Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

[dvallis]

you can also drill a few holes in the valance.

Pick up a copy of the Mark Donahue (70s racer/engineer) book The Unfair Advantage. You'll like the interesting things he does with race cars.

[dvallis]

Last night's (foolish) project: Tackle the wiring harness some more. Note to self: Don't do this as an evening project or you may regret it:

Here's the starting point:



If I was writing a How To guide, the next instructions would be "Working carefully while referring to the Electrical Troubleshooting Manual, remove all portions of the wiring harness not required for a race car." Hahahahahaha.



This is what 4 lbs of unnecessary wiring harness looks like. Except my #@$#@@$# turn signals stopped working. 4 hours later at 1 AM with the entire steering column disassembled they decided to magically start again. I think it's a cold solder joint in the cluster. Oh, joy.



That's better. Only 2 wires running to the ECU. Nothing else required. Re-assembled everything, did a victory lap of the neighborhood and called it good.



Curb weight 2,310 lbs Will be 2,250 once the race seats go in.

[HennaE30]

Last night's (foolish) project: Tackle the wiring harness some more. Note to self: Don't do this as an evening project or you may regret it:



Here's the starting point:







If I was writing a How To guide, the next instructions would be "Working carefully while referring to the Electrical Troubleshooting Manual, remove all portions of the wiring harness not required for a race car." Hahahahahaha.







This is what 4 lbs of unnecessary wiring harness looks like. Except my #@$#@@$# turn signals stopped working. 4 hours later at 1 AM with the entire steering column disassembled they decided to magically start again. I think it's a cold solder joint in the cluster. Oh, joy.







That's better. Only 2 wires running to the ECU. Nothing else required. Re-assembled everything, did a victory lap of the neighborhood and called it good.







Curb weight 2,310 lbs Will be 2,250 once the race seats go in.

Complete car other than gutted interior?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HennaE30]

Last night's (foolish) project: Tackle the wiring harness some more. Note to self: Don't do this as an evening project or you may regret it:



Here's the starting point:







If I was writing a How To guide, the next instructions would be "Working carefully while referring to the Electrical Troubleshooting Manual, remove all portions of the wiring harness not required for a race car." Hahahahahaha.







This is what 4 lbs of unnecessary wiring harness looks like. Except my #@$#@@$# turn signals stopped working. 4 hours later at 1 AM with the entire steering column disassembled they decided to magically start again. I think it's a cold solder joint in the cluster. Oh, joy.







That's better. Only 2 wires running to the ECU. Nothing else required. Re-assembled everything, did a victory lap of the neighborhood and called it good.







Curb weight 2,310 lbs Will be 2,250 once the race seats go in.

Complete car other than gutted interior?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dvallis]

Not exactly complete. It's 100% street legal, minus anything not related to getting around the race track faster. Here's the list of what's been removed or replaced and the weight savings. Those are actual weights as I have been removing things, not estimates. PM me if you want the spreadsheet for reference.

Trunk tar -53
Spare tire -32
Rear seat, leather, armrest -30
Front interior door panels etc -15
Trunk carpet -15
Factory stereo components -11
Windshield washer/pump/tank/lines -10
Back seat tar -9
Rear speaker deck -10
Rear seat belts -6
Factory jack -3
Hood liner and washer hoses -5
Rear interior side panels -4
Radio Antenna -2
Rear seat sound insulation -0.5
Rear seat kick -0.5
Interior carpet -34
Floor mats -9
Glove compartment -6
Center console -6
Dash -20
AC plastic ducting -5
Front kick panels -2
Front speakers -5
Misc dash crap -5
Power steering -35
A/C pump, bracket, hoses, rad, valve -34
Suspension (Race suspension) -10
Sun visors -3
Stock Wheels (Race wheels) -46
Rear deck tar & inner dash insulation -9
Heater core & hoses -26
Tools -3
Fuel Cooling system -9
Floor tar -14
Headliner & insulation -8
Wiring harness: power windows, locks -4
Wiring harness: HVAC, lights etc. -4
-------------------------------------------
TOTAL -503 lbs

[dvallis]

It's an AWESOME Thursday. Check out what showed up today. Complete E30 wide body fiberglass body kit, including DTM wing and carbon fiber spoiler. Side skirts get here tomorrow. (Minor shipping drama)



I'll be using the 325is air damn with late model plastic bumper on the front. Will probably make my own front lip/splitter.



For the rear, I want to do something interesting. I think it's going to be a custom diffuser integrating a blown exhaust for fun.

[2mAn]

For the rear, I want to do something interesting. I think it's going to be a custom diffuser integrating a blown exhaust for fun.

