Nissan 370Z Forum - Wh1te370z - BMW 328is Track Car Build

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Wh1te370z - BMW 328is Track Car Build

Thought id share my new project after selling my Z.

So i fell over to the dark side and bought a 1998 BMW 328is :shakes head: It is only a temp dd until i find a truck. Over the winter it will slowly change from a daily driver to a "race car." I plan to build the car to run in NASA NE in the TTD class for 2013. This upcoming year will be more of a test and tune year at some HPDE's and might run a couple of time attacks.

The car.. Its a quite clean, fully loaded 3 series with heated leather seats, dual climate control, sunroof, sport package, and basically every option you could get in the car. It has 194k on it and still runs like a champ. It will gutted to just over around 2800lbs w me in it, coilover, exhaust, headers, wheels and tires, seats, possibly a roll cage, and all the other basic fluids and odds and ends to stay in the TTD class. no crazy turbo builds just yet.

Questions and comments are welcome. Dont be too hard on me about buying a bmw :bowrofl:

Heres a pic of the car as it sits right now. Ill get some more pics a little later if anyones interested. prob not but u never know lol

http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...risbnl/BMW.jpg

That's a clean 328. Good luck with your build. :tup:

Looks to be very clean, congrats

thanks fellas :tiphat:

2 of the 3 owners happen to be 2 of my best friends who are big car guys. so i know exactly where the car has been so i dont have to worry about how it was maintained. which was a plus :tup:

Looks to be well maintained and clean.

The weakest point of the BMW cars is the cooling system. The water pumps fail pretty regularly so I would make sure you've got a fresh one in there before heading to the track. Also replace all the radiator hoses and consider replacing the radiator core if it is the original.

For what it is worth the 328is holds several class track records with our time trial club. They can be very competitive vehicles with a little bit of work. We'll be at WGI on Sept 10th and 11th next year, hope to see you there!

Yea the water pumps has plastic propellers and they would just explode after a while. I have to make sure its metal my buddy wasnt sure if it was or not.

Ill tell you one thing.. it aint no z haha. my buddy came for a ride and he goes get on it and i was embarrased to do it :shakes head: car feels like a boat right now but i think the front shocks are blown or something. doesnt bounce around but it has sooooo much body roll. needs a lot of work to get it track ready.

I HAVE to go to the Glen next year, it was such a fun track. Chris are you going to the Glen through NASA or someone else?

I will be there with COMSCC.

I have my eye on beating the class track record. 1.5 seconds to go.
SPB | Greg Loupis | 2:10.365 | Sep-10 | BMW 328is

i cant believe how fast you and your car are. I posted that thread a while back with my two buddies w the GTR and GT3 RS and thats the times they were posting. My times were crap :mad:

Does COMSCC require a racing licence?

Quote:

Originally Posted by wh1te370z (Post 1408084)

No license required. They will put an instructor in the car with you for most of a day and then sign you off to solo for the remainder of that event and to time trial the next day. Licensed drivers don't get instructors.

Nice job cleaning up the mess in the trunk.

I think your paint job will look good, maybe a matching hood stripe to match? Here's an example.
The Cartorialist Blog Archive More Track Day Pictures

I like that. I'm still up in the air about it. Part of me wants to do something crazier than the Z. Then part of me wants to do it simple. Well see, I'm usually not happy with simple lol

BMW is amazing. Had a 2007 328i before my z. Needed something faster :)

No doubt it's not the "fastest" thing, but with 11 points on my license it's fast enough lol. I got my power addiction done with when i had my ~350whp firebird and the Z. Now I brought it to the track so i don't always have to be looking over my shoulder for cops. Been there, done that. Theirs to many other important things to stress out about in life.

I plan on building another firebird eventually. That time it will be more like a 500whp NA build or a 700 turbo build. But that's far in the future. Got bit by the road racing bug and it's like I've been poisoned with a want to go to the track haha. I've been excited for this season since last August lol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisSlicks (Post 1408124)

Sounds like unless you are seriously skilled it pays NOT to have a license.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ImportConvert (Post 1528818)

Sounds like unless you are seriously skilled it pays NOT to have a license.

This is actually true. They recommend you for a license, however you can decline. If you are visiting a lot of new tracks then that is the smart thing to do as you will learn the track a lot faster with an instructor in the passenger seat. As a licensed driver if you are friendly with the instructors then you might be able to convince one to go out with you for half a session if they aren't over worked, but if they already have a couple of students then they may not have a lot of spare time.

I couldn't take looking at the parts on my couch so last night was a warm night (33*) so I started on some things.
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/98d9b332.jpg

Mainly got everything apart and ready to put the new back in. Got the water pump in and tonight I'll pull off the power steering line so I can swap that.

