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Nov 11, 2009 Update: I've become a little tired of autocrossing in Street Touring (2005-2009), and we just sold the E36 LS1 powered "XPrepared" autox/track car. So at the 2009 SCCA Solo Nationals I looked at hundreds of cars and dozens of classes to try to figure out what I want to build next. I decided on a D Street Prepared build but was unsure of the right BMW chassis to use. I looked initially for an E36 325is and 328is, then moved to the more powerful E46 330Coupe chassis.



On November 7th, 2009, I bought two E46 cars. One was a 1999 323i 5-spd without a sunroof, Hellrot Red, which will likely become my wife Amy's commuter car. CraigsList find that we got for a song (thanks for the lead, Adam!) and it was hard to pass up. Other than some nice D-Force wheels and an iPod interface cable/box, it will likely remain mostly stock and serve as a 4 door people mover. It drives great and looks absolutely flawless, inside and out.



Later that same day we bought this 2001 BMW 330Ci 2 door, 5-spd car. I waited 3 weeks for the seller to get the title reissued, and was so glad when he called and said "its ready!" Its an unusual Topaz Blue color, which I fell in love with, and it has the black leather interior I like (seems like 95% of these E46's are tan or gray inside). The paint is in great shape and it runs very well, but it has one or two items I'll want to fix soon ("cam sensor" CIL, noise from the steering rack). Another CraigsList Houston gem that was apparently a Canadian car at some point, since it has all "metric" dash and gauges, plus optional HID headlights and later model LED tail lights. Looks great inside and out, and we also got it for an incredibly good price.



Ideally I'd start with a ZHP equipped E46 coupe without a sunroof, but those were very hard to find, and the ZHP package didn't start in the Coupe until 2004. That means - more initial cost, and this 2001 was really clean and priced very attractively. Like: so low, I don't mind cutting it up a little to make it competitive.

To do the DSP 330Ci build I want (which allows update/backdate combinations that the factory never made) I had to either do a no-sunroof roof swap on a later ZHP 330 Coupe or build a ZHP motor for a 2001-03 330Ci without a sunroof, but in my case I gave up looking for a no sunroof 330Ci after 6 weeks so I'm going to have to do both. Yay.

After driving this sunroof equipped E46 for a couple of days I do really hate having the sunroof. My head is always touching the damn headliner, as the sunroof internals cut away inches of headroom. Driving our non sunroof E46 4 door is a completely different seating/driving experience! That sunroof stuff adds 30+ pounds up high, also.

So here's the initial weight data from about an hour ago on the sunroof equipped '01 330 Coupe. Not super light, but remember, this is still bone stock. My E36 M3 wasn't much if any lighter than this stock and we managed to get about 200 pounds out of it for STU use (it got down to 2950 lbs race weight, with 2 race seats, 18x10s, and the full a/c installed).


'01 330Ci 5-spd, sunroof equipped, tons of options, no spare tire installed, fuel level as shown. The STU E36 M3 is in the background.

Gotta get this pig on a diet! I've already got the following parts ammassed or on order...

• 18x10 D-Force LTW5 wheels, Yokohama 265/35/18 R compounds (tires were from a former project)
  
• AST 4200 coilovers (monotube doubles), Hyperco springs, AST RSMs - on the way
  
• Vorshlag camber plates/RSM reinforcements/RTAB limiters/motor mounts/trans mounts/wheel studs/spacers/etc
  
• Mason Engineering "Race" aluminum strut and shock tower braces - on the way
  
• Cam lock 5-point harnesses
  

More details soon. As parts arrive we'll document their installaiton. Trying to make the AST track day Nov 30th at ECR... hope the shocks get here in time. 8) Of course I'm going to track this car also - I'll check the NASA TT classing and run it wherever it ends up.

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Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
$2010 GRM Challenge E30 V8 + E46 DSP Autox Build

Nov 12 update:

I am shocked at how light that E46 is, seems like a good starting point. ... You are going for at least 285s right? You might want to go bigger than that.

