Wide Body Street car/Time attack build

[meltingmanmedia]

I spent my Sunday ruining the resale value of my E30. Only cursed at it a couple of times... Lots of cleaning up and welding to do in the rear, and I'm definitely not looking forward to doing it again on the passenger side... But here's how it should sit! This was the most significant part of the build so far and Its nowhere close to being a finished ordeal. I want it to all be as correct as my skills will allow before it leaves this shop.

Also installed my Spal fan, and figured out how to get the Split second AFR controller piggyback out of my car finally so I can install my Megasquirt and get it going again.

Videos of the build can be found here!

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpZt4QNuHHsgeDTq3Ws9vwpqeT8T23V_q

[2mAn]

Damn. Thats going to be quite aggressive when its done. Props to you for ruining the resale value because in the end, build it for you, not for the resale

[Kelso840]

Little Hoonicorn action.

[hasa]

There is lot of work to do to make big tires turn freely. Front is the problematic side. It is something like 235/40-17 which is max size before it's going to be hell.

If you want to go bigger, it just requires cutting off the wheel wells and make bigger ones. Plus you need then tubular control arms or similar to relocate tires forward.

Good luck! Do not give up! I did it once, but the project never finished due other reasons.

[litu]

Very interesting project

[meltingmanmedia]

Finally going to test fit a wheel up front today to see what my clearances look like without the tire mounted. Enkei RPF1 18x9.5 et 15. it will have a 1" adapter spacer to go from 5x120 to 5x114.3. Still may not be aggressive enough of an offset though. Might have to step down to ET 0

[meltingmanmedia]

Went ahead and test-fitted the single wheel I got for the front of the car this weekend! offset and width are perfect, all I need now is a lot of castor adjustment to move the wheel forward to not hit the rear of the wheel well and see what needs trimming in the front. I feel good about the front end now, so I'm going to get the rear end all ready for 5 lug and then see how this wheel fits to make sure all my math for the larger wheel's clearances are good!

[Elysian]

I spent my Sunday ruining the resale value of my E30. Only cursed at it a couple of times... Lots of cleaning up and welding to do in the rear, and I'm definitely not looking forward to doing it again on the passenger side... But here's how it should sit! This was the most significant part of the build so far and Its nowhere close to being a finished ordeal. I want it to all be as correct as my skills will allow before it leaves this shop.

Also installed my Spal fan, and figured out how to get the Split second AFR controller piggyback out of my car finally so I can install my Megasquirt and get it going again.

Videos of the build can be found here!

I did similar to my E30 a couple weeks ago, used E38 wheels/tires for fitment since they're so large. I'm doing a Rocket Bunny kit on my build.



Was able to get these massive chonkers swinging with only minor interference on the drivers side at full left lock. Probably can tweak that some with caster adjustment.

Loving the progress on your build, looking great.

And no, my garage is no longer that dirty

[meltingmanmedia]

I did similar to my E30 a couple weeks ago, used E38 wheels/tires for fitment since they're so large. I'm doing a Rocket Bunny kit on my build.



Was able to get these massive chonkers swinging with only minor interference on the drivers side at full left lock. Probably can tweak that some with caster adjustment.

Loving the progress on your build, looking great.

And no, my garage is no longer that dirty

OH sick!! What did you end up doing for you 5 lug stuff?

[Elysian]

OH sick!! What did you end up doing for you 5 lug stuff?

My 5 lug setup is pretty standard really. I've got E36 M3 (96+) hub assemblies, E46 control arms with the Garagistic hex insert LCABs, I'm using Solowerks E36 M3 coilover kit, Ground Control camber/caster plates, and still need to figure out the best tie rod solution. I've tried a combo of E9X and E46 (I think?) links, but they were too long, need to cut at least an inch of threads off. I went E46 arms for the wider stance, and I'm able to take some of the camber out effectively with the Ground Control plates. I actually still have room to remove negative camber on those if I flip around the strut mount plate, I doubt I'll be running this much camber. The nice thing is the front width is perfect right now for the Rocket Bunny kit, so I think with the 3 piece wheels it'll also be really good fitment.



For the rear it's the standard 318ti setup, with the SRS Concepts big brake adapters and Z4 rotors/E46 325i calipers.

