BMW test build

Grant I suggest you ask them all. I know some, like so many of us have had kids, some aren't flowing in dough like you seem to be..

Grant, you need a bottom end, how you going to get it there, that's just too easy..

(I have several)

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

My merkur looks like it will run soon. Thanks to the skill of Robert Gobright, and the money from the sale of my last rally car and my motorcycles. It's cost me way too much because I don't have the time, tools, or skills to cover the countless difficulties that arise when most of the driveline (and the brakes) are custom almost one off. But now I go to HI for at least three years. I'm sure spare parts will be easier to find when I get back right? No rally out there.

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john vanlandingham
Grant I suggest you ask them all. I know some, like so many of us have had kids, some aren't flowing in dough like you seem to be..
Grant, you need a bottom end, how you going to get it there, that's just too easy..

I actually have two full engines in various states of disassembly and one full long block that came out of a turbopoop that was parked in the 90s. Plan is to take the poop long block and pull off the intake and exhaust manifolds to put mine on, pull the head gasket to evaluate the head and look at the pistons to make sure no holes, maybe clean up head a bit, new gasket, head bolts, reassemble and drop in car. But, how much does that stuff add up to. I do have the Volvo 16V head sitting in the closet waiting for a long block but that's going to have to wait until I have more money.
Flowing in dough? Ha, I wish. The thing I like about the BMW is aside from a little time, there isn't anything I have to pay someone else to do. $100 for a quick rack and $150 to get a decent diff combined with a little bit of time to install the roll cage and I could go compete. Seat, steering wheel hub, steering wheel, good brake pads are all sitting at the shop.
It doesn't require me to ask Sean if he's made any progress with the chassis harness redo (no rush either Sean). It doesn't make me stress about the $600 I paid William for rear suspension setup. I don't have to think about programming the new ECU and engine harness. I don't have to call Blugg about a new fender. I don't have to look at the cracking bondo in the roof patch or think about any of it.
The Merkur will go back together. Not sure when or what spec but eventually. Maybe when I'm done with school and shop is doing enough for me to be there full time. Maybe it'll have a stock engine, maybe a Volvo headed, maybe a Cossie one. Maybe I'll ship the whole pile of shit to Sean and tell him he can have it as long as I can fly up and drive it for an occasional event.

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Grant Hughes

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john vanlandingham

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NoCoast
There is a hole in market for BMW rally specialist and that market has potential to grow to something decent so I'm positioning myself and demonstrating that a BMW nearly stock is the best starter car. Plus I don't have an engine together or a chassis harness for the red one.

Is the best starter car the best car for long-term ownership---like when somebody wants to get ratios and final drives? Not a lot of choices then it seems.

If you are not having 250+hp monster engine in your e36, 318iS diff is very useable, even though it is the "small case".. In Finnish super 2000 class on track BMW 320i, which used the same differential, was very popular, providing some 240hp, on tarmac with 16" /17" slicks, so i´d guess in most cases it will hold up in gravel just fine. 4.44 and 4.45 diffs are all over ebay for few hundred bucks... That´s where i got mine...

Sounds like a plan Grant.

Pictures!

I wish Grant had a builder when I started, it would be alot more exciting to upgrade a running car than my project is.

John you get a package?

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aj_johnson
Pictures!

I wish Grant had a builder when I started, it would be alot more exciting to upgrade a running car than my project is.

John you get a package?

Yeah and those are the hotness.
Gonna order a new pair and saw some Frod ones with no eyelet, just threaded pins which might make life a lot easier.
Will update as soon as I get those.

When I can stand up..

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

So much merkur hate here. Hahaha

I personally think Grant doing the BMW thing is great. More power to ya. I might even encourage others to go that route (more XRs left for me when I wreck mine). As far as my car goes, the cage has been the biggest issue because that's the one thing I can't do on my own and that's something that wouldn't have changed no matter which car I chose (I could probably pass tech but I wouldn't trust my own cage at this point). I'm fairly confident that it will have a cage within the next few months and that it will see a full stage rally this coming year but poop happens and its possible it won't. I prefer the xrattys because I think their ugliness equates into faster driving with less fear of ruining a perfectly good car. It would just be crashing an ugly piece of crap. haha. All in all, if I had to do it over again....I'd seriously consider the BMW...

I will say that all the time and money wasted in building my own car is probably worth what I have learned in the process. What is the average build time? Am I really doing that bad?

My biggest problem with the Merkur is the parts availability. It really sucks. Also, to get a nice spec car there will not be much stock stuff left.

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Robert.

"You are way too normal to be on Rally Anarchy." Eddie Fiorelli.

