S54 Widebody e30 race car build

[ThreeTwentyFissel]

OP: update please...

[SA E30]

Not much happening right now.

Waiting on front subframe, new steering arms, control arms to come back form having a sway bar bracket weldeded onto it, front brake hats to arrive from the engineer....

A whole host of small parts to attach said pieces onto the car. Although I have recieved my short shifter with GT ally knob. 3.64 40LSD, with Solid Diff Bush is waiting to go into the car,

Along with final fitting and painting of the running boards.

I'll try snap some pictures tomorrow but it's not much too look at.

[turbo325i]

Excellent work here my friend! Love the cage!

[SA E30]

Went past the engineer and it seems he has almost completed the new roll centre spacers, bolts for the steering rack, and steering rack clevis. He said they will all be done tomorrow. Unfortuntley I won't have time to pick the stuff up.

I have also been nagging the guy who does the welding for us (well on the stuff I don't trust my welding to be on :P ) He said he's really busy and we have to wait 2 weeks longer for our control arms, and subframe.

I've come to the conclusion I'm just going to purchase springs from some vendor, anyone know of H&R vendor? 2 months waiting for springs is ridiculous!

Then this afternoon when I got home from work I had to fab up some metal parts. I figured while I had the stuff out it was time to finish the front left wheel well. I finally ground it smooth, and tacked it in back up ground it down. I just want to add some seam sealer then it's done.... and onto the right hand side, which is more difficult as I have to contend with cutting the battery tray up.

Pictures will be posted at the end of the weekend.

[RedStar240]

Now that is a race car build.

[UNIQETA]

My jaw hurts from being open for so long

[ansonivan]

My jaw hurts from being open for so long

That's what she said.

[Longboardmtk]

I can't believe I'm just finding this now... sweet jesus that's an awesome build. Keep up the progress!

[SA E30]

So this past weekend I had a spurt of motivation. I got working on the inner fender wells again. I finished up the left hand side one and took on the harder right hand side. Cutting the lip away on the wheel well and welding it back closed was easy. Sectioning the battery box was much more of a challenge. I enlisted the help of my dad to make up a blanking plate to fit the section.



Then this afternoon I got home from work a bit early and got cracking on the running boards. I'm about 85% done with the left hand side one. They are relativley easy to make but I have discovered the the flares on the car aren't all that straight. Annoying as heck.

I still need to fabricate the barge boards but I will only do that once the car is back on the ground as I need to work out how low to make them. I'm also a little undecided on the material. I'm thinking maybe using some Lexan sheet and painting it as it's pretty brittle or just using more PVC sheeting plastic but thinner. I will see.





I also attempted to install the 3.64:1 40% lockup differential and pump this weekend but was unsuccessful. Can anyone see the reason in the following picture?



Then there is my gratuitous shifter picture. I love the GT style know I designed for the car. It's sexy and heavy which I think will give the shifts some weight.



On another note. We should be fetching the steering components in the week. In the next week the control arms from our welder who welded some sway bar brackets to them. That should hopefully allow us to get the car back on it's wheels and off to get a "secret" location to get moulds taken off of it, and some minor modifications to the kit.

I also plan on running the rear brake lines in the up coming week. Once we get the hats back I will do the front.

[SA E30]

So this weekend I went to watch the one series that I will be racing in. Man! There are some ex dirt oval Space frame N/A Rotaries running and they are FAST! Class B cars challenging the class A guys!

Here is a video from the 1st race (courtesy Andreas):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9WVs57GVyk

On another note. I got a lot of work done on the car this weekend. I finished up the running boards, completed mounting the hood, mouted and modified the headlights (as we're only running the low beams) and I painted the Carbon Hood and running boards/side skirts white to match the rest of the car.

I should hopefully have time to pick up some of the steering and brake components from the engineer today. Still waiting on the front subframe and control arms from our welder.

Pictures to come as soon as I charge my camera.

[Dyno4mance]

Great race and good camera work/editing
What engine did the blue car (leader) have in it...? sounded like a V8
Do you have specs or info?

[SA E30]

On the blue car? It's an ex national modified race car (from the mid 80's). Opel Reckord, or Holden depending on where you're from.

He IS the man to catch in at the moment and always has been. It's piloted by a South African race legend Willie Hepburn and get this the man is 70ish.

I think at the moment the car has around 500odd hp. I laugh because I spoke to him and told him the competition is catching up to which he replied. Well when they catch me I will stick my Nascar motor in there with 750hp.

It's an amazing car and even more so that it was built back in the mid 80's not much has changed on it and it still dominates.

[Hallen]

That's a little narrow minded. ;) but hey being in Africa has it's perks like the Global Economic Recession hasn't hit us nearly as hard as most of the world.

We have some stupidly fast race cars here, and a testament to that is the Nissan Dakar off road cars are designed and built here in South Africa by Nissan Motorsport SA.

lol, yeah, until you've seen different parts of the world, it really doesn't sink in that there are fanatics, nut cases, and perfectly normal and boring people everywhere. :)

I'm not surprised at all after being to Cape Town. I have never seen more freaking awesome cars out on the streets at one time as I did when I was there. Ferrari, Porsche, MB, Aston Martin, BMW's all over the place. And, I saw tons of well-preserved E30's too. SA has its problems like any country, but it also has a fine tradition of hard-core racing.

[SA E30]

I just noticed no one realized what is wrong with the differential picture. Well the slotted mount is located 180deg out. My stupidity when I pressed it in. Then when trying to press it back out I managed to break the differential cover.

Luckily my engine tuner had some spares kicking about and I got it pressed in correctly.

Pictures to come when I find my camera data cable... DOH!

[leland21]

some pretty amazing exhaust sounds in that video, funny to see a mini in front of the viper lol.