e36 M3 - IP Build Chronicles

[TIATO]

My, my. How things change. After the June GVC event at WGI, I am going to retire the e90 from track duty. I decided I did not want to continue to develop the car as its just too nice a car to fully track compromise.

It appears that I will be coming full circle back to an e36 M3 very soon. Once obtained, the car will go from a stock-ish car to full on track only in a matter of 4 weeks starting late August. The neat part is that I have to build the car primarily for my wife's comfort and skill level to which I will have to conform to. Should be a neat challenge. I may start a new build thread as well.

[Frank@AchillesMotorsports]

Wow, great story and some soul searching here. Glad to hear you'll be getting back into racing! Also sounds like one hell of a catch, wife wise!

Good luck with your new projects!

[43bullet]

post the pictures MARIO!!. great looking M3. cant wait for the new build thread.

[bmw328m52]

Subscribed!

[emagdnim33]

Crazy I came across this. Mario, I wanna say in fall 2008 I went for a ride with you around NJMP lightning. I was there with my cousin Ted who runs with the DTM porch guys. Awesome now to see the build and progression with the car. LOTS of motivation. And YES this car is fast.......

[TIATO]

Man....haven’t been here in...forever. I’ve reread most of what I’ve written and done and even used my journal here as a reference for my current build.

Been away from the sport for three years. Walked away in 2016. Burnt out. Tried various other interests but none have really done it for me as racing and driving on a track have done.

Used my background to coach my daughter in her karting and driving endeavors. Much earlier in this thread is a pic of her asleep in 818 when she was 6. Well, she now 16, races karts, drives a 2009 128is of her own and has her sights on driving at the Glen.

Before I left the sport I built and had been developing a ‘96 M3. The last season before putting 818 II into storage I converted the car to s54 power. Before the Wuhan virus screwed everything up, I was and am readying the car for the 2020 track season with a long term idea of building a CM race car.

[Pat533i]

Hey Mario, You probly don't remember me but Im sure you remember doing a 360 in the bus stop during my checkout ride Anyway Im glad you're thinking of getting to the track again. Hopefully we'll cross paths again soon. Heres what my car looks like now in IP form! Just waiting for this season to get going again.

[TIATO]

Hey Mario, You probly don't remember me but Im sure you remember doing a 360 in the bus stop during my checkout ride Anyway Im glad you're thinking of getting to the track again. Hopefully we'll cross paths again soon. Heres what my car looks like now in IP form! Just waiting for this season to get going again.

Hey there. It’s been a while. I most certainly do remember you. That was one hell of a fast entry into the bus stop. You tried to catch it but the oscillations got bigger and bigger before I told you to put both feet in. Nicely handled.

Happy to see you stayed with it and are racing. Exciting to see a former student reach that level.

I am excited to get back into the fray. Initially just to have fun and drive for me. Well see if I’ll make back into the right seat.


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[BlackHawkRacing]

Man....haven’t been here in...forever. I’ve reread most of what I’ve written and done and even used my journal here as a reference for my current build.

Been away from the sport for three years. Walked away in 2016. Burnt out. Tried various other interests but none have really done it for me as racing and driving on a track have done.

Used my background to coach my daughter in her karting and driving endeavors. Much earlier in this thread is a pic of her asleep in 818 when she was 6. Well, she now 16, races karts, drives a 2009 128is of her own and has her sights on driving at the Glen.

Before I left the sport I built and had been developing a ‘96 M3. The last season before putting 818 II into storage I converted the car to s54 power. Before the Wuhan virus screwed everything up, I was and am readying the car for the 2020 track season with a long term idea of building a CM race car.

Glad to see you posting again! Your thread has been very helpful during my own IP build.

[TIATO]

Glad to see you posting again! Your thread has been very helpful during my own IP build.

Thanks BlackHawk. I’m glad you found the information posted helpful. For a long time it was a labor of love to give back to a community I’ve learned so much from. I’ve checked out some of your build and you are progressing nicely and so much looks so similar when I was building then and now. Happy to see you are enlisting your kids to assist. They will learn a lot.


