With the 25 Hour at Thunderhill behind us, I have a little bit of a window to dig in and publicly show a bit more on this multi-year project. Here is a quick shot from the recent race to get things started, but this thread IS NOT all about how to build a racecar – but there is some of that too…
A lot of the updates here will be from our documented preparation of the car and in some places, we will mix in current development and build in a semi-chronological order. Hopefully this will be entertaining and informative, with a little something for everyone.
We have gathered a lot of information and continue to do so, so I will attempt to break up the thread into sections to make it easier to sift through only the parts you care about. And while some of the parts are 100% pure race, a lot are not and when we are doing actual development and testing, the race part concepts often apply even to the street line of products.
Red Line Oil has partnered with us on this project because they love the BMW marque almost as much as we do, and because they are also car guys who enjoy building something and running it around a track as more than something to slap a decal on. We have learned a lot from Red Line as we have interacted more frequently, and that too will show up here from time to time, not as a commercial message but hopefully more as a sharing of knowledge that is the reason we put Red Line in everything we have built and run here for over 10 years. They make a product engineered to make your BMW run longer, require less major service, and make more power, so it seems like a pretty good fit for what we as BMW owners want also.
The Production V8 Project
This car began life in 2008 as one of the first 10 E92 M3s imported into the US, intended as a company car and my daily driver. And like most of our company-owned cars, this one served as a development mule as we tested and built parts, need a stock example to compare for race use, etc.
Through the last five years and counting, this car has been re-purposed multiple times, but foundationally, it has stayed the same – a production car that is representative of what anyone can replicate in part or as a whole, with a lot of bolt-on parts – and in some cases, a bit of specialized labor…
Certainly there is a jumping-off point where it gets too deep or too far past reasonable for most people, but even in the more recent stages, many of the individual components and certainly knowledge and approach can be separated from the more recent “build a racecar” project and used in and applied to a street environment comfortably. And while we are using an E92 M3 for this project, many sections apply directly to E8X/E9X non-M and 1M models, as well as other BMW platforms.
We as a business are strong supporters of planning a project and spending money one time, or at least avoiding a more major investment that will be replaced in the foreseeable future. However, many steps in this project are a little redundant intentionally, in an effort to demonstrate differences, and make the pieces more relevant to a wider range of cars and customers. We don’t encourage you to do it this way if you want to duplicate some portion of the project – contact us and we will put you with the right combination for your needs the first time around.
I do reserve the right to not discuss everything we know in the forums – we work hard and spend a lot of development money to learn and I think it is fair to save a bit of that for our customers, who make our work possible in the first place. Additionally, it is fairly impossible to cover every question that is (or should be) asked for each individual here in full, and I always invite emails to me (james@bimmerworld.com) and phone calls to our sales staff if you would like a more in-depth discussion of any area. But unlike a pro build, we are willing to show the vast majority of what we are doing.
I have to issue the disclaimer that we do work with our technical partners and suppliers on projects like this, so I do pick favorites. However, we pick favorites based on what we feel is the best product available, gets the job done the best, provides the most value, etc. Our partners are chosen because we want the best result for our cars when the result matters, and the same for our customers. If the part we want isn’t on the market, we either make it ourselves or partner with whoever I feel can provide the best result.
And as always, if it isn’t something we make or sell, I am still willing to give the best unbiased opinion I can – we don’t have to be right and I usually know if we are lacking something. If feel I am right, I will give you the facts and data that make me feel that way, and I will guarantee you it didn’t come from the suppliers marketing brochure and it is driven by long-term experience, not short-term profitability. The goal here is sharing what I feel gives the best result, not jamming new product release after release down your throat.
Here are a few photos of the car in various trim, and a couple of links to our sites that will have more photos and event information as we go.
BimmerWorld Project page link
Enjoy, and please let us know what you think of the project, ask questions, and participate as we continue our work for the next couple of years!
James