This true story will make you weep... E30 M3 3.2 Conversion

[MFree]

LOL - M5Pilot - yes mate - this project has sent me more than a little and anyone looking at it would say it must be cursed or have the 'bock' on it as they say round here, but as Darren Brown proves every weekend on telly I think 99% of that stuff is in the mind, i.e if you THINK its cursed its gonna seriously affect how you drive it and your headstate, waiting for something to happen will put you in a state of some mental distress amd focus less well on the task of driving itself, it becomes a self fulfillinf prophesy almost!

I am gonna sell it after a couple of months to TRY and enjoy it, if i can put the curse thing out of my mind! But my worry is that given the dough that i have ploughed into it in the last 5 years, (even the Ԛ£5k on dissasembly, Zoom engine parts, carbon aero parts, wheels and paintjob in recent months) I just wont be happy with what i can get for it...

I saw a nice Le Mans blue one with the same conversion but otherwise pretty standard (i.e not the Ԛ£1000 brakes, Ԛ£2500 suspension, Ԛ£2000 wheels, Ԛ£1000 interior, Ԛ£1000 aero kit, Ԛ£2000 new paint etc that mine has) go for about Ԛ£11,000 in France so i rekon mine HAS to be worth Ԛ£13,000-Ԛ£!4,000 doesnt it??

I dunno... I guess I wont be happy unless i get a very decent sum for it, as its just got to be worth that after the hurdle marathon ive been through over this car!!!

LATEST NEWS ON THE CAR!!!

I almost forgot! I spoke to John today, the paintjob is finished apparantly and though strangely the painter just raised the issue of the front panel being a bit damaged and should he change it? (which is odd as why tell me this so late on? Did he only just spot it and if so it cant be that major right? The car is due back with him tomorrow or wednesday as he cant do it monday or tuesday so i wil hopefully get some photos of it next week to post here AT LAST!!! MOre next week then!

[MFree]

The car is a week and some away from being ready!

Its back at Zoom HQ being assembled as we speak...

Which is all great... now, before i forget, did you all see the Performance BMW feature on the track day where John came out top on all but the laptime?

There were TWO 3.2 / 6 speed converted E30's - and what amazed me was how damn SLOW they were!?? I mean Johns time didnt blow me away, a normal MCoupe is supposed to reach 60mph is less than 5.5 seconds i thought??? HE has a very sweet engine too so why would it not be a decent chunk less than that?

Whats even more odd and frankly worrying for me (who thought my car might match my old Impreza Type R which was very tuned and pushed out 340bhp and reached 60 in a shade over 4 seconds) is that the E36 M3 Evo from where my motor comes from has an official 0-60 time of something like 5.4 seconds i think, i cant remember exactly, so how is it possible that in a much lighter car, both 3.2 converted E30's in the magazine feature, end up with 6 seconds and over for the 60 mph dash??

Ok the non-M3 one probably had too narrow tyres or maybe both couldnt get them off the line for toffee but you have to ask in general, HOW can they bit SO SO SO much slower than you would expect - my M3 is an evo shell with lots of light parts and all up when done will weight 1100kilos, so given this makes it around 30-35% lighter than the original car my motor came from, why would the 0-60 time be over 5 seconds let alone SIX!!???

Ive heard stories that few of the Evo engines put out anythign like 321bhp, most being around 300bhp. BUt still... 1100kg and 300bhp...

Shouldnt be a mere half a second between that and the original E30 M3 either..

Can anyone offer a suggestion as to why they wer e so slow involving convincing me utterly that they were just naff with their clutch control and me having had alot of race start experience (albeing using race clutches) will be right there in the 4 second bracket! Huh!? Huh?! Will ya tell me that will ya?! Huh!? Hah?!

Henny wayz, oil post some photos if John will oblige to take a few...

Kewell Ayaz...

///MFree

[frosted]

well it does seem odd.

i guess it depends on gear ratios and like you have said how well the person driving has mastered the art of the 1/4 mile.

i would expext tho the car to be in the 4-5 0-60 catagory. although i rekon the 30-100 will be the impresssive part.

