basedspider

Well today I went to the Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds for the CVSCC Autocross event! My first time doing anything directly motorsport related and was a good space to see how the car handles some stress and feel if there is anything with it that needs attention.
My first real lap with the car I got a time of 58.9, but I was trying to feel out the course still and it had rained earlier so the track was still wet with a few puddles. By the end of the session I had gotten down to a 52.9 with 1 cone casualty. The drivetrain felt a little bit stressed, but with the current ride height in the front I spent a lot of time riding the fender liners, whoops! I also noticed the front end felt pretty loose and the rear end felt very much all over the place. Before the next session I went to adjust my dampening to all the way hard and noticed both front coils and the passenger rear dampening were all 10 clicks from the hardest setting, and meanwhile the driver rear was all the way soft 🤦‍♂️ that explained the rear end felt less than ideal.

Next session came and I had my fiancée riding shotgun, by the final lap I had gotten down to a 50.2 with 0 cone casualties which I felt very proud of. The car had more speed in it, but even with the dampening maxed my front end still felt loose and I had cooked my brakes by the end. Plus I am sure my fender liners are worse for wear after all the stress they endured too 😂

I am going to be moving forward with upgrading the front control arms to ZHP arms, replacing tie rods, getting better brakes, raising the front ride height, and also rolling with a stiffer sway bar setup and seeing how the car goes forward with that setup. The cooling system has not had any hiccups /yet/ but I would like to work on that as well.

Overall a fantastic experience and I cannot wait to get back out there again next year!

Well today I went to the Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds for the CVSCC Autocross event! My first time doing anything directly motorsport related and was a good space to see how the car handles some stress and feel if there is anything with it that needs attention.
My first real lap with the car I got a time of 58.9, but I was trying to feel out the course still and it had rained earlier so the track was still wet with a few puddles. By the end of the session I had gotten down to a 52.9 with 1 cone casualty. The drivetrain felt a little bit stressed, but with the current ride height in the front I spent a lot of time riding the fender liners, whoops! I also noticed the front end felt pretty loose and the rear end felt very much all over the place. Before the next session I went to adjust my dampening to all the way hard and noticed both front coils and the passenger rear dampening were all 10 clicks from the hardest setting, and meanwhile the driver rear was all the way soft 🤦‍♂️ that explained the rear end felt less than ideal.

Next session came and I had my fiancée riding shotgun, by the final lap I had gotten down to a 50.2 with 0 cone casualties which I felt very proud of. The car had more speed in it, but even with the dampening maxed my front end still felt loose and I had cooked my brakes by the end. Plus I am sure my fender liners are worse for wear after all the stress they endured too 😂

I am going to be moving forward with upgrading the front control arms to ZHP arms, replacing tie rods, getting better brakes, raising the front ride height, and also rolling with a stiffer sway bar setup and seeing how the car goes forward with that setup. The cooling system has not had any hiccups /yet/ but I would like to work on that as well.

Overall a fantastic experience and I cannot wait to get back out there again next year!

Love them so far! They ride good for a daily setup on the softer settings, and when you go max-hard it stiffens up a decent amount. Ive noticed the front end still seems to be a bit loose, but that could be something to do with the stock sway bar setup or old bushings.

Well today I went to the Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds for the CVSCC Autocross event! My first time doing anything directly motorsport related and was a good space to see how the car handles some stress and feel if there is anything with it that needs attention.
My first real lap with the car I got a time of 58.9, but I was trying to feel out the course still and it had rained earlier so the track was still wet with a few puddles. By the end of the session I had gotten down to a 52.9 with 1 cone casualty. The drivetrain felt a little bit stressed, but with the current ride height in the front I spent a lot of time riding the fender liners, whoops! I also noticed the front end felt pretty loose and the rear end felt very much all over the place. Before the next session I went to adjust my dampening to all the way hard and noticed both front coils and the passenger rear dampening were all 10 clicks from the hardest setting, and meanwhile the driver rear was all the way soft 🤦‍♂️ that explained the rear end felt less than ideal.

Next session came and I had my fiancée riding shotgun, by the final lap I had gotten down to a 50.2 with 0 cone casualties which I felt very proud of. The car had more speed in it, but even with the dampening maxed my front end still felt loose and I had cooked my brakes by the end. Plus I am sure my fender liners are worse for wear after all the stress they endured too 😂

I am going to be moving forward with upgrading the front control arms to ZHP arms, replacing tie rods, getting better brakes, raising the front ride height, and also rolling with a stiffer sway bar setup and seeing how the car goes forward with that setup. The cooling system has not had any hiccups /yet/ but I would like to work on that as well.

Overall a fantastic experience and I cannot wait to get back out there again next year!

Also forgot I got these finally. Been back ordered for like 2 years, feel like I just won the lottery

Dude I was wondering what happened with this car! Just made a comment to Ethyn the other day about it. Glad to see it back on the road, looks RAD with those BBS on it. How do you like the FA coilovers?

Been a while since I have been active on this forum. My BMW ambition left me for a while, but now that this car is back in action I figured it would be a good time to reenter the community.
So, a bit of backstory. June 2020, on my way home to get milk I got in an accident in my BRZ and insurance ended up totalling it. My '90 miata wasnt quite cutting it with no AC, and my truck gets a solid 11mpg on a good day so I went searching for another daily. Ended up finding this 2001 BMW 330i local to me:

Not too interesting of a spec, 330i 5spd with the mtech1 appearance package. Sunroof, fine wood trim, silver on grey interior. I was told there was no mods done to it, which I later figured out to be untrue but I will get into that. It drove amazing and handled great, had really good maintainence history, and  seemed solid aside from 1 issue... it had a bad throwout bearing. Price reflected such, and knowing that I bought the car anyway. Time to get to work.
Anyone who knows me personally knows that I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew, and I took a hard left down that route right off the bat. I noticed looking under it one day and noticed that there was only 1 exhaust pipe going towards the rear, indicating that somehow the car had a 323/328 exhaust on it. To counteract, I ordered Active Autowerke catless headers and went Magnaflow the rest of the way back. Then I got to thinking, and after weighing my options for a new clutch setup I decided to go with an ECS single mass flywheel conversion kit and went to FCP for a trans refresh kit. On top of those things I ordered Fortune Auto 500 coilovers to pull the suspension together. Mind you, I ordered all of these things knowing I have never pulled a transmission in my life, let alone on a BMW.
Well now it comes time to pull the trans. Start pulling the car apart and I notice the car has rear poly bushings which was a great surprise! Get the trans off with the help of some friends, pull the clutch/pressure plate/flywheel and noticed that it already had a single mass conversion done, and as expected my throwout bearing was trashed. Start working through the refresh, rear main seal, etc and once I am done with that I start going through the process to pull the headers. Comes time to pull the passenger side motor mount and since I didnt have my cherry picker at the time, I go to properly jack up the motor to pull it out and notice that since the trans isnt on the car I cant get it to jack up on that side, only jacks up the front. I made the decision to wait until the trans is back on to reattempt that. I start to reassemble and go to install the flywheel and realize the flywheel lock kit I bought was complete shit and I ordered one.
Life happens, the car sits and I lose some ambition. Few months roll by I clean up the garage, get a nice heater, and get back to work. Get the flywheel, pressure plate, and clutch installed and its time to reinstall the trans. I have issues getting the starter lined up with the trans bolts I decided it was easiest to pull the intake manifold so that I can properly reinstall the starter and have easier access to some of the other top bolts. Take a day with beer and good friends and pull the intake. Then life happened again and the car sat for another month or two. Come back into the garage and see parts all over the floor (some of which i dont recognize at all), unlabeled bags of bolts, a trans missing half of the bolts, and an ambition level at an all time low. I say "uncle" and send the car unfinished to a shop with a trunk full of parts.
A few hiccups with the shop later, last week it came home and in its best form yet. I got new tires and refinished the BBS RC303s I bought from @Rekpoint and the car has pulled together well. Now its time to dial the car in and clean it up a bit, and enjoy it.

