E36 318iS - Racecar on an diet

[E36-italia]

in October 2009 I brought this good looking ... from an older lady as the only previous owner who had done 199960km with it.


Over the winter we had an huge amount of snow... and without the thermostat working i covered the grill a bit.
(ps look at the dish style rims


then with xmas i went back to my parents in holland, she got some new parts/upgrades (new brakes, oil change etc, snow tires, koni adjustables)
the snow tires i got are nokians, like there is no snow at all!
compared with the slicks i brought the car with.. passing the mont blanc going tokyo drift style

upcoming upgrades/things to fix:
-where the hell is my A/C belt?! so no airco at the moment which suck (35'C today)
- 17" Team Dynamics rims with sticky summer rubber


but the rims are out of stock at the moment... they come around the beginning of august, which is ok as i go back to holland to pick them up around the 13th of august (summer holiday in italy)

**why the real racing stuff?? my dad works as a race car chassis consultant, and i'm racing with 1:8 radio controlled on-road cars ... and studying vehicle dynamics after work... so all go and no show for me **

[E36-italia]

finally got my summer wheels... and winter is setting in :S
anyway... I was way to curious about the look so I ditched the 15" wheels and mounted my 17" racing wheels:


can use a bit of lowering thou... about 2cm is more than enough...maybe next summer, other things first.

[E36-italia]

Just did a small calculation:
ITB's - 1500,00
320mm brakes - 1500,00
cams & springs - 1000,00
seats+belts ~ 600,00
body ~ 700,00

The total cost would equal a decent M3 (import from the UK/germany)

I would think i go for the M3 option, just as a pure trackday/race/drift car and keep my 318 stock for daily/shopping things...also better with the fuelbills

[E36-italia]

Yesterday got had my first trackday, on the Autodromo di Franciacorta - Italy... a small racetrack close to Brescia.

My car is on the normal roads a tad uncomfy with the stiff shocks and 17" rims, if I corner hard on the normal roads it doesn't roll that much, stays quite level.
But here on the track.. it feels like the side mirrors are nearly touching the tarmac :S
Curious what 0.5G can do...

few images:


slightly tailout:


Oh dear... that is way to much pitch&roll!


Overall experience, For my taste it is way to understeery...but that is safe for john doe.
I race with 1:8 scale radio controlled cars, and i like them to be pointy...very direct.
Ah well, it is my daily driver and it will never going to be a race car, just to much defects to begin with.
(not enough power, high Center of Gravity, comfort suspension design...)

brakes... pretty terrible, turned them to dust in 25minutes of what was left after 17K km normal use.

But in total... well worth the 40 EUR for 25 minutes... and some money on fuel, and the bill for new brakepads will follow
It was great fun! (very addictive too!)

[Rain_E30]

Car looks nice.

[E36-italia]

I got bored at work... and next month I have job interview... a good 650km away from where I live.
And since next month is also december, I might go back to my parents in Holland...
Somewhere in the first week of december I have the job interview in Germany, thats 1300km for a morning/afternoon chatting...
Then christmas...thats 1050km to my parents..and 1050km back...
When I return back to work in Italy, my car has done around 4000km in one month!

That is 1/3 of what she used to do with her previous owner, or to make it more impressive,
If I come back from the holidays..i did ~24000km in my first year...thats double of what the previous owner did in one year!

[romkasponka]

2300km in 27hr (6hr sleep near Berlin). 18pm (+27hr) 21pm. 1200km covered in first night. At 3am I slept near Berlin for 6hours.

From Bergamo/Italy to Vilnius/Lithuania with seat ibiza FR TDi.  In germany I was driving at 160-180km/h. The worst thing was roads in Poland, speed limit 50-60-70 and road works. Till Poland overage speed was 120km/h, at home it was 95km/h. At the finish I was totally exhausted.

If you driving alone it's not good to cover such distance in 27hr, I think it is to dangerous.

8 Red Bull cans used.

My friend asked me to buy him a car smart in Milano ant to drive it to Lithuania, but I said no, because in smart it will take forever to cover such distance

With BMW it very good to drive on highways because its stability. If you often drive on highways with big distance you can put lower springs to your suspension and you will have more fun and car control will be better.
http://www.fk-automotive.com
And install M3 excentric front arm bushings for bigger caster and 2-3mm washers under lower front shocks mounting bolts for bigger camber. And under-steer will stay somewhere behind.

[E36-italia]

a good 3000km ago it had service, and changed the waterpump since I had no previous history of the car...so freshly filled radiator+resevoir... today i noticed the heater was blowing cold air... instead of fogging up my windows with hot&humid air.

checked the level...wow.. kinda empty, filled it up...and again...and again... bleeded the system..filled it with near 3liters of coolant!

Time to replace my heating system, to bad somebody installed a 'universal' aircon and drilled holes in the bulkhead for that, so a simple unit swap is out
bugger!

[E36-italia]

since I cracked the head i decided to rebuild my daily to a full trackday/ time attack car.... and get something smaller (50hp?) to do shopping in (italian insurance rates a way overpriced)

just before i killed the engine (in the most un-spectacular way...overheated in the carwash) i painted the M3 splitter in fluor red.
to bad it turned out fluor pink in sunlight...i was looking for a bright orange, going to respray it someday:


tomorrow arrives a fresher M42 engine at my parents... i will install the fresh engine into the car, and the old one will be cleaned/rebuild and turbo charged.
In the mean time I started to remove the interior bits + heater/aircon unit.

and next week should arrive my lowering springs, a 3cm drop for now....i'll see how it handles.
when the car gets into full time attack car it might get some real custom suspension... it's a good thing i love to 'toy around' with a cad package ;-)

I have some pics of the destruction of the interior:


made some labels for the wires that are lying around in the car...with a few days/weeks i won't remember which wire is for what... no need for a clock, but the light switch i need ;-)

The heater unit is also gone..that one weights a good 15+ kg i think..


progress will be slow... i have no hurry...but i try to document it here.

[E36-italia]

my 'medium' brake kit arrived, a E46 330 disc/caliper swap...still missing out on the calipers
anyway...decided to already mount the DS2500 rear pads (still E36) and bed them... and have a look how those massive drilled brembo's look... damn... thats a full wheel



Difference in pads, left is stock - right is E46 330:

[romkasponka]

Are your wheels are 7 inch width?

[E36-italia]

yes they are.

[romkasponka]

Better would be 8 or more...

[E36-italia]

i run 215 wide street tires, any wider is just slowing it down
my semislicks are even smaller...otherwise they will never heat up.

[E36-italia]

Today i picked up a 'new' daily, the italian 318 is now a full hobby car, and not registred on the roads anymore...which gives good modding options.

but to move around town, i needed 4 extra wheels.
I liked the articsilber from my italian car, couldn't find one... the dutch car is a sterling silber.
When parked side to side the colour difference is visible... stand alone they apear both grey

Anyway, the dutch car is from 03/93 and has 160K KM... which i find quiiiiittteee  low for her age, might going to pay for a check.
Engine pulls strong, gearbox is fine, diff is rather oily... oh, and the suspension is shot... a little speedbump and she floats away (like a Opel/Vauxhall... brr)
previous owner was kind of a hooligan, or an audio freak.. no rear speakers but some heavy duty speaker, or should i say boombox, cables in the trunk (and going to the battery+fusebox?!)

Nice thing: sunroof + small boardcomputer and a armrest

Here is a pic: