1 series Forest rally car

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1 series Forest rally car

Postby donald » Wed Sep 18, 2013 6:48 pm

Hi, after a brief and unsuccessful flirtation with a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus I have just sold it and want to return to rallying a BMW
I only do forest events in Scotland and am keen to build a 1 series. I looked at a 116i about 3 years ago and although I was very impressed with the car it was going to be uneconomical and very complicated to get decent power out of it. This time I want to do a 3 litre car either starting from a 125i or a 130i. The preference would be for a 125i but they are very scarce at realistic prices and I may have to opt for a 130 as a starting point.
The intention is to keep the car fairly standard engine wise( 260ish BHP is as much as I need to have fun and any more is difficult to put onto the ground economically). Add basic safety equipment , decent cage , LSD and different final drive, suspension and springs etc. I would intend to keep a lot of the standard wiring and work around it as best I can.
Any thoughts and ideas on possible problems would be welcome and does anybody know of a high mileage or possibly lightly damaged or scruffy 2008 125i
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby martine30rally » Wed Sep 18, 2013 7:03 pm

unsure as to why you would want a 125 over a 130?
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby donald » Wed Sep 18, 2013 8:11 pm

Prefer the 2 door coupe shape. Same engine detuned electronically which is easily rectified. Could find a 2 door hatch but they are even rarer.
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby Garry.M » Thu Sep 19, 2013 1:17 pm

Speak with Chris Ransley,,, he's just built his 130 - he'll know alot of the problems you're likely to come across.
You'll probably need a lower fd for the woods,,, look for a supplier on Rallycars forsale. Net.
Martin Fox has had his one up and running for a wee while now and could help identify issues as well.
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby donald » Thu Sep 19, 2013 7:46 pm

Thank you for that. If anyone has contact details for Chris Ransley please let me know.
I've spoken to Martin before and have followed his excellent build thread and will hopefully speak to him again once I get going.
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby Garry.M » Thu Sep 19, 2013 8:23 pm

07949 464954,, Chris Ransley
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby donald » Fri Sep 20, 2013 7:06 pm

Cheers, thanks for that
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby donald » Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:36 am

2006 130i now purchased on ebay for very reasonable cost. Great little car with a fabulous engine, very wide power band just seems to pull all the way from 2000 to 7000.
The intention is to keep the car very standard, just safety gear ,underbody protection, and uprated final drive ,lsd and suspension.
Biggest problem so far is the diff, with the best option looking to be a complete rear end from an e90 m3, however I need to run 15" wheels as this is the only size with a range of suitable tyres and this may give me problems fitting smaller brakes. Other option is a gripper or kaaz diff built into the standard casing with a different final drive 3.73 or3.91 are available. Does anyone know who might be able to do this for me at reasonable cost as it is not as simple as building up an e30 diff.? I have spoken to Chris Ransley who has just built a similar spec of car for tarmac use and gained a lot of useful info.
Will post a few photos once I get going but it will be a long process. target is the Granite City Rally in April
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby donald » Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:45 am

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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby Garry.M » Tue Oct 22, 2013 6:42 pm

Give John a call at Dave Mac propshafts - he's made some for the 1 series,,, at least you's have a proper working plate lsd - I know Chris Ransley wasn't that impressed with the m3 one - doesn't lock up as well.
It would then be cheaper to replace any of the rear suspension +cheaper to stock up and build a spares package.
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby donald » Wed Oct 23, 2013 7:53 am

Thanks Garry,
I,m sure keeping the standard rear end with an aftermarket diff is best as I tried some 15 inch wheels on the back yesterday and they do fit over the standard discs once the back plate was removed.
Does anybody know anything about mfactory diffs? one is available for e46 and 130i at about £300 less than other available diffs?
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby donald » Tue Nov 19, 2013 8:12 pm

