BMW Rallying Forum

Hello,

I am building a gravel E36 compact for stage rally here in the USA. This car will be built on a small budget while hopefully being effective rally machine.

Here are the basic plans and outline:

-318ti donor car
-M52 2.8 (iron block)
-Standard gearbox with 4:10 or 3.73 188mm LSD
-Fully bias ajustable boosterless brake system using modified standard pedals and calipers from a 328i.
-Bilstein suspension mostly bespoke (we don't have much as far as a rally aftermarket in the States). More on this later.
-Full FIA 253 J roll cage with a few extras required by Rally America and NASA regulations.

As the car sits it is pretty much all stripped of the stuff that won't be needed. The Cage has been started and outlined by the main hoop and half laterals. Now it's time to start connecting them. I plan extending the rear damper mounts to use a common 10" travel bilstein. This will need to be completed before the cage gets tied into the towers.

Here are pictures of the progress so far.

Looking Good so far, always the hardest part stripping out the interior and removing the sound deadening,
What is your budget if you don`t mind me asking?

Bimsy

Nice build. Expensive rallycars are nearly impossible to sell in the states. A budget setup is the way to go.
What events to you plan to run?

Regarding the budget ... I really hope to keep this as cheap as possible while building a strong, reliable, and quick car. In the US the only real competition 2wd is R1 and R2 fiestas. The rest of the 2wd is made up of budget builds and a few pricey cars. I'm hoping to spend somewhere between 5-10K US dollars (closer to 5K) but safety gears gets pricey quick.

Regarding where I hope to compete ... I live in New England therefore I hope to compete in Rally America's New England Forest Rally as well as STPR in Pennsylvania along with NASA's Empire State Performance Rally and Black River Stages both in New York State.

I thought that in the USA there was not rally race and all you have were nascar, indy and some shows like monster truck races.

Im happy to learn that rallying is in more countries than i thought.

What states have more rally racing tradition?

Thanks!

Very cool. I'm in a process of looking for 318ti as well. I am going to use M44 engine initially. Probably just put E30 4.10 diff and have VAC motors install racing plates in it.
Reading on your post - I noticed your planning on using Bisteins - You may turn your search into Euro market and look for Proflex, Ohlins or Reigers, also you may want to look into converting rears into coilovers.

lahondal wrote:I thought that in the USA there was not rally race and all you have were nascar, indy and some shows like monster truck races.

Im happy to learn that rallying is in more countries than i thought.

What states have more rally racing tradition?

Thanks!

So you don't know as much about rally as you thought you did. Both US and Canada had events in Wrc back in the day.
Rally isn't as popular on this side of the pond but Ken Block and Travis Pastrana did decent work rising the profile.
Btw how many times Higgins been a RallyAmerica Champion now?

rallyogre wrote:- I noticed your planning on using Bisteins - You may turn your search into Euro market and look for Proflex, Ohlins or Reigers, also you may want to look into converting rears into coilovers.

I plan on converting to coilovers and reinforcing the trailing arms. That said, I am on a budget and none of the damper options you listed above would keep me within it. There also isn't a used market on stuff like that in the states. My plan is to use a Bilstein motorsport 10" damper in the rear. I think it's similar to a grp 4 escort bilstein and should handle the abuse. http://cart.bilsteinus.com/product/B46-1103S

I will need to limit travel a little bit but will gain me more adjust-ability later on. It's a big 46mm bore and the standard dampening is almost to spec with what ford ran of Grp A and Grp N Sierra for rally. Here is the GrpN spec sheet.



Consider both car weight about the same and have very similar trailing arm suspension I think this will be a good starting point and cost far less. I was also considering adjustable top mounts or at least mounts that bolt in that could adjust top damper position up and down. This will open up options for future dampers.


Here are some more pictures of the cage coming together. I am currently working on the extended shock tower in the rear to accommodate the longer damper as well as a double ear diff cover and mounting. The door bars will be a full "X" style I just haven't finished them yet. In the States it's required to have a "sill" bar as well.







Removed whole harness and plan to making it my winter project to create my own harness with center mounted circuit breakers.



Start of the extended shock turret.