Final Shots

The car is being loaded up onto the trailer today.

LONG OVERDUE

We got the cage back a few weeks ago, and it looks FANTASTIC!  We have nearly 90ft of tubing in the car.  As you can see, we went with the NASCAR-style ladder bar for the door.  It extends into the door and actually touches the outer skin.

We initially were wanting to paint the whole car gray so it looked like metal.  However, it came out looking kind of funny so we decided on camouflage.  

TA bushings and shocks

We replaced the trailing arm bushings with new rubber ones courtesy of Blunttech.com, and popped in our new rear shocks as well.

 - As you can see, we constructed our own install/removal tool from a pipe, some threaded rod, and a few washers.  It worked really well, and was quite fast.

Cage Transport

On Saturday, we took the car down to McMinnville to have the cage built.

Exhaust

Behold

Back to PDX

The car is being trasferred down to Portland from Amboy today in order to get a bit more work done before we trailer it to McMinville for the cage install.


Suspension update that was not previously mentioned:
We opted to ditch the coil-over setup in order to avoid what would have likely been hundreds of penalty laps. We're now using the Bilstein Touring struts that came along with the car paired with the sport springs that were also on it (Dinan we were told).

Body & Brakes

More work was done on the body today.  Also, the last brake caliper was rebuilt and stainless lines were installed.

2/8 - 10 hours of body work

 -Flex pipe for our tank-style diffuser exhaust.  We sealed up the pipe to the heat registers with some JB Weld.  It should hold really well.

 - One of our wheel bearings was toasted so we put another one on today.  When pulling the hub off, the inner bearing race decided that it didn't want to come off the spindle.  As we have to move the car out of the shop every night, getting the wheel back on was soon moved to top priority.  Only after nearly an hour of heating the race to glowing hot with the OA torch were we able to use a puller to finally pry off the race.  This was by far the most difficult hub I've ever changed.

 -The culprit.  It's now a hood ornament along with the dust shield that we had to cut out with the torch.


Construction adhesive was used to seal down the rear of the "turret."

 - Logan found a Mini wing in the parts bin at the dealership, so we decided to mount it on the car.  It probably won't due much behind the turret, but at least it looks kind of cool.

 - Cladding and diamond-plate fender accents were added.

- We got some cladding on the hood too, and decided to cut some vents in the hood to keep the temps down.  We're also gluing some mesh beneath them to keep debris out... well, it's mostly for aesthetics, but whatever.

 - Expanded steel mesh was used to cover the front end in case of flying debris on the track. 
- Hard to see, but we have added an oil cooler that's mounted below the radiator.  The guy shipped it to me with oil filter still attached and the whole system was still full of oil... thanks, man.

 - We continued the diamond-plate accent all the way around the rear.  You can also see our spare fuel tanks/old beer kegs mounted to the trunk.  We'll soon be adding an old ammo box up there too.
- Also visible is our brake light.  It's an old school bus "Stop" light that Logan had sitting around.  It's BRIGHT.

- Pretty much how it sits now.  It awaits more work on Saturday.

Small Update

No new pictures to add now.

We're all heading up to Amboy tomorrow to do some MAJOR work on the red devil, and a HUGE update will follow soon.


Just wanted to give a big thanks to a couple of our sponsors:

Blunttech.com - AWESOME source for new BMW parts!

GutenParts.com - Levent is a true asset to the e30 community!

More Updates

As of 1/17 we're officially accepted into the race.  There's no turning back now.

Weekly wrenching and team meetings will be necessary to get the car prepared for the race on 3/26.

The tank theme is slowly coming together.

Big Update

The suspension, and engine work was completed last week by Darin.

  - Notice the classy coolant overflow catch can.

  - Finally got it out of the garage.

 - Logan was brave enough to drive it up to Amboy... with no window, no heat, and 33F outside.