fresh meat

This is a special time. With the new car comes a whole new circle of forums for trading information. The age of the car means the owner community out there is pretty crusty too; battle-scarred sharks in waters they are very intimate. In swims a noob (me) immediately comfortable with the format though not familiar with all of the faces. He gnaws on a few tough questions and asserts his power cautiously, sniffing around for the leaders of the pack. A few loudmouths have left plenty of evidence behind in old posts that they talk a big game but are generally full of **it. Then there's me; cocksure, willing to wager despite a meager pile of chips in my number of posts pot. Yeah, this is a special time, the time I test my mettle a fit my way in. Won't change me though... I fully intend to follow my plan with the car no matter what the slammed, glammed, blinged, and now concours quality restored crowd may think.

175- 174 - 176 - 175 - 174 - 175

Those, my dear readers, are heckaslammin' scrumdillyiciously awesome numbers!

My good friends at Induktion Motorsports did me the honor of taking the little green car under their wing for a thorough checkup. I asked for an honest assessment of what the car needs to become a reliable little track chariot and I got their reply...

- swaybar endlinks should be replaced - ordering them both this weekend
- tie rod ends are bad - I'm going for full rods banking on the inner segments being tired
- front control arm bushing is bad - ordering/upgrading both sides to offset M3's
- right front wheel bearing is bad - also ordering a new one for the left
- shocks/struts seem to be blown - holding off here because A) the car drives great and B) the SpecE30 suspension probably won't pass state inspection... I am trying not to ever put a working stock kit back on this car
- rear diff is leaking - gotta see if I can do that or if I should shop it
- slave cylinder is leaking - see above
- oil drain plug and filter leaking - probably a new crush washer and the revised check valve o-ring are needed

But that's it. :o

Nothing about either subframe nor any of the rear bushings or rear shock mounts (common problem areas in this vintage). They'll get replaced in time, but what nice news not to have to do it right away.

I've been tickled to find oodles of parts sources so I can comparison shop. (It's a guy thing) Two or three standouts have appeared with great prices for all of the little things to refresh. In tidy little chunks too. All of the front suspension will come from my old friends at Zygmunt Motors whom were so good to my Passat. Bavarian Autosport comes recommended and they will supply some critical brake, timing, and cooling parts. Finally, the (in)famous Pelican Parts will cover my rear wheel works and ignition pieces. I like finding good prices for the best stuff!

Meanwhile, Zygmunt has the SpecE30 shocks and springs as a kit for a radically low price. I need to jump on it as soon as the last of the Cobra parts gets shipped.

Oh yeah, all the parts I'd been collecting for the Factory Five kit (another post for another time) have nearly recouped all of the cost of the BMW. :o

It's been a verrrrrry good week.

Now I've gone and done it...

It was two summers ago that I was hip deep in the mud of Life. Two years of marriage and a little less than that in a new house. I'd been track driving off and on for about three years and had been talking to a good friend about partnering on a car we could both afford to lose. Neither of us wanted to be stuck riding the bus to work. It is the American Way, doncha know?

My loving wife had consented, but my buddy jumped off on a car of his own. So here I was with the green light and nothing to step on. I tripped over an IT-prepped Rabbit only a few hundred miles away, with a trailer, and crates full of spares. Honey? Yesss....

Then lightning struck. Literally. Within hours of cutting a certified check and sending a registered letter to the car owner, our new house was on fire. Only by Grace was the house not more seriously damaged, but the toy track car was definitely on hold.

Fast forward almost two years through my wife getting a new truck, both of us getting a new dog, and that gnawing of my own that resulted in my new GTI. Track days continued and were that much more fun with the fast, but there is still this nagging feeling.

Half the reason for a dedicated track toy was the economic consequences of making a big mistake in the daily driver. I was getting smoother and faster in my old car and those experiences were built upon in the new car. It's a busload of fun too. But if I made a big mistake, I could very quickly wind up begging a ride to work. Compound that with a lien on the GTI (presently) and I could be begging for a ride -and- still paying for the car I couldn't drive.

The toy car makes its second appearance.

I'd still passively looked for that bargain track-ready car whose driver was in dire need of cash and letting go for pennies. Maybe you are too and I can tell you they are out there. I'd found Factory Five Racing too and thought it would be a hoot to build my own 5.0l Ford-powered Cobra replica. The reality there is too similar to that of crashing the GTI and saving the money up was taking a long time. But the money was being saved and some parts were bought as other great deals came and went.

