BMW1602 - From Rust to Glory

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't done as much as I wanted but I finally welded up my firewall......

and fabricated the "taco" gussets for the door bars.

Started with a poster board template and ended up with my 4 gussets, The lines are reference lines for bending. I was debating adding a dimple (I have the die) but decided not to.

There are many ways to do this but this is how I did it. Pure brute force.

Custom "hand formed"

nice and symmetrical bend, it sits flat on the table.........Hammer it gently into place to check fitment,

Ready to tack weld and then do final welding.Since I'm not in a rush I decided to tig the gussets. Also hoping I could lay down some nice looking beads since this is a highly visible area.

Tig is great for welding thin matrial like the gusset (16ga) to thick materials (like the tubing) since you can really control the arc and where you apply the most heat.

First I adjusted the contour on the gussets to ensure a near gapless fit. Next I secured in place with clamps and tacked it in.

Me getting ready to spark it up, finding a comfortable position is 80% of getting a good tig weld. When I did this one I was very comfortable and got a good bead. In another where I had a hard time finding a good position the bead came out like crap.

But every gusset I do my welds get better, which is why I'm doing the driver door last!

moving up the tube...

about halfway

one down, 3 more to go.......fixturing the second one....

second one....a bit better....

macro closeup.....not perfect but not horrible either......especially considering the weird positions.....

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T19:38:00.000-08:00

I have a small break at work and I'm hoping to get alot done in the next 2 weeks....

....so much to do I, I have to really get my ass in gear and start working....sometimes keeping working on big projects like this is hard.

that said my project looks like a walk in the park when compared to what this kid is doing in his garage.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3277830&page=1 (spend some time on THAT thread!)

The next goals is to get to a point where I can start working on the motor.

On list ,
-Weld firewall holes and tube holes shut and seal the firewall.
-Fabricate and install rear "firewall". (alum. or steel I dunno yet)
-Position and fabricate pedal mounts.
-Install Master cylinders and install brake lines.

**major milestone**get brakes operational!***

Then If I'm really lucky to finish all that, start working on the new dash fabrication and gauge positioning.

Oh yeah.....paint the engine bay.....paint all the new tubes inside the car.....

I have 2 weeks....lets see......

and here are some pics of the reason I haven't been working on the car.......

The only bad thing about working with movies and cutting edge technology is that your working with all this cool stuff and all these cool projects that you have to keep quiet about....so this is about all i can show....

To say I'm excited about what I'm doing is an understatement. Especially in this economy, I just happy to have a paycheck! Also, it's nice to have some funds to be able to complete the car......

Me on the left on a pre-production prep day....and yes that a rally car.

me trying to figure out what does what on our Avid DS system.

Like my co-worker says " I'm just a monkey in a spaceship, pushing buttons. " eventually I figure out what I'm doing!

Pretty much sums up how I learn things......

Weigh-in part 1

2008-12-12T19:33:00.000-08:00

still waiting on the pistons.......

haha...... I love it... my car is anorexic!!

How much do you think my car weighs......Rolling chassis?

No engine
no tranny
no driveshaft
no diff and axels
no caliper or brake booter and lines
no seats
no dash
no wiring
no gauges
no fire system
no fuel cell & pump

it's as basic of a rolling chassis you can get!

I wonder how much all the stuff will weigh???????

Final weigh should be below 2000lbs.......I think.....

Parts, parts, parts!

2008-12-11T19:28:00.000-08:00

Well it's been awhile.......

I've been really busy with my new job. I'm loving it. Better pay means more parts and hopefully.....on the track for next year!

So santa visted early,

I bought,
New 11:5 to 1 pistons (coated)
Main bearings drilled to Alpina racing specs (coated)
New wheel studs/nuts
Alum. flywheel 7lbs.

Wilwood (I was going to use Tilton but I got a smokin' deal on the these)
Clutch pedal
Brake pedal w/ balance bar
3 master cyclinders kits(1 clutch & 2 brakes)
Remote balance adjuster

and a few other bits....

Willow Springs - My Nasa HPDE video

2008-12-03T22:34:00.000-08:00

This video was shot during a NASA hpde trackday held at Willow springs
this last August.

Since my race car has been in surgery all year, I have been atending NASA events with my friends and have recently become a NASA instructor.

This was a learning expirience for some of the videos I will be shooting for when my car gets on the track again.....planning some cool videos when that happens!

The primary goal of this short video besides making a cool video for my
best friends was to exercise my newly acquired Final cut Pro skills. It
was shot with a Panasonic HVX200 HD camera in 720pn. It was my first day
with the camera and was getting used to everything. I had a hard time
looking at the LCD on some of the pans in the bright sunlight(I now have
a custom monitor hood). Most of it was shot at 24fps with a few 60fps
shots included as well. I was running around all day but I think all in
all for a first try I left with some decent footage. I edited it on
Final Cut Pro Studio as well as color correcting on it as well. The
titles were made with Motion and Livetype.

I had to compress it down for VIMEO but it is what they call an "HD"
video. Still it is runnign at 15fps so it might appear to the more
trained eye a bit jumpy (especially the titles at the end).

I highly recommend once you let it download, that you click on the
little X on the screen to make it go full screen on your monitor. Also
on the bottoem of the page they have a link to download it to your
computer. Sit back turn up the volume and enjoy! Hope you all Like it!!

HERE IT IS.....

Vimeo HD version 10mins. long.
http://vimeo.com/2032682

For more info on the #475 car, visit his build blog (pics and specs) - I
also helped build this car.
forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1071981

#34 car (Adam's car) was purchased as a race car (here on bimmerforums)
already just 1 month before this video was shot. No build blog yet. But
here are some specs on his car.
-3.0L with schrick cams, software, intake, HFM, headers
-Tckline double adjustable coilovers
-OZ wheels - Yoko Advans
-Brembo -2 piece rotors
-quaife diff
Etc.etc...etc....

Both cars besides being the same color are actually pretty matched.
Dmitry is a more experienced than Adam. By the looks of it Adam is eager
to get more track time and catch up!

Special Thanks to:
Stereoscope LLC, - stereoscopestudios.com/
BMW/Mercedes Service of Sherman Oaks - bimermbenz.com/

okay,
not recommended (very compressed) YouTube version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O0HMiiJAeY

Where I have been?

2008-10-01T11:52:00.000-07:00

After I finished the cage I got to a point where most of the labor was done and whats needed now to move the project forward is some good old fashioned ca$h. So I decided to go back to school and change my career. Since I live in LA and I have a strong IT background and hollywood is everyday closer to fully digital workflow. I decided to enter the digital intermediate world. Basically it's post production. Editing, effects etc… I've learned some much in a short period of time it's amazing. My brain hurts and I haven't had time for anything lately.

I'm working hard and doing my best to secure my first job in the industry. I'm also now a Apple certified Final Cut Pro editor thank you very much. I'm doing what I can to get this job as it would pretty much be my dream job in many ways it's such a great fit. I hope to make a post soon with the good news. Naturally the most important part is that this means cash for the 1602…..

I shot and edited a short clip of my good firends at willow. It's almost ready for viewing!

More news soon, ( I hope)

RIP - Racer Paul Newman

2008-09-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

By MIKE HARRIS, AP Auto Racing Writer Sun Sep 28, 2:58 AM ET

Paul Newman wanted to be a great athlete — he just never found a sport in which he could excel. Then, while filming the movie "Winning" in 1969 at age 43, he discovered auto racing.

"I was never a very graceful person. The only time I ever really feel coordinated is when I dance with Joanne," he once told The Associated Press, referring to his wife, Joanne Woodward. "And that's not my doing. But when I'm behind the wheel of race car, I feel competent and in charge. It's something I really enjoy."

Newman, an Oscar-winning actor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, activist and race car driver, died of cancer Friday at his farmhouse near Westport, Conn., publicist Jeff Sanderson said.

"Paul Newman, a real American hero," NASCAR team owner Jack Roush said.

Newman spoke of his passion for racing during a 1995 interview with the AP shortly after he was part of the winning team in the Daytona 24-Hours sports car endurance race. He was 70 years old at the time. No one remotely close to that age had ever won in that event.

Newman could be terse and distant in his rare interviews, but he would light up when he talked about his favorite sport.

"I don't like talking about acting because that's business and pretty boring," Newman told the AP another time. "And politics can get you in trouble. But I'll always talk about racing because the people are interesting and fun, the sport is a lot more exciting than anything else I do, and nobody cares that I'm an actor. I wish I could spend all my time at the racetrack."

When Newman decided to get into racing, it was more than just being in the cockpit that interested him. He became a car owner in the Can-Am Series, campaigning cars for a number of top drivers, including Indianapolis 500 winners Al Unser, Danny Sullivan and Bobby Rahal, as well as Formula One champion Keke Rosberg.

After competing against team owner Carl Haas in Can-Am, Newman formed a partnership with the Chicago businessman, starting Newman/Haas Racing in 1983 and joining the CART series.

With Mario Andretti hired as its first driver, the team was an instant success. Throughout the last 26 years, the team — now known as Newman/Haas/Lanigan and part of the IndyCar Series — has won 107 races and eight series championships with drivers like Michael Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Cristiano da Matta, Paul Tracy and Sebastien Bourdais.

"He was just a great guy and truly loved everything about racing," Michael Andretti said.

Despite a heavy schedule, Newman came to the track as often as possible. He tried without much success to keep a low profile as he roamed pit lane on his motor scooter or sat at the team's pit box, his baseball cap pulled low over those famous blue eyes, a pair of reading glasses — used for reading the timing and scoring monitor — dangling from a string around his neck.

"Paul and I have been partners for 26 years and I have come to know his passion, humor and, above all, his generosity," Haas said. "Not just economic generosity, but generosity of spirit. His support of the team's drivers, crew and the racing industry is legendary. His pure joy at winning a pole position or winning a race exemplified the spirit he brought to his life and to all those that knew him."

Newman's many charitable works extended to racing. Kyle Petty and his wife founded a camp for chronically ill children in North Carolina, modeled on Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang camps.

"He was dedicated to giving back to those less fortunate and with each child we see, we honor his spirit and vision," Petty said.

Two-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart competed against Newman in several sports car races.

"He set the bar, not only with his giving, but in how he gave. ... Paul did it right, and he did it with class," Stewart said.

After playing the role of an Indy 500 driver in "Winning," Newman found he couldn't get the driving bug out of his system. And he found he had a real talent for the sport.

Newman began racing sports cars in amateur divisions and won his first race in 1972 at Thompson, Conn., in a Lotus Elan. He earned the first of four SCCA National title in 1976 in the D-Production class and also won championships in the 1979 C-Production category, as well as taking the GT-1 championship in 1985 and 1986.

His first professional victory came in the rain at an SCCA trans-Am race at Brainerd, Minn., in 1982.

When Newman arrived in the media center at Brainerd for the winner's interview, a bottle of champagne in hand and a huge smile on his face, he found just two writers waiting for him.

"Where is everybody? I guess I'll have to win something a little bigger than this to get any attention," he said.

Newman added another Trans-Am win at his home track in Lime Rock, Conn., in 1986.

He often said one of the things that attracted him most to racing was the camaraderie in the pits and paddock. And Newman loved a good practical joke, even when it was played on him.

During a race in Elkhart Lake, Wis., several drivers conspired to pull a fast one on him. They hired a bus and sent it to a home for the aged, telling the residents that actor Paul Newman had invited them for lunch and a day at the track. About 40 women jumped at the offer.

Newman was at the track when a crewman came in and said, "Paul, there's a bunch of people out here who say they're supposed to have lunch with you." Newman came out of his motor coach smiling and played the role of gracious host at a hastily arranged lunch for the adoring ladies.

When the Indy Racing League was formed, Newman/Haas stuck with CART and Newman tried numerous times during the 12-year split to broker a deal to get the rival organizations back under one banner.

Once, when a deal appeared close in the late 1990s, Newman summoned a writer to his motor coach at Portland, Ore., and demanded: "Write about this now and we'll put some pressure on these people to get this done," he said, with a profanity tossed in to underline his point.

It finally did get done, but not until this past February.

Newman was thrilled by the unification, even though it was the IRL's IndyCar Series that wound up the winner of the internecine warfare.

"It's about time," Newman said. "Now, we can tell potential sponsors we have a future and mean it, and we can develop great, young drivers that will attract new fans to the sport. The future looks much brighter now."

As he passed his 80th birthday, he remained in demand. He managed to combine acting with racing by providing the voice of a crusty 1951 car in the 2006 Disney-Pixar hit, "Cars."

Newman drove his last race as a professional in the 2005 Daytona 24-Hours and even ran some hot laps around his beloved Lime Rock Park in August.

As the years went on, people kept asking him when he was going to quit racing. His reply was standard.

"That's what Joanne keeps asking me," he said.

He valued his SCCA national championship medals more than his oscars.

RIP Paul, We all miss you!

Cage DONE!

2008-09-02T00:39:00.000-07:00

So it only took all Labor day weekend to weld all the tubes in! Granted I only managed to get started after lunch everyday but it was alot of work!

I'm very happy with the finished product! Even tough in my crazed mind I kinda have an itch to add a few more tubes.......hehe.....

somebody stop me!

....next step is adding all the dimpled gussets......

here is this weekends work.....

First the plate.....
then the bottom support tube.......before
after
here it is from the other side...
then the top tubes then stitched it to the fender

here you can see the 3 tubes that make up the strut tower tubes and the dash bar diagonal connector tube ( at least thats what Im calling it.)
left fender
closeup of weld....240v Mig welder BTW....
A-Pillar strut tube joint.....
here you can see the diagonal dash bar connector tubes......I will gusset the lower dash bar to the transmission tunnel to ties it in further.
top view of a strut tower

top view......and yes that's my 200lbs ass standing on the dash bar....it's stiff!
Driver door bar ..... soon with gussets.
passenger door bar
front view

Paul Newman takes last laps....

