Pictures of car as of 5/29 (no mods yet)

Just a couple of images of where we are today...  no changes yet!

1) Engine compartment, pretty stock!

2) Overall car, in great shape

Intention is to have a race car that still looks as good as the starting point, but much faster and safer. Also a few minor body changes will be made, like pulling in the bumpers and adding a from air dam.

Lots of movement this week

This week has really kicked off our efforts to build the car and source all parts. We've made some key moves and are now on our way to getting most components in the next 2 or 3 weeks.

Seats:
Ended up with Sparco EVO 2 Plus seats. Right now we have purchased one seat and installation hardware so we can try it in the car and make sure everything goes smoothly. We ended buying everything off  http://thmotorsports.com primarily due to ease of payment and that it was relatively easy to find all parts on the site. We couldn't use the Sparco site due to the billing address.


Restraints:
Selected Simpson '16.5 Platinum DSL L&L Pull Down b/i 6 pt. (29058SP)' primarily because I had used Simpson products in the past with no issues, they are easy to order and the price is right. Already ordered the 2 sets in platinum color. http://simpsonraceproducts.com  


Ignition and Coil:
After talking to several people, quite a few recommend the simple / reliable HI6 from Crane Cams. Quickly found them on Summit Racing and purchased the HI-6 6000-6440 ignition box and the LX92 coil, and hardware for attaching to the car. 


Brakes: 
We found out that we need to use the 13" wheels for our BMW 2002 due to race rules, so this changed everything. We have now gone with the simpler Ireland Engineering setup that uses larger, vented front discs with Wilwood calipers and larger diameter rear drums with upgraded pistons. Per our discussions with the folks at IE this should be enough for a first go, and easy to get going.


Suspension:
We are working with Ground Control and have decided on Bilstein shocks for this application with some custom tuning. Based on what we've seen these should be an excellent setup. They have started modifying struts and preping the custom valved shocks. Hopefully we get parts in a week or so.


Fuel cell:
Will be using a 15 gallon cell from Fuel Safe http://www.fuelsafe.com of the Enduro Cell line up. These seem to have all the safety elements at a price that still makes sense (ED115 is the part we got). One thing we still need to figure out is the fuel gauge. ATL sells one that can be cut to a custom length and you can then cut the opening on the fuel cell cover - seems like the easiest path.


Engine:
Engine head has begun work over at IE, and we selected to start from a 1.8L E21 head for ease of availability and just in general better castings and starting point for the combustion chamber. For all other parts we have a comprehensive list and are working with Jeremy from IE to get through it and start getting parts.




Other than this, we need to get the car to the workshop to get that roll cage in. We are making some calls on Monday and hopefully by next week it is at the workshop getting the cage installed.

Project is now moving, and some technical details

So after some time with little movements part orders for the car are now on their way and hopefully we'll have a running car in the next 2 months.  One of the key things has been getting a good hold on what the car is actually going to be and putting it together. Because it has taken quite a bit of energy, the following are our final selections and some rational:

- Suspension. We looked at the upgrade systems from several companies and read through a ton of blogs, and determined that at a high level we are going to need a car that is about 1 to 1.5in lower than standard (adjustable for hight front and rear),  keep the original locations for rear shocks and springs, slightly stiffer springs and shocks, upgraded stabilizer bars, adjustable camber plates for the front. And some other minor bits and pieces.

After some research, we hit upon ground control (www.ground-control.com) and really liked the options they had available. Some of the details that made a big difference over other suppliers was the type of design for the adjustable camber plates and the great customer service. Also the fact that they provide Eibach springs in their kit is a major plus.


Right now we are making the final decisions on Koni vs Bilstien, and will hopefully be able to have a suspension ready to bolt on in a couple of weeks!


- Brakes. Massive brakes (http://www.massivebrakes.com/) seems the way to go here for racing...   however, we are having some last minute setbacks due to a race rule that requires us to use the original size wheel on the car. As such, the big brake kit from massive would not fit. We need to sort this out this week and order the brakes ASAP. If not, the 13in big brake kit from Ireland Engineering (http://www.iemotorsport.com/) should do the trick. 


- Engine. Most of the components are going to be sourced through Ireland Engineering and include a fully race preped engine head (with a 306 cam, forged rockers, ported,  double springs), forged pistons, alloy rods, dual webers, headers, better radiator, oil cooler and a lot of other bits and pieces. At this point the engine head is in theory being built and hopefully will be delivered in 2 weeks and we are ordering all other parts so we can build the engine in around 4 weeks time.


- Seats. Had some major back and forth on what seats to use, but have ended up with Sparco as our selection. We want to run a HANS compatible seat, but are still verifying that this will fit inside the car. If so, we'll probably end up getting the Pro ADV seat. Seems safe enough.


- Roll cage. Found 2 people that do this near home, and price is reasonable. Plan is to have the car out to get it in the next 1.5weeks. This is one of the critical items to get to this project done in time!




After this update, I hope we get progress soon and pictures of how it comes together. Time is tight!