AKG Delivery!

December 1st, 2010

Since The Red Car is trailered around to events and is truly intended to be a race car, the collective believes that solid mounts (or as close as possible) are the order of the day.  I called the folks at AKG Motorsport having used some of their products on The White Car to discuss what would be best.  The effort is becoming a “While you’re in there” kinda project.  I figured why not replace everything now so I know what’s in there.  Today a fairly heavy box arrived with:

  • AKG 75D motor mounts
  • AKG Group N replica transmission mounts
  • AKG 75D differential mount
  • AKG 75D rear subframe bushings
  • AKG 75D rear trailing arm bushings
  • AKG 75D front control arm (offset)

Luckily for me there was also a group buy setup on S14.net for the finned differential cover (which also arrived today).  At least I can go press the bushing before installing it into the car.  At some point the reinforcement points for the subframes need to be inspected …

Posted in Build, DIY, e30m3 | No Comments »

Shedding the Pounds: Part II

November 16th, 2010

The sound deadening in The Red Car seems intent on not coming out. After reading Duct Tape Motorsports post on getting their Lemons car in order a Harbor Freight pneumatic paint scraper was on order ASAP. Of course it was DOA.  It leaks like air like crazy so I’ve put off sound deadening removal for a bit.

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Shedding the Pounds: Part I

November 15th, 2010

As most folks know, initially the cheapest way improve the speed of a car is removing weight.  It gets incredibly expensive to reduce weight later on (ie, 18lb race shell ~$1k vs 9lb race shell ~$5k).  Luckily for me I can stand to lose 25lbs.  Perhaps I’ll ask my wife for $10k additional in car funds.

I purchased The Red Car because it was gutted and caged.  This was something that just could not happen to my first M3.  Too many have been cut up and I decided early on I wanted to race an E30 M3.  Passively searching for a year or so, ultimately arrived at a car I had spied two years earlier.  Even though the car was caged, it still had some things that needed to be removed.  As an example, the air conditioning system was fully intact.  (Great news, since I needed to install a/c into The White Car if I was going to use it as a daily during the Summer.)

After getting the car up on jack stands:

  • scraped sound deadening out of the cabin (PITA and currently INCOMPLETE)
  • removed all the a/c system that lived in front of the firewall
  • removed the aux and main fan
  • removed the cruise control system (still need to remove the separate computer and stalk)

Next steps:

  • remove dash in order to:
    • get access to more sound deadening
    • remove a/c bits in the cabin
  • remove sunroof, headliner, panel cards
  • contemplate scraping the underside of the car
  • remove fender liners
  • add a SPAL fan to replace the two fans I removed
  • remove tweeters, speaker wire, misc hardware

Posted in DIY, e30m3, The Red One | No Comments »

Suspension First

November 12th, 2010

There will be plenty of weight coming out of the car.  Current JStock weight is 2733 lbs w/o driver.  M3T at 2550 lbs *including* driver and equipment.  In 2011 Stock will be the same as current Prepared (2624 lbs) … I just hope it also includes driver and equipment.  That would be a fairly significant drop in weight with the US average for a male tipping the scales around 190 lbs.  So everyone gets to drop 300 lbs from the car.

For The Red Car it means the Turner JStock spring/damper combo needs to be replaced.  Every double-adjustable setup in contention requires strut modification, so pulling the struts first and shipping them off seemed like the logical thing to do.  My buddy Hugh came over to lend a hand and we had everything out in no time (only one trip to Sears required)   These will get boxed and shipped out before Thanksgiving.

Posted in Club Racing, e30m3 | No Comments »

Step One: Make a Plan

November 1st, 2010

1. Get The Red Car into compliance for racing next year.

  • rip as much weight as possible out of the car
  • replace the suspension
  • replace/refresh bushings
  • install a fire system
  • replace out-of-date safety items
  • rework rear half of the cage

2. Get The White Car back into daily driver shape for the Spring.

  • find/install an interior
  • swap exhaust systems w/ The Red Car since my Borla has a hole in it.
  • install a/c

3. Profit

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