[Gunni]

The car is a week and some away from being ready!

Its back at Zoom HQ being assembled as we speak...

Which is all great... now, before i forget, did you all see the Performance BMW feature on the track day where John came out top on all but the laptime?

There were TWO 3.2 / 6 speed converted E30's - and what amazed me was how damn SLOW they were!?? I mean Johns time didnt blow me away, a normal MCoupe is supposed to reach 60mph is less than 5.5 seconds i thought??? HE has a very sweet engine too so why would it not be a decent chunk less than that?

Whats even more odd and frankly worrying for me (who thought my car might match my old Impreza Type R which was very tuned and pushed out 340bhp and reached 60 in a shade over 4 seconds) is that the E36 M3 Evo from where my motor comes from has an official 0-60 time of something like 5.4 seconds i think, i cant remember exactly, so how is it possible that in a much lighter car, both 3.2 converted E30's in the magazine feature, end up with 6 seconds and over for the 60 mph dash??

Ok the non-M3 one probably had too narrow tyres or maybe both couldnt get them off the line for toffee but you have to ask in general, HOW can they bit SO SO SO much slower than you would expect - my M3 is an evo shell with lots of light parts and all up when done will weight 1100kilos, so given this makes it around 30-35% lighter than the original car my motor came from, why would the 0-60 time be over 5 seconds let alone SIX!!???

Ive heard stories that few of the Evo engines put out anythign like 321bhp, most being around 300bhp. BUt still... 1100kg and 300bhp...

Shouldnt be a mere half a second between that and the original E30 M3 either..

Can anyone offer a suggestion as to why they wer e so slow involving convincing me utterly that they were just naff with their clutch control and me having had alot of race start experience (albeing using race clutches) will be right there in the 4 second bracket! Huh!? Huh?! Will ya tell me that will ya?! Huh!? Hah?!

Henny wayz, oil post some photos if John will oblige to take a few...

Kewell Ayaz...

///MFree

ItԚ´s all in the driver and tires combo,
I reached low 13Ԛ´s 1/4 with 245/35-17 toyoԚ´s and a 3.0 M3 engine and a 3,73 (with the 3,25 it is alot better in my opinion)

[Andy335Touring]

Tyre grip and the E30 suspension is probobly why it doesn't look to good compaired to the E36 which has better rear suspension i think ?

[ian332isport]

I did the same bash last year, and managed around 5.7 (from memory) to 60 in the wet, so low to mid 5's are easily attainable in the dry.

To be honest, all the times were down on last year. The Branded Untouchable CSL was there last year as well, and did a 5.5 to 60, so even he was showing slower.

They used different timing gear, so not sure if that would make a difference. Both GPS based, so it shouldn't really.

Ian.

[Andy]

Wow - very interesting read.

At least you seem to be on the home straight.

Good luck with the car.

Andy

[Karan]

i think the e30 gets of the line fine,....... its the driver tyre combo i think that makes the differnce.....

i'll be running 205 555 15 on my car and i hope it gets off the line fine.....i wanna get into comfortable 13s on the 1/4

with cars this fast, i thik 0-60 means jack sh1t/////////

its all bout 0-100

ferrari 360 gets to 100 in 10.8ish seconds...... this is my aim eventually.... well around that anyway and ill be happy......11secs ish to 100 is my goal........ will prob need bigger rubber though i think....although looking at ians cars' video it seems to really get of the line well........