I'm not sure if I'll be wide enough in the rear for the Pandem kit, won't really know that till I build one of the 3 piece wheels, but if I'm not I may switch my trailing arms out for Z3 3.0 ones for the wider stance. Would also need axles of course.

[meltingmanmedia]

My 5 lug setup is pretty standard really. I've got E36 M3 (96+) hub assemblies, E46 control arms with the Garagistic hex insert LCABs, I'm using Solowerks E36 M3 coilover kit, Ground Control camber/caster plates, and still need to figure out the best tie rod solution. I've tried a combo of E9X and E46 (I think?) links, but they were too long, need to cut at least an inch of threads off. I went E46 arms for the wider stance, and I'm able to take some of the camber out effectively with the Ground Control plates. I actually still have room to remove negative camber on those if I flip around the strut mount plate, I doubt I'll be running this much camber. The nice thing is the front width is perfect right now for the Rocket Bunny kit, so I think with the 3 piece wheels it'll also be really good fitment.

For the rear it's the standard 318ti setup, with the SRS Concepts big brake adapters and Z4 rotors/E46 325i calipers.

I'm not sure if I'll be wide enough in the rear for the Pandem kit, won't really know that till I build one of the 3 piece wheels, but if I'm not I may switch my trailing arms out for Z3 3.0 ones for the wider stance. Would also need axles of course.

i have z3 front assemblies and 2.8 z3 rear assemblies that i havent put on yet, i definitely want to test fit my front setup before ordering more agressive rears. But did all of the stuff for the front like the LCABs fix the terrible caster issue?

[Elysian]

i have z3 front assemblies and 2.8 z3 rear assemblies that i havent put on yet, i definitely want to test fit my front setup before ordering more agressive rears. But did all of the stuff for the front like the LCABs fix the terrible caster issue?

I had decent caster with the old Garagistic offset LCABs and 96+ M3 arms, but I wanted more track width. The E46 arms+Garagistic bushings definitely put the wheel pretty centered in the wheel well. I emailed back and forth with them to make sure I was ordering the right parts for my 96+ M3 spindle assemblies, they've got a lot of knowledge on the various 5 lug swap setups it seems. I'm not sure if the Z3 front control arms are like E36 M's or non-M's though, so I'm not sure there. There's a lot more options for adjustable LCABs out there now though, so plenty of routes you can take. SRS Concepts has some stuff for that as well.

[varg]

Neat. I like those flares way more than the horrible screw-on box flare body kits that are all the rage now. What are the engine candidates?

[meltingmanmedia]

Neat. I like those flares way more than the horrible screw-on box flare body kits that are all the rage now. What are the engine candidates?

Engine for now will be turbo M20, just want to at least make enough power to put the big tires to use. Final setup im not entirely sure, so many options and so many different benefits to all of them

[meltingmanmedia]

It's been way too long since I've posted here, and there is a lot to update!

Since my last post, I've gone ahead and swapped my 2.8l Z3 rear trailing arms, axles, and brakes onto my e30 to make up for some offset so I don't have to use stupid spec spacers. This was one of my biggest hold-ups for a while. Not the most cost-effective way to do a 5 lug swap but the best way to do it to fill out the widebody.



Now on to my favorite part, suspension and wheels and all that good stuff that can make or break a car.

Since I had squared away the wheel I needed for the front, I decided to throw it on the back of the car since the 5 lug stuff was on just to see if any of my math was correct and if the Z3 assemblies would get me in the ballpark for what I was looking for. The front setup I decided on was a 18x9.5 et15 RPF1 with a 1" adapter spacer to convert to 5x114.3. In the rear, my goal was to go up to a 18x10.5 et15 with the same spacer setup but i wasn't sure how that was going to turn out.

So here was the front wheel test fitted for the rear to give me some measurements and the confidence to buy the wider wheel.

I ended up having about an inch of clearance where my "ballpark" ride height would hopefully be.

So I went ahead and ordered my wider rear wheel, and while I waited I got a tire mounted for the front to see how that worked with rubber!

With camber, castor correction, and a ride height adjustment the front is going to be perfect. I threw this wheel on the back just to measure one more time before the rear wheel came in and it made me a little nervous about going up a whole inch in width and from a 255 to a 285.