Yes, 285/30/18s are the plan, and most people that know me know how much I favor that tire size. The initial testing will be done on 18x10 D-Force wheels with a set of 265/35/18 Yokohama A032s, which we got from Yokohama earlier this year for going to a track event and giving ride-alongs in the EVO. I used them at an autox 6 weeks ago on my E36 M3 and they were pretty good, but I'll get the 285 Hoosiers coming in time for the first autocross event in February.


The 18x10 and 265/35/18 Yokohama A032 combo on our E36 M3 on TMS Road Course (won both BSP and "W" classes on these)

I'm fairly certain that the 18x10 and 285/30/18 will fit the E46 chassis with little more than fender rolling, and I've heard some E46 autocrossers have managed to squeeze the 305/30/18 on the rear as well, without flares. The E46 is bigger than the E36 chassis, and this is where it helps. I have a pair of Hoosier 305/30/18s in the shop so I will test them at some point, too, and the 295/30/18 looks promising. Probably need to get another set of D-Force 18x10s to use for testing, and later for a track-specific set of tires (might be in the same size as the autox set, just Hoosier A6 and R6). Hoosier has great NASA contingency.


A Bimmerhaus-built, DSP prepped E46 coupe. 18x10s and 285s (but they added M3 fender flares)

Are you allowed to use a CF roof since the E46 technically came in a trim with a CF roof? This thread comes to mind (although I'd want to use the cross-support beam): http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1325363

SCCA Street Prepared allows you to swap major components and even drivelines between similar models that are listed "on the same line" in the classing Appendix, via that category's "update/backdate" rule. For DSP class this means that I can use the best bits from the Coupe and Sedan versions of the North American market 330, 323, 325, and 328 E46 chassis cars. The E46 M3 is on a different line (its not considered the same model, and its classed *terribly* in BSP), and the carbon roof equipped M3 CSL wasn't ever offered in North America, so its out.

This still gives me nearly infinite rear gearing choices, multiple transmission choices, and the best ZHP bits (steering rack, +10 hp cams/engine) and pieces to choose from:

Matteucci: One of the big negatives of the E36 and one of the possible positive of the E46 is the gearing.  The only realistic gear to use in the E36 is the 3.15, the other two options are 2.91 and 3.91. The 2.91 sucks even worse than the 3.15 and the 3.91 is crazy short. Something like 40MPH at the top of 2nd.  The 3.15 is soggy on the low end and I vary rarely hit the rev limiter in 2nd much less shift to 3rd in my DSP car.

Taking a quick look in the ETK, between the manual, automatic and AWD E46 variations, you can run about any gear you can imagine.  3.07, 3.15, 3.23, 3.38, 3.46 and 3.64 are all options.  You could "fine tune" your gear for a particular course if you really wanted to!



One of my first upgrades will be the battery (PC680). The E46 OEM unit is so massive it has its own moons! 54 pounds down to 14. I already have the mount built for the E46 battery tray...

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Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
$2010 GRM Challenge E30 V8 + E46 DSP Autox Build

Nov 13 Update:

Ledbetter: It would be interesting to see its weight also.

Swapped cars with Amy today so we could have the 323i and Matt and I just weighed it:



As you can see its about 42 pounds lighter than the 330Ci. Which is close to what the sunroof weighs, the major difference between these two cars. I'm not surprised at this number, actually. Fuel levels are almost identical, and the appointments on both cars are similar. Both cars have the aluminum block inline 6 (M52TUB25 2.5L vs M54B30 3.0L), manual seats, 5-spd manual trans, and both are bone stock. Interesting, according to this Wiki, the 3.0L M54 has a forged crankshaft and connecting rods.

So the 4 door isn't any lighter than the 2 door E46. Take out the sunroof weight difference and they'd nearly be identical.

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Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
$2010 GRM Challenge E30 V8 + E46 DSP Autox Build

Fair:

Taking a quick look in the ETK, between the manual, automatic and AWD E46 variations, you can run about any gear you can imagine.  3.07, 3.15, 3.23, 3.38, 3.46 and 3.64 are all options.  You could "fine tune" your gear for a particular course if you really wanted to!

You might want to double check whether all those ratios are legal.  