2008-08-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

Paul Newman takes last laps at Lime Rock Park.

Dam alot of bad news lately, altough this one is good news in a certain way.
He is quite the inspiration for me, I wish him good luck on his journey....

"Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Lime Rock Park was closed down for an hour and
half today to honor Paul Newman. He was attended
by his family, close friends, Skip Barber, mechanics
on his race team, and those who happened to be at
the track. PLN toured the track in his Corvette race
car with his Buick V8 powered Volvo station wagon
following. He had come to say goodbye. Diagnosed
with terminal cancer he is not expected to live beyond
September. Race driver, actor, humanitarian, family
man and friend, they did not come any better."

LimeRock was closed down today Wednesday for an hour and a half so Paul Newman could take a few last laps there in his GT1 Corvette and say goodbye. He was diagnosed with cancer 18 months ago and is not expected to make it past September.
Hearing this has left a sick feeling in my stomach. Newman was and will always be one of my racing hero's.

American racing legend, Phil Hill, dies at 81

2008-08-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

RIP Phil.......

Phil Hill, the only American-born driver to win a Formula One title, passed away last night of complications associated with Parkinson's disease at the age of 81. Aside from his success with Ferrari in F1 during the 1961 season, Hill was also the first American to win at the 24 hours of Le Mans, taking the title twice more and winning the 12-hours of Sebring three times.

Described by friends and colleagues as reserved and genteel, Hill was a breath of fresh air in the international racing scene and finally inducted into the International Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1991.

He is survived by his wife Alma, son, two daughters and four grandchildren, all of whom have our heartfelt condolences.

Jack point !

2008-08-26T00:49:00.000-07:00

After seeing some this on some other build threads I'm really surprised I didn't think of this before!

Basically just a tube that's connected to the cage so you can jack the car up from one centralized point and get both wheels in the air at the same time. Which is great for enduro pit stops ala Nascar style or just convenient so I can place both jack stands at the same time.

I would of liked to have placed it a bit closer to the middle of the rocker but there was some things in the way (maybe side exit exhaust). The bigger issue was also the sill tube bends out and the jack tube would not of lined up. In the end my location works perfect.

Would of been sweet to have air jacks but.......yeah right!

Was simple cut the hole with the hole saw - then slide the tube to mar the trim point - then cut a notch.......done.

after the notch was cut.......
testing with the jack........

Nothing like some cold beer to celebrate the end of cage fabrication !!!!
Bottoms up! ......yeah it was freakin' hot in the valley.....it's always hot there.....

Door Bars fabricated!

2008-08-25T00:28:00.000-07:00

Granted I'm vintage racing and the racing is not at the same agressive level of what I encountered on the "Setup" tv show or even your local NASA or scca race. But the single door bar always made me uneasy and was never a permanent solution.

I decided to maintain the main tube already welded in and transform the existing tube into a door X design. This should once again help with chassis stiffness and more importantly safety.

I will be adding dimpled "taco" gussets to the X as well as many other parts of the cage.

Now for the driver side I decided to run and additional tube connecting the center of the x to the door sill tube. This should help in a side impact. Also as I said I will be adding many gussets...

So now I'll feel a bit more safe in that seat.....

Front cage Completed!

2008-08-24T00:19:00.000-07:00

Front Completed!

Well after much thought about my previous ideas for the front shock tower tie-in....We came up with another Idea. Problem was when we start actually looking at all the different sheet metal structures that make up the "shock tower" on the 2002. After many ideas we decided that with this design we leave the stock structure of the strut tower unchanged. Basically I will use the new tubes and gussets to integrate them into the stock structure and the resulting design should increase the overall stiffness and strength of the front of the car.

Basic idea was to lay a thick 1/8" plate over the top of the mounting area. The run horizontal tubes from the dash bar (like many e36 and e46 designs) and then run one tube from my existing lower "dash bar" to give it some horizontal support.

vertical support tube mount to the lower dash bar...

he gap on this tube is not as bad as it looks it just the way the tube is laying there as none of this is tack welded in yet.Completed layout (not welded yet...duh)
Maybe not as pretty or elegant as I might of imagined but we managed to come up with a unique effective design.

This is what it looks like in one big pile...... ready to get prepped for welding....

Firewall BREACH!!!

2008-08-03T23:58:00.000-07:00

What do you think my car is powered by?

A hungry poor brazilian !!
This is what happens when you drink beer and work on your car
But seriously, I was in there to check the hood clearance on our new new "strut tower" design. If you look back at my ver.1 and ver2. ......something just didn't work for me. Thanks to Dimitri I think we finalized on a "strut tower" tube design. I feel much better now !

First step was to check the hood clearance........I'll shave my hood reinforcement support bar that I fiber glassed in just enough to make room for the tube.
Next I broke out the cardboard and started laying out the strut plate and tranfered it to steel, using 1/8" plate. It was a total bitch to cut it out while maintaining straight lines etc.... even more challenging to cut out the center opening.
Next the moment we've all been waiting for......drum roll please

First hole in the firewall.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Getting the hole cut and lined up in just the right spot? ....priceless!
TUBING is 1-1/4 x .120 wall

It's all downhill from here!

let's see how our idea all comes together

tranny tubes.....

2008-07-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

Decided to add a horizontal tube across the main hoop legs and stitch it to the transmission tunnel. This tube should help considerable if the car gets t-boned right around the main hoop/door area. It should help keep the cage from collapsing inward. Basically should help support the mid-section of the cage in a side impact.

It's safe to say after my new (coming soon) door bars and all the new tubes the car should be much safer.

It was trickier to fit than I thought as we had to cut a diagonal notch for the diagonal bar from the main hoop.....

this one was kinda rough...

The driver side weld came out MUCH better.

Then I welded the tube to the transmission tunnel, should help integrate the cage in one more location to the unibody (there are many others)
and now the complete view of this weekends work...including the new tranny tube....

Pedro the contortionist...

2008-07-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

I have to smile when I remember the funky ass positions you have to get in when welding a cage!

Here I am welding the first tube connecting the subframe tubes to the rear tube node.
I can't stess this enough.... when welding ANYTHING get as comfortable as you can get. The more comfortable, the better you can see the cleaner the material is the better your welds will be.....mine are not perfect but it's amazing how much better they are when I happen to be in a more comfy position. Supporting your mig gun with your other hand can be tricky at times when welding in weird positions, but is vital to use you second hand to stabilize the nozzle to give you most control over what you are doing as possible.....

Much like many I initially planed on Tig'ing the cage but in the interest of saving time I opted for the MIG. After welding some of these tubes I have a hard time imagining doing some of these beads in weird positions with a TIG.... having to manage the filler rod and the pedal would of really been a challenge! not to mention just fitting the tig torch in some of these tight confines.....

In any case here is me after I found a "comfortable position allowing me the best view of what I was welding.
the result I must say almost brings a tear to my eye....hehe

Personally I never seen this design done on any 2002 or e30. I think it's elegant and make perfect sense "engineering wise" and much better than other "subframe connector tube" designs. I just looked at it and this is the design that made the most sense.

All the "black" tubes are the new tubes in case you did figure that out already.

like I said not perfect.....but not bad either....

subframe tube done!

2008-07-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

Welded the plates in and completed the subframe connector tubes....incredibly I have never seen another '02 with this done to it. I've seen people weld tubes to the area but never actually do it like all the e30 and e36 guys do.

My "comrade" Dimitri, none of this would of been possible without his chain smokin' helping hand.
We are using a Harbor Freight tube notcher in case you where wondering.

Next we tacked in the subframe downbars.

DOM Time!!

2008-07-22T23:55:00.001-07:00

Next we started working on the main "X" on the down bars. In case you were wondering DOM tubing is 1.5"x0.095 thick. This is in line with the rule book for a 2000lbs car.

I'm using his welder and Im still trying to figure it out but Im getting decent results.....
Me sparking it up!
It's getting tighter and tighter back there everyday .... more tubes to come !
Here is the completed section........ next the "X" to connect the subframe to the cage.

Subframe connector welded in...

2008-07-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

I decided if I was going to ever finish this I would have to start working on it during the week, so I started to go to the shop after work these last 2 days.

Good thing too as we are making great progress....

welded in the subframe posts,

Welded the tube section to side of the "box" as well for additional support.

also did some additional "seam welding" where ever the mig gun would let me.
last step before I weld the cover/base plate is to drench/cover the entire area with POR-15

Happy 4th!

2008-07-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

Well I took the day off on the 4th and enjoyed the day. On Saturday I went to the shop http://www.bmwmbenz.com and met up with Dimitri as he already started working on our newest "team" member Adam. His newly acquired e36 race car had a bad head gasket and a cracked head.So since I wanted to watch Dimitri install the freshly welded and machined head so I could learn. I did not get much done on my car. But I'm always ready to learn something new. So I did learn how to install a head gasket on a s50 and properly time the cams etc.....plus we got his car all squared away so he can go to the track next weekend.

So all I did was make the dreaded incisions into my old sheet metal to expose the rear sub-frame mount points. You guys that have done this on the e30 chassis will recognize this as the e30 uses the same chassis/suspension design in the rear. I looked at e30 DTM designs for the subframe mount/roll cage area for ideas.

The idea is simple. You want to channel the energy from the road that gets transfered from the wheels thru suspension arms to the sub-frame into the mounts (now solid) then into the thin(now rusting) chassis sheetmetal. By using a section of DOM tube welded to this area then you can run tubes from the main hoop and also to the rear portion of th cage. This will greatly increase the strength of this aging shell and will also make sure that the rear subframe/ trailing arms maintain their position. Also the stiffer springs (that will be installed) along with the now Solid sub-frame bushings do not cause the sheet metal to collapse or fail.

I decided to first mark it out with a sharpie I just used my judgment and started cutting!
Luckily as you see I made the cut perfectly right along the edge of the "sheet metal box" the mount sits in.

Here is side view of that area. The red lines depict the tubing, welds and the baseplate that will cover the area. This should integrate this vital suspension pickup point into the rollcage.
The rust is just surface rust after closer inspection..... but god know why BMW put that big hole that exposes the sheet metal to water....rust. Maybe there was a plastic plug there at some point.... after welding the tube I will POR-15 this area as it stop rust and is designed to paint right over the stuff and stop it.

Me making the cuts
Then I cut the right side one up as well.....and slid the tubing over it and it was a PERFECT fit! it's 1.75x0.120 wall DOM. Unfortunately......that's as far as I got.

Now I need to decide on how to tie this new pickup point to the rest of the cage.

Vintage Racer Killed In High-Speed Crash At Mosport Raceway

2008-06-24T00:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend weekend of bad motorsports keeps getting worse. Yesterday, Scott Kalitta. Today, Dino Crescentini, a ten-year veteran of vintage racing, died at Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, when the Wolf Dallara Can-Am car he was driving — a car once owned by Canadian industrialist and Formula One team owner Walter Wolf and driven in the 1977 Can-Am Series by the legendary Canadian Gilles Villeneuve — apparently went sideways at very high speed. Crescentini was participating in a race as part of the 29th International Vintage Racing Festival at the track. Inspector Paul Hamilton of the Durham Regional Police tells us

"...[the driver] was heading northbound from corner six at Mosport. After this corner is a long straightaway and at some point his vehicle became airborne at an extremely high rate of speed and rolled end-over-end. The driver was transported to Bowmanville hospital where he succumbed to his injuries."

Crescentini had been involved in vintage racing for more than 10 years.

Crescentini was an all-round sportsman. He was a member of the San Marino (Italy) bobsled team that competed at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.

My thought go out to him and his family, looks like he led a full life and left us flat out in his racecar. RIP and if you see Senna up there say hi to him for me.....

Cage work finnaly begun!

2008-06-22T23:58:00.000-07:00

Spent all day on Saturday working on my friends Dimitri's E36 race car assembling his new rear suspension setup. It was SOOO FREAKIN hot!!! Must of been like 110 at least! We got thru the day drinking lots of water and sweating about twice that and finished his car.

Started sunday by watching F1 with My mom and my stepdad. GO MASSA!! Go Senna!

Then it was back to working the the OVEN they call the valley. Today we towed my car to the shop with Dimitri's X5. Which we like to call the ultimate tow vehicle! I wish it was mine.... the pair looks so good, don't they?

I decided to start work on the cage from back to front. That is to say I will start in the trunk and slowly work my way to the engine bay.

First order of business was to remove the awkward bar spanning across the 2 down tubes. I cut it out with the mighty sawzall then ground down the nub and painted it.

After grinding.....
after all painted up!
Next I used the same tube I just cut out to serve as my strut tube. You might ask me why no baseplate? Well I considered it, but as you might be able to see in the pictures the metal on that strut tower is VERY thick around 1/8". So I decided the best thing would be just to weld the tube directly on the strut tower. I will not be using coilovers so there really is not much load in this area. As my "downbar X" will be welded to my strut tube In case of a roll over the load will be shared by both mounting points. I did not design or install the original cage (ireland Eng. did) or else this whole area would of been very different. I'm just "modifing and adding" to the existing cage so keep that in mind.

Now after I welding in the "strut tower tube" I added the "diff tubes".