I've driven BMWs for many years now, albeit not in a rally but definitely testing the limits on the cars I've owned. So the one thing that's great about BMWs and not great about BMWs is their weight. I've read through this thread and not really clear if you are planning on using a different body or BMW everything? (I know in rally the weight of every little piece makes a difference ). You should go out and test drive a 1 series if you haven't yet. I'm sure you know this but they put the old M3 engine in a smaller lighter frame and its a blast to drive. They revamped the all the M series engines a few years ago.

I also drive a lot, a whole lot of rental cars when I travel for work and by far the best would be the Ford Focus. The first time I drove one of these the thought that came to mind was hmmm....this is a bit like a power mower where the front wheels start rolling the minute you turn the gas on it. Not really sure what that's all about but it definitely makes it fun to drive. (Wasn't an electric or anything either).

Anyway, just random thoughts.

As I see it half of the fun with rally is all about the uniqueness of the cars and testing and challenging those differences BMW or otherwise. If they were all X cars with Y engines then it would be just about the driver/co-driver and how boring would that be? or would it?

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NoCoast
I met my now wife just about the same time as we were getting ready to do the liquid nitrogen treatment.

This sentence conjures up all sorts of interesting visuals...

you still make me think i should pick up that M3 with the broken valve spring and sit on it for a bit.

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

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Wannabe
I've driven BMWs for many years now, albeit not in a rally but definitely testing the limits on the cars I've owned. So the one thing that's great about BMWs and not great about BMWs is their weight. I've read through this thread and not really clear if you are planning on using a different body or BMW everything? (I know in rally the weight of every little piece makes a difference ). You should go out and test drive a 1 series if you haven't yet. I'm sure you know this but they put the old M3 engine in a smaller lighter frame and its a blast to drive. They revamped the all the M series engines a few years ago.

While 1 series would be fun, I'd guess its still a heavier car than the E36, just with the march of technology and all the extra crap that gets added to newer vehicles. The other problem with the 1 series is cost. Old 3-series can be found running with a few issues (bad window regulators, broken sunroof) for about $1000.

Second, BMWs tend to have loads of crap in them that gets removed during the rally preparation process. A "luxury car" is going to have much more weight that's removeable as compared to say an Evo, where the whole interior was designed to be somewhat light. In the BMW the carpet is heavy, seats are heavy, knee protection under the dash is heavy, sound deadening is everywhere, rubberized coating on the underside is gooped on thick and so on and so forth. For a quick/cheap build, only some of these items will be addressed though.

Third thing to consider is that if you were building a Group 2 car, a 3.0L engine has a minimum weight of 2535 lbs. My Compact started life at 2820 with a little gas in the tank. Its now at about 2650 lbs (though missing spare tire, tool kit, spill kit that would be added at rally time) but other than that about ready to race. There are commercially available bits to order that should easily drop 100 lbs from the car. Here's weights on a few items that can be swapped:

Front Bumper 27 lbs (skin, crash beam, & mounts)
Other Front Brackets 16 lbs (brace, top of bumper, not including lights)
Hood 38 lbs (as removed from car, sound deadening still attached)
Front Fender 7.5 lbs
Dash Assembly 17 lbs (still had a few vent peices attached to bottom)
Rear 1/4 Windows 7 lbs (seal still attached to glass)
Rear Bumper Assembly 30 lbs (skin, beam, & mounts)
Hatch 46 lbs (hatch, glass, both struts)


Dave

Love, the idea! We need more actually rally cars on the stages than garage build queens. The way I look at my rally budget is that every $ spent on the car is 1 less $ I can spend going to an actual rally.

Can't wait to see what the real final price tag comes out to, inlcuding all of the small bits that add up in a build like roll cage padidng, replacement parts that are fine for a road car but should be addressed in a rally build, spill kits, tires, etc.

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DaveK

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Wannabe
I've driven BMWs for many years now, albeit not in a rally but definitely testing the limits on the cars I've owned. So the one thing that's great about BMWs and not great about BMWs is their weight. I've read through this thread and not really clear if you are planning on using a different body or BMW everything? (I know in rally the weight of every little piece makes a difference ). You should go out and test drive a 1 series if you haven't yet. I'm sure you know this but they put the old M3 engine in a smaller lighter frame and its a blast to drive. They revamped the all the M series engines a few years ago.

While 1 series would be fun,

Dave

Go take a spin in one, as a street car the new turbo 135 or whatever it is, is an absolutely stupid fun car, I can only imagine what the M would be like, but if I had the disposable income I'd love to have one as a daily driver.