A few photos from my visit to eFab today. The main hoop was bent and tack welded in. Cage should be done within 2 weeks. While this is taking place we have our wiring guy slimming down the main engine harness to include only the basic necessities. Since 95% of the factory systems are going bye bye, we should see some drastic weight savings from the harness and wiring (not to mention MUCH cleaner of a setup). I will be honest, the wiring side of things is what concerns me the most when dealing with a modern CANBUS vehicle. But I'm being reassured that I just need to let the professionals do what they do and trust them with it.
That said, some bad news. We discovered the suspension on the car is KW V3's and due to either PO install error or some design flaw with KW using all stainless materials (it doesn't rust though, right??
), the lower part of where the strut mounts to the rear lower control were busted up (threads were completely stripped on one, the other just broke off when we tried to remove the nut). KW said they can rebuild the rears for a reasonable amount, while the fronts are completely fine. Since we weren't planning on keeping them anyways, I'll gladly sell them to someone who wants a V3 setup for cheap (PM me if interested). That said, were working on lining up a killer MCS suspension setup that's dialed in specifically for this car. Should be a BIG upgrade over the V3's and much more track car oriented.
Not much has changed on the exterior
yet. Heard from Jake at HARD Motorsports today and they are finishing up the Leichtbau Widebody and should have it in the mail within the next few days. M-Tech bumper has arrived and will go on after cage is complete. New CSF radiator is ready for install, along with low temp HARD Motorsports oil cooler thermostat. Planning on venting the hood and installing aerocatch hood pins.
The plan is to run
sans aero kit for the next 10 months to really explore the limits of the car; then consider adding aero mid-season 2018 (completely dependent on how dialed in we can get the car by then).
PROGESS.
I'm a tall guy (6'3") and the e90 has plenty of room to fit the main hoop a little further back to accomodate me.
My what beefy plates you have
A view to from the front. Within two weeks, there should be many more bars in place. That's our male model and the mastermind behind this build; Eric with eFab over to the left giving his best Blue Steel impression
Below is the stock 335 lower control arm (bottom horizontal blackish/grayish piece). Because we need new suspension anyways, replacement M3 lower control arms on order to properly fix the stock crappy 335 design that uses a rubber bushing where the strut mounts to the lower control arm. The plan is to run 335 front suspension with M3 rear suspension since we're replacing the suspension with MCS's anyways. The m3 version uses a solid mount which translates to far less slop and better response/feedback
If planning to do this same upgrade that requires m3 rear struts, it's worth mentioning that brand new lower m3 control arms can either be bought new for $200+ per side ($400 total from Bimmerworld, ECS, etc.), or good condition used versions can be found ALL OVER eBay for a fraction of that. I found a good used pair for $150.
And for anyone wanting to upgrade from the crappy rubber bushing without going full M3 mode, AKG makes a rear lower shock mount which adapts the stock 335 rear dampener to a solid spherical bearing setup. That said, NVM will likely be increased. Link to said bushing:
https://www.akgmotorsport.com/produc...e9x-spherical/
I come from the e30 world prior to this and the 335 guibo is about twice the size of the e30's! It's YUUUGE.
Last pic... since we plan on running proper aero at some point, that means no more beautiful ECS Carbon Fiber CSL trunk. Excellent looks but we'll be running a full on wing at some point, and the CSL lid is unfortunately more for 'show' than it is for 'go'. I found a local enthusiast parting out a BSM LCI e90 with the stock trunk and tails for a good price, so that's going to be our setup going forward. That said, the Carbon Fiber pre-lci CSL boot lid is up for sale here:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1408443
(think we should keep the 328i badging??
)