Roll cage ordered and while waiting for its arrival decided to try and sort out the diff and rear suspension. Decided in the end to go for an e90 m3 rear subframe and 3.85 diff as it gives me an almost indestructible rear set up. Purchased a complete frame and diff and on closer examination discovered a major problem. While the frame will bolt up to the 130 there is one suspension link which is totally different and the hub carrier and subrame has a different mounting for this arm which is shorter sticks out backwards making it impossible to fit 15" wheels.
After much head scratching and measuring I discovered the m3 diff will bolt into the 130 subrame and the 130 carriers have the same size of bearing so I can use the much beefier m3 driveshafts and cv joints. All I have to do is get the propshaft modified to suit so what was looking like a fairly big job suddenly became much easier. All the other suspension links although made of alloy are the same dimensions so I can use the which will give me the benefit of spherical bearings rather than the 130 rubber bushes

http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq34 ... iff010.jpg
http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq34 ... iff009.jpg
http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq34 ... iff006.jpg
http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq34 ... iff001.jpg
http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq34 ... iff004.jpg

Also picked up a nice pair of AVO escort mk2 3 way adjustables, I year old but just fully serviced. According to my measurements they should fit nicely.

The thought of sorting out all the wiring is giving me nightmares.
Does anybody know of any BMW coding experts in Scotland?
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby mef » Thu Nov 28, 2013 1:03 pm

Hi Donald, I did mention that there was one different arm on the M3 setup, looks like youve pinpointed it and associated problems!

Those Escort AVO's look just like the ones I had made for mine by AVO, maybe mine have very slightly different lengths but I ordered them based on the Gp4 Escort design. best to drill out the M12 threads on the alloy bottom arm and use a long 1/2" UNF bolt right through the arm and spherical joint. I made an alloy bearing holder for the top and used a spherical bearing since its supporting all the cars weight, I though a rubber bush would take a hammering, maybe better with nylon or powerflex type on gravel though.

One very important point, make sure you replace those nasty squidgy subframe mounting bushes with the much harder and solid rubber E90 M3 ones, this is a basic upgrade on any 1 series and stops it squerming sideways on undulations & bumps.

Martin
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby donald » Thu Nov 28, 2013 8:00 pm

Hi Martin,
Good result at the weekend!
AVO's going to be fitted pretty much as you say with probably a plastic top bush and M3 bushes already in the subframe.
Ordered some 275lb 14" inch springs yesterday as a starting point.
Had the car back on the road today just to check the diff is good and I reckon the 3.85 will be a reasonable compromise for my purposes and give me a more relaxed 6th gear for long road sections.
Still waiting for the cage to arrive so going to do a bit of work on the front suspension and brakes. For budget reasons its looking like being a Gp 4 escort bilstein coil over set up with 300mm discs and 4 pot calipers to fit my 15" inch wheels.
See the other 130 for sale, looks nice
Donald
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Re: 1 series Forest rally car

Postby donald » Sun Jan 19, 2014 8:36 pm

Rollcage finally arrived and now painted ready for installation.
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In the meantime have been trying to sort out front suspension and brakes.
Everything for the I series is aimed at making the brakes and wheels bigger or the suspension lower and I am trying to do the exact opposite.
Rear brakes 300mm discs and standard calipers fit under the 15" wheels so I have downsized the front to 300 mm discs plus 120d calipers which should do for the meantime with a possible change to a 4 pot caliper in the future.
Rear suspension is sorted with AVO 3 way and 14" 275 springs and for the front I decided to go with the tried and tested Escort option.
Started with 2 new B6 I series struts (£105 each) removed the spring seat and welded on adjustable 2 1/4 inch coilover seats, replaced the insert with a gp 4 escort 300/70 long insert, 10.5 inch 300lb spring and eccentric alloy top mount which gives me about a 2" and adjustable increase in ride height.
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Total cost about £600 and I can sell the original inserts.
I,ve used this method on all the bmw's I've rallied and always been happy with the result.
Wheels are a bit of an issue. I had hoped to be able to run 5 series 7 x 15 et20 wheels but these are to wide on the front and e36 and e46 wheels are all the wrong offset(42-47) and don't clear my calipers and rear bottom links so unfortunately it looks like I will have to get some 15 x6 et 20 rims made which is going to upset the budget a bit.
Sumpguard and transmission guard made from 8mm alloy sheet. Very simple as the 1 series has a strong alloy front subframe with no parts protruding below it so a flat sheet does the job.

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Also had some floor guards made up using the original plastic guards coated in Kevlar by Toni Carranante of Juice Motorsport . Very nice job and very helpful guy. He also does a good line in BMW alloy guards amongst other things.

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Next comes the bit I'm not looking forward too quite so much. Fitting the cage
and all the airbag and seat wiring removal.
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