[Rearwheel_nick]

too much power, johns Mcoupe has a lot of power as it is and cant put it down at all. maybe that was what was going on with the e30's just too much power for their rear suspension setup/tyre choice?

who knows.

just to add my 2p
john does excellent work

and Mfree i noticed how you said about when john had his crash...and how he might have exagerated well the paramedics when they got to him gave him only another hour or so to live.

i loved reading this write up, you have had some shitty luck dude. i wish i had that sort of money to spend on an M3

[twincamman]

Very interesting read.....I think the car is a bad omen from what i have read.....My friend who is a bodyworker once bought a well known bad omen car to fix up and drive, while working on it in the garage he had the engine out and a little petrol was dripping from the fuel lines onto the floor. The petrol trickled down as far as the boiler and when the ignitor lit to light the boiler the whole place went up....Ended up burning his family home to the ground...Fair play to ya for staying determined...Sometimes u should quit while your ahead though.

[MFree]

Well, the car is painted and at Zoom being reassembled, I hope i didnt make a huge cockup with the colour, i really liked the look of the Rosso Red metallic in the photo i posted of the M5 in that colour but the photos John sent me of my car it looks more like metallic dark pink, god i hope its just the poor phone camera colour balance as it SHOULD be like a dark blood red metallic colour and not at all mauve or pinkish... if it aint then its gonna look totally GAY and i will be crying cabbages into my tea forever and a day!

that worry aside, Ive made my first set of angel eyes or 'Bling Rings' as im calling them which hopefully loads of you will want me to convert YOUR headlights to in future as they shit on all other E30 angel eye products from a great height and have the benefit of not leaving you wi0th a surplus set of lights that you dont need having spent Ԛ£220+ on a new set of angel eyes - and at half the price too, because we finally found a reliable way of opening up old lights and fitting the kits now, so you send us your lights and we get them back to you in 48 hours all done...

I have no budget left for now and hence need to source a rear seat and door cards in black or dark grey - i would love an M3 rear seat with the bucket style sections (was it only the m3 that had this style of rear seat???) so if ANYONE has these parts spare PLEASE PM me ok?

Other than that the Schnitzer rims look great, I got a new grill off Ebay and cant afford the harnesses till later but really all i need is detail stuff like a nice gearknob and gaiter - the main delay at Zoom is waiting for the new black carpet from BMW but the drivetrain is now in and the brakes on (back to original brakes im sad to say as my loverly Brembo 4-pots wouldnt fit with the dished rims i got... sad... so if any of you have narrower or less dished wheels and want a corking brake conversion which would normally set you back Ԛ£1000 then my calipers, pads and mounting brackets are for sale - you will need to source two 4-stud discs with the right offset if you dont have the M3 but thats easy enough, Bremvo or any of the other many suppliers will be able to find you a pair that will do the job for Ԛ£80 each or so... you can use my existing 5-stud discs as reference for them as well...

All im asking is Ԛ£450 for the kit... the calipers cost me Ԛ£800 new and you get the pads and brackets in there for that as well and the discs to fit too if you have an M3!!! Cant say fairer than they huh?

LEt me know...

Cheers

MFree

p.s i will post photos when i have the car back and have confirmed that the paint colour IS as its supposed to be, NOT hot metallic pink and if NOT then you will never see photos as i will probably drive the damn thing over a cliff if its been painted the wrong colour after all this time!!!

[MFree]

Returning to the subject i kicked off regarding 0-60 times and how a RWD car weighing 1100kgs with 300+BHP cant seem to beat (from the PBMW mag group test anyway) 6.0 seconds let alone where it SHOULD be which is 5.0 or so, 332 Ian - i agree mate, those are the kind of figures i think should emerge - John from Zoom (who was the gastest in that group test at 5.5 or so i think) said that most official figures are always optimistic and not to believe all of them, I ummed and arred about that one though because look, I use to own a really nice 1997 Type R scooby which I bought at auction in Japan 4 years ago and kept it for 1 1/2 years (cost Ԛ£6k a year to keep on the road) and ok it by total luck had about Ԛ£10k of engine mods, low comp pistons, fully progrmammable in-car screened engine management system, lightened flywheel, larger injectors, paddle clutch, and more and put out about 340bhp, now OK it gets away quicker as its 4WD but due to what dumping the clutch on one of those at like 6000rpm does in terms of drivetrain wear (imagine how everything winds up with that BHP and lots of grip) I never really did standing starts that had wheelspin and always bogged down a bit, but i saw a genuine 4.2 to 60 in that, so with comprable BHP and torque which my M3 should have (they rekon the motor is a good one and should have about 315-320BHP i think, weighing the same as the Scooby and with soft 245 rubber on the back there's just no way that the car is going to be a full TWO SECONDS slower - thats like 50% slower!!! Maybe 0.5-1.0 second coz of the exta traction of the 4WD but slower than 5.0 seconds would be just plain baffling i think - so Ian yeah, 5.7 in the wet is awesome mate, if thats true than in the dry knock off a second as you have bugger all traction off the line in wet or greasy conditions!!!! Let's you, me and craig (johns business partner who has a 3.2 engined M3 too) go down to bruntingthorpe or similar and get someone to do some basic but sensible timings, we should see if we can get into the 4's ok? Take a video cam (I have a nice minicam/bulletcam rig we can put in each car as well...) and post it up on the Zone...

