Eurostop / Metrix Motorsport / Groma Race Fabrication Drift Project
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
ARI AT DTM FIBERWERKS
ROB AT METRIX MOTORSPORT
ED AT GROMA RACE FABRICATION
MY DAD(thanks for your never ending support!)
MY GIRLFRIEND(she hasn't killed me yet!)
What's up everybody, let me first introduce myself as I am new around here, My name is Andy Hateley and I am building an e30 to compete in XDC, Formula D and D1. I have been drifting since 2004 and earned an D1 license in 2005 and my FD license in 2006. I learned most of my driving skills at Just Drift, Drift Days and on Mulholland Hwy just past the rock store. For those of you that follow the drifting scene, I drove my laguna seca blue 350z in the 2006 and 2007 seasons of Formula D.(sponsored by Retaks, Modiride, Cooper tires, Stance suspension, and Unothodox Racing) I didn't compete in the 2008 and 2009 seasons of FD because I did not retain enough points in 2007 to compete in 2008.(1/4 of point away!!!) So I am back competing in XDC this year driving the 350z and building this e30 to destroy who ever I may come across in 2011!!!
This e30 drift project idea started about 4 years ago when I bought my first E30 and I wanted to swap in an SR20 then it was a VQ35DE, then I decided I wanted to go V8 and looked into the bmw 4.4 V8 and ls1 swaps. I decided to go with the LS1 and I picked up an 87 four door to start my project.
Some randomness hit me in the middle of that project, with the 4 door completely torn down to a bare chaissis(in 36 hours!) and me hunting craigslist for an LS1 to put in the car, a good friend of mine needed some quick cash and gave me a deal on an S54 that I couldn't pass up. So, in a matter of minutes, the plan was changed to an s54 swap and all the ls1 research that I did over the past few months went out the window and I got back to the drawing board. I researched and purchased everything to swap the s54 in the car, oil pan, throttle cable conv., egr block off, vanos delete, etc. I have basically everything, except getting the harness made by sias tuning.
I still had one other thing, what to do with the brake booster/airbox issue associated with the s54 swap(and many others swaps too). I was planning on having a custom airbox made to suit my needs when some more randomness hit me.
I don't remember why, but I picked up a old issue of Sport Compact Car and saw an article the insane Groma Fabrications E30. They relocated the brake booster under the dash with a 90 degree rocker/cantilever setup right above the trans tunnel. Brilliant, no more big ass booster in the engine bay! And the weight of the booster/master cyl. is now on the centerline of the chassis.
So I made the call to Groma Fab and talked to Ed. He was really cool and took the time to really explain the brake setup and ask me about what I wanted to do with my car. He asked me to come down to talk about the project and to check out the brake setup. When I came down to Groma Fab they had a proposition for me..... Ditch the S54 project, buy their V8 supercharged cantilever suspension E30 craziness, have space to prep the chassis and get the fab work done at Groma Fab, and help from Ed and Mono when I needed help. Needless to say, I decided to take the deal and I was tearing the car apart at Groma Fab a week later. The chassis left Groma Fab a whole new beast as you will see in the pictures.
Spending time at Groma, I met Rob from Metrix Motorsport who became very interested in the build and is helping out immensely with the engine and drivetrain. We discussed our options and i decided to scrap the supercharger setup for a set of custom ITB's, custom cams, custom solid lifter conversion, ARP studs, ported and polished giving me an engine with an estimated 425 to 450 whp and a near 12:1 compression ratio. That engine will be mated to a 5 speed transmission from the old 3.0L V8's that has no overdrive in 5th gear, awesome! All gears in the trans and diff are micro polished and treated in some other way as well, but Rob wanted to keep that one a secret. The differential has billet outdrives, Rob uses these on the backdraft cobra diffs they build. 3.73 to start with Metrix Motorsports patented progressive ramp diff. This diff shaves seconds off lap times for road racers, I can't wait to see how it drifts.
Ari from Eurostop came by Groma Fab a few times and became interested in the project as well. I went by his shop in Northridge and he immediately wanted to help in anyway he could. I originally wanted his Evo R Widebody kit, the kit is clean and looks great. Ari had other ideas in his head, to say the least. He had been dreaming up a crazy widebody kit for the e30 in his head for a while now and wanted to create it for this project. It was a bit more work that just pulling something off the shelf and handing it to me, but for this project this insane, the new kit is perfect! It has a crazy look to it like a lot of the newer BMW gt cars out there but still carries the same lines and doesn't take the form of the E30 away.
Sorry for the long story, but it's been kind of a long random road to get here.
ON WITH THE PROJECT!!!!
I have a lot of pictures, so I will start from the tear down pics and just keep
posting em up!
Old dash wireing
Old cantilever suspension(now removed due to XDC regulations)
Custom from subframe
Interior all cleaned up!
Feul filler removed
The old cage setup
Removed ALL brackets, studs, tabs, etc.
You don't lose a lot of weight taking all the studs out of the car, but you sure won't get stabbed by one again!
Making the backing plates
Cage re-design starting
Cage link to subframe pickup points
Massive side impact protection
Door X braces
rear lower X
E-brake mount
Battery box cover
Getting there....
Custom ITBs
Yes thats the water pump,-20AN
Trans
Diff
Re-routed all feul lines under the car
Made some carbon fiber panels for the dash
Carbon roof panel
Made an aluminum panel underneath to keep my hand safe
Quick release door pins(just open and lift them off!)
