BMW's galore!

[welshpug]

You can run whatever engine you want in modprod, as long as the block is original to the car, head is free, so if you have the option of more valves i would take it.

Thats why colin satchell's hillclimb 205 runs an XUD block, overbored to 85mm from 83 and a 16v xu head, as the cost of taking the alloy engine to 85mm is rather prohibitive.

[Mark]

Initially I think it's going to come down to cost. A 2.0 s14 would be ideal but they're just too expensive. (and pretty rare) I think I am going to keep things simple and stick with an original 1.8 m10, a rally cam, some flow work and a pair of Weber 40 or 45's. Nice, simple but effective. It should also be reliable and mean I can concentrate on learning to pedal the car up hills as quickly as possible.

The car itself is coming along and all the poly windows are now in place. Inside we fitted an alloy console panel, for the starter button and switches, but I still need to securely mount the tacho and shift light. There are a few other little parts needed, such as drivers door lock mechanism and door rubbers. I bought the car partially stripped and so imagine they were binned for some reason?

Something I have managed to find and put my name on, is a 5 stud conversion kit. There's no rush to get that fitted though, as I still have plenty to do, to get the car running and driving.

Hopefully there will be some MIB related progress soon too.

[Mark]

A bit more progress and apart from some minor bits of trim and a drivers door lock, the body is nearly done.



I think the Minilites look pretty cool, but Stanced UK Ltd have offered some deep dish crosspokes, that will look period correct.



The battery arrived today and only weighs a couple of Kg's.

[Mark]

Well I took the plunge and paid the princely sum of £70 for an injected m10 with a staggering 105 bhp! Well that's what it had once anyway. It's done 77k miles, doesn't use any oil or rattle and being injected, it has a set of bigger valves. By the time it's been stripped, freshened up and given a new lumpy cam and gas flowing, it should get a way closer to the goal of 150 - 160 bhp. There's a fair bit of work to find those sorts of gains though obviously. Luckily I have found someone with a proven track record, when it comes to tuning m10 engines. His own made a dyno proven 205 bhp! I know the ex works 1.8's made 212bhp + @7500rpm with 172ft/lbs of torque @6500rpm. Obviously you're looking at paying big bucks for power like that.

Just waiting on the car arriving here at home.

[Mark]

My car has arrived back home.

















All tucked up safely.

[Mark]

I have to say that Dave (M-tech in Ingatestone, Essex) has done a great job of preparing the shell and building the cage. I have a bit more work to do, such as brake lines and pedal box etc, but I aim to make Brands Hatch on Feb 24th next year.

If anyone else needs shell prep' or cage work, pm me for details and a number.

[stevietuck]

Woo hoo! it looks so much better outside your house

[Mark]

Oct 31, 2013 7:34:24 GMT stevietuck said:

Woo hoo! it looks so much better outside your house

It does.

I need to start putting a list of ''to do'' jobs together though, as I'd really like to get it finished for the Performance BMW Magazine track day at Brands Hatch on February 24th next year.

The engine I have is an e30 318i m10 and they have bigger valves as standard. I plan on using a rally profile cam from Cat Camshafts, as I figure I need more torque over outright power. I want to do some gas flowing and match the inlet ports to the manifolds, before fitting the Weber carbs. I also want the longest velocity stacks I can source, but as they're stupidly expensive, I am wondering if I could use lengths of silicon hose to extend the ones I have? I know it won't make huge power but it'll still be fun in such a light shell.

Apart from the engine, I also need to install the pedal box and sort the brakes. There are Wilwood calipers but I'm tempted to ditch the servo and mod the pedal, to get more leverage. Anyway, a few more pics.

[bstardchild]

Hmmm that looks a cow to adjust.......

Car looks great mind

[Mark]

The engine arrived at Rally Prep today and the head is coming off over the weekend, so that it can have some flow work done. As well as new timing chain and tensioner, a rally spec cam is going in. Also have a 4 branch, 40's and lightened and knife edged crank.

[Mark]

Crank on route from Holland soon.

Started doing some of the smaller tasks today, such as windscreen wipers, wiring headlights etc. The original loom is a bit on the tatty side so am wondering how hard it would be to make up a new basic loom? I only need front and rear lights, indicators and starter. I might see if there's somewhere I could just get a very basic loom from? I could get another of the loom used in MIB, but that was from the USA and not cheap. Hopefully the new wheels will be here next week. They should totally transform the look of the car.

[coolhandluke]

Will you build a GRP 5 after this one

[Mark]

Nov 2, 2013 17:37:52 GMT coolhandluke said:

Will you build a GRP 5 after this one

I had the chance of buying a genuine ex works rolling shell a couple of years back. It needed loads of work, didn't have an engine and was £40 000! Even if I'd used an easier to find s14 engine, it would have probably taken another £20k+ to get it half-way decent. It was just way, way out of my league. A fiberglass arch kit can be bought for about £4.5k but converting a base car is a massive job. You'd need to semi-space frame it and I just don't have the skills required. The other thing is that the Group 5 cars are just so w-i-d-e you would have real issues using it anywhere. Moving one on a trailer means having super narrow slave wheels. It's a nice idea but loads of hassle and mega expense. Even this ''budget build'' group 2 has cost over £7.5k so far and am still quite a way from being finished.

[coolhandluke]

Thats some serious cash and interesting facts. Congrats on creating such a beautiful machine and good luck with it

[brawr]

How have I not seen this? It's lovely! Keep up the good work!

[Mark]

Many thanks to Stanced UK who supplied me with a set of wheels for the race car. Just need to fit the 888's and fit them.

[GT4ME]

Those wheels look fab Mark, what size are they?

[Mark]

Changed wheels & tyres today. They're 9x15's.

[GT4ME]

Cool, like the gold bolts

[PureSilver]

I love it!

And now I'm going to complain about it! The new wheels are a big improvement over the old, but I can't help feeling that they need a little spacing (maybe just 0.5") to really fill the arches. If it's going to be street driven I'd also paint the chrome disks around the hood pins, preferably white or black - brightwork there looks out of place - and I'd ditch the windscreen banner; being white, it turns that airy glasshouse into a burqa!