I love what this guy did...

she lost ~50lbs with the removing the rear bumper and added a center exit exhaust with a Flowmaster Super 10.. ugly i know..


Also in addition I built a custom rear diffuser out of Alumalite that complete seals off the back end of the car.. the diffuser is going from the top of the cooling fins on the diff to almost each shock and all the way to the very back..



The rear diffuser is going reduce drag by a substantial amount.. i can already feel a difference on the freeway, it really is unbelievable how much this thing works..

[dvallis]

Right. Something like that. Here's another real diffuser. Functional, vs. made for looks. The base pan is from a fiberglass mold, with sheet metal center channels. (from this thread)



And on the car. E90 I think.

[2mAn]

thats an E46 but who cares. Im excited for the next phase now that you've deleted a 1/4 ton!

[whitebulat22]

This build is getting me excited, loving the commitment to racing! Even more with the congregation of our lightweight e30 crew in this thread I'm getting amped up with the ideas I'm seeing here, gonna try brake ducts > fogs myself. Diffusers are looking sick. A roof spoiler maybe another nifty thing. The e30 rear roof rake is the only thing about the car that legitimately bugs me, too much air going right over a spoiler, and forcing that to change might make aero grip a significant factor. Making it look good may be the biggest challenge but it sure works here:

[dvallis]

Yeah, we are really getting to the interesting part now. Hell, I'm going to be chopping quarter panels with the angle grinder anyway. I might as well go nuts and change the roof line. Rear glass and side windows are getting replaced with Lexan, so it's no sweat to change the shape.

I'm going to steal a trick from Mark Donahue and instrument the suspension. That gives you data to actually measure downforce at track speed. Do runs with no aero. Add the air dam, wing and diffuser, taking measurements for each. Sounds like I have a long term hobby. :devil:

Before I get there though, gotta slog through this fuse box relocation .....

[dvallis]

Here are a few shots of the new fiberglass bodywork. It's going to look really good. They are 30 lbs lighter than the stock metal panels. DTM wing is heavier but who cares. It's bad ass! :devil:

[dvallis]

Major project time: Its SUNROOF REMOVAL SATURDAY

First thing, gut the sunroof mechanism. This crap weighs 10 lbs.



Now wrestle the sunroof out. There are three torx screws on each side. Frigging hard to get to. Once they're gone it pulls right out. The sunroof itself is 15 lbs! I am definitely doing a fiberglass panel swap. Could easily save 12 lbs.



Sunroof all gone.



So, now what?



Chop the front bracket with an angle grinder. DON'T cut into your roof. :devil:



Drill out the spot welds over the B-Pillar.



Chop the rear bracket.



Repeat on the other side. Now take a heat gun and paint scraper. Start working lose the glue.



These spot welds are IMPOSSIBLE to see. Even after I drilled them out the roof shell wouldn't budge. I ended up using an angle grinder and cut the damn thing out.



And ... it's out. This stuff weighs 25 lbs combined.



Cutting the roof tabs off.



Support bracket fabrication.



Brackets installed.



Notching the sunroof support metal so brackets fit flush.



Sunroof installed. This method works really well. The metal cross bars pull the roof down and keep it from going anywhere. Much more solid than glue. I tried JB Weld and that was just not going to work. Imagine the sunroof flying off at 70 MPH! This is super solid. Pretty cool.



And here's the finished product. Pretty nice looking. It will do until final body work. Then I'll do the fiberglass insert and save 12 more lbs.



Ultimately, here is the biggest reason for sunroof delete in a track car. HEADROOM! There is easily 2 more inches of it in the car. Roll cage will also be tighter to the roof. This was a lot of work (9 hours) but worth the effort. I'll finish the job with some silicone sealer tomorrow.



Total weight saved: 25 lbs. Curb weight: 2,285 lbs !

Finally in the 2200s :devil:

[dvallis]

Taking a break today after yesterday's sunroof extravaganza. Just doing some simple things.

Pulled the sunroof drain hoses. Fronts came out. Rears are anchored somehow inside the frame ... abandon in place. Weight removed.. 1 lb.



Looking through the engine bay and found this thing. ETM says .... it's the cruise control. Race cars don't need no steenking cruise control.



Weight removed ... 5 lbs. Pretty heavy for such a small widget.



Engine bay without cruise control. I got a wild hair and did some cleaning.



Engine bay is looking pretty slick now. Once we pull the engine everything will still get a complete cleanup. Powder coating the valve cover and intake manifold will be a nice finish.



Total weight saved: 6 lbs. Curb weight: 2,279 lbs

[TimeMachinE30]

Looks good.