Some half *** pictures (when I'm working I don't think of taking pictures haha)

Stuff out. (ignore the crap welding)
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/681731d3.jpg

Power steering leak
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/2700025c.jpg

My dad making me stuff all my parts into a 5'x5' square
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/f7a15cc7.jpg

The new stuffs
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/f29da060.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/03123660.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/beecd49b.jpg

Had a second idea for the wrap bc it's been so cold I could work on the car. More of a fancy one.
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/5129bf99.jpg

nice ride. how much whp are expecting after all the power mods?

The new 328i seems like it will be pretty nice. The N20 I-4 Turbo makes 240hp / 255ft-lb Tq from 1250-4800rpm. So that's + 10 HP & 55ft-lb Tq over the previous I-6. The handling is said to be great as well.

My only reservation is the price because for ~ 38k to start I can think of a few other cars that at least sound better on paper. However, I'm not dumb enough to judge a car having never driven it so we shall see.

It depends on how it feels from behind the wheel. 0-60 times, etc I'm not really concerned with as it would be my daily driver and I'm satisfied with the length and girth of my genitalia.

The new 328i is under-rated BTW. Apparently BMW listed the cars power @ the wheels or WHP.

Road & Track put the new 328i on their DYNO because it felt stronger than 240hp and it put down far quicker acceleration #'s.

The result: 240WHP / 257ft-lb.Tq

So when you factor in the typical RWD drive train loss of ~ 15% the actual #'s made by the N20 is closer to 275hp / 295ft-lb. Tq

They achieved a 5.7 0-60 and a 14.1@99 in the 1/4mile which is far quicker than the previous 328i.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vo2max99 (Post 1612116)

The previous E90 328i with naturally aspirated 3.0 liter inline 6 was a really nice engine, too.
BMW rated it at 230 hp/200 lb-ft.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wh1te370z (Post 1406056)

Questions and comments are welcome. Dont be too hard on me about buying a bmw :bowrofl:

Heres a pic of the car as it sits right now. Ill get some more pics a little later if anyones interested. prob not but u never know lol

http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...risbnl/BMW.jpg

Looks like a nice find. Are those M3 wheels?

My first car was an E30. I was never into modding too much, but many E36 owners are crazy about modding their cars. I always felt the E36 chassis was 'flexible' like it bended a lot. BMW definitely concentrated on turning the 3-series into more of a luxury sedan rather than sports car in the 90's... a little bit heavier, smoother ride, but more powerful engines and modern styling.

Enjoy turning it into your track car.

How do you like working on the car?

Quote:

Originally Posted by harman.khinda (Post 1591284)

nice ride. how much whp are expecting after all the power mods?

I don't plan on doing a lot of HP mods to the car, I'll mainly do suspension. For what I'm doing (fan delete, intake manifold, exhaust, tune) I'm hoping for around 200 at the wheels, most likely won't reach it tho. The car stock is 190hp at the fly wheel. Back in 98... Guys with similar mods and cams make about 220-230 at the wheels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigsix (Post 1612175)

They are replica m3 wheels. The chassis does flex. Nothing a roll cage cant fix ;) over all the car is pretty good for what it is. Now it's a totally different animal. As for working on the car, it's much different that what I'm used to. I've always worked on mainly muscle cars. But all cars are are nuts and bolts.

So it's been a while since I've updated this. But here's what's happened in the past month.

Got the rear of the car gutted and the cage installed.
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/5a11a3be.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/a836430b.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/aadb0175.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/f8370f2b.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/d312cfa5.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/bd35ef8c.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/dc72b2ad.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/b888d8ab.jpg

Coilovers are in. Went with Ground Control Raceing Coilovers.
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/f27b7208.jpg
Installed.
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/e58d1ad8.jpg
Height difference. It's hard to see in the picture. In real life it looked totally different.
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/7c060573.jpg
Coilovers in but no rear height adjusters. (guy forgot to give them to me)
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/20591b1b.jpg

Got tires in and installed
NT01 goodness
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/55e70612.jpg
How to get 8 tires in a BMW lol
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/a19cc019.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/bfd7e2a7.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/3ebe3388.jpg

Rims and tires on the car. Still no rear height adjusters
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/cad03632.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/baf722ad.jpg

Finally got the adjusters and this looks like the finally ride height. The front rubs just a hairrrr on crazy corners. But I think I'm just gona roll the fenders.
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/0e7f0647.jpg

And then this happened....
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/t...l/9f739616.jpg

JUST KIDDING! I had to weld on my oil pump nut so i didn't look oil pressure in the middle of a race.

That's it for now. I might hit my first event the beginning of may. At the glen w BMW club racing. If not its the end of may a NJMP I believe.

Looking good!

Don't forget the high density foam for the cage bars. It needs to be installed anywhere that can make contact with your helmet.

Thanks man.

I keep meaning to order it. I gotta get on that.