Quick flex test of this area I did today- I jacked the car up from the diff mount and I could actually see the floor board moving up or "bowing" from the center maybe 1-2mm at least. I was surprised by the amount of flex I observed! Now all the suspension forces that come thru the rear wheels make there way into the chassis thru the suspension arm into the subframe and into the car thru the subframe mounts. The other load path is thru the spring pads. The third and last location is the diff mount and the suspension loads and diff power "torquing" that might occur all transfer into this area.

TO address this I have seen this done many different ways. The diff mounts in 2 points on what basically is a square tube that spans in-between the strut towers along the floor. So the best solution would be to cut the tubing open (ala e36 subframe tie-ins) weld a plate then a tube sticking out. Then plate cloe the hole and weld you connecting tubes to it..... that's a bit too involved that I'm willing to go right now.

Another way I have seen is to tubes meeting in the middle of the trunk.....this seemed silly as the diff mounts in 2 spots and not is the center.

this pic from another 2002 race car build shows the diff mount and the tubing well.
I decided to go with 2 tubes mounting to the area directly above the mounts. Pretty much like the pic above. Now I understand I'm not actually connecting the tubes directly to the diff mounts but the large plate and the 2 tubes will greatly increase the stiffness of the area and now any loads will be transfered up into the cage instead of bending the floor.....

There are 10,000 to cook potatoes...this is just how I cooked mine.
Also this leaves a nice space in the middle to mount the battery!
here you can see the diff mounting bolts in relation to the tubes. I used 1.5"x.120 wall DOM for the strut tube and 1 1/4"x.120 wall DOM for the diff tubes.
....and that's as far as we got in today slighty cooler 100+ degree heatwave......

Why do I wait till the summer to start working on things like these?

Rollin' again & out with all the old wires...

2008-06-15T22:47:00.001-07:00

Not much work done this weekend in-between me taking break all the time to watch the LeMans race.....I still can't get over how beautiful those Peugeot's are....

Put the car on it's wheels and rolled it out of the garage for the first time in over a year...wow time flies.

Got the car ready to take to over to the official bmw1602.com shop.....

http://www.bmwmbenz.com/

It a great little independent BMW & Mercedes repair shop where my good friend Dimitri works. Luckily the owner likes me and has allowed us to work on our race cars after hours and on weekends when the shop is closed. This is invaluable as it gives me access to lifts, factory tools, etc..... So I'm now thankfully listing them as one of my sponsors.

So next week the car goes over there so I can start work on the cage (he has a shear and a drill press with a notcher etc... I will probably tack weld the cage together over there then take it back to my garage for final welding.

Meanwhile I happily removed ALL of the pre-historic wiring from the car. Thankfully since the car is ancient there is not much to get rid of. I will be rewiring everything to a new fresh switch panel with circuit breakers and switches.

Oh yeah.....after a quick week of unemployment I now have a new job.....(unfortunately no increase in pay)

pre-historic wiring
OUT WITH THE OLD.......maybe a good 5lbs. too! .....

suspention assembled.....

2008-06-07T03:09:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to buying some POR-15. This stuff is great! It's like the poor man's powder coat! It is very toxic and I was told to use a mask, gloves etc...It dries to a hard finish and make sure to put a piece of plastic when you close the can or the paint will be weld the can shut! Don't get this paint on your skin you will have a hell of a time getting it off!
It brushes on and then melts so you can't see any brush strokes. I will be painting the engine bay with this.....

I decided to bolt everything up so I can put the car on the ground and rolling so I could take it to my friends shop to start working on the cage.....he has a notcher there so I will be fitting and tacking everything in there then bringing it back to do final welding here in the garage. I don't have a floor mount drill press here so It's easier just to do all the tube cutting/ffitting and tacking there then bring it back.....

Used new SKF bearings packed them up with lots of Mobil1 sythetic bearing grease......

Assembled adjuster with Ireland poly bushings.....

completed rear assembly
bolted on subframe
New Myle ball joints
new tie and center rods
bolted on vented rotor
All done and ready to roll! Rolling chassis Time.....

Hot sunday in the valley....

2008-05-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

My moms garage is in the valley and boy was it a sauna in there.....! I managed to get alot done and only sweat out a few buckets!

I finish grinding off all the 5 layers of paint in the engine bay and frame rails. Luckily no serious rust to report....

So now I'm ready to start on the cage work....
you might notice I cut out the passenger firewall "foot bulge". This is to make it easier to install and removal the headers....might seam silly but why not! I like making my life easier...

Also finally finished welding on the subframe adjusters. Then I used the air grinder to finish cutting out the adjustment slots. The "eccentrics" required some grinding filing to ensure proper smooth operation....basically it all took some fine tunning to get just right.....

Not bad eh? I'm pretty proud of myself.

Completed subframe
Outermost pickup point adjust toe and inside (vertical slots) adjusts camber.

Completed modified rear suspension!

Reinforced trailing arms and now adjustable subframe ! (also solid subframe mount bushing not pictured)

Truck? I don't need no stinking truck!

2008-05-12T00:19:00.000-07:00

Mother's day weekend started by going to pickup some 1.5" x .095 DOM tubing for the roll cage modifications.

the workers at the metal yard looked at me funny when I pointed to my lowered M3 and said "put it on the roof!"

They were like are you sure? It's 60 odd pounds of tubing that 20ft. long!

I told'em....."It's okay this is how we do it in Brazil all the time!" they all had a laugh...
I didn't break any speed limits but I got home just fine....

According to my receipt I got 2 pieces 18'.3" long. = $35.59 each ! I believe that is a smoking deal!

The M3 makes a great hauler......

Alot of time was spent talking and discussing about the engine bay cage design......

In my previous post you saw my version 1.0........I'm calling this V.2.0

Soon into discussion we realized we needed to have the engine in place with the head and most importantly the DISTRIBUTOR......

Within 15 mins we had it all together.....here is version 2.0
The Engine bay tubes will be 1"-1/4" x .120 wall
This design clears the distributor, the carburator etc.... The green things are "taco" gussets with dimple dies.....
after pretty much setteling with this design....I continued my work with the subframe adjusters..... Make sure everything is clean and secure before welding
Measure with calipers to insure that both plates are in exactly the same place. BEFORE welding

Then the fun part..... weld away!

Bimmerfest recovery....back to work!

2008-05-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

I was working the Stealthauto booth at Bimmerfest this weekend and unfortunately did not get a good chance to look around.

I did stop by the Ireland Engineering booth and picked up some camber and toe rear adjustable weld on kit.

SO back home on Sunday I got back to work on the car abit....

Here is the Camber kit

First I clamped a piece of flat stock to serve as a backer so I may take my big F'ing hammer and make the small turned out lips flat.
Marking where to cut so that with the plate on now we have a slot so the eccentric adjuster may move back and forth....
On the Semi-trailing arm design of the 2002 (also e30 and Mcoupe). The more you lower the car or basically move th arm further up into it's travel, you gain toe-in and the tire gains negative camber. So usually a 2002 at race ride height will have too much camber and too much toe-in. This kit will allow you to dial some of that out.

Also if you ever plan on running bias ply slicks, you will want close to 0 camber so these become even more important.

Toe will move back and forth on the outermost trailing arm mount on a horizontal plane. This will give you the ability to adjust toe.

The innermost trailing arm mount (closest to the diff) will be cut so we may move the arm on a vertical plane. As we move the eccentric down we get more negative camber and more we move it up we reduce the amount of negative camber.
My first TIG weld on the adjustment plates

Paintball or work?

2008-04-30T00:02:00.000-07:00

Took a break and went paint balling on Saturday but at least got some work in this weekend....

finished removing all the paint from both inside fenders....and welding all the small holes that were drilled to mount various items in the last 30 odd years of ownership.....
did some seam welding.... fender to firewall
I'm taking my inspiration for my "engine bay cage" from one of the cars from the guys from http://www.skidmarkracing.net

here is his tube design/engine bay

Here is my version of his concept....Im calling this Version 1.0

I did not like the way he just "seamwelded" the tubing to the 'shock tower'. I thought I could improve on his idea. This is and old car running really STIFF springs supported by 39 year old spot welds and rusty sheetmetal.

So I decided to construct a 'strut tower' reinforcement box.

Both to strengthen the strut mounting area and to transfer some of the load into the roll cage.

My racing rules state I cannot alter the suspension mounting points. There fore my strut holes are in the same place and I'm not moving the strut mounting point inward like I would like to (to gain more camber). I also would like to raise the strut tower abit to gain suspension travel. But that is also prohibited.

So it is merely a mounting point for the tubes and a reinforcement for the area.came up with this strut tower reinforcement "box"
more detailed view of the reinforcement box/tube mounting... the black circle represents where the tube will be welded to the 'box'
A side view of the design. The most forward tube will reach down and be welded to the frame rail. The 2 triangulated tubes will reach thru the dash and attach to the top dash tube.
I will also weld a "taco gusset" with a nice dimple die to this connection.

Cage modifications started!

2008-04-21T23:52:00.000-07:00

We finally finished my friend Dimitri's '95 M3 NASA TT car. We put quite an extensive cage in it. I think he will put up a Project thread here in a few days.

here's a few pics!

here a video of the completed car...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vey-RcRPa5Q

We sprayed it avus blue like the car.....man painting a cage sucks!

We got the car all back together and it's almost ready for it's first test.

Now that we are finished with his car, he is going to help me with mine. Hopefully we can get my car done alot faster now!

I was able to resist the urge to attend the bmw wheel power meet then go to Long Beach grand prix and instead we worked on the car....

We broke out the sawzall and went nutz!!!

Started to prep the engine bay by removing radiator support/firewall sheet metal and the small firewall at the back of the engine bay thanks to a cool new spot weld drill bit and a nice big sawzall!

The radiator will be moved forward and lean a bit. the engine bay is now huge! You could fit a V8 in there! It will have a fan on the backside of it as well.

Began sanding/grinding down all the old crusty paint in the engine bay in prep for welding and fresh paint.

Removed dash support sheet metal as well. This was done as I will be adding a dash bar to connect to my engine bay tubes. I will be fabricating a new dash.

So basically the plan is that I will be adding to my cage alot.

X on the door bars
Bars to tie into the rear subframe
rear strut towers tube and tubes to the diff mount
and finally extending the cage to the front shock towers

...also planed are Tilton pedal setup, mc with brake balance and bias control etc....

oh yeah rebuilding the engine! man...I think I bit off more than I can chew!

Hopefully my good friend Dimitri will lend me a hand and we can bust out all this incredible amount of work!

all the pics CLICK HERE.

I never did paint the engine bay.....

Actually I never touched the whole drive train and engine bay since I bought the car.

So I decided to tackle it all in what I'm calling "phase 2"

-painting engine bay
-reinforcing&restoring all suspension components
-more extensive cage layout
-fresh motor
-new braking "system"
-New and improved dash and wiring.

SETUP FULL BLOG

2008-03-13T23:47:00.000-07:00

My full setup blog,

I have one on the setup forums on the show's website......Click here.
or
you can see my reports with videos on my website HERE.

plans.....

2008-02-13T23:43:00.000-08:00

I enjoy welding very much, once I got the tig I was practicing alot and gradually got better. I could lay a great bead on a flat practice metal peice but it is only when you have to weld things in weird positions on actually projects that your really challenged. Every time I well I'm getting better.

Last year I raced the British Extravaganza which is on the same weekend as BIMMERFEST. This year the boss said I have to work the show, So if the car is back together it will be in our booth at BIMMERFEST '08.

I'm doing lots of work to the car right now.....still to do is....

-striping the engine bay of the old paint

to do this I have to remove my master cylinder and brake lines and I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point. I might install a floor mount Tilton pedal setup and brake bias knob.

or just re-install the stock stuff with a tilton bias knob.

also planed....

-Major additions to my basic cage.

I want to extend the cage to the engine bay/shock towers. Adding additional door protection. (X-brace with dimpled gussets). Added bars to connect to my subframe (like on a e30), also bars connecting my rear shock towers to my diff mount. Lastly, adding an X on the rear down bars.

-Painting the new cage bars and engine bay.
-Powercoating all my reinforced suspension parts and install them.

More Major WORK....

I'm rebuilding the motor!

So lots of updates to come for sure!

I'm on a reality TV show......no REALLY!

2008-02-12T23:38:00.000-08:00

Finally the time has come! I can now talk about it!

The reality show I was on is going to premier next Thursday on speedtv here in America.

Funny enough the was a few BMW racers driving besides me. There was even a 2002 ITB racer from the east coast (The Canzone brothers) naturally we all became friends once we found that we both raced '02's !

You can see my face in the first promo for a sec too.....

watch the promo here....

http://www.setup-tv.com/

BTW- thats me in the gif below in the black hood.....hehe

There will be a new episode each week. 8 total episodes and SpeedTV website says it available on HD.

Still hasn't really sunken in yet that I will be seeing myself on TV.....worse yet that the whole country will too.

I hope they make me look good. I know I didn't make a fool of myself like some did.

I'm so pumped for this I can't wait. Big viewing party at my friends house for sure next Thursday!

We are bound by some serious contracts so I can only talk about whats made public. So I can talk about each episode after it airs......

The stakes are high, the driver talent pool is MUCH higher than season 1 and the action was non-stop.

NEXT Thursday set your DVR to record! Should be a very entertaining 8 episodes!!

BTW.....the cars were Pontiac Soltice GXP (turbo I-4, RWD) 260hp I think and roll cages made by Pratt&Miller....they were alot of fun but I missed my BMW!!!

here is the SETUP thread on bimmerforums
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=942076

Rear trailing arm reinforcements!

2008-01-12T23:29:00.000-08:00

Next up : Reinforcing the rear trailing arms.

Now unless you can find yourself a nice new set of boxed Tii arms you'll have to "box" your trailing arms yourself. I seen many other people doing it many ways....I think my design is pretty sweet. and STRONG.

