E36 328 Kumho Race Car - Pre Season Mods

Picked this up during the week!

1996 328 M-Sport Coupe, base spec the only nice bits are wheels, good condition half leathers and set of new bilstein shocks, its 3rd set, well it has done 180,000 miles!

Tax till end of this month when it'll be sorn. I will be trailering this to and from trackdays and the ring at the end of the summer.

Took it to the dump yesterday and put it on the weight bridge. 1340Kgs to start with.

Let the stripping commence: (to strip list)

Interior (to be sold)
Alloys (to be sold) already got a track set
Boot/sparewheel tool kit etc
Sunroof motor
Fog lights
No Aircon to start with!
Heater matrix!

Any other suggestions?








To improve it i'll be fitting:

A New Roundel at the front!
Lightweight bucket seats and a harnes 4 the driver
Decent discs and pads allround and good fluid
Stiffer springs
And a damn good service
LSD & SSK are low down the list but on there!

Any other suggestions (keep them cheap)
Or if any one has any of the above in there garage?

Poly windows instead of glass, not sure how cheap that is though?

My mate's doing something similar on his e36 318is to enter this year's Kumho championship. He'd already done quite a bit to use it as a track day car, but he's had to do some more to meet the regs of the race series. He's got some photo's of his progress on his facebook page.



Here's a couple of ideas based on what he's done to his...

• There's a lot of sound proofing material that can be removed once you've got most of the interior stripped - although it can take a long time to get it all out
• Removing any electrically operated items - windows, sunroof, etc
• Drill out excess material in the door shells, parcel shelf, rear seat firewall, etc.
• Remove the gubbins in the doors related to the remote central locking
• Don't know if you're considering a full/half cage, but where are you planning on mounting the harness too?
• You may or may be able to remove a decent amount of weight with a lighter exhaust system and a cat bypass or 100-cell race cat
• While it's stripped, consider fortifying your suspension mounts as at 20 years old you'll likely have cracks all around them, plus you can fit adjustable camber plates in there while your at it
• There's lots of wiring you can remove for the onboard alarm/immobiliser/radio (which probably doesn't work anymore anyway)

Doors stripped and 'lightened'...


Also not sure whether removing the heater matrix will mean you risking condensation on the inside of the windscreen.

Be careful taking it to the 'Ring though as it need to be road legal to run it on a tourist day - of course this doesn't apply if you've managed to bag one of the 4 (so far) private track days.

Poly windows should be pretty cheap, a sheet of lexan (i think thats the stuff) and a steady handed cutting tool!

Plenty to think of there as well mmm-five, thank you. I'll definatly be doning a few of those especially if the car makes it to 2013!

With regards to road legal and tourist laps. when i was there in oct last year, it was on a monday but it all seemed very quite with regards to car checks, there was a cop there but he wasn't interested in doing anything! there were borderline looking road legal cars that were on and off all day with seemingly no problem. Its a bit of a risk and i haven't decided if i'll do it yet but aslong as the car looks road legal i doubt any one will even look at it let alone question it! As i said need to do so more thinking on that though

If you're happy with the risk to your own car then that's fine, but what about every other member of the public on the track?

I was thinking less of the rare spot checks by the Polizei, although the barrier marshals are quite good at checking things out, and have been known to take note of cars coming off trailers in the car parks. These you can probably blag your way past as they might not know what UK documents look like anyway.

My issue was your position if you bin it or damage someone else's motor, as the Polizei would be involved and you'd have no insurance, MOT, or tax - and the Polizei would really love that

Very good points above, as said i'm not fussed if i bin it thats why i bought a cheap track car, but didn't apreciate all the other aspects. when were those 4 private track days then! :lol:

Tommo Two said:

Very good points above, as said i'm not fussed if i bin it thats why i bought a cheap track car, but didn't apreciate all the other aspects. when were those 4 private track days then! :lol:

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There's lots of information on Brigde-To-Gantry, but the one about the trackdays is here.

Big Update have been busy working on it and its had its 1st track outing!





