FredK's 1990 325i-2 Race Car Build

[FredK]

Well, over 7 years later and this project finally got off the ground.

I didn't turn it into a DD, in fact, I never registered the car.

It's going to be an endurance race car now, and a friend and I are now co-owners. I wish I thought of that before I replaced all of the rubber with stock rubber.

Hopefully we get this sucker up and running for an event or two in 2021.

[2mAn]

7 years later and we get one pic of a caged interior... will we be able to get one more pic sometime this year?

[roguetoaster]

7 years later and we get one pic of a caged interior... will we be able to get one more pic sometime this year?

What's the rush, can't wait seven more years?

[FredK]

7 years later and we get one pic of a caged interior... will we be able to get one more pic sometime this year?

2021 is still young, so I feel like I might have a pic maybe in October or so. :p

[2mAn]

2021 is still young, so I feel like I might have a pic maybe in October or so. :p

Sweet, thanks for stopping by. See you in 9 months

[Northern]

In before stealth s85 swap with poorly updated build thread.

A true prophet (or at least a prophet of half truths)

[nando]

let me know when you need the DME flashed for your new swap!

by the time you get to it, I'll probably know how to do it. ;)

Damn, I was close. I've forgotten almost as much in the last 8 years as I've learned.

[DEV0 E30]

Would ya look at that. The prodigal son has returned, if only for a moment.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I'll take any update on a R3v build these days... even if it took 7 years

[FredK]

I had to address a fair bit of rust prior to calling the car good. The front fender bottoms were rotted, the front chassis corners were rotted through, and the accelerator mounting stub area was also perforated by rust, so it took a decent amount of cut and patch. It was a crash course in metal working with minimal Harbor Freight tools.




OK, all painted with Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy. It hides a lot of the ugly.




Car is on an inherited GC coilover conversion kit, PFC 11 pads, Ate front calipers.


Dropped the rear subframe to replace the subframe, trailing arm, and diff bushings with AKG 75D pieces (not shown). The differential was rebuilt with new seals, new bearings, new crush sleeve, and new clutches and steels.



I took it to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in October 2022 for its maiden track day. It felt solid. I had some issues with a bad fuel vent hose where it'd splash fuel when I had more than half a tank of fuel. A post-mortem revealed that I improperly reinstalled the large braided vent hose when I switched to a Spectra Premium replacement fuel tank. I think the replacement vent fitting is slightly larger in diameter than the stock BMW tank. I replaced the braided vent hose and it's good to go now.


Well, we're up to speed again. Most of the rust has been taken care of, but there's still battery box rust and some rust on the rockers that I might tackle soon just to get things nicer looking. The battery no longer resides in the rear of the car. We're running a ETX16L in the front battery tray.

[FredK]

Sweet, thanks for stopping by. See you in 9 months

How about 2 years?

[2mAn]

How about 2 years?

See you in 2025!

[DEV0 E30]

Not-quite-6-month-bump.

[FredK]

See you in 2025!

Well bros, it's 2025. The E30 is still running, still being tracked with a local time trial club www.comscc.org. I did a racing school last year with www.cornerfaster.com in case I wanted to try getting a competition license somewhere like NASA or SCCA, and I volunteered earlier this year with them to help with the on-track drills at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.





I'm not quite sure what I want to do next. I will keep doing time trials but due to the Spec E30 suspension being height adjustable and having a camber plate with a spherical bearing, I have to take a lot of points that other cars don't have to, and my M20 is tired. Also, I am still slow as balls.

I don't really want to engine swap for TT, because it'll jump me into classes that the car won't be competitive. I also think that a Spec E30 M20 will actually put me in a good spot, since with a stock rebuild would not have to take points, and I will still be eligible to run Spec E30 if I wanted to. I also don't want to rebuild an M20 because I'm lazy. So I guess I'll just run this until hopefully the M20 blows up and I'm forced to do something. Why am I like this.

[2mAn]

I don't want to rebuild an M20 because I'm lazy. So I guess I'll just run this until hopefully the M20 blows up and I'm forced to do something.

Why am I like this.

Keep oil in it and check back in 2027, betchya it’ll still be going.

Man, I wonder what car I’ll be driving in 2027?