yeh, it is indeed... the photographer did a great job, its all down to Andy now lets just hope his pen to paper skills are good. Nothing worse than spending all this time and getting a poor, miss-quoted write up!

Andy is a decent scribbler mate :thumbs: lets hope the snapper's artistry is up to scratch and the pic Editor @ the Mag does his work justice when it all goes to print :whistle:

[Craig]

Yeh, it is indeed... the photographer did a great job, its all down to Andy now lets just hope his pen to paper skills are good. Nothing worse than spending all this time and getting a poor, miss-quoted write up!

[mattCSLnut]

It is indeed Andy, how do you know him? I have no other experience other than him approaching me about a possible mag feature many months ago.

I've worked with Andy for quite a few years on Total BMW when it was owned by A&S Publishing (it's early years) and then when it was bought out by Future Publishing.
Small world ehy :whistle:

[DuncanR]

It is indeed Andy, how do you know him?

Dont tell him Pike ! .. take note young Jedi the testicles of the CSLRegister reach far beyond your Universe !!