Did about 100 miles on track, engine was fine brakes were really good considering how old and haggard they were, gearbox had a few hissy fits (couldn't get 1st after half the day, then randomly decided it wasn't going to do anything but neutral and had to abandon a lap onto the grass and got the session red flagged! ) hit a few cones aswell! All in all was an awsome day, was pretty quick aswell, although i think that is partly due to the fact I was driving it flat out and some people in their faster road cars weren't.

The 5er estate is the Z4's replacement



Before the track day I did the following:

Lightweight seats 3kgs each!


Stripped a set of headlights to increase air flow to air filter and still hold indicators inplace. on the drivers side it was the same but to take fumes from the cracked manifold away from the cabin intake. Also saved some weight


Stripped sunroof out, replaced with 0.8mm thick ally, nice and light,


Rather than fit an oil cooler i fitted a temp gauge when it gets to hot (usually the brakes overheat 1st) i stop. The temp sensor is fitted into a modified sump plug


How the interior looks now

the fire extinguisher isn't plumbed in just to hand should i need it!





Since the track day i've fitted some more brake cooling


3" ducting in place of the fog lights, and plastic welded some blanking plates to the other half of the foglight hole.




The dust sheld for the disc will be removed when i change brakes before the next track day.

I've also fitted an X-brace and clutch stop. To do before next track day:

Fit new brakes - calipers discs and pads from my old Z4 before i did the 330 upgrade which i wasn't overly impressed with. I needed to change the master cylinder to prevent a large brake pedal travel. Discs from the Z4 setup are only half and inch bigger, but the calipers are alot newer but not massive like the 330 ones. So i'll begetting a small improvement (bigger one when i get good discs n pads) and retaining similar brake pedal travel.

Roll / flare arches was getting some rubbing under high load corners on the rear

Reading back through a few earlier posts, it does have a LSD. and the current weight stands at 200kgs lost, 20kgs added (seats harness x brace etc) total car 1160kgs.

Still to strip: window motors and mechanisms, the remaining sound deading, pain of a job removed the easy to get to bits and then gave up!


More parts to fit, anti roll bars, drop links, bushes, and Z4 calipers and calipers.



Rear roll bar already fitted with new bushes and drop links.

The old roll bars are free for collection if any one wants them?

Just need a roll cage and some 'aero/DTM' mirrors

mmm-five said:

Just need a roll cage and some 'aero/DTM' mirrors

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Some idiot mentioned BMW khumo championship, now i'm going to be entering in 2013 , so yep cage and other FIA approved stuff. I quite like the elephant ears!

I'll be going along to a few races this year so i'll have to find out who your mate is.

Roll cage ideas: bolt in vs weld in, are troubling me atm because thats the biggest outlay (and most important) for the car and me.

His looks like this now...



Team is called 'LeanMeanRacing'

We're supposed to be joining them at the Oulton Park meet in July.

The more I look at posts like this one, the more I like the idea of having a track day car! Especially as these E36s are so cheap now....

Very smart indeed silverstone is the closest 1 to me so I'll be going there! Has he got any sponsors btw?

My current spends are still under a grand and they are so much fun because they are so cheap n easy to fix

Tommo Two said:

Has he got any sponsors?

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I believe they've got a couple of minor/local ones, but noing that would cover a season's racing/testing.

Those new seats are gorgeous! How much do they cost?

http://www.kitpartsdirect.com details are there. Don't think about putting them in a Z, lol

Busy couple of days fitting over the long weekend. New parts, front and rear ARB's new droplinks and bushes, New rear topmounts, Front and rear strut braces, Z4 3.0 front brake set up with ATE super blue throughout, and removed the disc dust sheilds at the front.



Rusty parts = Cheap parts




This is my modified sump plug with, oil temp sender, run the cable along the x-brace, back up to the dash


The chap that i bought the braces off had just had a cage put in his E36 so didn't need them. He is a car dealer any one guess what he specalises in

:?

Good work. Watching with interest. One day, when kids appear and with them a more sensible road car, I suspect my ///M will become a track-only car.

looking good

did u calculate how much weight you removed???

Do you guys remember Jethro Bovingdon from EVO trying to track his E36 M3 stripped out in 8.00 mins. Can it be done?