Initially I was going to add an additional bar across the arms but I really do not think it is necessary.

One of the dimple hole line up with the brake line holes for installation.

Once again fixturing/jigging is the name of the game here. The last thing you want is bent reinforced arms that are useless. Welding tends to warp/shrink everything. I found that I actually had to preload or stretch the arms apart so that when I was done I would had the same measurements.

This whole process takes alot of work!!

Remove arms
disassemble arms
sandblast arms
paint arms on the inside
clean arms for welding (grinding)
make template from cardboard
cut gussets from sheet metal
dimple sheet metal
bend/form gusset to control arm curve
secure in place for tack welding
measuring
applying "jig"
measuring
welding reinforcements
Cleanup
Painting

finally re installation!!

wow...trust me it takes alot more time and work to do it than to write this post!

I know what some race shops charge to do this and now I know why.

That said I made 2 pairs and 1 pair is for sale. I will be making more as well and selling them on my site. If your interested in a set email me.

once again if your going to do this yourself be very careful not to end up with bent arms!!!!

see all the pics CLICK HERE.

forming and bending it so that it would fit perfectly flush took alot of time. Alot of back and forth!

I used a punch and dimple "Dimple die" tool I bought from www.tricktools.com. I bought a 1/2 inch press model $40 and a bigger punch model that I used for the trailing arms....$90+

They have many a few different types. I bought the one that after drilling a pilot hole you bolt the two halves together and by using a air gun as it brings the two halves together it also punches the hole! You can also and preferable do this using a Press. You keep pressing the Die together until your gusset is nice and flat again. If you do it correctly you should end up with a nice flat gusset with dimples on it.

I used 16gauge sheet metal.

Solid rear subframe "bushings"

2007-12-18T23:24:00.000-08:00

Fabricating solid rear subframe bushings....

First you have to completely remove the rubber from a stock bushing. I did this by drilling out most of the rubber on my drill press then using a dremel.

then you have to fabricate the to endcaps

then you have to correctly position and weld the central insert/bushing

You can get these ready made from Ireland Engineering...for $125

Worth every penny if you can afford it. As this project too a good amount of time...

I too broke and well I have all the tools and did a pretty good job with the tig welder if you ask me!

see all the pics CLICK HERE.

Front control arm reinforcement!

2007-11-21T23:21:00.000-08:00

Reinforcing the front control arms...

Seeing as BOTH of my front control arms were bent....some reinforcing was in order.

Now I have seen many racers do this to their arms. I've seen some stitched and some with 1 plate added. I did one better and stitched the arm and added plates. Each plate once dimpled only added 6oz. so total weight gain in this crucial unsprung weight area was 12oz per side....not bad I think....

Stock control arm sand blasted = 2lbs 5.5oz
Gussets (dimpled) =6oz each
complete welded assembly = 2lbs 12.2oz

....plus they look kick ass! don't you think? worthy of a baja trophy truck!

click here for all the pics...

Front subframe reinforcement

2007-10-11T23:17:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not my subframe was bent!!!!!

Weather it was from my little incident at BE or from before is unknown. But now we know it can happen. I bought a junkyard subframe and had it sandblasted.

I fabricated a plate that I welded to the inside of the engine mount and added another brace on the other side as well. On top of that I decided to go all crazy and add a steering box brace/support.

why not I got time, tools and nothing else better to do.

While I was at it added some dimpled plates to the bottom and stitch welded some of the seams around the subframe

see all the pics CLICK HERE.

Shiney steering box?

2007-09-22T23:15:00.000-07:00

Decided to do a overhaul of my front suspension components including some new paint on everything!

cleaning, brushing, sanding, spraying....

Even the steering box got some nice silver paint.......

All the pics CLICK HERE.

Rear subframe down....

2007-08-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

...and for my next trick I removed the rear subframe...

This was a bit more tricky to do alone....but I did it.

You put at jack under the diff.
remove the wheels
remove the drums and pads
remove the brake lines
remove the drive shaft
undo both subframe bolts
lower the complete assembly
roll it all from under the car

...admire your handiwork

see all the pics CLICK HERE.

Getrag cleaning

2007-07-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

Next I removed the tranny.

I cleaned it up and set it aside for now....
It will get new seals and fresh juice before going back in...

See all the pics CLICK HERE.

Subframe out!

2007-06-30T23:05:00.000-07:00

Next I removed the front subframe....in preparation for complete overhaul and reinforcement....

quite simple really.....

1- disconnect steering
2- remove rotors and calipers
3- unbolt struts
4- put a jack under it
5- unbolt subframe
6- lower and remove!

I had 2 bent control arms....

see all the pics CLICK HERE

To rebuild or not to Rebuild...humm....

2007-06-22T23:02:00.000-07:00

So......what to do....what to do........

FUCK IT. I'm pulling the motor and rebuilding it.

I'll get the block checked and put in some new bearings just in case my low oil pressure were indeed caused by knackerd bearings....

Borrowed my neighbors cherry picker. Unbolted the tranny, disconnected everything and voila! in about 30mins I had the engine on the ground.

see all the pics CLICK HERE...

Off with her HEAD!

2007-06-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

I decided to remove the head as a preliminary measure to see what was going on....

See all the pics CLICK HERE

Clearly upon removal the tii cutting ring gasket had failed........but now I had a decision to make....

DO I take a chance and put a new head gasket on and see if it continues to overheat? I've been here before not too long ago. A few had told me it could be a cracked block. The only way to check that is to disassemble the block and get it checked.

what to do........

Oops! new headers

2007-05-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

Next up I pulled the smashed headers from my off track excursion at buttonwillow.....

Click here for all the pics.....HERE.

For the new system I just copied what Jeff Ireland and many others on the grid are running. It a very loud but legal setup. IE stepped race headers to 3" collector to small section of 3" tubing to a downturn. Loud but effective on the dyno according to Jeff Ireland himself.

So I quickly fabricated and mounted my own.....Click here for all the pics

You can see a few shots below

new exhaust

Pressure test

2007-05-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

One last thing I wanted to re-check was a pressure test of the cooling system. Basically here a used a borrowed snap-on tester. It replaces your radiator cap and with a hand pump you pump up to 20 or 30psi and leave it pressurized for 30 mins. and see if there is any change when you return.

If there is a change then you cooling system has a leak (head gasket).

Mine had 0 psi of change.

bad news....

2007-05-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

My first order of business was to find out if I indeed had combustion gases in my cooling system as is suspected.

Jeff Ireland was nice enough to lend me his "sniffer test kit".

Basically you let you car idle until the engine is warmed up. then you pour the test liquid in the test tube. The liquid starts out a dark blue color. On one end of the tube there is a conical shaped rubber insert that goes into your radiator. on the other end you attach a small squishy ball that basically suck or pumps air from the top of the radiator thru the liquid in the tube.

You do this as the car is running and you pump ait thru the tube for about 30-60 seconds......then you wait. In about a min time if the liquid stays blue then you have not combustion gases in your cooling system. If the liquid turns yellow then it is a positive result for combustion gases in you cooling system. Which usually means.....blown headgasket, cracked head, cracked block etc...

My test quickly turned yellow....giving my the sad news.

Before
During.....
after ; (

Bad news......

British Extravaganza! it's here!

2007-05-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

2007 British Extravaganza

After my throttle cable broke at my first race and quickly installing a new Ireland radiator to help deal with some cooling issues my second and biggest race weekend of the year did not start so well ……

My mom had to sell the 07’ 4Runner tow vehicle due to financial reasons and left me without a ride! I quickly called on my only friend that happened to have a Toyota Tundra….. I managed to convince him to lend me his truck for the weekend! Trouble is his truck did not have a tow hitch! Argh! Off I went and had no option but to buy a tow hitch wire everything up to work with my trailer and get everything else all packed up … Naturally it was all last min……as always with me. How last min? Well I got to the track at 3:30am! Found a spot with all the 2002 guys and hop out, unload my car and put all my boy scout skill to the test and start to assemble a tent that I never seen before in the dark by myself…..well is was not easy but by 4:30am I was asleep in my sleeping bag.

After sleeping for a amazing 2 hours I woke up at 6:30am to the familiar sound of people awakening from their comfy trailers to warm up their race cars. I was so excited I got up without much delay said hi to all the familiar faces and went thru the now familiar morning routine of check-in at sign desk and tech inspection. Ran back and got my own car warmed up and ready went thru my checklists……tire pressure….arming the fire system…..checking fuel…cleaning windshield …..etc….

As usual the first session of the weekend is actually a qualifying session for the afternoon qualifying race. The best lap is what counts here but it’s also your first time out on the track! The car was handling good as usual and the toyo’s still very healthy. I love Buttonwillow and quickly got up to speed and was really enjoying the corner named “Talladega” (long banked right hander taken flat out) and the infamous “magic mountain”. Out of 8 laps I managed a best of 2:18:385. Good enough for 10th spot out of 17. My previous carb stumble was long gone but towards the end of the session my water temp again was kinda high. I was defiantly worried about it for the 12lap race in the afternoon in the higher heat.

**Micheal Ward was fastest 2002 in class with a 2:12.9. He is also putting out a reported 145-152rwhp and is a top driver.

There was not much I could do about my potential cooling issues except richen up the carb a little bit just to help things a bit.

Another potential problem was that I noticed my newly installed oil pressure light coming on during heavy breaking and in certain corners. I would notice the accusump would kick in and quickly inject oil into the sump and the pressure would quickly rise and the light would turn off. Ever since I installed this stock head before willow I noticed a lower oil pressure at idle and during running. Seamed worse this weekend and now with the light coming on it was clear. I wonder if something in my hotrod head was different and this new stock one…nobody had any clear answers. So I poured in an extra quart of oil and the light never came on again the whole weekend but the pressure was still low. Someone mentioned damaged main bearing could cause low oil pressure as well.

I hung out mostly and checked out Mike ward’s custom made weber trumpets. He said I gained a whole 10 rwhp from it. He claims 152rwhp! Holy crap! That’s a whole lot more than me! Most of the competitors deemed his trumpets Illegal since they protruded past the hood. Okay for this weekend but next race he must remove it.

Saturday’s qualifying race !

Well I lined up for the race and the adrenaline started to rush again. Man was I happy! This is the moment we all live for and I wish you all could experience sitting there amongst all these cool cars in our group. All our motors revvin’ anxiously waiting to head into battle! Our race group contains many different classes amongst the cars I would be sharing the tarmac with are many very fast Datsun 510’s, mini coopers, Triumph heralds, spitfires, MG’s, Alfa GTV, Lotus Cortina, Morgans, Mercedes 190sl, fiat spiders, Fiat Abarths, Volvos and a few others!! The feeling of racing amongst such cool vintage cars is one that is hard to explain to some of my younger friends.

The start of this race was just intense! Button willow is much narrower than willow springs with much tighter turns and makes for a crowded track. While my CS class had 17 cars at the drop of the flag our group had 40 cars!!! A datsun 510 made a risky inside pass into turn 3 luckily I thought he might do it and I saw him and I gave him some room still he had to put his 2 inside wheels into the dirt in the apex. Usual first lap stuff I guess! I got a decent start and managed to pass a few cars and was having a great time! Unfortunately the tape on my in-car camera ended a few laps into it! So that’s all you guys get to see! In any case I had a great race and settled into a nice groove by lap 10. I had been keeping an eye on my water temp and by lap 2 or 3 it had already hit 230 degree mark! Crap! I kept my eye on it and it stayed at 230 every lap until naturally the last lap as I crest magic mountain I quickly glanced and at that very moment I see the gauge suddenly shoot up and my heart sinks as I quickly shut my motor off and with 2 corners to go I pull off disheartened and worried about any possible damage. Unfortunately I’m getting real good at getting pulled into the pits by a tow rope….. argh… Still I managed to finish 21 our of 40 starters and 10th in class. If I can only manage to cross the dam finish line one of these days that would be great!

See this race on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oteyyd1kvzU

After taking off all my nomex and getting into my shorts again I pulled the hood off and my overflow catch tank was overflowed! Looked like the alternator got loose probably caused by me starting to hit a few curbs more as I explore more of the racing line. The belt looked like it got loose and then wasn’t turning the water pump and thus the likely cause of my fast rising temps. Other than that everything looked normal. The car started up and ran fine…. Many fellow ’02 racers offered suggestions about what It might and even did a pressure test and the cooling system help 30psi for 30mins. Plus it’s a fresh stock head, new IE alum. radiator and new head gasket. No smoke out of the tailpipe, no oil in the coolant and no coolant in the oil…..left everyone scratching their heads. A few issue were brought up as concerns that might be contributing to my poor cooling performance.

- My oil cooler was mounted directly in front of the radiator. Blocking 1/3 of it and basically pre-heating the airflow to the radiator.
- The straight silicon hose I used to install the new radiator at willow had to turn 90 degrees and was kinked probably restricting cold water flow into the motor.
- Poor air management of air entering thru the front grill.

Even so we couldn’t figure it out. I richened up the mixture again just to be on the safe side. I did the only thing I could try right there and the track and removed the restrictor on the inlet hose to the radiator. Not sure if that would help or hurt but it was the only thing I could try to help the situation.

I enjoyed the free bar-b-q and basically did what I could and enjoyed the rest of the night. Crossed my fingers and went to sleep.

Sunday Morning Practice

Got geared up and lined up for practice. Like my previous race the morning practice session with its colder temperatures helped matters. Removing the restrictor did not do much. The car got hot and I backed off a bit and so I got thru the morning practice without much drama ….. still it seamed like I would defiantly have issues during the race. Oh well!! This is low budget racing at it’s finest. So I just cleaned my windshield and try to relax.

