BMW Dixi hot rod

[mcibmw533]

As some of you may have seen in the General Discussion forum, we (my dad and I) recently picked up a 1932 BMW Dixi with the intentions of building a BMW style hot rod. This will be our second father son BMW project and the goal is to share costs and time 50/50 - he's 54, I'm 26. It finally arrived at its new home yesterday morning, after driving 5,000+ miles round trip in one week (Seattle to Spartanburg), to pick up the car. The goal is to do as much of the work ourselves. The plan for the car is to build a custom frame (we left the original frame with the seller so he could build an Ihle with it), adapt e30 or 2002 subframes to utilize the independent suspension, and power it with a built m10 (leaning towards a stroker motor since I don't think there is enough room for a turbo and I have 2 2002 donor cars standing by).

It will probably be a little while before we actually get to start working on the car, but here are some photos I took of the car. The first photo is the car before we picked it up. The next 2 are in front of the Zentrum (the plan is to get photos of the car at the Zentrum again, when it's completed). The fourth is in my parents driveway. The last is it mocked up with the fenders, hood and grille in their garage. For perspective of how small the car is, the trailer is a 6x10 utility trailer and the car should fit on it when complete.

Suggestions and input are always greatly appreciated. There's still a lot of decisions to be made as to where this project will go and insight based on others past experience is always helpful.

[slammin.e28]

Yesssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm literally jumping up and down right now! ^_^

[SkorcherX]

Super excited for this. Why the M10? I read the words "BMW Hotrod" and assumed it would be an inline 6.

[LJ851]

Sounds great, looking forward to seeing this on the road.

Basically all BMWs use a strut suspension on the front end which does not lend itself to the shape of a 30s car at all. Have you considered something with double A arms like a miata to fit under the fenders?

[slammin.e28]

I would old school M30 it. triple webers. Maybe even grab and M88....

[Unearth078]

Super excited for this. Why the M10? I read the words "BMW Hotrod" and assumed it would be an inline 6.

This.

i expect some chopping of this to also follow in the words of "hot rod"

[JasonC]

It's nice to see something different! Sounds pretty cool to use an m10. Cause back in the day, people did build four poppers. And even today people use Pinto engines to power thier hot rod.

[akorcovelos]

Sub'd

[lambo]

I would old school M30 it. triple webers.

This. A big six would be awesome!

[CorvallisBMW]

I would old school M30 it. triple webers.

That would be pretty fucking sweet

[mcibmw533]

Thanks for all the input.

Super excited for this. Why the M10? I read the words "BMW Hotrod" and assumed it would be an inline 6.

I wish I could, but I'll have to move the firewall back just to fit the m10 in there. The current "engine bay" is 23-inches long and 29-inches wide at the firewall, 17-inches wide at the grille. This car is TINY (think original Mini Cooper for size). To make it a comfortable driver, the back seat will be eliminated and the front seats will be moved back, likely so you're looking out the back seat windows when driving. Also, economy plays some role in this. By moving the firewall back, the original gas tank location is eliminated and there isn't much space available to hide one. I figure the fuel tank will be 5-7 gallons if we're lucky. The m90 I'd like to put in there get's horrible mileage and would make for many fuel stops on an afternoon drive. I feel I can get similar hp figures with a nicely built m10 in a much smaller package. As much as I prefer larger displacement engines, there's just not the space without major modification to the car.

Sounds great, looking forward to seeing this on the road.

Basically all BMWs use a strut suspension on the front end which does not lend itself to the shape of a 30s car at all. Have you considered something with double A arms like a miata to fit under the fenders?

I like that idea, and probably much simpler than what I was figuring (adding to the research list now). Originally I was thinking of going the double A arm route but haven't had much of a chance to find smaller frame cars for reference. Thanks, this helps the R&D stage immensely!

Currently, the fenders are definitely going to be widened to allow fitment of modern wheels and the suspension - the suspension has to be determined first, to tell us how much the fenders get widened.

This.

i expect some chopping of this to also follow in the words of "hot rod"

I wish. Unfortunately if that happened some chopping would also have to happen to my dad and myself as we are both 6-foot and barely fit in the car now. The goal is to be able to drive the car in reasonable comfort on day trips, maybe an overnighter if needed. Although chopping would look awesome, it'd be too small inside. Also, we are trying to retain as much of the original exterior appearance as possible so somebody will see it as a Dixi at first glance, then see some trick engineering upon closer inspection.

[FunfGan]

This is going to be awesome :) Now if there was only a way to fit an s62 in there...

[euroshark]

Bad ass project!

Odd that your age and your dads age exactly matches my dad and myself. Very odd.

[slammin.e28]

I wish. Unfortunately if that happened some chopping would also have to happen to my dad and myself as we are both 6-foot and barely fit in the car now. The goal is to be able to drive the car in reasonable comfort on day trips, maybe an overnighter if needed. Although chopping would look awesome, it'd be too small inside. Also, we are trying to retain as much of the original exterior appearance as possible so somebody will see it as a Dixi at first glance, then see some trick engineering upon closer inspection.

Like this!

I love the bold!

You're going to bring this thing to the Vintage when it's done. You just have to. Doesn't get any more vintage than this. ;) I don't care if it's across the country, we'll take up a collection to get it here!

[ANDRÜ]

Was this the one on ebay a few weeks ago?