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Brian Peters

I had planned a weekend thrash to get the E46 ready for the AST Track Day at ECR today, but several things conspired to squash those plans. One, I got too wrapped up in the $2010 E30 V8 project the two weeks before the track day and didn't do a thorough check of the 330. I have spent way too much time on that little car lately - cleaning the chassis/engine bay, messing with multiple motor test fits, doing some body mods, wheel mockups, flare mock-ups, trips to the junk yards, etc. So that put me behind on checking out the 330 for a track day - I only put the car on the lift and pulled a wheel for the first time this past Wednesday, and that's when I noticed the rear brakes...



Uh-oh. No rear pad material at all, and the rotors were toast. ECR is a brake intensive track, so the random AutoPartsChain brake pads would not do. I had already ordered new front race pads from RacingBrake.com, for both the 330 and for DaveB's 325i, but neglected to check the rears on my own car. Doh! Due to the holiday shipping constraints of last week my hastily placed order for new rear rotors and pads won't get here until... tomorrow.... the day after the AST track event. Damn it, I need to be stocking this stuff here at Vorshlag. In the end I was also out of a few other parts I needed for the suspension swap, but the AST 4200s did arrive on Saturday. They look SO nice... Oh well, poor planning gets all of us sometimes. I'll get the suspension on & aligned, and start bugging some members at the local tracks (MSR or ECR), and try to get on track with the 330 soon. Weather has been too nice lately - maybe December will be sunny and warm, too?


DaveB's 325i and my M3 @ ECR. I got to thrash around track in both of these today, but I sure wanted to drive the 330!

OK, so what has been done? The first little mod I did do to the 330 was a set of Vorshlag 75mm Competition Wheel Studs and lug nuts. I took the 330's wheels off and on to check the brakes, and after fiddling with the ridiculous wheel bolts to remount the stock wheels for 10 minutes, I tossed the bolts right into the trash. It took no time to install the studs; I just don't have the patience for freagin' wheel bolts.


6 minutes to install all 20 studs... time & money well spent

As you can see above, I also test fit the 18x10" D-Force LTW5 wheels onto the car. This was with a set of (relatively tall) 265/35/18 A032 R compounds (we had these from the EVO X and I've been racing my E36 M3 on these wheels and tires the past 2 months, including all day today at ECR). The rears worked great with no spacer - just bolted right on and they have gobs of room. The front needs more camber and a ~8mm spacer. I'll retest the wheels on the front after the AST struts and Vorshlag plates are installed. It might be tight on the 285mm tire, but if I have to flare the fronts, so be it.

More soon...

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Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
$2010 GRM Challenge E30 V8 + E46 DSP Autox Build

Update: OK last week was completely nuts. Not only did we get absolutely buried in orders, we had to prep 3 cars for a track day (last one of the year), two of which had never been on track ever, for last Saturday at Eagles Canyon Raceway. This was the final chance for 2009 to hit this track in the 330. I was already regretting not bringing it out to the AST test day the week before (I took the E36 M3 instead), to get some (slow) baseline testing in the E46 with the OEM suspension and tires, but it would have been miserable like that. ;)


The 4200s I used have these same 4000 series revisions. That's my 4200 strut at right

So we were stuck waiting on some parts for the camber plates until 8 pm Friday, the night before the track day. We got the AST 4200s (latest revisions) onto the car plus our Vorshlag camber plates, Nylon motor mounts, trans mounts, and the 18x10" D-Force wheels (with our our spacers and studs). Added new (PBR) rear rotors and some temporary PBR Metal Master pads, changed the oil to Mobile1, and the manual trans fluid to Redline MTL. Some gorilla over-torqued the oil filter top so the filter didn't get swapped - oh well.

Everything went on well enough, but due to the delay on the anodized coating for the plates we didn't wrap up the 330 prep until after 11:30 pm, then we started changing all the pads, lines and fluid on Matt's 350Z, not finishing it up until 12:30 am. Long.... long day.


Didn't get a ton of pics on the front install, as we were severaly pressed for time

Oh, and I bought a 1 ton diesel Dodge MegaCab diesel, and picked up a trailer sometime during that same day, too, so I got to tow the 330 to the event Saturday. Loaded the car in the rain Sunday morning - woo. Good thing we got to tow to the event (100 miles away), though, as we had no time to align the car other than via my calibrated eyeball. :D A quick tweak to the toe and camber was as good as it got. Ended up tracking straight and true so I guess we got lucky.


