We decided to start a build thread for our project car. Its an '87 325is that was purchased about 2 years ago. GotCone? (Jon - tarsust) and I do most of the heavy lifting, and the owner does most of the heavy spending. ;)
Originally bought with small goals in mind, the plan has blossomed, or ballooned depending on how you look at it, into our current goal; A tire blazing, amazing handling, supercar destroying, V8 powered E30. On the cheap. ;) Should be easy, right?
The starting point:
We honestly couldn't think of a better starting point then a salvaged title, 1987 325is. I mean who could? Even though we learned later that the whole passenger side had been replaced due to an obvious t-boning of the car, it drives very straight, and appears to have no side effects from the repairs. Other then some rust. And you can't start building a track car in the midwest without having some rust. (Count yer blessings, if you live in the south, in this regard.)
Once purchased, Jon went to work replacing.... everything. From cooling system maintenance to replacing every bushing underneath the car. CSB, guibo, brake calipers, half shafts, subframe bushings, new radiator, hoses..... you name it. He did it. While doing the very much needed upkeep, the opportunity was taken to make some simple, yet effective, upgrades. Mainly exhaust, suspension, and wheels. Wheels were 16X8 Rota Slipstreams, with Dunlop Star Specs (225/50) on it. (Highly recommend the Star Specs for a good all around street/HPDE tire, FYI) For suspension, we turned to AST. I have driven quite a few cars with this brand of coilover on them, and I can't say enough about how good they are. Jon was impressed enough, he became a dealer! We purchased, and are currently running, just the entry level 4100's, purchased used from Vorshlag. (Remember, this is a grassroots, on the cheap, type of build.) The exhaust was custom made by RG (Russ Garage). You will see that name pop up a bit more, as the build goes on. He is where we go for custom fab work.
Well enough boring text, how about some pictures?
I quick look at the custom RG exhaust.
Some Auto-x shenanigans.
Custom RG rear strut tower bar.
And, lastly, the RG modified Sparco front strut bar.
So, that is kind of the history of how this started. What is the end goal? Where does it go from here? Well, the plan is a LSX motor, flares, big rubber, gutted interior, lean and mean track machine. And the beginnings of that process will be the next installment of the thread. It will have the gutting of the interior, some pics of the new wheels and rubber, as well as some of the other projects we have going on currently. Stay tuned!
Originally bought with small goals in mind, the plan has blossomed, or ballooned depending on how you look at it, into our current goal; A tire blazing, amazing handling, supercar destroying, V8 powered E30. On the cheap. ;) Should be easy, right?
The starting point:
We honestly couldn't think of a better starting point then a salvaged title, 1987 325is. I mean who could? Even though we learned later that the whole passenger side had been replaced due to an obvious t-boning of the car, it drives very straight, and appears to have no side effects from the repairs. Other then some rust. And you can't start building a track car in the midwest without having some rust. (Count yer blessings, if you live in the south, in this regard.)
Once purchased, Jon went to work replacing.... everything. From cooling system maintenance to replacing every bushing underneath the car. CSB, guibo, brake calipers, half shafts, subframe bushings, new radiator, hoses..... you name it. He did it. While doing the very much needed upkeep, the opportunity was taken to make some simple, yet effective, upgrades. Mainly exhaust, suspension, and wheels. Wheels were 16X8 Rota Slipstreams, with Dunlop Star Specs (225/50) on it. (Highly recommend the Star Specs for a good all around street/HPDE tire, FYI) For suspension, we turned to AST. I have driven quite a few cars with this brand of coilover on them, and I can't say enough about how good they are. Jon was impressed enough, he became a dealer! We purchased, and are currently running, just the entry level 4100's, purchased used from Vorshlag. (Remember, this is a grassroots, on the cheap, type of build.) The exhaust was custom made by RG (Russ Garage). You will see that name pop up a bit more, as the build goes on. He is where we go for custom fab work.
Well enough boring text, how about some pictures?
I quick look at the custom RG exhaust.
Some Auto-x shenanigans.
Custom RG rear strut tower bar.
And, lastly, the RG modified Sparco front strut bar.
So, that is kind of the history of how this started. What is the end goal? Where does it go from here? Well, the plan is a LSX motor, flares, big rubber, gutted interior, lean and mean track machine. And the beginnings of that process will be the next installment of the thread. It will have the gutting of the interior, some pics of the new wheels and rubber, as well as some of the other projects we have going on currently. Stay tuned!
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