compact raod rally

[compact119]

right then i thought i had better do a thread for my road rally car, 318ti M42
its work in progress but aiming to be finished towards the end of the year i am wonting my first event in this car to be the telford novice rally

so far i have fitted offset control arm bushed (e30 M3)

offset front front strut tops (e36 M3 evo) well complete struts, when fitting these i found it gave loads of positive camber (due to lack of weight in my compact compeared to the M3) so i first tried some camber correction bolts but that didnt give me enough negative camber so out came the die grinder. once i had achived correct camber i welded the washers in place to stop them moving. its very handy working a bmw dealer as i was able to pop the car on the four wheel aligment ramp and make sure all was well and its all in spec

next job was the exhaust, it was starting to rote on the back box and i wonted to take the cat out as well. very happy with the end result which should pass noise fingers crossed. took a lot of weight off the exhaust too with only using a center section from a 123D as the back box and a E90 320d center section in place of the cat.

my next issure was a LSD, after lots of sertching and resertching i wasnt happy with the prospect of buying a LSD out of a 325 for example that had covered lots of miles and probbly not that effective anymore so would need to be rebuilt and if ur doing that u may aswell do the atles conversion to it and all of which was starting to make my road rally car become very exspensive. so i thought bugger it and found a 4.4 ratio diff (still small case from a 318 auto) so i had the right ratio. before fitting the 4.4 i welded up the diff thats in the car allready as a bit of an experiment (with most ppl laughing saying it would push on through corners and so on) which i am very happy with so i think i got the last laugh as it handles mint and it was free to do and all i need to do now is fit my 4.4 and jobs a fish as far as the diff is concerd

after some playing with my newly welded diff i seen to have broken both engine mounts hhhhhhhhmmmmmmm i woulder how that could of happend haha so i got on the phone to a mister harry hockly seek his advice on compertion enginemounts and came up with a plane wich consisted of me paying some money and waiting also orderd a sump gaurd. the engine mounts wernt as straight forward as i fisrst thought they would be and required some mods to the sumbframe . very happy again with the end result and a bonuce is that the engine has been lowed by 20 mm in the engine bay wich can only be a good thing

[m3heaven]

Nice progress there.

can you provide any more info re the engine mounts? Brand or part numbers?

[M3 Compact]

Good stuff compact119.

Not sure about the welded diff, mind.

Did you try swapping the topmounts left to right to sort the camber issue?

[hsr2.6]

I made that mistake

[compact119]

lol the welded diff is megga

as for the engine mounts i am sure that if u gave mister hockly a call he could supply them not sure if these or just what he had left over from a build or not i can give him a call and find out ??

the struts were fitted as the came off the car as they were labled

next is the sump gaurd fitting so a frame will need to be made between the chassi legs and some sort of hanger at the back under the gearbox. i have a few ideas of how to achive this but any sugestions are very welcome. aiming to do this next saterday

thanks for the comments

[M3 Compact]

the struts were fitted as the came off the car as they were labled

Thety're fitted the correct way around, swapping them over shifts the topmount inwards and gives some negative camber.

[compact119]

very good that is usefull to no i think il try them and put it bk on the aligment machine and report my findings

out of interest how have u mounted ur gaurd ?

[M3 Compact]

Mine are swapped across compact119 and (IIRC) it has 0.5 - 1.25 degrees of neg camber through the ride height range. (Adjustable height coil overs.)

Sump guard is chassis rail mounted F&R with a brace across the front and the OE X-brace bracketed as a centre support.

[avtovaz]

very good that is usefull to no i think il try them and put it bk on the aligment machine and report my findings

out of interest how have u mounted ur gaurd ?

oh good, saves me doing that one then when im finished! Thats what i have on my car!!!

[compact119]

as this car is my day 2 day car driving it around the last few days since i fitted the engine mounts with the engine in its lower position. the differance it has made is briliant i supose when you move the haviest part of the car up or down its going to have a big impact on how the car drives. very happy

[rearwheelsteercompact]

Interesting report and good photo's - seems you're having quite a lot of success. Well done and keep up the good work

[compact119]

thanks for that rwsc helps a lot with the motivation an all lol

[avtovaz]

how much lower do you recon the motor is?

[compact119]

its lower by 20mm. Thats as low as poss, any lower and it would be sat on the steering rack. Its a very snug fit 2 the cross member and rack, gd job there pritty stiff

[SidewaysSid]

Some good work there Jonny. So when will it be out?
Good to see a beemer being worked on in there instead of all those bloody Protons!!!