Had a friend show up since he had been at Bimmer Fest the day before and drove over from Santa Barbara. Was nice to have a someone there cheering for me.

I was anxious but excited for my race. I figured I’d race hard for a few laps then limp my way across the finish line.

The big show …. the main event.

As I took my warm up lap I focused on staying closer to the car ahead of me. After reviewing my last race I saw this as one area of improvement. I got a great start and we were 3 wide down the front straight! It was so loud that my shift light luckily reminded me to shift as I could not hear my own engine over the pack’s collective roar. I managed to get a good start and had a interesting moment as a 510 squeezed himself past me on the inside curb. The next lap was me hounding Ken Blasko in his beautiful 2002 trying to find a way around him. Finally I got a better drive and past him in Talladega where I had been fast all weekend. I quickly caught up to the red 2002 of Alan Deszcz (CSM class w/dcoe carbs) and was in a hurry to pass him and decided to pass him into the heavy breaking zone on the last turn before the front straight.

As I exited the esses with a good drive I made up my mind that I would pass him under braking for the 90 degree left hander that leads onto the front straightaway. I should of just relaxed taken a good line and gotten on the gas earlier to set him up to pass him on the exit like my instructor told me to do. But NOOO….. Instead my poor instincts took over and I misjudged my approach a bit. It was now quickly apparent that my usually braking point was much deeper than the car in front of me. The distance between us disappeared during braking and I realized I would have to slide over and pass him on the inside as I had too much speed. Unfortunately I don’t think he saw me and started to turn into the corner! I started to turn in as well in hope that he would give me some room. In a split second I realized that he still had not saw me and would go for the apex. Since two objects can occupy the same space at the same time it was wither collide with him and mix our paint or shoot towards the inside of the corner and cut thru it to avoid him. Unfortunately the curbing or “zebra stripes” in this corner was not a slight raised section but rather more like a ramp.

My car shot skyward as I got airborne. Must have been quite the site from a spectator view. To make things worse I just happen to land with the middle of my car on top of the curbing on the exit! SMASH!!! Something hit very hard and my engine quit seconds after… I happened to be right were pit-in was and I just rolled into the hot pit. I was pissed at myself for my bad judgment. My car would not start. After a few tries I gave up and I was towed into my pits as the rest of the group raced around for 10 more laps. Man was I bummed. I got my hot suit off and went to inspect the damage.

Looks like I totally smashed my headers flat. Lifted my tranny enough to poke a hole thru the tranny tunnel too…. Argh. Also in those few laps I managed to fill up my coolant overflow bottle. So something is defiantly up. A few people helped me load up my car. I watched a few other races and started to make my way home. I had a lot to think about on the long drive home. Lots more to do to prepare for the next event.

I decided to take my time now and sort out my car more before entering another race. I have to figure out these cooling issues.

It was a trying weekend. I do think I learned a valuable lesson and it could have been a lot worse… I just need to take my time and focus on passing cars more on the exits than under braking. Take my time and think the moves through. Looking at my lap times and the times of the red ’02 in front of me I was 2 secs faster than him in previous sessions. I would of passed him eventually. Live and learn….

In case you were curious, Jeff Ireland won the race with a 2:12 laptime. I ended up not surprisingly last in my class(15th) and dead last out of 39 starters.

Now I have lots of work to do!

See this race on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Qlc8WyjCc

or watch a higher resolution version by clicking on the link below
http://bmw1602.lostbrazilian.com/v1/video_BE.php

Dust to Glory!

2007-04-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to release my latest "project" .....

Hope you enjoy...let me know what you think!

It's short but sweet!

Camera & Edit by James LaViola (assistant editor-Pedro G.)
Filmed in HD on a Panasonic HVX200
Edited & Tweaked on AVID Xpress Pro
on YOUTUBE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VCHzWfNItQc
OR
Click here for a high resolution version

Nice Pair of pullies!

2007-03-31T22:18:00.000-07:00

Now the work starts to address some issues before the next race....

I fabricated a new throttle cable bracket and installed and adjusted a brand new race throttle cable from Ireland Engineering.

Bottom cable stop (goes to lever arm for gas pedal.
Top View also new return springs
I figured that besides reducing my rotating mass and free'ing up some HP it might help improve my cooling. Since the water pump will be rotating slower the water will be flowing a bit slower thru the block at 6-7000rpms and therefore soaking up more heat and then staying longer thru the radiator therefore exchanging more heat......

that's my theory anyways.....

Lets see how it works out.
The stock crank pulley is 1lbs 3oz.
The Ireland Pulley is 9.2 oz. (nice weight savings huh?)

Ireland alternator pulley 7oz.

If your going to be draining your alum. radiator alot like I do sooner or latter the threads might get damaged.

My solution was to install this cool little petcock I got from my local hardware store.

I highly recommend it ......

I saw this on the table at a race supply vendor at willow springs and picked it up.

During my first race weekend I quickly realized that paying attention to the oil pressure gauge during a race is very difficult and can be dangerous.

So i thought a simple oil idiot light would be a good important addition to my dash.....

From Longacre products
http://www.longacreracing.com/catalog/item.asp?id=785&catid=11

removed my dash drilled hole for the red light
installed the T on the back of the gauge.
voila

done!

Hopefully this idiot will see this light if it ever comes on.....

My first race! Desert Challenge @ Willow!

2007-03-22T22:01:00.000-07:00

Here is is ........

My first race……sorry it has taken me so long to write the story about it it’s just ….. well I have no excuse really. Here it is……

Find all the pictures from that weekend Click HERE!

Years of preparation, sacrifices and hard work have all come to this weekend. My first days as a racecar driver or "pilot" as we say in Brazil. It’s official this poor Brazilian kid has a race license and a race car! Spent all Friday morning eager to get leave work since I know I had lots to do before I left to be able to make it to my rookie ground school. Ground school is a required classroom session on Friday 6.30pm. It’s the last chance the instructors (in many cases our fellow competitors) have to give us our last warnings, instructions and advice. Well it is required to me to attend to be able to race that weekend and I had a lot to do before I hit the road!

I left work around 12.30 and raced to my mom’s house in Burbank. I had to pack up all my gear, load the car on the trailer, load up the 4runner (aka hotel room), prepare some food for the weekend etc…. etc…. all by myself! Somehow this is the story of my racing life. Ever since the days of my motorcycle racing, my friends all find better things to do along with most of my family members. I’m left to do run around like crazy and try not to forget anything. Well I had to make it to the racetrack classroom by 6.30pm for the ground school…. Willow springs international raceway is around 90 miles from Burbank, CA were I was. Normally it would take you around 1hr 45 mins. to get to WSIR. Well when I finally sat in the drivers seat of my mom’s 4runner and pulled out of her driveway with my car in tow it was 5pm!!!! So it was in this mad dash that about 20ft. into my trip I had a feeling I had forgotten something…..so I glanced in the rear view mirror to see of all things my freshly painted fiberglass hood flying 15ft above my car!!! Aarghh!!! Nooooooo!!!! I as screamed and slammed on the brakes to see almost in slow motion it slamming into the tarmac!. I ran out to survey the damage. Turns out in my rush I forgot to pin my hood down! Luckily it landed paint side down (ouch!) but it landed flat. So it did not break in half or severely damage it. It now had some road rash across the hood and a small crush on the corner. I was so mad at myself! But I had no time to morn my paint job I had 1hr and half to get to the track. I pined it down and checked the trunk lid and ran back to the truck and gassed it onto fun LA Friday freeway traffic. This was just not my day as I inched ahead on the freeway. By some miracle and my heavy foot I arrived at the familiar sight of WSIR and ran into the classroom only 15mins late. Somehow I managed to get there 1 hr 45 mins.!! I soaked in as much as I could during the class. The instructors basically hammering into our heads to be safe and our goal this weekend was simply to have a clean event and finish. Good goals for anyone

here's some of the damage on my hood.....argh.

Now that that was over, calmly walked over to the truck and began unloading at setting up my pit. Was able to find a spot surrounded by most of the BMW racers, Jeff Ireland, Scott Parsons, Mike Ward, Nick Reed and others. We hung out chatted a bit as I began to make friends with everyone. I have to say the vintage racing community is so friendly and everyone has welcomed me. I could not ask for a better welcome. In true grassroots fashion I prepared my bed inside the 4runner. You know, with the seats folded down a pillow and a sleeping bag I was pretty comfortable! I opened up my laptop and to my surprise they had wireless internet! So I was able to make some posts and watch a dvd to put my nervous mind to sleep.

It is a marvelous thing to be awaken by the sound of vintage racing motors warming up! No time to eat and wake up, we were in group 1 the first group on the track that weekend. I ran over to sign up then to the drivers meeting. Quickly from there I put on my gear get in my car and anxiously head to my first tech inspection. I read thru the rulebook carefully and I was feeling pretty confident about passing. He found a few minor things that he just noted in my brand new logbook but he put the ok sticker on my windshield. I put on my balaclava and tightened my helmet straps dropped it in first and made my way down the hot pit lane and onto the track. It was a surreal moment. No time to be emotional. Time to focus and qualify!

Qualifying

As I drove around the first lap and warmed up my brand new Toyo’s my many years of motorcycle racing around WSIR helped me get up to speed fairly quickly. It was quickly apparent that I was not the slowest in the group as I made a few passes. My car was stumbling heavily exiting most corners suggesting a fuel delivery issue and was really lazy above 6000 rpms. I dealt with it and just tried my best to put down my first laps as a racer in the most professional manner I could. I was able to put down a fastest lap of 1:45:881. Getting me a starting position of 21st out of 32 starters for Saturday’s 12 lap qualifying race. Not bad! It was cold and besides the stumble on exit everything was okay.

Super Fast Steve link
*** Fastest BMW was 06’ class champ Pam Plavan qualifying in 7th with a 1:42:778. Steve Link in his Datsun 510 grabbed pole position with a blistering 1:38:382 ***

Pam Plavan tearing it up.
I came back to my pit with a sense of relief more than anything. Relief that I just achieved my dream of build my car and racing it and relief that I didn’t screw up and that I was not sucking too much!

I pulled my plugs and saw that I was lean!! No wonder that car didn’t want to rev! So I increased my main jets and changed my air correctors courtesy of my new pit buddy and owner of Long Beach Autohaus www.lbautohaus.com Scott Parsons. So big thanks to him!

I rested attempting to keep cool in the increasing desert heat and tried to calm down for my first real race....Saturday's 12 lap qualifying race.

Saturday’s qualifying race (12 laps)

Got my head together, my gear on and found my place in the pre-grid lineup. Now as the worker flashed her 5 fingers at me signifying 5mins. to start It finally hit me and the butterflies in my stomach were quickly drowned out by the thundering sound of 20 cars ahead of me leaving single file onto the track for the warm up lap. I pulled in the clutch rev’d my M10 and rolled onto the blistering blacktop of willow springs 2.5miles of high speed heaven. I did my best to imitate everyone around me swerving left to right to try to build up some heat in our tires. I love how as soon as my foot made it’s way to the sheet metal all my worries and butterflies disappeared and my mind cleared and my world shrank to a very small world of my car and the track. I tried my best to watch to line up in my spot in the rolling start. Rolling starts are new to me as all motorcycle races at standing starts and I’m learning this new technique. I left way too much room between me and the car in front when the flag was thrown. I was cautious thru turn one as everybody bunched up and tried their best to position themselves.

I had a good battle with a red 911 but 3 laps or so in my temp gauges was north of 210 degrees, soon it was at 220! I had not choice but to take it easy on the straights and wave people by me as I attempted to finish. The temps did come back down to 200ish and when the brown immaculately prepared 2002 of Ken Blasko passed me I had to give chase! But soon my temps rose back to 220 mark again! To add to my woes was that the jetting change did not correct my corner exit stumble! So I had no choice but to back off and be content to nurse it to the finish. I was relived to see the checkered flag as I limped my way back to my pits concerned with my temps. I didn’t even realize that I had just finished my first race! ! !

Watch all the action of my First race on video here,

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ouNomP5qRjI

I finished a disappointing 30th out of 34 starters. Jeff Ireland was the fastest BMW putting down a fast lap of 1:40:121 !!

I took my gear off and had a much needed drink of water. Pulled my hood off to start to address my issues. I took light of the good side, I finished and my car survived. That’s about it really!

Luckily Jeff Ireland had one of his new aluminum radiators on hand and gave me a great deal on it ! (Thanks!!www.bmw2002.com).

Just as I started to remove my brass 320i radiator my mom and my step dad arrived. Was nice to see them and I caught them up on the latest news. They helped my by going to the race supply store and buying some water wetter and some silicon radiator hose (they only had a straight piece.) I was able to quickly install the Ireland radiator.

I also went to a bigger main jet and Scott adjusted my float bowl height to address my G-stumble. I rotated my tires since willow has lots of right handers put the cover on it and went to sleep this night in the cushy confines of my parents hotel room! Yeah!

Find all the pictures from that weekend Here

Morning practice

After a good hotel breakfast we headed to the track for morning practice. In traditional desert fashion it was cold as I suited up and began to warm up my car. The water temp with the new radiator was not surprisingly stone cold and it never got above 160 degrees. So it seamed as my cooling issues were solved with the new radiator but the ambient temps were on the low side. Practice went pretty smooth except my stumble was still there and then on the last lap of qualifying……..all went quiet ! Oh no! Pedal to the floor…..snapped throttle cable? I was able to coast my way into the pits and pushed my way to my pit area. The hunt was on for a throttle cable! After looking for 40mins all I could find was a broken Porsche cable (but long since engine is in the rear). I was able to ingeniously make it work for me. It was not the best but better than packing up and going home! I could race! Scott also broke out the manual and we readjusted the float height again. Cleaned my windshield and tried to relax. I was very happy to see my brother. He came just in time for my race. I finished in the nick of time and put my gear on and carefully headed to the pre-grid.

