This is going to be mildly different, but, don't panic, there will be BMW content.
I've been racing a slightly-edited M30-swapped 86 325es in the 24 Hours of Lemons for nearly the last decade. During its heyday, it looked like this:
Sadly, the car was starting to be a pain in the ass. The chassis was sloppy. It creaked and bent when jacked up. The frame rails were crosseyed. We had started to resort to welding things in place because bolts no longer lined up. An agreement was reached - we finish first, then the car gets shipped to china in bits and turned into refrigerators and stand mixers.
After about a season of "honing" our "racecraft", we came first in the March 2017 race at Sonoma. The car was retired soon after. We recently cut it into bits. RIP.
However, that shall not be the end of my crappy racing career. We also own this horribleness:
You can read about the one race it's ever done here.
So, why am I posting about this here? Well, sometime last fall, I discovered that our Willys has a wheelbase and a width that are both within one centimeter of the BMW E34.
A plan was forged. Two scrap cars were obtained. We are disassembling the Willys, boxing out the frame rails, moving other sheet metal around, and building adapters to be able to bolt a full, unmodified E34 driveline (both subframes, diff, driveshaft, motor, full front and rear suspension, steering column) into the chassis. This will let us mount our choice of any M20, any M30, any M50, any M60, and potentially even an M70 into the chassis with factory BMW equipment.
It's a good thing we saved our E30's M30B35.
Current Willys status:
Stay tuned. There will be welding.
I've been racing a slightly-edited M30-swapped 86 325es in the 24 Hours of Lemons for nearly the last decade. During its heyday, it looked like this:
Sadly, the car was starting to be a pain in the ass. The chassis was sloppy. It creaked and bent when jacked up. The frame rails were crosseyed. We had started to resort to welding things in place because bolts no longer lined up. An agreement was reached - we finish first, then the car gets shipped to china in bits and turned into refrigerators and stand mixers.
After about a season of "honing" our "racecraft", we came first in the March 2017 race at Sonoma. The car was retired soon after. We recently cut it into bits. RIP.
However, that shall not be the end of my crappy racing career. We also own this horribleness:
You can read about the one race it's ever done here.
So, why am I posting about this here? Well, sometime last fall, I discovered that our Willys has a wheelbase and a width that are both within one centimeter of the BMW E34.
A plan was forged. Two scrap cars were obtained. We are disassembling the Willys, boxing out the frame rails, moving other sheet metal around, and building adapters to be able to bolt a full, unmodified E34 driveline (both subframes, diff, driveshaft, motor, full front and rear suspension, steering column) into the chassis. This will let us mount our choice of any M20, any M30, any M50, any M60, and potentially even an M70 into the chassis with factory BMW equipment.
It's a good thing we saved our E30's M30B35.
Current Willys status:
Stay tuned. There will be welding.
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