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[TIATO]

Time flies in internet and forum land. Over three years since last posting in this space. Sad also that much of this kind of stuff posted in the track forum of bimmerforums has transitioned to FB. While I watch over there from the sidelines, I much prefer the format and community that was built here.

So a quick update.

The last e36 I mentioned building some years ago is no more. After some annoying engine issues which were caused by a damaged crank nose before my ownership led to a s54 swap in 2016. Car was fantastic in that trim. Then walked away from the sport for 4 years and focused in coaching my daughter her karting endeavor.

In June of 2020 that chassis met its demise with a high speed impact with the pit wall at NJMP T-Bolt. Walked away with minor injuries.

Recovered from that crash and was in a replacement e36 race car a month later only to discover the latent psychological aspects of a crash called fear and no-confidence in myself and new chassis. Took 6 days to re-build my confidence and get back to speed.

A year later the engine in the car bid this world farewell going into t7 at Watkins Glen. Car was sidelined for the rest of the 2021 season while getting an s54 conversion.

Car never really fit me well due to the cage. My legs always felt cramped. Cage must have been built for someone 2-3" shorter than me. I adapted, making lots of compromises and drove.
Started thinking about the future of the car. Wanting a pace of change I bought a track prepped Toyota Gt86 (Scion FRS) to start 2023 out with and boy was it fun to learn how to go slow again. Unlearning bad habits learned over the last 15 years driving fast cars fast. Best part, taking T10 at the Glen with 100% throttle.

Stepped back into the e36 for the last few events of 2023 and immediately picked up time nearly besting my fastest personal lap time at the Glen (207.3).
By seasons end I decided to retire the e36. The chassis, being a race car since 2000 was getting long in the tooth, having been crashed several times during its lengthy racing lifetime was something I did not want to continue putting more money into it, especially a cage that was built around my measurements. It will now serve as a parts car for the new e36 that has joined my stable.

The new to me car was originally built as a Bimmerworld Turn Key Race car in 2007. Its build had its own thread here in this forum and that car served as the inspiration in many ways technically for my former IP car that this thread is based on. So it's neat to own the car that gave me so much direction long ago. While the car is still very much the same in certain ways, it has changed in the 15 years since it was built, the largest change being the alpha N tuned s54 that puts down 345+ RWHP. Im now undertaking the work of tailoring the drivers side of the car to my specific needs fitment wise.

[Yahweh]

Mario,

Fantastic to see this at the top of the BF New Post list. its been a while since I've been on here.. but A pleasant sunrise after getting a weird itch to see what was happening on the board!

Looking forward to the chronicles continued.

Zach!

[TIATO]

Zach, yeah, it's certainly been a while since this thread made it to the top.

Interesting also your itch to check this space out. Ive had the same for some while, being very fond of my experiences here and grateful for what Ive learned from so many people. The whole FB thing has been very lacking comparatively.

Not sure if Ill continue the development of the white car here or start another thread though.

I can say this though - since being rolled into my garage, I've figured out the seating, namely lots of experimentation with a lot of different side mount and seat combinations. I have a few seats at my disposal thankfully. The OMP HTE-R with Planted steel side mounts gave me enough room to make everything work with the welded in seat rails.

Once I had the seating figured out, I moved to the pedals and had to remove the OMP gas pedal cover to get the appropriate height difference between brake and gas.

Then came the removal of the steering column and a full rebuild including removing the shaft with the welded QR and replacing it with a stock shaft from my wrecked e36. Of course to remove the vertically adjustable steering column took some figuring and eventually I had to cut apart the lever to remove the hardware keeping the housing to the welded in column support. With lever out of the way everything came apart very easily and to reinstall it I had to fabricate a spacer that was the width of the handle. The height is still adjustable just have to loosen a 70mm long bolt to do so.

As of last night, that project is complete my seat, seat position, momo hub, lifeline QR and Momo wheel in line where I want it with clear visibility of the AIM dash and shiftlights. Next up it fitting an Elian Motorsport floor panel.

-Mario