e36 for the woods

[slidewaysbmw]

hi all looking for some feed back on the pros and cons of a e36 coupe for the woods.i have a friend looking to use a e36 325 coupe .all the compacts etc seem to be used on tarmac but not many on the rough forest roads .a few people i no use them for road rallying in four cyclinder guise and have had problems with bottom ball joint failures and some with the diff mount breaking away .any other probs people are aware of?

[is-si]

had problems with bottom ball joint failures and some with the diff mount breaking away

Were the arms new or had they done 140,000 miles? Were they genuine B-M or `Euro' cheapies?
Fix: E30 Arms do have a better outer balljoint and is considered an upgrade.

Had the diff mounts been uprated? or was the standard baggy mount just left in ? Were the diffs guarded or were they allowed to dig in as the suspension bottoms?
Fix: Guard, Raise ride ht and fit stiffer springs, Fit twin ear cover with good bushes.

The compact shares the same suspension as the E30 and the challenge boys make their cars reliable, some body strengthening will be required but this will have to be done on a coupe too.
I think the same problems will exist in the heavier Coupe - i.m.o. its down to preparation

[rearwheelsteercompact]

Plenty of Compacts are used abroad in the woods. Mind you our forest tracks are now probably amongst the world's worst

If.......................................... mine gets finished it'll visit forestry at some stage (pun not intended)

I think is-si has covered most points well (as usual )

Edit............ I should've said Coupes above - not Compacts - wanka

[slidewaysbmw]

thanks for the response guys.the cars is in the planning stage at mo and we are looking at possible problems and mods to be done during the build.my moto is do it once and due it properly first time so this why we are asking.the diff a mate had in his road rally car actually ripped the mountings out of the floor so this will be seam welded . the ball joints as bruvs points out pulled out of the housing but as he said had they done a million miles.i use euro parts arms on my challenge car and havent had any probs .

[is-si]

The branded stuff from euro is fine, you are right.
We've had a wishbone, a set of arb drop links, and an oil pump that we've not liked the look of and give back.

Keep us posted

[rearwheelsteercompact]

hi all looking for some feed back on the pros and cons of a e36 coupe for the woods.i have a friend looking to use a e36 325 coupe .all the compacts etc seem to be used on tarmac but not many on the rough forest roads

These seem to be doing OK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFm-H7WhHD8

[GAJ1]

This was out on the Kall Kwik / R.A.C. Rally last Novermber

. Looked to be going OK in the muddy conditions around Dalby

[rearwheelsteercompact]

It's good to see one playing in the woods - It looks right too

[Susiraja]

The E36 is very popular in Finnish F-Cup rally series. At the moment it´s Finland´s most popular rally series. It´s for cars which are "out of date" regarding FIA homologation. As a wild guess there are about ~50 E36 coupes and sedans racing at the moment. even Toni Gardemeister has an M3 for rallying. I´m answering without knowing British regulations so disregard anything that´s useless information

As said the E30 arms have a better outer balljoint and diff mounts need to be uprated. Arms of course are parts you have to replace guite often. They take quite a beating. With the 325 the power comes by shortening the differential. We raced with top speed around 180km/h (~120mph), it makes the 1st gear useless, but you only need four. 2nd for starts, 3rd for crossroads, 4th/5th for the faster sections. The 325 is quite sensitive for reving so don´t touch the rev limiter unless you have touched the engine internals. With not too expensive upgrading you can get around 230hp out of the engine and nice nm.

And then about something that actually affects the speed of the car on gravel (and snow) Suspension. Somewhat surprisingly the E36 handles best if the front is a bit higher than the rear. Otherwise the car likes to understeer. Several top drivers have played with the setups and that´s the conclusion. As far as suspension is concerned we would recommend using 3way adjustable Reiger or Öhlins. WP works also, but not as good as the first two. People also use Bilstein in Finland, but that´s the budget option, not recommending.

In youtube there is a lot of onboard footage with search words f-cup, ralli, bmw. We also have some under the same user name I use here. We also have some project pictures of the M3 we are building now (to replace our previous 325) in our website http://www.heikkinenracing.suntuubi.com Unfortunately I haven´t bothered to update the English section so you have to choose the Finnish flag and from there "M3 projekti". If there are any detailed questions you can send us email to heikkinen.racing(at)gmail.com

I highly recommend the BMW. It´s a reliable car to race.

[ultegra]

Some nice pictures there!

What are you doing with the Porsche brake calipers? (one looks like you have mounted it ahead of the axle line - is that right or is it just resting there?)

Keep the updates coming!

[Susiraja]

We bought the Porsche calibers since they are Brembo and trying to get a better feel than with the original ones. For the brake pads we are using Hawk Blue Racing. Good pads, but they like to eat discs

The calibers will eventually be behind the axle. We were also wondering about fitting them in front. The picture is taken at that time. Our car should be finished around June. Not much else left than doing some basic maintenance for the engine, putting the engine&gearbox in place and then doing the electrical wiring. The problem is finding the time since we have been driving with a Peugeot 206 at the same time.