Me trying to mickey mouse my go-cable.....
The big Show the final run to the flag!

I nervously gave my brother the thumbs up as he turned my camera on for me and I tightened up my belts and ran through my first laps in my head. I now headed onto the tarmac with confidence despite my mickey moused rigged throttle cable.

I was a bit confused when we bunched up again for the rolling start but I followed the Datsun 510 ahead of me around the outside of turn one as I was able to pass a few cars as they all bunched up toward the inside. This put me on the inside of turn 2 and followed the same 510 passed a few more cars!

What a good start to my race I thought for a second as I exited turn 2 with good speed and trying to avoid what typically in my motorcycle days a turn were lots of first lap accidents happened at willow, turn 3. As I rounded on the outside (luckily) my reservations were confirmed as all hell broke lose and a big 3 car accident unfolded in front of me. I managed to squeeze my way between the crumpled cars and narrowly avoided a rogue wheel. I was fazed for a second and a triumph went passed me and I realized the race is still on you dummy! I floored it going down the hil toward turn 5 and did not loose any more positions as I screamed over the hill in turn 6 I saw what I was expecting, the red flag. (this mean a halt to the race as the incident is severe and ambulance needs to go onto the track) we slowly made our way onto the front straight as we all parked our cars and waited for the restart. As I sat there in the oven that my car was becoming due to the desert sun I realize my stumble was now gone! We all just sat there waiting. After a long wait we were told it would be a 3 lap sprint race due to the long cleanup and the 7 races that needed to be run after ours. So off I went warmed up my tires again and prepared for the single file restart. I had a decent start but a few fast cars went by me.
The car was handling well and I was having a blast when I came into turn 9 on the second lap of the restart my throttle got stuck!! Crap! Just when I was going to take action it snapped back as go on the front straight again. The throttle was sticking so I slowed my speed as I evaluated weather or not to bring it in next lap. Just as I went into turn four my pedal went to the floor again and I thought I guess my rigged cable snapped or failed ……. I found a safe place to pull off the track and remained in the car strapped in like I was instructed while I waited for the end of the race and a tow back to the pits. As I sat there I was oddly still so exited about my first race! I was able to avoid the big crash and did very well with what I had. I undid my camera from the mount and filmed the end of the race. I waited for the tow truck and they pulled me into the pits. Unfortunately they took off and luckily my bro was there to help me push my way into the pits...

Everybody helped me to push my car on the trailer and we confirmed that indeed my rigged cable did not fail! Turns out my linkage bolt backed out and the toothed wheel fell off!! Reminder Locktite EVERYTHING on a race car!!

Here is a closeup of the bolt that backed out and allowed the toothed wheel to fall completely off!

WOW! What a rush! Even tough I had failed to finish I tried my best and I did not make any mistakes. The car didn’t get hot enough to test the new radiator but it looks like it defiantly made an improvement. (ultimately did not fix my issue, more to come)

I said my good bye’s, packed up and headed home pretty happy with myself actually. Things could of gone way worse!

I had a great time hanging out with everybody made some new friends and sorted out a few issues with the car. Got my first race experience and 2 race starts under my belt. Later reviewing my tapes I learned a bunch actually.

Enjoy all the action of my Sunday race even a slow mo of the accident
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CE1czK6vUtE

I said my good bye’s, packed up and headed home pretty happy with myself actually. Things could of gone way worse!

I had a great time hanging out with everybody made some new friends and sorted out a few issues with the car. Got my first race experience and 2 race starts under my belt. Later reviewing my tapes I learned a bunch more.

New rims and tires!

2007-03-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Check out my new racing setup!

13x6 mesh rims (maker unknown) 13.5lbs.
I'll probably keep the old Kumhos for auto-x or any street duty this car might see.
weight with Kumhos victor racer 205/60/13 (very worn)

33lbs.

weight with Toyo RA-1 205/60/13 (Shaved to 4/32)

31.5

I haven't weighed my current setup yet 15" 2-piece weds on Falken azenis 205/50/15

?? lbs.

The smaller diameter and the weight loss would help with acceleration.
New race rims and fresh TOYO's

Shaved is a must!

Bad head?

2007-03-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

After the school I suspected maybe my head gasket was bad so off with the head...

Pretty corroded......got sent out to get checked and cleaned.

let's see what the shop says....

drum roll.....

I hope all is well so I can go race next weekend.

Can u tell my carbs were not sync'd?
lots of corrosion!

VARA University

2007-02-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a weekend!

My first steps into the exiting world of vintage racing.

My weekend started when I left my mom's house with the car in tow. I arrived at Buttonwillow raceway at around 3.20am found a nice spot in the paddock moved some stuff out and setup my "bed" in the back of the 4runner and quickly fell asleep.

I woke up around 7am with the sound of revving race engines! Sweet! Best of all NO RAIN!! Started to unload the car and setup my little tent and pit area. Got the car warmed up, went to the tech line. I did pass tech but they showed me a couple of things I have to fix for my first event. Lined up at the skid pad for some exercises....that went fine did some drifting and spin outs...then we went to the classroom talked a bit and headed out to a "slalom" course for some runs. They split the course in 2 halves. east loop and west loop. We did 2 sessions on the east course (no passing) then after lunch and some more classroom we ran on the west course. finally on the last session of the day they went to an "open passing" session. WOW that got my attention! I had sooo much fun!!!!

although I was having stumble every time I turned right! I think my float level is too high.....it would clear up as soon as the car would straighten out.

The classroom sessions were informative but relaxed and I picked up a thing or 2. The real value was riding with an instructor. He really helped me and learned some valuable stuff.

Just as I got out of the car on the last session.....Rain drops started to fall!

I quickly covered up my car and put it under my tent. Made some new friends and we all went out to dinner to a small hole in the wall Mexican place a few miles away. There were 15 of us I think. It was loud, fun, great conversation and the food was amazing! It was now raining steadily as we drove back to the track. Setup my bed in the back of the 4-runner again and it was not too bad. Felt bad for the guy in the tent as the rain increased in intensity! grabbed my laptop to watch a DVD and to my amazement the track had WiFi network and I could surf the web too! Button Willow rules! Watched my movie promptly feel asleep to the sound of rain.

Once again I woke up to the familiar sound of warming race engines but as I open the fogged up car windows I saw a clear blue sky and the sun in the sky already warming things up! SWEET!

The first few sessions ran in the wet tarmac and a few people ran off and got stuck in the mud! serious mud too! Luckily we had a classroom session and by time we took to the track all that remained was a few puddles! They opened passing only on the straights for the first session and now we were running the full length track layout. Funny enough my stumble problem disappeared in almost all the corners since I was now going thru them with more throttle and in my theory draining the float level a bit so it would stop stumbling? In any case the only corners were it would stumble now were the 2 slow corners.....annoying but I didn't know how to fix it.

After lunch they opened FULL passing. Now I was having some fun! Not because I was passing people (I was) but more because I could run full speed and not be held up. Rode with the instructor again and after a couple of attempts and passes he gave me some great advice on "racecraft" and setting up passes. Basically told me to calm down a wait and set things up more and the pass will almost naturally occur.

After one last classroom session were ALOT of talk was made about passing and vintage racing rules and emphasis on NO contact! Clean passes etc....

The moment of Truth had came,

time for the final exam! Practice starts!

Much like a real race weekend on the first start we would be placed by the officials. then based on the finishing position of the "qualifying race" is were we would be placed for the "flag" race.

Naturally I rushed to gas up my car and arrived late! so they placed me 2 cars from last place! Actually is exactly what I wanted because I wanted to experience lots of cars around me and lots of traffic so I can learn how I reacted and dealt with that situation.

As the group bunched up in the last few corners and started to focus and dropped into the right gear and just as I exited the last corner I saw the flag! Sounds erupt around me as I quickly shift into the next gear and pass my first car (merc 190SL) as I dive into turn one I have on car on the inside and one car on my bumper! I barely remember the rest of the first lap! It was action packed! I proceeded to focus on my lines and quickly passed more and more cars! I had one kinda hairy moment coming into a heavy breaking zone (star Mazda corner) and just as I was close to passing a celica GTS(school car) I hit the rumble strips on the inside and my car got sideways and got my heartbeat going! Thankfully the '02 is a wonderful car and I was able to handle it with no issues. As I approached the lead group of 2 2002's (autobahn rennsport cars) I thought to myself "this is my life?" ...."sweet" after sucking in behind them for a few corners I passed the red one with no drama then sized the yellow car for a lap....I remembered my instructor telling me to calm down and set it up. So in the last corner leading to the final straight I braked early and calmed the car down and took a great line, while he fumbled a bit and dove in a bit too deep....I made a textbook pass as I carried more exit speed. To my surprise i saw the checkered flag!!! sweet.

As I came into the hot pit to line up for the 2nd practice start... the car was a bit hot....humm...

They lined me up in pole! I guess I did it on that last pass!

My instructor ran up to the car and yelled...."finally a student that listens!!" He congratulated me and told me "...Pedro your ready to race." It felt great to get his respect and realized that I did just execute on something were were working on in the car together. I learned....imagine that!

Being on pole on a rolling start is a big responsibility.....you are responsible for controlling the speed and making sure the group is tight.... Not to mention you can choose your speed for the start......so I got in 3rd AND the flag waved!!! crap should of been in 2nd! The yellow 2002 and a celica passed me into turn 1! What followed was an epic battle for 2nd place between me and the celica. Until 3rd lap when my car showed 220 water temp so I had to back off put into 5th Gear and cruise for a lap until my temp got down to 180 again...then would do 1 lap at full tilt....then have too cool down for a lap again......so then a couple of cars passed me and that's when I ended up at the checkered.

I think the water is just not staying in my radiator long enough. I have no thermostat and running a restrictor in hose and a 320i radiator. The would cool right down so the cooling system is working good....i just need to figure it out..... maybe it's time for the crank pulley to under drive the pump and slow the fluid a bit.....

anyways.....gave all the corner workers a thumbs up on the cool down lap and drove in from the track with all the instructors and organizers clapping and giving all us graduates the thumbs up!

The sun was just about to start setting and it was the end of a magical day for me.

The weekend could not of been better! Everything went great. The car has a few issues that will be resolved and I'm now a racer.

Many thanks to all that helped me get here. Many thanks to the organizers for a great event. Thanks to all my fellow graduates for keeping it clean.

...and now the fun begins.

my first Race as a Rookie.

March 31& April 1st
High Desert Challenge
Willow Springs Raceway

if you want to check out all the pictures from this weekend click HERE!

***I made the stupid mistake of not taking any tapes for the video camera, assuming they would have some at the track or the neighborhood. Naturally no tapes to be found. No video!!! Sorry******

I did buy ALL the pictures the track photographer took and he got some great shots!! so I will be posting those as soon as I get them in the mail!!

I'm coming to get ya!

it's almost here....

2007-02-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

You see it's the annual Vara University this weekend,

Vara U. is a 2-day school where would be vintage racing drivers go once a year to see if they can become part of the "show". (www.vararacing.com )

I've been waiting all my life for this and started dreaming about it 7 years ago when I got my project car. A lot of emotions are building up inside of me right now. I can't imagine when I actually get to grid up for a real race!

My car is as ready as it will be. Which is to say I'm fixed most of the blaring issues(I think...this issue will keep you up at night). I'm really worried my car will quit on me before I get a chance to get that rookie lisc. on Sunday. But lets hope the stout German engineering of 30+years ago will hold up to my abuse.

As for me.....I'm definitely ready! It's not my first time on the track by a long shot. I raced motorcycles for years. But this is definitely different. I more anxious than nervous. I just want to get it over with almost.

All my friends flaked on me so I'll be going solo. Doing this old skool style and sleeping in the back of my mom's 4-runner and turning my own wrenches like I used to do when I raced motorcycles.

to make matter's worse!!!!! the weather looks like is going to be bad.

Rain for both days!!! I live in California for @#$ sake! what is this? (east coasters ignore my weather tantrum)

Now I have to quickly spray all my rust spots under the car so they don't rust away by the time I get back! hehehe.....

So the rain will make things a bit more "interesting" for sure! For one, since I deleted the windows.....i will be soaked! My brand new fresh Sparco WHITE driving suit will turn black for sure and the inside of my car will be a mess.....why did I pick a white car and a white driving suit??? oh yeah....cause I live in sunny hot kalifornia........

On the plus side when I get out of the car after a few laps me and the car will look like we just finished a stint in a 24h race!

Let's just hope I won't be wet and miserable the whole time.(no wonder all my friends found something to do...)

Seriously, I'm excited and only snow would dampen my mood right now. I'm still praying for some sunshine and that my falken azenis will do good in the wet. I'm sure I won't be too lonely either as the people are great and I'm sure to make some new friends. If anything goes wrong with the car I might be lucky and have some fellow's competitor's help. Not to mention I'm damn lucky to have Jeff Ireland in the pits to answer any questions I might have. He is also an instructor with VARA so I might have the man himself sharing his wisdom and helping me with my driving. After all it's in his best interest as I will be lining up on the grid with him in a few months!

and....

I guess I deserve some rain for all the sunny warm days we get out here while half of the country in buried deep in white stuff and left to polish chrome and post away on this mesageboard all day.

