E30 318 Lemons Build

[Camoflash]

I Lol'd all the way through this thread. You guys are magnificent! What an awesome build, or debuild!

[sab0276]

Update: We did autox testing with the local BMW club yesterday. It was a lot fun, and the car definately got a lot of attention. Tech people where not very happy, but they reluctantly let us run after we pleaded our case and made some minor fixes.


Gauge cluster held on with zip ties and an old car wash mitt.



Battery terminal held securely in place with a vice-grip (no, we where not allowed to run like this. A trip to Autozone was neccessary).



Since they couldn't put a tech sticker on the upper corner of the windshield they put the tech (wreck) sticker in the upper corner of our helmet visors. Sticker is swiss cheesed like our car.



We added an ///M badge to let everyone know our car is Fast!



Ed and I getting ready for the maiden run. Notice the functional orange racing stripe.


Video proof that the car actually works. We were very pleased with the results considering it was on old All-Season tires.


More pics here:
http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...20Red%20Wreck/
Blog here:
http://DTMLemons.blogspot.com
-Scott

Got the results of the autox. Out of the 42 BMW's, we came in 8th and 10th. On old All-Season 14" tires! Everyone ahead of us was on race tires. We dominated E Class by over 2 seconds, but we would have come in 2nd and 3rd in any other class ahead of us.

-Scott

[alane]

looks like fun!

[sab0276]

Updated the blog with Cage Work and Autox results.
http://DTMLemons.blogspot.com










-Scott

[bam2002]

you are going to want to run your cage into the trunk area. Like a 10 point cage would be mounted.( so through the speaker shelf) Ours is mounted all the way back by the brake-tail lights. Since you will be rear ended at least 3 times the cage will keep the back end from getting caved in. Especially since your car has already been hit back there and the structure is compromised.

Just a suggestion.

[tracktoy990]

awesome thread! makes me want to build a lemons car

[sab0276]

The event was a lot of fun. Here is Fox News coverage of the event. They did a good job capturing the spirit of the event. Our car (Red Baron E30) makes several cameos in their video.
http://www.fox61.com/news/wtic-lemon...,5382994.story


Here is some in car video.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seocPQCdjNc[/ame]


-Scott

[sab0276]

Pics of our car up on Jolopnik.



-Scott

[sab0276]

Updated the Blog a little bit. Fixed the Live Web Cam and added updates from the New England event.

Just got back from a team testing at the Glen. My wife drove it in the Novice group and team members took turns beating the snot out if it in the Advanced run groups. It was a lot of fun. Handles amazing, but desperately needs more HP for the Glen. Even though we were foot to the floor from T1 all the way to the 200 marker on the back straight, it couldn't accellerate between T2-T3 (maybe even lost a MPH or 2). Anthony (Z3SpdDmn) saw a 2:29 lap. Haven't timed any of my laps yet (via video) but hoping for an even slightly faster time.
Will post some video later.

-Scott

[tonggi]

nice work!

[whiltebeitel]

Were the 200 penalty laps they wanted to give you for being an e30?

[sab0276]

Were the 200 penalty laps they wanted to give you for being an e30?

Pretty much. Well for a well prepared E30.

-Scott

[TIATO]

for a well prepared E30.

-Scott

[whiltebeitel]

Hmmmm....

[sab0276]

for a well prepared E30.

-Scott

Hey, we got the car that way. All we had to do was pull the trunk out and change the oil.

-Scott

[WolfKatz]

Hey Scott ...

How are you man?

Our Lemons E30 http://sites.google.com/site/heisenbergracing/

Through some sick coincidence, our cars are nearly identical. We just put gas and oil in ours as well! Our next race is at Thunderhill in a few weeks. These races are so much fun! Julie and I are also running the "real" 25hr this year in our E36 IP car. Which brings me to the real question ... do you want to buy your "black car" back? Have a look:

http://www.mr2oc.com/showthread.php?t=367343

I hope I don't have to part it ...

G

[sab0276]

A brief update.
The Duct Tape Motorsports E30 came in 1st in class and 5th overall out of 140 cars, with the 2nd fastest lap time at the Nelson Ledges 24 Hour of LeMons race the beginning of the month. This was a true full 24 Hour non-stop endurance race.

BMWCCA members were Brian Henry (driver), Than Orens (driver), Tim Smith (driver) Colin Vozeh (crew), Dave Boffa (crew), and Scott Barton (crew). DTM member Mike Austin was the other driver. Tim, who lives 40 minutes from Nelson Ledges and has about 2000 laps there, had the 2nd fastest lap time.

We had 2 time penalities resulting in about 55 minutes in the penalty box. Without those penalties we would have been 1st overall. But in LeMons, it is harder to stay out of the penalty box than it is to drive fast. At least with us anyways.

It was cold and a little damp but we had an absolute blast! Can't wait to do it next year.











More pics here

-Scott

[///Mracer]

what do you experienced 24hr lemons guys recommend for an overall budget to run the event (car, safety stuff, entry, fuel, beer, etc.....)? A bunch of us are thinking about doing this at Summit in 2010.

edit: Love the name on the side of #32........lol

[sab0276]

what do you experienced 24hr lemons guys recommend for an overall budget to run the event (car, safety stuff, entry, fuel, beer, etc.....)? A bunch of us are thinking about doing this at Summit in 2010.

edit: Love the name on the side of #32........lol

Min $3000 for a crappy car that will probably blow up during the race. $4000-$6000 realistic for a halfway decent car. We did ALL of the labor ourselves including cage work so that saved us. Plus other than the damage, the car was well maintained and in good shape. Our car cost us $4000 which was our budget. We had $378 into the car. The rest was safety and other items.

Also expect to pay about $500-$750 per driver per event.

-Scott

[Joey Link]

How did you spend that much when you're supposed to be running a car valued at $500? How were you into it $378? We're running in March and need to know

[TOOLEAN]

Scroll back to were Scott pulled the back of the car out with a back hoe. HA! It was a totaled car, perfectly within the rules, many teams start with salvage cars.

[Joey Link]

I saw that, and I understand how they could purchase or be given a $3000-$6000 car that had been wrecked, but he says his car cost him $4k and they had $378 into it. I'm not understanding that math.

[TOOLEAN]

Wheels, tires, cage, coolsuit, rotors, pads, seats, harnesses, nets, lights etc....it's safety, check out the rules.

[kts]

Like TOOLEAN said, you need to look at the rules. A lot of items don't count towards the $500 car cost. It's all in the rules, print them out and keep a copy in the car. Refer to them often.

[sab0276]

I saw that, and I understand how they could purchase or be given a $3000-$6000 car that had been wrecked, but he says his car cost him $4k and they had $378 into it. I'm not understanding that math.

Check out Section 4.2 of the 24 Hours of LeMons Rules.
4.2: Safety Equipment DOES NOT Count Toward $500 Total


Here are the rough estimates of our costs:
$380 car
$600 cage
$700 brake pads and rotors (includes backup set of pads)
$1000 tires (2 sets)
$1000 seats, harnesses, nets, fire system
$350 steering wheel, cool suit, fan, lights, numbers, etc


So while the running car cost us only $378, we had to put another $3650 into it just to make it SAFE to race.

As you can, we had about $600 into the cage materials alone (we did the labor, so it was cheap). Most cages will cost over $1000, so if safety equipment was included in the $500 limit, it could not be done.


Check out our blog for details on our build, costs, etc as well as our results from the races.
http://DTMLeMons.blogspot.com

-Scott