hmm....

Layers

///MFree

[billgatese30]

glad to see that it all coming together now mate, i hope the colour is as it should be as i am dying to see the pics of it all done. good luck and hope it all gets sorted son, bout bloody time as i'm sure you'll agree.......

good luck mate and kep us posted as you always do

[MFree]

Here's the car mid-reassembly at Zoom - we are awaiting the damn carpet from BMW, thats the hold up as John cant do the interior without it!

If ANYONE knows of a very good black.dark grey carpet that can act as a 'plan B' for us so John can finish the car then please let me know...

I will habe some more photos soon... I will ask John to shoot the slick Aero parts and the lush Ground Control strut conversion for tawl to drool oover...

Later all...


///MFree

[billgatese30]

looks sweet man, really sweet

[Andy335Touring]

The nutz mate

Can't wait to see it all done

[MFree]

According to an unamed 'member' here who has seen my car in the last few days "I've yet to see a better paint job on an E30 in my life"

which is quite some endorsement of the paintjob!!!

The photos dont show the colour properly either apparantly... it looks much deeper and vibrant in the flesh...

If only the damn carpet would arrive John could finish ir!

Lets hope it arrives soon aye!

///MFree

[MFree]

cheers mate... and to all of you that have been so supportive through this whole saga...

Its not over yet though! the tape is in site however...

John offered me a carbon bonnet but i just cant afford it, i dont like the look of a black bonnet on a different coloured car, never have.

Zoom have had the car for (I think) about 7 months now or so, i cant remember to be honest when i took it there! It will be worth the wait though, im sure of it. Everyone says to me that they would have given up on it way before now, but i just had to see it through for reasons of pride and determination not to let these dishonest people win always...

My dream is to meet one of them in particular crossing the road when driving it and screech to a halt inches from his feet, lean out of the window and do the old 'lick finger and drop it' move!

I dont think i would have put nearly as much effort into it or demanded such a high finish to the car had all of these things not happened to me though, they motivated me to get to this point, thinking back 2 years ago when it was in bits on my drive having been recovered from Stratos Motorsport, it doesnt seem possible that its where it is now, no one would have given me Ԛ£500 for it then!!!

We shall see... how much do you all think its gonna be worth now?

///MFree

[bootyman]

Ԛ£50, 2 chickens and a goat seroiusly though, you cant put a price on a one-off creation like your car. It may be worth Ԛ£10k to one man, but another man might see it and be willing to pay double that for it. The 1st show i went to at Max London in November, some guy came up to me and offeref me Ԛ£25k for my car if i'd get it converted to a LHD. The important thing is how much it's worth to you. I've been bent over by a couple of guys who tried to use the KY jelly on me too when i was building my car, so i understand the crap you've gone through to get here. Just get the car finished and enjoy the summer and the fruits of your hard labour mate. Hopefully, we'll get to see the car at some meets

[Geeman]

I have a very good grey carpet that I was going to put into my Sport, but unfortunatley it's obviously for a RHD car... bummer. Would have helped if I could.