So for all you east coasters looking at bmw porn all day on the internet....Hopefully I will have some very wet pictures to post up on Monday, and with any more luck I'll have a soggy rookie lisc. in my back pocket and a grin all the way home....

wish me luck and thank you for all the help thru the years,
talk to you all on Monday!

Dizzy mod....

2007-02-08T21:35:00.000-08:00

Well here is the fix as described by Jeff Ireland.

Dremel out the black resin in the rotor including the buried resistor.

solder a 12-14ga wire in place,

drop back in and enjoy full spark from your big coil and ignition.

all is ready for my VARA University this weekend.

best tool to hollow it out is the dremel bit in the picture.

LogWorks file

2007-02-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

In case you were curious, here is my Innovate LM-1 log file.

It contains 3 sessions.

first session was 160 mains and 170 air corr.

last session was 150 mains and 180 air corrector

(please note: higher the main number the richer it gets, the lower the A/C number the richer it gets. Because the Main flow fuel and A/C flows air)

you will notice when the car is on the straight when you see 5-8secs of steady readings. During shifts and on decel the throttle plate is closed and the car will go lean. This is normal it is also like this in fuel injection engines.

in the first session you will note around 10-10.9 a/f on the straight at full throttle in 4th gear.

then by the 3rd session it went up to 11.9-12ish at full throttle in 4th gear.

TO VIEW LOG FILES,

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL LOGWORKS,
bottom of the page under legacy software... logworks 1.1
http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/support.php

download my log file
- open logworks
-open file - browse to my file

I'm only using input 1, I do not have the rev counter feature.

make sure the software is set to view in AFR not lambda.

Under "session" choose what session you want to view.

use playback control to splay, pause, stop etc....

have fun!

D-Day!

2007-01-31T21:24:00.000-08:00

FINALLY the day has come........

wow where do I start. What a day.

Last Thursday I took my car to it's first day in the spotlight. Went to a track day at Willow springs international raceway. For me it was to be my shakedown run to get my car ready for my racing school in 2 weeks.

it all started the night before as I finished fabricating a mount for my laptimer and installed my new 38mm chokes for my webers DCOE's. In addition to lots of small things!

Then I had to learn how to load the car onto my new(to me) trailer. When all was said and done it was 4am!! We decided to not sleep and beat traffic to the track. We ended up not sleeping at all!

unloaded the car, got it started and idling then decided to drive around the pits to warm it up at bit.

SURPRISE!!! The car would not rev above 3k !! Crap, what happened? Fast forward to 4 hours later......I AM A DUMB ASS. In my late light scramble I had installed one of the aux. venturies upside down!!!!! flipped it reinstalled everything got my gear on and the track marshal said the session is over and were breaking for lunch! I told him if I could go out just to see if I fixed it.....

did 1 lap! sure thing that was it. who hoo!

cleaned things up during lunch, calmed down and plugged in the Innovate lm-1 into the tailpipe.

1st session - SWEETTTTTTNNESSSS!!! car running a bit rich, but it handles awesome! Stumbling a bit here and there...maybe too rich

2nd session - leaned it out a bit - 160 mains and 180 airr corr. water temps higher....take more tape off....

3rd session - LM-1 confirmed jetting is almost perfect....about 11.9 air/fuel down the straight in 4th gear.

now during the last lap of the 3rd session the water temp climbed to 230! so I pulled in......right as I'm pulling in the tach starts bouncing like crazy then stumbling then the engine quits........

I quietly coast into the pits....

??what the F*&^k??

the car starts, idles the tach start jumping then the engine quits....

the plugs look great, the water was low in the radiator so that explained the higher temps..................

something must be up with the pertronix or distributor?

it was late and I was tired from not sleeping....so we packed it in. The car ran long enough to run up the trailer....

I had a few issues,

1-the drivers side under body was covered in tranny fluid??

2-noise in left corner from rear?

3-obvious electrical failure of some sort?

Well once I got some sleep and reviewed my cap and rotor, the rotor and a small crack in it on the black plastic area and the cap looked dirty and in need of replacement.

my tranny oil looks like it was coming from a vent I didn't know about.

my noise in the rear turned out to be dry poly bushings.....not sure how to lube them yet......

Got lots of question answered once I talked to Jeff Ireland on monday.

1-There is a tranny vent on the top left front of the transmission. Apparently in racing conditions you need to remove the pressed in breather and replace with a barb connect a hose and run it to a can. Or do what the sklidmark guys did and use AN fitting and tap the hole.

either way problem answered and soon solved.

3- Jeff quickly told me what my problem was! I wish I would have known sooner!

Apparently the stock bosh rotor has a resistor buried in that black epoxy that connects the center to the edge electrode. If you are running a big coil and a race ignition like me (crane hi-6,ps-92coil) you have to modify the rotor by taking a dremel and diggin out the black epoxy to reveal the resistor. Cut and remove the resistor and replace with a short piece of 14ga. wire. If you don't do this eventually at high rpm's the power from the upgraded coil will overload the resistor and burst it. Creating a small crack in the epoxy like mine did!

Jeff says this will make the engine shut down in short order!

this seams to be exactly what happened to me!

So if you are running upgraded ignition system please make this modification ASAP. Jeff said they might get 1 day out of a stock rotor before it fails.

So I should be getting a couple of caps and rotor tomorrow and will test and confirm that this was the source of all my issues.

SO all in all was a trying day BUT I learned a bunch and I CANNOT express how amazing it felt after all these years to blip the throttle turn into turn 1 get on the gas, hear the DCOE's gasp for air then being replaced by the sound of the rising exhaust note......as I crept up on the rear of a Porsche rs replica.......only to pass him on the exit of turn 2!!

wow.....what a feeling. Makes it all worth it.....really does.

I can't imagine what it will feel like to grid up on a grid full of other 2002's, alfa's mini's and Datsuns......ohhhh.

here some pics from that amazing day, for all the pics from that day check out this link on my page....HERE

XT laptimer mounted the night before!!

THE FIRST TOW!!!

To my surprise i did pass this beautiful RS replica that was there that day....

in the end of 3 sessions....

I got a string of 1:46 laptimes. (115wrhp)

a few months ago in the VARA race held there the winner in CS class was lapping at 1:43. So ind the end 3 secs off is not bad considering I only got a few laps and I was running a heavy 15" wheel and Falken azenis street tire. Plus I was not running past 7k rpms.

I left alot of time out there, I'm sure I can run in the 1:43 or faster on race tires and after some sorting out.

not a bad start at all........

Window net, rear view and padding

2007-01-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

More small stuff in road to becoming a real race car.....

Got this mesh window net on ebay and fabricated the mounting system.

bought a generic seat belt at pep boys and sliced it so I could weld it on the bar...

also...

Installed Longacre 17" racing mirror....lets see how good I can see all the guys passing me at big willow on Thursday....

looks pretty good tho...

also installed some SFI rated self adhesive rollbar padding.

Radiator restrictor

2007-01-22T21:18:00.000-08:00

I stopped by Ireland Eng. last week and I picked up a radiator restrictor..

I forgot to take a picture of it before I installed it. But it's basically a chunk of alum. rod with a hole thru the middle to size down the flow into the radiator.

Idea is the longer the water stays in the radiator....the more efficient the radiator will be better cooling.

OF COURSE THIS ONLY BECAUSE I HAVE NO THERMOSTAT....

Fire system & cutoff switch

2007-01-15T21:13:00.000-08:00

Getting my car ready for my first shakedown trackday....and for tech inspection...

-Added a rollbar mounted master cutoff switch.

-Installed 10lbs. AFFF fire system with 1 nozzle in the trunk, 1 on the driver and 2 over the engine.

1 over the header and valve cover and 1 over the carbs/Brake fluid and fuel lines.

Full install pics HERE.

This is the handle I never want to pull!!!!!!

otherwise know as the "OH SHIT" !!! handle

Photo shoot and video shoot - MERRY X-Mas!

2006-12-25T21:09:00.000-08:00

Gotta love LA weather!

beautiful day for the first drive in 1 year!!!

I taped on the lisc. plate with masking tape and we drove to a nearby spot. Praying the whole time that no cops would spot me!

Great light, beautiful day.....and a brand new $7000 Pansonic HVX200 HD camera!

My stepdad has just finished his Avid (editing software) schooling and bought himself a broadcast quality camera.

Our first video project will be making a DVD of my first vintage race event which should be the British Extravaganza in May. We'll be documenting the event and shooting some awsome footage of my '02 in action.

Let me just say the few mins of footage we got today was AWESOME!!!!!!!!

WOW!!!!! I had so much fun!!!!! I was smoking my azenis tires for the sake of "art."

I did some fun drifting and luckily we didn't get hassled by the cops.

I can't wait to compress the video from today and post it so everybody can see!! Soo COOOL!!!!

The car is so bad ass I had almost forgotten. I have Never gotten so much attention at stoplights like I did today!!!!!!!

here are some pics of the first day of shooting!!! Can't wait to post the video(maybe tomorrow)

Merry Christmas to all!!!!!!!!! I so glad I'm done with painting!

shooting begins....

I dedicate my car to the memory and life of Aryton Senna....RIP

Here is the a frame taken from the video we shot this weekend....

we shot some awesome,amazing stuff at 60FPS.....just looks too cool....can't wait to get some track/racing footage at speed.

Actual video clip to come sometime soon when we have a chance to do some color correcting and proper compression down from the HD1080i we shot it at to a more "web" size file size and quality.......

We are going to make a short documentary/dvd of my first event this year at the british extravaganza.....should have some great action from plenty of 2002's and a 3.0cs that run at that event.

Wow...

2006-12-18T21:05:00.000-08:00

Ta-da!

I 'm speechless !!!!

wow.......I'm so proud.....

By the way I work at Stealth Auto now! so if anybody is interested in anything I'll send you my discount code! WWW.stealthauto.com

It's Alive!!!

2006-12-17T21:01:00.000-08:00

IT"S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally have a sweet looking BMW! All one color! no primer spots anymore!

I just sat back and stared at it for awhile in silence.....

after installing 29.95 door trim from pep boys that worked perfectly and putting in the last rivets on the door panels......

enjoy it in all it's glory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

now back to the funs stuff..........tunning ...... suspension.....motorwork...etc...

I'm also very happy with my choice in mirrors! what do you all think?

Found a trailer!

2006-11-24T20:56:00.000-08:00

I found a great deal on the VARA message boards!

nice open single axle with electric brakes, brand new rims and tires and a emergency a breakaway thingie....all for $700 !!

I'm one happy camper!!!

now I'm ready to hit the track!

armed with my welder trailer modifications are on the way!

Valve cover and catach tank

2006-11-11T20:54:00.000-08:00

Some new pics of the installed valve cover. Looks good huh?
...and no ACS. parts in my car except for the oil cap!

Seats in!

2006-11-01T20:51:00.000-08:00

I had to do some modifications to the seat mount to mount the passenger seat in....... it's starting to look like a race car!!!!

driver seat is in !
now both seats are done......

Accusump valve mount

2006-10-31T20:39:00.000-08:00

Made a better accusump valve mount this weekend. Well better than the zip ties that I was using before....

took me 30 mins to fab up........and it shows!

not very pretty but functional..... Handmande....can you tell?

Rivets 'r' us

2006-10-30T20:36:00.000-08:00

Made templates out of poster board cut them with the pneumatic shears and riveted them in place......
See all the pictures HERE

Dash install

2006-10-23T20:34:00.000-07:00

A little bit every weekend.....

I wired up the dash and all the gauges back

and made myself a dead pedal !

Door Panels

2006-10-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

I hung the the doors this weekend and installed the fenders and started unmasking everything.

later in the day I used my new tool! Air snips! made a poster board template and cut some door panels....

Fun stuff......anything is better than sanding...

Clear Coat ...

2006-10-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

On the seventh day god created urethane clear coat and we applied it !!

soo nice! I am so excited !! I simply cannot believe that this is the same car !

this is THE magic moment of the painting process.... you spray the clear and the paint comes alive!

so white it was blinding me !

3 quarts of etching primer, 1 gallon of high build primer, 2 gallons of Gran Prix white (could of used more!) and 1 gallon of Omni clear coat.

$3000 paint job? nah...... not in my life

(mix 1:1)
Etching primer 1 qt $22.28
activator $14.56

(mix 1:1)
Nason speed highbuild primer 1 gal. $60.56
Acetone 1gal. $15.90

(mix 1:1)
Nason Base coat Grand Prix white 1.5 gal. $133.56
Reducer 1.5 gal $32.80

(mix 4:1)
OmniSV Clear 1 gal. $61.70
Hardner 1 qt. $46

Nason gun cleaner 1 gal. $14.72

Misc. sandpaper, bondo, spreaders, fiberglass&resin(for hood) $100

labor 2 people 7 days maybe 200 hours plus of time spent....$$$$$ I currently unemployed so .....

one happy bmw owner!!

Grand TOTAL $502.08

not bad for what came out to be quite a nice paint job. First time for me and my friend!

now it's time to put everything back together and make that engine scream!!!!!!!
After the Clear cured..... we color sanded and buffed the paint....

Base Coat...

2006-10-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

Sprayed the white NASON base coat today!

link to all the pics .... HERE!

At this point I have to thank my good friend Edward for helping me out with the body work and spraying.........THanks dude!

Primer time!

2006-10-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

-Etching primer first

- then high build primer.....

-sanding

- sand.....

argh!!!

It is AMAZING TO FINNALY SEE THE CAR IN ONE COLOR!!!!

no booth, GRASSROOTS style !!!

now it's time for more sanding.......

then tomorrow the first coat of WHITE !!!!!

unemployment has it's benefits...............