A new spec racing series within N.A.S.A. debuted about the time the smoke was clearning from my house; Spec E30. That's the E30 model BMW 3-series cars kitted for inexpensive campaigning. You see, SPECified go-fast parts is effectively a budget cap that contains racers to a limited set of modifications and upgrades. It also makes for very evenly matched cars and results in a more genuine driver v driver comparison of speed.

I have no intentions of competing. For my money, open track days and schools/clinics net me more seat time on the track than racing does. :gasp: I may try time trials, but I will be looking to the SpecE30 results to compare myself to the guys racing door to door. Otherwise I'm just having fun.

Having? As in you're able to go do that? Did you buy another car?

Yes, the cat is out of the bag. I did buy a '91 BMW 325i coupe.




It's a very strong donor and quite nicely matches up to the power:weight ratio of a Factory Five Spec Challenge car (another spec series for Cobra replicas)... but it is a tenth of the price. Even less for what I paid. I had been planning a $25-30K budget for a Factory Five, but the BMW cost me $1400. Title, taxes, tags, and insurance won't even break the $2000 mark. A packaged SpecE30 prep kit with all of the build parts is $2500. For less than five grand, I will have a rip-roaring BMW track toy.

But that's in the future and probably next year. For now I'm following some wise advice to make the car safe, make it reliable, and then make it fast. In that order. First up will be the state safety inspection which I think the car is ready to pass.

Next will be reliability. Right away I want fresh fluids, fresh belts, a new waterpump, thermostat, timing belt, and idler, fresh hoses, new plugs, cap, and rotor, clean filters (air and fuel), new wheel bearings, new parking brake shoes, and all new bushings. Together, these parts will probably cost several hundred dollars. They will give the car a completely new lease on life... and it already runs very strong with a new clutch, young transmission, and new brakes. Plus, not a thing I've listed isn't something I cannot do myself.

Finally, the fast stuff. This is where I can take the time to get the car fully prepared and learn some of the same things I felt the Factory Five experience would teach me (except in a car I can fit into!). I will follow the SpecE30 rules which are very concise; very little of them have I not understood. My goal will be a track-ready car that can still be driven on the street and not pollute the environment. That is another big plus for SpecE30 too. I'm looking forward to the experience!

mean?

I've been told my blog is mean. As in I'm mean. Mean is a funy word. Even moreso now that I've typed it four times in a row. (You missed the post title) :wink:

Some might read and see the little postscript tacked onto that first paragraph above and think, "Yeah, that was mean. Why did you have to jab at me, your reader, whom at first saw only three 'means' but missed the post title? Yeah, they were right. Your blog is mean, dude." Okay, so I apologize for being mean. It is who I am though and it is not intentional. It's just how the stream of my thoughts currently pass through my set of output filters and through my fingertips to the keys. Believe me, my backspace key gets plenty of use as I edit on the fly.

There are the innocent who probably don't deserve to be dressed down; the lost out of towner more interested in their map than the green light and the traffic moving past them through an intersection. (Pull over. Get your bearings. Read the map somewhere other than in traffic.) But then there are the guilty; the immortal, infallible, know-it-all-at-age-18 morons who swear they're not hurting anyone but maybe themselves with the stupid things they brag about. (Get a clue. I was you.) I have few other outlets to directly blast these nuisances so I choose here. Mean? Sure. I'll give you that. Therapeutic? Definitely.

You see, it's not having the feeling that is wrong but what one does with a feeling that might be. Road Rage is a plague amongst drivers and there is no drug to cure it. Only self-control and therapy to express those feelings some other way have helped. I get my speed jollies at track days. The unintended side effect has been a sensation of more danger on public roads with all manner of crap close to the roads and streets compounded by traffic filled with frustrated, lesser-skilled drivers.

It was sobering to me to realize the vast majority of people I drive alongside have had no additional driver training since (gulp) highschool... back when we were all pre-occupied with being teenagers. Hormones raging, social circles expanding at different rates, peer pressure, parent pressure, reality so unlike Mtv enough to induce depression. This was the right time to learn how to drive? The conspiracy theorist in me would hypothesize that the system generates these barely-able-to drivers to guarantee a source of traffic revenue for future generations and keeps the auto repair segment booming. Lord knows we don't educate our teens to spend wisely or invest while inundating them with advertising for new cars and tolerating movies and tv shows where cars mean popularity. Am I being mean again?