Colour looks great though... bet it'll look a million dollars when all the trim's back in place, etc.

You going to alter the ride height I take it...?

Let's hope it's finished soon, coz I want to see it in the flesh!

Good luck mate!

Giles.

[MFree]

Geeman - it has the Ground Control sturt conversion up front where the big base plate for the springs is cut off and a smaller diameter plate is welded on upon which sits the adjustable threaded locater and ring which the springs sit on so that you can asjust the height precisely and get the corner weights perfect etc - its a lovely job, the koni shocks then sit inside the strut tube and at the top there is the adjustable caster/camber plate which is much nicer than the KMac one, so all in all its a very neat setup - at the rear it has koni shocks again, fully adjustable for bump and rebound and similar eiback springs with the adjustment collar and ring so you can set the height precisely by turning it to wherever you need...

its all anodised in gold and red ally and looks the biz - together with the solid spherical joint where the normal lower control arm bush is, the rose jointed links joined to their uprated front roll bar, uprated rear rollbar and again solid (spherical bearing) rear shock top mounts, it means there is no rubber in the whole suspension other than the 'U' mounts where the rollbars go through. I have a rear strut brace and a front one too though the front one was cobbled together by Stratos which reminds me i must ask John what hes doing about that!

Cheers

MFree

[MFree]

Phew!

Well the project had gotten held up AGAIN - but unavoidable really, firstly John and Zoom motorsport are in the process of seeking a nice big modern unit to move Zoom into and so John's been very busy with that and also, althogh the car still needs aero and detail parts like lights, grilles etc fitted, it got stuck on the lack of a decent or new LHD carpet to put in the car... so it remained the bombshell it was inside till now, finally JOhn's exensive search has yielded a carpet! I aint seen it yet but JOhn's standards are very high and the rest of the car very clean and new looking, so it should be good...

Hopefully I will have updated photos of the car's interior and competed exterior to show you all very soon!

Till then

///Mfree

[jonz]

This is a good read mate, but i for one would have loved to see the car being painted in the flat grey, that would have been something else!!!

But i reckon the car will look great when its a bit lower with lower profile tyres on...well done fella!

[MFree]

Don't say that!

Eberyone has said that..

Basically it was all getting so delayed with the painter that i hadnt even seen the grey samples and semi-knee-jerkly i just said "Go with the red" because it was a BMW official colour so didnt need me to see any samples, so i thought it would lessen the delays

as it was it made no difference so im sad I didnt stick with it!

But in the end i dont want to dwell as theres nothing i can do now, also I DO like the red as i sawi it on an E34 M5 in a photo but thats all i had to go on at the time of choosing it!

IM basically happy with it - Johns got a nice carpet now too so other than him moving into his spanking new unit, its 3-5 weeks i rekon

L8R


MFree
John and Jason say its a pukka looking colour and like the grey, has not been used on an E30 M3 before so im glad about that too!

[jonz]

might have to buy an M3 kit and do it myself mate...

[MFree]

Giles - yeah, as it has totally adjustable ride height with the Ground Control coilovers front and rear I can play with it to get the right pitch and ride height for the handling - its a bit of a voyage of discovery though as of the few coversions like this out there, only Ian's seems to be done by someone who understands car setup at all or will actually try and push the car to test its handling - coming from a racing background I will try and use a trackday to optimise the ride height/dampers/camber settings to get the thing to turn in properly to the corners and not understeer too much which is the big worry as this is what blighted the Hartge and Alpina 3.5 conversions, the extra weight up front destroyed the immaculate handing balance which the M3 is renowned for. All im going to do initially is borrow a corner weight guage (as the only guys i know with a genuine 'flat floor' and digital corner weight scales are too busy to give me the time/space to set the car uoon it) and try and get the 4 corners weighing as similar weights as possible once ive set a starting point for the ride height and pitch of the car.