DUST HELL!

2006-10-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

I NEVER WANT TO PAINT A CAR AGAIN IN MY LIFE......

-I HATE BONDO DUST

-I HATE SANDING

- I HATE SANDING

- HATE SANDING

SANDING SUCKS

S A N D I N G S U C K S

ARRGGHHHHH!!!

old hood pin locations fixed

cutting the holes for the my vent project on my hood.......

my made at a home tow hook, my tig welds are getting better... I'll clean it up later with the die grinder...

Valve cover Modification....

2006-09-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

On High revving m10 motors the higher lift cams the oil from the oil spray bar gets even more atomized and tends to leave the stock oil breather located at an alrming rate. Even tough this is more of a problem on 316 or 336 cams above 7000rpms I decided to do this on my engine since I have experience some oil loss to my coke can catch can.

taking inspiration from Skidmark Racing's Bob Breed's car....

here is my creation, see both of them here.....from start to finish Click HERE

Since the second one came out so much better I decided I could sell it. So if you have a race car and were looking for a valve cover like this email me!

I polished the details FIRST on the second try and then masked them prior to painting....perfect. I also got better at painting with the wrinkle paint and achieved much better welds on my second try. Welding the cast aluminum was tricky.

here are some different designs I took pictures of at VARA Oktoberfest race......

Jeff Ireland race car

My CAR is in Classic Motorsports Magazine !!!

2006-09-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited !!!

My CAR is in Classic Motorsports Magazine !!!

Imagine my happiness when I greet a fellow 2002 racer today at VARA's German challenge race at Buttonwillow, CA and he say to me..."your Pedro right?" i said yeah... " your car is in this month's Classic motorsports magazine!"

I was so excited!!

Made my year!

I slowed down on it a little lately but now I determined to finish it this year!

It's off to paint this week I hope!

I know it's a small mention and picture but it meant alot to me.....
here's the original picture....

cage tie-ins ...

2006-06-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

More work today......

I'm currently attaching the roll cage to various points on the unibody.

VARA allows this in my class C-Sedan, although in BMW CCA doing this to my cage moved me up from "prepared" class to "modified" class. I would never be competitive in mod. class. But I only plan on racing with VARA so.....

the seam welding and these "ties" will considerable help with the overall torsional rigidity of the chassis.........I hope!

I needed some practice with the TIG anyways.....

I do have to say welding "out of position" is extremely challenging.... this time I was hanging over the door bars essentially looking upside down at the project and welding on a vertical surface!!

a torch operated control would be preferable in these extreme out of position TIG welds. It becomes a challenge to operate the foot control in some positions....

even so........my welds were acceptable. I know they might not look great, but I am confident I got good penetration.

I learned some things doing the right side, now on the other side I hope to see better welds!

after adding a couple more tubes on the cage, I'll be ready for BONDO! then primer.....

my acceptable TIG welds...
did some of the overhead tabs today along the roofline....

not sure how much difference this all going to make but hey I felt like welding something!

Seam Welding....

2006-06-18T17:11:00.000-07:00

Got the rest of the car down to bare metal ( rockers, window areas, door jambs detail stuff)

and did some seam welding of areas I saw could use it. They do this on rally cars to help make the "uni-body" more unified. I figured I have the tools/skill plus it's a old car.....it can't hurt right?

now it's BONDO time!!!!!!!!!!

how fun..... not.

Then repeat this x2000 times around the car....

NEW TOOLS! Think Blue ...

2006-05-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

Got some new tools for the shop/garage...

both for $2500 bucks!! I got a sweeeeeet deal! they were practically brand new too....less than 8 mos. old!

It's a Miller Syncrowave 180SD TIG and Miller Spectrum 625 Plasma Cutter!

now I got to wire the garage for it....soon some pics from new projects with the new tools...

now it's time to practice.... practice.... practice!!!

Let see what lies underneath...

2006-05-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

8" Makita sander and 80grit norton hook and loop disks.....worked like a charm to remove all 5 or 7 layer of old paint and bondo...

now I just have to do the other half....!!!!!!!

simplification....

2006-05-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

Progress this weekend

Saturday
-skinned the doors
-welded more holes
-masked a lot of stuff
-removed more stuff

Sunday
-masked more stuff
-removed more items
-Sanded/grinded to bare metal 1/2 of the car!!

next weekend I'll do the other half!

maybe even do some bondo work next time.....

2006-05-16T16:29:00.000-07:00

Pulled out the car once again and finished the trunk....

Got a whole lot better at plug welding the trim holes....

Plugged most of the trim holes today and welded a tow point for the rear and reinforced and finished welding the fuel cell cradle...

then I primered everything white..... it Looks like progress!

here's the link to all the pictures.... HERE

Fuel cell cradle
Love my Miller 130xp!

Here we go!

2006-05-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

A little back history...

I’ve been a fan of the BMW 2002 ever since a club racer passed me in one turn 2 of willow springs during a driving event. I've always like the boxy style of 2002, Datsun 510’s and of course 88 m3’s. So in January of 2001 I decided to visit Ireland engineering to look at a fiberglass hood for my 88 ///M3. I got there early and while waiting for the employee to arrive and open up I noticed a dusty ’02 parked outside the shop. As I tried to peek inside the dusty windows and started to look more closely at it my mind started racing and getting bad ideas….

1 week later I was back and after arranging a price with the owner, Jeremy (Ireland employee) I was back with a check. Purchased the car rust, dust, blown head gasket and all…….

The rest is history as they say.....

In the first 5 of so years I owned this car I slowly started modifying it more and more, fixing lots of rust, doing lost of what I call racetoration.....much later I added the cage and a few more items.....

here is the car as I found it...
here it is a few years later, rust fixed and now with a cage....

I moved to a house with a garage!! Imagine that!

So naturally I started on the rocky road to having new paint this Saturday. I started to remove trim and grind and use paint stripper to remove the 4 coats of paint I have on my car.

Thank god did not find any new rust and took the time to do some more seam welding and reinforcing.

I'm so happy about this garage.......

then on Sunday I went the VARA British extravaganza race for some inspiration/motivation/information session. Pics of the race to come. It was the most fun I've had at a event in years!

Here some pics from this weekend.
Here's a link to the album on my site too; CLICK HERE

All the pics HERE

2005-10-13T15:29:00.000-07:00

Here the Accusump install

I'd been thinking about an accusump for awhile after reading about an install. I checked out and after reading the info there I decided right then to do it.

I got some parts off of ebay and the rest from pegasus race supply. I was able to the whole project for around $300.00! Pretty good! I had some left over hose from my oil cooler install and it was exactly the length that I needed!

You will need:

installation brackets #24-200 $17.50
2 quart accusump #24-026 $165.00
oil line Check valve #24-280 $17.50
Manual Valve (#24-260) $10.00
Around 6ft of Oil hose but everybody length will vary...

all the necessary earls plumbing fittings....$ YMMV.

First off ... RTFM !!!

Click here to a link to the installation instruction if you are curious,

----------------------------

First I had to find a place to mount the sump. Humm....... First try behind my battery where the rear seat used to be... I drill the first 2 holes then Thankfully decide to check under the car to see if I'm clear to drill the top 2 holes.....i think so....so I go slow. Thank god I went slow as 1 of the holes comes out right on the rear brake line!! I guess this position will not work.....

after much fiddling.....of course I find the most logical place to put it that I should of thought of before! Duh!! Anyway, I drill and mount the sump....

On the oil side of the sump (the oil side) I place 3 washers so that it sits higher than the air side so that any air bubbles get pushed out per the instructions....

I mounted the manual valve on my passenger seat bracket next to the e-brake so that it is handy. Then up past the firewall, to the T-fitting.

Here is how I initially mounted the valve (years later after I painted the car I made a nicer mount...)

This is where I literally spent like 1 1/2 trying to figure out how to mount and plumb all this in a very confined space so that it fit and kinda looked decent. I finally had a stroke of genius and came up with the setup that you see here.

I decided to go with a remote oil filter head and oil cooler.

What you see is the Earls t-fitting; On the left is the incoming line from the accusump, on the right is the incoming oil from the oil cooler that passes thru the one-way check valve(brass part) so that oil does travel back into the oil cooler. The bottom part of the T-fitting is the one that goes back into the engine.

I had pressurized it with and air tank to 60psi the night before to check for any leaks. No leaks. Then I bleed the sump down to 8psi as the instructions told me to and left the valve in the open position.

I then added 2 quarts of oil to the engine.

Then I rechecked all my connections and directions and my logic.

crossed my fingers and started the car!

Vroom....vroom...oil pressure comes up as I look at the guage on the sump and it mimics my oil pressure gauge! Success!! As I rev the engine the gauge on the sump mimics the oil pressure gauge.

I let the car warm up.
rev the car to raise oil pressure
shut the manual valve and it held whatever pressure it had at the time I shut it. (70psi).
I then turn off the car.
wait 10 mins....

check the oil level....add a bit more oil...

check the gauge on the sump...still reading 70psi...cool. no leaks

I open the valve and watch my oil pressure gauge rise to 50psi! (with the engine off!) and the gauge on the sump lower as it pushes it's contents out to provide pressure.

I start the car now with oil pressure for the first time! and watch the sump refill itself now that the engine is on......!

Total Success!!!!

This is great! I'm so happy I did this what a ingenius peice of equipment!

The poor mans Dry sump!!

My car is now a WELL OILED MACHINE ! ha!

On to the next project!!!!!
for all the pics of my oil systems...check the oil systems directory in the gallery section of my website or click here.

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more info on the sump .

The Accusump provides that extra margin of protection that you need against engine damage caused by loss of oil pressure. Racing and high performance street engines by nature are put under a lot of stress by the high G-load situations that they are placed in. As oil in your pan sloshes about, your oil pump pickup can become uncovered, which causes a loss of oil pressure and sets the stage for severe engine damage. The Accusump provides oil during these times reducing the potential for damage.

The Accusump, the original automotive oil accumulator, is designed to provide the engine with oil pressure before the starter is even engaged.

An Accusump is a cylinder shaped aluminum storage container that acts as a reservoir of pressurized oil, to be released when there is a drop in the oil pressure.

The Accusump is connected to the pressure side of an engine's oiling system and is charged by the engines own oil pump.
Its simple, efficient design revolves around a hydraulic piston separating an air pre-charge side and the oil reservoir side.
On the oil side of the Accusump it has an outlet that goes into the engine's oiling system, controlled by a valve.
On the air side it's equipped with a pressure gauge and a Schrader air pre-load valve.

Pre-oiling
Independent studies have indicated that up to 50% of wear on engine components occurs during the engine start-up, before oil pressure can be established by the oil pump.

The Accusump can eliminate this "Cold start scuffing" by delivering oil under pressure before the engine is started!

There are two common conditions when your engine is without its vital fluid.

The first, as I'm sure you've heard before, is during the start-up procedure.
When you reach for that ignition your engine oil is sitting in your oil pan, maybe a little in your oil filter.
But there is none where your engine needs it the most, where those metal on metal surfaces are.
So as you turn that key and your engine starts to spin, your engine has no oil pressure, no supply of oil to those moving parts.
Until your engine is running and the oil pump is pumping, it has very little protection from this kind of metal on metal wear.

The second condition when your engine loses oil pressure is during an extreme condition when the oil pressure surges.

Such as everyday hard braking and turning on the street (and most certainly on the track), extreme vehicle angles such as off-road conditions or in marine applications when there happens to be rough conditions.
These are the same conditions that would spill your coffee out of your coffee cup.
During these times the oil in the pan moves away from the oil pick-up tube (the tube that the oil pump sucks the oil out of the oil pan through) and there is a sudden loss of oil pressure.
Again leaving your engine without that vital lubrication!

How Does an Accusump™ Work?

On initial start-up when the valve on the oil side is opened the pressurized oil is released into the engine and therefore pre-lubricating the engine prior to start-up.
The Accusump holds whatever oil pressure the engine has at the time that it is shut off.
After the engine is started and the oil pump has taken over, oil is pumped back into the Accusump.
This moves the piston back and pressurizes the Accusump until it equalizes with engine's oil pressure.
While driving, if the engine's oil pressure is interrupted for any reason, the Accusump releases its oil reserve again, keeping the engine lubricated until the engine's oil pressure comes back to normal.
This release of oil could last from 15 to 60 seconds, depending on the size and speed of the engine.

In racing or hard driving conditions, the Accusump will automatically fill and discharge when needed as you corner, accelerate and brake.

Operation....

normal running engine,

Discharging !!
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You can also just buy the automatic electric valve!

that way you can put the sump and the valve anywhere.

Check out this clean instalation in a e3 M3
he used a 1 qt unit and put it all under the hood.

Here is the site(click on me)

It's good example of an install for a street car...

Rust be GONE!!!!! Argh!

2002-05-16T15:57:00.000-07:00

Here some pics from the beginning, there was alot fo work done over many years ... to get to this point.

Just to give you an idea I had to replace both rockers completely!! Most would of just gotten another shell but since this is an early 1600-2 shell it is actually 200lbs. lighter and no sunroof also is nice! Not to mention it's interesting history with BMW NA.

My vin# as confirmed by BMW mobile tradition is 1 of 357 1602's to ever make it to USA!

But most are not this brave to try to save all this rust....but I did! Call me crazy!

here is a sample of all the rust I removed.....

A-pillar.....gone!
inside the rockers

WE literally went to a junkyard in sun valley and cut up a large portion of a late model green 2002 to make the transplant. You can see where the incsions were made.....the donor car was green.
the cut line as seen on the inside of the rear quarter panel.

Good times ! RUST SUX !