So after racing a vintage porsche 911 in NASA last year I decided that it was time to build a race car from scratch, specifically for the class I wanted to race in (NASA GTS). After many hours of research I decided that the E46 M3 was the best platform to start with because of its relatively low initial cost, performance, and flexibility. I am building this car for GTS3 but I wanted something that could easily step up to GTS4 in the future and remain very competitive. The E46 M3 is perfect for this because of the flexibility of the S54 motor. It is easily de-tuned to make a competitive GTS3 car, while still being able to pump out the power for GTS4.
The next step for me was finding a car. I searched for about a month before I found a good, local donor car. It is a white w/grey interior 2002 BMW M3 with 82k miles on it. I was not crazy about the grey interior however it did not really matter considering it was going to rip it all out anyway. The PPI and compression test came back perfect so I pulled the trigger. Here is the car stock:
(I had removed a small amount of interior at this point)
Once I had the car sorted out I wanted to figure out which shops were going to help me out with building the car and supplying the parts. For parts I decided that Bimmerworld was the way to go. I spoke with James Clay (owner of Bimmerworld) at length before hand and he could not have been more helpful. He even took the time to have long discussions with me via phone, often late into the night, about setup, parts, advice etc. Really a super nice guy, and very helpful.
For setup/mechanic work, I decided to go with SCR performance in Loveland, CO. They had done another E46 M3 recently and have vast expertise in terms of race car setup. I am using them for everything that is too complicated or time consuming for me to tackle myself.
For the cage, there was really only one person I considered. Hank, at Hanksville Hotrods did a great job on my porsche cage, so I decided to let him have a crack at the M3 cage as well.
For cage paint I decided to again use Dave at Apex Autobody in Lakewood CO. Dave is a great guy and also did a great job painting my porsches roll cage, so he was the obvious choice for the M3. He does vintage cars mostly, including original RSR factory race cars, vintage exotics etc, so my M3 is not big deal for him. Once all the vendors were sorted out I started to take the inside of the car out. Here are some pictures of that process:
Race seat goes in along with Carbon fiber sunroof delete.
At this point all the windows have been removed and the car is ready to go to Hanksville to get a cage. Cage build pics:
Door bar starting to go in:
I opted to go with a X-bar style door bar that extended as far out as possible into the door. I feel that the more room between me and the solid object that hits the door, the better. I also did not like the excess number of bends that are present in a NASCAR style door bar, so this way we eliminated some bends, thus increasing strength, while also creating more room.
Finished door bars:
Finished Cage:
Ready for Paint!!
The next step for me was finding a car. I searched for about a month before I found a good, local donor car. It is a white w/grey interior 2002 BMW M3 with 82k miles on it. I was not crazy about the grey interior however it did not really matter considering it was going to rip it all out anyway. The PPI and compression test came back perfect so I pulled the trigger. Here is the car stock:
(I had removed a small amount of interior at this point)
Once I had the car sorted out I wanted to figure out which shops were going to help me out with building the car and supplying the parts. For parts I decided that Bimmerworld was the way to go. I spoke with James Clay (owner of Bimmerworld) at length before hand and he could not have been more helpful. He even took the time to have long discussions with me via phone, often late into the night, about setup, parts, advice etc. Really a super nice guy, and very helpful.
For setup/mechanic work, I decided to go with SCR performance in Loveland, CO. They had done another E46 M3 recently and have vast expertise in terms of race car setup. I am using them for everything that is too complicated or time consuming for me to tackle myself.
For the cage, there was really only one person I considered. Hank, at Hanksville Hotrods did a great job on my porsche cage, so I decided to let him have a crack at the M3 cage as well.
For cage paint I decided to again use Dave at Apex Autobody in Lakewood CO. Dave is a great guy and also did a great job painting my porsches roll cage, so he was the obvious choice for the M3. He does vintage cars mostly, including original RSR factory race cars, vintage exotics etc, so my M3 is not big deal for him. Once all the vendors were sorted out I started to take the inside of the car out. Here are some pictures of that process:
Race seat goes in along with Carbon fiber sunroof delete.
At this point all the windows have been removed and the car is ready to go to Hanksville to get a cage. Cage build pics:
Door bar starting to go in:
I opted to go with a X-bar style door bar that extended as far out as possible into the door. I feel that the more room between me and the solid object that hits the door, the better. I also did not like the excess number of bends that are present in a NASCAR style door bar, so this way we eliminated some bends, thus increasing strength, while also creating more room.
Finished door bars:
Finished Cage:
Ready for Paint!!