I selected the spring rates with Ground Control's advice looking at the extra 20 kgs weight of the engine (I think we chose 600lb/ft and 400 lb/ft F/R) and am choosing narrower tyres than many do, the thinking being that if the E36 3.2 M3 got by on 235/255's which i think it did, with much less weight (mine should weigh just 1100kgs or so) i can afford 215/40's up front and 235/40's rear (which are on all 4 of the rims now) as i want that Euro look where the tyres angle away from the rims like Go-Kart tyres, which i really like... I can run 1.5-2 degrees of camber up front to help the tyres bite on turn in and just keep increasing the pitch of the car until the rear starts to break away on turn-in then work back from there...

thats the idea anyway

MFree

[Frenchguy]

I will try and use a trackday to optimise the ride height/dampers/camber settings to get the thing to turn in properly to the corners and not understeer too much which is the big worry as this is what blighted the Hartge and Alpina 3.5 conversions, the extra weight up front destroyed the immaculate handing balance which the M3 is renowned for.

Keep us posted, it would be nice to actually read first-hand experience from someone that's managed not to upset the original balance despite the extra-weight !

[MFree]

Well i know its been a while, mainly because Zoom have done nothing on my car since the photos were taken because of many things, the lack of a carpet being one..

Anyway i went to see the car 2 days ago and to pay the painter who was getting very miffed with me... and it does look MINT - I couldnt believe the quality of the paint job! The car looks NEW!!! Increadible!

Anyway I finally got John to agree to try and finish it before he moves out by using a RHD carpet which we can get modified. THere is really not much to do now on it, just the inside and the aero parts. It does look amazing, i dont think there will be a nicer M3 in the UK and that incluses DARYLS one, especially as its got the 3.2 conversion, with the Ground Control suspension in the matching red colour it looks great - the colour does look really nice and its just nice to have a colour thats not been done before yet is still a BMW colour albeit a rare one!

I hope to be able to post some PROPER photos of it finished within a month, god its been nearly 9 months there now!

Oh yeah and thats over 5 years now in total!

The saga continues but is VERY VERY nearly nearing the phat lady stage, she's warming up with a large cognac anyway i hope! LOL

Later

///MFree

[BenE30]

WOW mate again as i have said before i have the highest respect for you! what you have been through must have been horrible at some stages but i am glad that the M3 will finally get what she deserves (to fly up and down motorways everywhere!

Top man good luck to you!!!

[Simon]

i dont think there will be a nicer M3 in the UK and that incluses DARYLS one, especially as its got the 3.2 conversion

Got to say..what a big head

I like Daryls car..because he has stuck with the S14 and spent money on that instead.

And you won't get any better than Wayne's car if you want an engine conversion, 400bhp out of the box, and 14lbs heavier than an S14...

[BenE30]

Simon, i am going to hold back my judgement due to the fact that Daryls is the nicest M3 i have ever seen!! need to be bloody good to look nicer than his!

Obviously still going to be a nice car!

[MFree]

Simon - Im not being a big head, not at all, Im just setting my goals very high thats all! Im trying my best to make it the nicest one! To be honest its probably not right to say its gonna be the nicest M3 as Daryls is an S14 original as you say, I probably should change that to the nicest 'conversion' - as for this other 400BHP one I havent seen it, Im up for healthy competition, Ive just been through so much with this car as you all know over the last 5 years that Im trying to do everything I can to make it as mint as i can! Its more of an aspiration than a 'brag' - you took it the wrong way!!

The two aspects of the car that Im not so convinced yet will be as good as i can get them are the interior and the overal state of the engine bay, the inside Im going to do as follows: get my new sparco seats and the rear M3 seat I bought re-trimmed in Grey/black alcantera which hopefully will make the inside as nice as it can be and the engine bay, well its a tough one that, because Im not that into engine bays that are too 'bling' and showy but then again Im starting with a secondhand engine that hasnt been stripped and rebuilt, so alothough its not got any corrosion etc I am going to need to replace things like the oil filter cover and so on.