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
ARI AT DTM FIBERWERKS
ROB AT METRIX MOTORSPORT
ED AT GROMA RACE FABRICATION
MY DAD(thanks for your never ending support!)
MY GIRLFRIEND(she hasn't killed me yet!)
What's up everybody, let me first introduce myself as I am new around here, My name is Andy Hateley and I am building an e30 to compete in XDC, Formula D and D1. I have been drifting since 2004 and earned an D1 license in 2005 and my FD license in 2006. I learned most of my driving skills at Just Drift, Drift Days and on Mulholland Hwy just past the rock store. For those of you that follow the drifting scene, I drove my laguna seca blue 350z in the 2006 and 2007 seasons of Formula D.(sponsored by Retaks, Modiride, Cooper tires, Stance suspension, and Unothodox Racing) I didn't compete in the 2008 and 2009 seasons of FD because I did not retain enough points in 2007 to compete in 2008.(1/4 of point away!!!) So I am back competing in XDC this year driving the 350z and building this e30 to destroy who ever I may come across in 2011!!!
This e30 drift project idea started about 4 years ago when I bought my first E30 and I wanted to swap in an SR20 then it was a VQ35DE, then I decided I wanted to go V8 and looked into the bmw 4.4 V8 and ls1 swaps. I decided to go with the LS1 and I picked up an 87 four door to start my project.
Some randomness hit me in the middle of that project, with the 4 door completely torn down to a bare chaissis(in 36 hours!) and me hunting craigslist for an LS1 to put in the car, a good friend of mine needed some quick cash and gave me a deal on an S54 that I couldn't pass up. So, in a matter of minutes, the plan was changed to an s54 swap and all the ls1 research that I did over the past few months went out the window and I got back to the drawing board. I researched and purchased everything to swap the s54 in the car, oil pan, throttle cable conv., egr block off, vanos delete, etc. I have basically everything, except getting the harness made by sias tuning.
I still had one other thing, what to do with the brake booster/airbox issue associated with the s54 swap(and many others swaps too). I was planning on having a custom airbox made to suit my needs when some more randomness hit me.
I don't remember why, but I picked up a old issue of Sport Compact Car and saw an article the insane Groma Fabrications E30. They relocated the brake booster under the dash with a 90 degree rocker/cantilever setup right above the trans tunnel. Brilliant, no more big ass booster in the engine bay! And the weight of the booster/master cyl. is now on the centerline of the chassis.
So I made the call to Groma Fab and talked to Ed. He was really cool and took the time to really explain the brake setup and ask me about what I wanted to do with my car. He asked me to come down to talk about the project and to check out the brake setup. When I came down to Groma Fab they had a proposition for me..... Ditch the S54 project, buy their V8 supercharged cantilever suspension E30 craziness, have space to prep the chassis and get the fab work done at Groma Fab, and help from Ed and Mono when I needed help. Needless to say, I decided to take the deal and I was tearing the car apart at Groma Fab a week later. The chassis left Groma Fab a whole new beast as you will see in the pictures.
Spending time at Groma, I met Rob from Metrix Motorsport who became very interested in the build and is helping out immensely with the engine and drivetrain. We discussed our options and i decided to scrap the supercharger setup for a set of custom ITB's, custom cams, custom solid lifter conversion, ARP studs, ported and polished giving me an engine with an estimated 425 to 450 whp and a near 12:1 compression ratio. That engine will be mated to a 5 speed transmission from the old 3.0L V8's that has no overdrive in 5th gear, awesome! All gears in the trans and diff are micro polished and treated in some other way as well, but Rob wanted to keep that one a secret. The differential has billet outdrives, Rob uses these on the backdraft cobra diffs they build. 3.73 to start with Metrix Motorsports patented progressive ramp diff. This diff shaves seconds off lap times for road racers, I can't wait to see how it drifts.
Ari from Eurostop came by Groma Fab a few times and became interested in the project as well. I went by his shop in Northridge and he immediately wanted to help in anyway he could. I originally wanted his Evo R Widebody kit, the kit is clean and looks great. Ari had other ideas in his head, to say the least. He had been dreaming up a crazy widebody kit for the e30 in his head for a while now and wanted to create it for this project. It was a bit more work that just pulling something off the shelf and handing it to me, but for this project this insane, the new kit is perfect! It has a crazy look to it like a lot of the newer BMW gt cars out there but still carries the same lines and doesn't take the form of the E30 away.
Sorry for the long story, but it's been kind of a long random road to get here.
ON WITH THE PROJECT!!!!
I have a lot of pictures, so I will start from the tear down pics and just keep
posting em up!
Old dash wireing
Old cantilever suspension(now removed due to XDC regulations)
Custom from subframe
Interior all cleaned up!
Feul filler removed
The old cage setup
Removed ALL brackets, studs, tabs, etc.
You don't lose a lot of weight taking all the studs out of the car, but you sure won't get stabbed by one again!
Making the backing plates
Cage re-design starting
Cage link to subframe pickup points
Massive side impact protection
Door X braces
rear lower X
E-brake mount
Battery box cover
Getting there....
Custom ITBs
Yes thats the water pump,-20AN
Trans
Diff
Re-routed all feul lines under the car
Made some carbon fiber panels for the dash
Carbon roof panel
Made an aluminum panel underneath to keep my hand safe
Quick release door pins(just open and lift them off!)
My LS1 swap thread:
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