Motor mounts were a b!tch to swap out - had to drop the K-member and raise the motor. Trans mounts took minutes.

We're a RacingBrake dealer at Vorshlag, and while learning about E46 brakes we're trying to help RB figure out some pads and models for the BMW market along the way. The sport package 330 has pretty damn big stock rotors: 13" diameter front and 12.8" rear. That was big for a Corvette during this same time period that this 330 came out (2001). The new rear rotors and pads are shown below.



The front subframe has this flat, formed sheet metal cover / structure that ties the front K-member together. Its kind of a sad joke, and was wadded up like a gum wrapper in several spots. Some previous owner probably ran over something and it tore it to bits, but the underside of the car looked unaffected. I noticed a tubular version on RealOEM, I think for the convertible? I'll investigate and probably purchase that. Thank goodness DSP allows update/backdates. :)


L: Pumping in the ~1.3 qts of MTL. R: Final front camber was roughly -4° front, -2.5° rear

The car had a set of nearly new BMW front pads & rotors and I found some "PBR Metal Master" pads and new PBR rotors for the rear, until we can find the correct RB 2-piece rotor and pad solution. We tried one RB ET500 front pad profile that wasn't quite right, and ran out of time to get the proper front pads in time. Surprisingly it stopped better than I expected with these OEM style pads, never fading once, and I was into the ABS on many corners (I LFB into nearly all corners, braking pretty deep and late). I was shocked at how well this car stops with this very stock pad/rotor setup - much better than the E36 M3 did a week earlier, at the same track, and on the exact same wheels/tires. My M3 has 2-piece Euro M3 front rotors (12.5" dia) and Hawk HP+ pads front and back. So I can say with confidence that the 330 has better brakes than an E36 M3.

The 18x10" D-Force wheels fit great in front, with zero fender rolling and a 10mm spacer. It was sitting up about 1/4" higher than I like, but I wanted to be safe up front on the first outing and didn't have time for the usual corner balance and thorough road testing. The rear wheel used no wheel spacer and looked like an even better fit than the front, but it rubbed on the outside at full cornering load, once the track dried out, so I took it easy and only did 4 sessions. Rear needed a tick more ride height, some fender rolling and a firmer RTAB setup (didn't have time to do anything about that yet) and it should work fine with the 265s. We'll take a look at everything once I get 285s on the car.



The track was cold, wet and nasty all morning - but the car still handled like a dream, right out of the box. It always went where I pointed it, soaking up the many bumps at ECR, and made for easily controlled drifts when pushed past 10/10ths. I have started off with the stock swaybars and 600# front, 750# rear spring rates (our Hyperco/GTR package), which felt great. Since it was wet all morning, I kept all of the adjustments at full soft, to keep everything from being twitchy.

I pushed the crap out of the car and had a blast on track in each session, only needing to let a couple of the fast instructors by. This was a CTS-V and KenO's E46 M3, both of which had more power, so the 330 couldn't match their pace on the straights. For the most part I had a clear track and got a good feel for the car. The 330 definitely needs more power, and I hope the new header and exhaust I'll build behind that will help. When the track dried the lack of a real LSD diff was very apparent. That needs to be remedied SOON.


I took pictures between sessions but didn't get a picture of my car on track all day

Since the track event I've ordered new front control arms, a header, new cam sensor and harness (throwing a code), and some other bits and pieces. Still looking at race shifters, but the switch to our Nylon motor mounts and 95A trans mounts made a HUGE difference in shift feel already. I've got aluminum Mason braces for the front and rear that we'll install in the next week or so - just ran out of time before ECR.


Amy took the M3 to ECR that day; she had a blast driving the car

I borrowed Matt's new in-car vidcam setup and got one wet session on video, but its not too impressive since its raining the whole time. I might post it up later, for grins.

More soon...

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Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
$2010 GRM Challenge E30 V8 + E46 DSP Autox Build