Squeaking pretty loud and over any minor bump or movement? My xidas are doing the same thing. At least I think it's the shock itself. Will be trying to diagnose soon. Let us know what you find if you get into it.

 

Yah, that's it. Interesting...

A lap and a half from today:



--Ian

 

jesus christ. That thing hauls ***.....

 

A few photos posted for no particular reason.







The fastest thing there. This car did a 1:30.5 in traffic.





I think these rotors are done.



--Ian

 

More brake carnage.

4 sessions on this set of DTC-60s:



This one got hot/low enough that the caliper bent the backing plate. First time I've done that:



Another rotor shot, definitely done. 4-5 days on these though.



--Ian

 

 

Yeah, the new caliper are going to be Brembos and they're going on the M3.

--Ian

 

Speaking of M3s, there's an awful lot of crap inside one. After 2 days of pulling stuff out:







I wanted to keep it mobile and weather sealed so I could put it back on the driveway for the week. Next weekend I'll be pulling stuff like the exhaust, driveshaft, transmission, etc and then trailering it over to the race shop for the cage.

--Ian

 

jeez, I wanna see what it weighs now

 

Same same, wanna see before/after weights

 

Alas, I didn't get a 'before' weight. Should be in the range of 3400-3500 pounds, which is standard for an E46 M3.

Talking to the owner at TC Design, he says he's built E46s down to 2800-2900 pounds with cage & driver. Mine won't be quite that light because I'm not buying all the fancy carbon fiber parts (plus I'm sure I weigh more than the driver in that car did!), but if I get it to 2900 pounds empty I'll be happy.

--Ian

 

Putting in a carbon roof is HIGHLY recommended, I know they're around $1000, but the sunroof cartridge weighs about 40 lbs, and is in the worst spot. You could go with just the sunroof delete for ~$250 that only gets rid of the cartridge.

 

Yeah, I'm doing the carbon roof. The sunroof has to go (ripping that out next weekend along with the other non-drivable stuff), and the price difference for the carbon roof vs just the filler panel is small enough to make it worth doing right. Having the roof off also makes it easier for them to build & paint the cage. Also, the rear glass has to come out for the cage work, and usually breaks in the process. So I'll be replacing that and the two small side windows with lexan for a bit more weight savings.

I'm not doing a carbon hood, trunklid, fenders or doors at this point, and I'm keeping the windshield as glass. I may leave the door windows in as well, so that I can seal up the car if I need to park it outside overnight.

--Ian

 

Some additional teardown photos on the M3.

I've never had an interior this far apart before!



Sunroof out:


This muffler is really freaking heavy, like 50+ pounds.


Working on some sound deadening.


Gotta pull the intake plenum to get to the heater core. Since this is an SMG car, it's got an SMG hydraulic fluid reservoir on it. Since it's getting converted to a manual, I don't need that any more, so it's getting a manual plenum instead, so it doesn't go back on.

This car has almost as many throttle bodies as the rest of my vehicles put together! 6 on the M3, 1 on the Miata, 1 on the CX-9, 2 on the Audi, 3 on the FD, and 0 on the truck.


Loaded in the trailer for the trip to the race shop. This is basically why I bought a 24 foot trailer instead of a Miata-sized one.



--Ian

 

I dunno if you've mentioned this, but what is your plan for suspension? Only reason I ask is my work is a MCS dealer, if you're interested in race bred amazballs for the m3, you may want to give us or a local MCS dealer a call.

Also, we may have a used Bimmerworld shifter laying around that we just removed from a e46 S62 swap that's getting a sequential. I see a stock one in there, aka the suck.

 

TC Design is the shop doing the cage, they're an MCS dealer and it's getting the 2-way remote reservoirs along with assorted other adjustable arms, plates, and bearing, and some big-*** Brembos.

The shifter that's in there is the control stalk for the SMG that's coming out. An E36 5-speed is going in (same gear ratios, lighter, stronger) along with a CAE shifter.

--Ian

 

Spotted your M3 while at TC yesterday.

 

That's it!

Trying to park a trailer at TC sucks.

--Ian

 

Continuing the "posting about all my cars EXCEPT the Miata in my Miata build thread" tradition...

I bought the FD sight unseen. It came from North Carolina, and I had a PPI done at a Mazda dealer there. Well, apparently when this dealer does a PPI, they don't make any comments on paint. I had been told the only painting that had been done to the car was to the front bumper for rock chips, but that was incorrect. The whole thing had been painted at least once, and wasn't even the right shade of red. There were at least three different layers of red paint on the driver's door, for example. The paint looked decent from 5-10 feet away, but up close there were tons of fisheyes and mask lines, overspray everywhere up front, it was kind of a mess.

So a couple months ago a friend hooked me up with a guy who used to own a bodyshop, is now retired, but still paints occasional "fun" cars to keep his hand in. He had a spot in his schedule, and to make a long story short, he painted the FD for a pretty reasonable price.

Some in-progress shots that he sent me:






So how'd it turn out? I'm blown away. It's awesome. I've had it back for a couple weeks now, but only had cell phone shots of it, today I finally got the time to go shoot it with the SLR.






--Ian

 

Why oh why does that car have to be so beautiful. So much lust for one.