As far as the rest of the car goes, its all pretty much brand new, suspension etc. The only shame is the brakes as i have had to revert to standard calipers because my Brembo's wouldnt fit with the Schnitzer wheels. I will be looking to find a caliper upgrade that WILL fit though...

Then there's the future possibility i was discussing with John at Zoom about supercharging the engine... that will get the BHP up over 400 but its a hefty Ԛ£5000!

its always a moving target with respect to overall finish! Mind you Daryls car is as good a target as they come right? It's a good aspiration to try and out-mint a minter isnt it!?

Cheers

MFree

[Rearwheel_nick]

the orange M3 is great i think, talk about bang for buck.

and rob ive seen your car when ive been at johns, it was absolutely gorgeous i was scared to go near it though incase i scratched it or something haha

[Karan]

id just like to say Waynes orage one is by far the best e30 i have ever seen!!!! EVER!!!

the quality of work is awesome (as he did it all himself-so u know what iu get and can do it to the best standard)

plus his is a proper race s[pec prepped shell with turreted setups front and rear and a proper cage and i suspect some serious seam welding also

its not a liveried up m3 turd

[MFree]

Rearwheel_nick - taa mate, yeah i know what you mean which is why im SO desparate for John to finish before he moves his business to the new place as something is bound to happen to it in the move you know? Thats the thing with a paint job thats THAT good, you're worried to do ANYTHING with the car in case you damage it, i mean some of you ZOners saw the car BEFORE it was painted and said some pretty harsh things about it "Pile of rotten shit" comes to mind, so its even more astounding that Ԛ£2k can transform it into what it is now! I mean the roof had dents in it, one door was silver, the front wings had dents in them and he front bumper had cracks etc as it was off an old race car! THe good thing is that the 3/4 panels were straight and not all rippled or full of pug...

Karen - as for the Orange car above, I agree it looks very nice but personally im not into race replica paint schemes myself, I think they look horrid, but as for the guts of the thing, I too have gone that route of trying to get as close to a race car on the road as possible. To my knowledge Ive not seen another E30 M3 with the full Ground Control race suspension setup in the UK, they are not just a set of coilovers which you often see remember, they are the full strut conversion with the top line konis all round, 400/600 Eibach springs, adjustable top mounts for camber/castor with needle roller bearings to stop the springs binding, but also I have the same adjustable platforms on the rear with solid spherical bearing rear top mounts, rear strut brace, uprated rear roll bar and polyurethane clamp inserts, and fully rose jointed front end with spherical bearing lower control arm bushes and rose jointed anti roll bar links all round. No rubber anywhere! I mean that IS a race suspension setup! As I said Im sad about the brakes I will have to find some kind of slimmer 4/6 pot calipers for the front, I've looked, it seems that the AP ones MIGHT fit but otherwise its the Alcon ones and they are mega bucks! I just dont think the standard brakes will hack it... I too am going to sort a cage out, which is why I got the rear seat from a convertible M3 as its narrower allowing a rollcage to get in there without hacking the seat to bits at the edges. Kos had a nice 1/2 cage but sold it - anyone know of a cage going anywhere?

I also need a nice front strut brace as well, any thoughts on which one will fit anyone?

I think i forgot to mention in the original spec that I have a short shifter as well that GTS Motorsport made for it, its the only decent thing they did on the car! Also you gotta remember that this shell is an Evo 2 one with no sunroof and lightened glass/panels etc and hence the longer diff ratio, do this should help wheelspin a bit and make 60mph in second easily...

So before anyone agrees with Simon on the bighead comment, i SHOULD have added "I hope..." to my sttement, its what im aiming for not what Im saying IS the case right now. It certainly has the potential to equal the best out there, it just depends how much further I choose to go with the spending on detail work like the inside, engine bay and the cage is all...

Man id be happy to have it back with a 318i interior right now if it meant actually having the car! It will be worth the wait though as John at Zoom has done a very very special job indeed to get it to where it is now, I will scan in a photo of it when it was last with me to show just how far its come...

Later

///MFree