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Awesome thread. Have you decided on a place to run it yet? The Varac G70+ group like you mentioned earlier would be a good place to run the car. They have strict no contact rules (13/13) so you won't have to worry about meatheads running into you like in the local Castrol Touring Car series. There is about 3-4 E30 M3s that run here on a regular basis along with one 190e... That would be great to get another 190 out here. Good luck with the build!
Awesome thread. Have you decided on a place to run it yet? The Varac G70+ group like you mentioned earlier would be a good place to run the car.
I've looked at all kinds of venues. I initially looked into BMW CCA Club Race (not with this car, of course) and then NASA GTS. But I was turned off by both of those because I've found the driving to be overly aggressive with too much contact. SCCA is also out for the same reason. In the case of BMW CCA CR, there's also the problem of the budgets having gotten completely out of control. I know a couple of guys running C-Mod and such that have over $200,000 into their cars. That's just stupid money for a hobby I'm going to enjoy for a handful of days a year.
In the end, I settled on historic racing because that seems to be the only way you can do some wheel-to-wheel racing with people who are going to respect the machinery. In the northeast, VARAC seems to be the only game in town.
They have strict no contact rules (13/13) so you won't have to worry about meatheads running into you like in the local Castrol Touring Car series.
Exactly. I'm not going through all the trouble and expense to build a very rare car into a DTM replica just to have some yokel in a rusty Miata drive into my door.
There is about 3-4 E30 M3s that run here on a regular basis along with one 190e... That would be great to get another 190 out here. Good luck with the build!
That's the whole idea! I want to run with E30 M3s just like the glory days of DTM. Varac Group 70+ looks like the perfect place to do it.
It's been a busy couple of weeks. Here's what's been going on...
(01) Removed the SLS pump and installed a custom block-off plate in its place. Decent amount of weight lost from the very front of the car. More importantly, we got rid of a major source of drag: the SLS pump is driven by the exhaust cam! Should help the engine spin up a bit more freely.
(02) Removed the a/c condenser. Couldn't remove the compressor yet since the accessories run off of a single serpentine belt. Need to figure out what belt length we'll need after deleting the compressor. Once that's all done, we can pull out the remaining a/c pressure lines.
(03) The big brake kit came in. This includes 4-piston front and 2-piston rear Ate calipers from a 400E sedan, much bigger and thicker rotors, and vented rear rotors (stock 16v rears are solid). EBC Yellowstuff pads are on their way. Maybe not the greatest pads in the world, but they're the only genuine race pads that are available off-the-shelf for '90s big Mercs.
(04) Unfortunately, the big-brake kit meant we had to say goodbye to our gorgeous, staggered (16x7.5"/16x8.5"), vintage Carlsson alloys. This was pretty heartbreaking. But they just won't clear the big brakes.
(05) In place of the Carlssons, we were able to find some 16x8" ET34 mono-block wheels from an R129 chassis 500SL roadster. These are basically identical to the wheels on the 2,5-16 Evolution I model. Not the prettiest wheels in the world, but they're forged, light, and have very generous brake clearance. They'll do for now. Transferred the Hankook R-S2 rubber onto these wheels for street use. They'll also be used on wet tracks for now.
(06) Picked up a set of vintage 17x8" ET30 Racing Dynamics RGS wheels. I had no idea that RD used to make Mercedes wheels. But these have the correct 5x112mm bolt-pattern. They're slightly lower offset than ideal, but I'm hoping we can still fit 235/40-R17 rubber without fouling the arches. Amazingly, they were new-in-box. In fact, the boxes had never been opened! Still had the original tape on them.
(07) Will install the AMG fender spacer kit in order to widen the front arches a few millimeters. May need to flare the inner rear arches slightly. We'll see.
(08 ) Talked with our contact at H&R to order some "Group G" springs from H&R Rennen in Germany. Once these come in, we can send out our Bilstein Sports to be custom valved.
(09) After much searching, we finally tracked down a set of Eibach swaybars (25mm front; 17mm rear) and links. These are the biggest swaybars you can get a hold of these days since the 28mm 500E front bar and 18mm 2,5-16 Evo II rear bar are basically NLA. Besides, the 500E front bar is heavy and requires trimming. The Eibach kit is a bolt-on, allows you to use stock mounts, and is a good match for a 16v. We just got them back from the powder-coaters. Should go on the car this week.
(10) Flushed the cooling system and filled with deionized H2O and Redline Water Wetter. Flushed the dog-leg trans and filled with Amsoil MTG 75W-90 GL4. Flushed the rear diff and filled with Amsoil SVO 75W-140. Today, I'm heading back to the Amsoil guy to pick up a case of Amsoil RD50 15W-50 racing oil I ordered last week. It's supposed to be able to work well when contaminated by fuel; highly resistant to shear; and loaded with ZDDP. That should make it a good choice for track use in these old Cosworth engines. I didn't plan to run all Amsoil in the drivetrain, but it kind of worked out that way. Comparing specs to the more common stuff (including Redline and Motul), Amsoil started looking better and better. Maybe we can get a sponsorship from them or something :D
(11) Replaced the tie-rods and ball joints. Adjusted the steering box. Flushed the P.S. system, replaced the P.S. filter, and refilled with OEM Mercedes-Benz fluid. Removed the steering damper.
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