Been a while since I have been active on this forum. My BMW ambition left me for a while, but now that this car is back in action I figured it would be a good time to reenter the community.
So, a bit of backstory. June 2020, on my way home to get milk I got in an accident in my BRZ and insurance ended up totalling it. My '90 miata wasnt quite cutting it with no AC, and my truck gets a solid 11mpg on a good day so I went searching for another daily. Ended up finding this 2001 BMW 330i local to me:

Not too interesting of a spec, 330i 5spd with the mtech1 appearance package. Sunroof, fine wood trim, silver on grey interior. I was told there was no mods done to it, which I later figured out to be untrue but I will get into that. It drove amazing and handled great, had really good maintainence history, and  seemed solid aside from 1 issue... it had a bad throwout bearing. Price reflected such, and knowing that I bought the car anyway. Time to get to work.
Anyone who knows me personally knows that I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew, and I took a hard left down that route right off the bat. I noticed looking under it one day and noticed that there was only 1 exhaust pipe going towards the rear, indicating that somehow the car had a 323/328 exhaust on it. To counteract, I ordered Active Autowerke catless headers and went Magnaflow the rest of the way back. Then I got to thinking, and after weighing my options for a new clutch setup I decided to go with an ECS single mass flywheel conversion kit and went to FCP for a trans refresh kit. On top of those things I ordered Fortune Auto 500 coilovers to pull the suspension together. Mind you, I ordered all of these things knowing I have never pulled a transmission in my life, let alone on a BMW.
Well now it comes time to pull the trans. Start pulling the car apart and I notice the car has rear poly bushings which was a great surprise! Get the trans off with the help of some friends, pull the clutch/pressure plate/flywheel and noticed that it already had a single mass conversion done, and as expected my throwout bearing was trashed. Start working through the refresh, rear main seal, etc and once I am done with that I start going through the process to pull the headers. Comes time to pull the passenger side motor mount and since I didnt have my cherry picker at the time, I go to properly jack up the motor to pull it out and notice that since the trans isnt on the car I cant get it to jack up on that side, only jacks up the front. I made the decision to wait until the trans is back on to reattempt that. I start to reassemble and go to install the flywheel and realize the flywheel lock kit I bought was complete shit and I ordered one.
Life happens, the car sits and I lose some ambition. Few months roll by I clean up the garage, get a nice heater, and get back to work. Get the flywheel, pressure plate, and clutch installed and its time to reinstall the trans. I have issues getting the starter lined up with the trans bolts I decided it was easiest to pull the intake manifold so that I can properly reinstall the starter and have easier access to some of the other top bolts. Take a day with beer and good friends and pull the intake. Then life happened again and the car sat for another month or two. Come back into the garage and see parts all over the floor (some of which i dont recognize at all), unlabeled bags of bolts, a trans missing half of the bolts, and an ambition level at an all time low. I say "uncle" and send the car unfinished to a shop with a trunk full of parts.
A few hiccups with the shop later, last week it came home and in its best form yet. I got new tires and refinished the BBS RC303s I bought from @Rekpoint and the car has pulled together well. Now its time to dial the car in and clean it up a bit, and enjoy it.

Talk about diving into the deep end 😂 I hear ya though, ambition is hard sometimes especially when things go downhill like that. Enjoy the car, looks like a great daily.

Been a while since I have been active on this forum. My BMW ambition left me for a while, but now that this car is back in action I figured it would be a good time to reenter the community.
So, a bit of backstory. June 2020, on my way home to get milk I got in an accident in my BRZ and insurance ended up totalling it. My '90 miata wasnt quite cutting it with no AC, and my truck gets a solid 11mpg on a good day so I went searching for another daily. Ended up finding this 2001 BMW 330i local to me:

Not too interesting of a spec, 330i 5spd with the mtech1 appearance package. Sunroof, fine wood trim, silver on grey interior. I was told there was no mods done to it, which I later figured out to be untrue but I will get into that. It drove amazing and handled great, had really good maintainence history, and  seemed solid aside from 1 issue... it had a bad throwout bearing. Price reflected such, and knowing that I bought the car anyway. Time to get to work.
Anyone who knows me personally knows that I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew, and I took a hard left down that route right off the bat. I noticed looking under it one day and noticed that there was only 1 exhaust pipe going towards the rear, indicating that somehow the car had a 323/328 exhaust on it. To counteract, I ordered Active Autowerke catless headers and went Magnaflow the rest of the way back. Then I got to thinking, and after weighing my options for a new clutch setup I decided to go with an ECS single mass flywheel conversion kit and went to FCP for a trans refresh kit. On top of those things I ordered Fortune Auto 500 coilovers to pull the suspension together. Mind you, I ordered all of these things knowing I have never pulled a transmission in my life, let alone on a BMW.
Well now it comes time to pull the trans. Start pulling the car apart and I notice the car has rear poly bushings which was a great surprise! Get the trans off with the help of some friends, pull the clutch/pressure plate/flywheel and noticed that it already had a single mass conversion done, and as expected my throwout bearing was trashed. Start working through the refresh, rear main seal, etc and once I am done with that I start going through the process to pull the headers. Comes time to pull the passenger side motor mount and since I didnt have my cherry picker at the time, I go to properly jack up the motor to pull it out and notice that since the trans isnt on the car I cant get it to jack up on that side, only jacks up the front. I made the decision to wait until the trans is back on to reattempt that. I start to reassemble and go to install the flywheel and realize the flywheel lock kit I bought was complete shit and I ordered one.
Life happens, the car sits and I lose some ambition. Few months roll by I clean up the garage, get a nice heater, and get back to work. Get the flywheel, pressure plate, and clutch installed and its time to reinstall the trans. I have issues getting the starter lined up with the trans bolts I decided it was easiest to pull the intake manifold so that I can properly reinstall the starter and have easier access to some of the other top bolts. Take a day with beer and good friends and pull the intake. Then life happened again and the car sat for another month or two. Come back into the garage and see parts all over the floor (some of which i dont recognize at all), unlabeled bags of bolts, a trans missing half of the bolts, and an ambition level at an all time low. I say "uncle" and send the car unfinished to a shop with a trunk full of parts.
A few hiccups with the shop later, last week it came home and in its best form yet. I got new tires and refinished the BBS RC303s I bought from @Rekpoint and the car has pulled together well. Now its time to dial the car in and clean it up a bit, and enjoy it.

Tail of the Dragon! This has always been a bucket list road for me, and it blew my expectations out of the water. Not only are the curves a blast, but most of them are banked too! The ride height wasn’t ideal for this and we had a couple rubs. Strangely enough only from the passenger rear, where it was tapping the fender liner.
 
Love this little 328 though. Tackled 2,000mi and being pushed at tail of the dragon without a break. Impressed how smooth it is!

Hey man, HF is always there to help drop your car down to the ground real quick!

Hey all lol, its been a while.

My E36 has been on jackstands due to life things. Hopefully will be cranking it out in the next couple weeks.

Crashed my BRZ daily, so depending on if it ends up getting totaled I have my eyes on an E46 330i to be its replacement

As title states, looking for a 2001-2005 E46 330i midpipe and possibly a factory catback. Unsure if the 325i uses the same one but if so, that would be fine

With your history maybe public transit is more your speed.

Hey all lol, its been a while.

My E36 has been on jackstands due to life things. Hopefully will be cranking it out in the next couple weeks.

Crashed my BRZ daily, so depending on if it ends up getting totaled I have my eyes on an E46 330i to be its replacement

As title states ❤️ 

Got the brackets for the BBK back from the powdercoater today, they look great!

Currently nothing has really changed about the car, Im still getting some parts here and there so I am kinda waiting to have all my ducks in a row before I really tear into it. But soon it will be time to start the project, and I will be uploading some videos to my youtube channel on the process in case anyone is interested.

Got the brackets for the BBK back from the powdercoater today, they look great!

Currently nothing has really changed about the car, Im still getting some parts here and there so I am kinda waiting to have all my ducks in a row before I really tear into it. But soon it will be time to start the project, and I will be uploading some videos to my youtube channel on the process in case anyone is interested.

Hey all! Its been a minute since my last post, but ive been in the business of acquiring parts recently. I was very lucky to be able to pick up these throwing stars and a UUC BBK for my e36 from @ChrisO!!

So for the throwing stars, they are 17x8 square off of an E34 M5. Also the wheel with the center cap pictured has a small crack, so I am hoping to get that welded up when I get the new tires mounted and installed. The SSBC calipers also seem to be in really good condition. I was very lucky because Chris was also able to supply the mounting hardware and brackets and Im planning on having all the stuff cleaned up before I get it on the car. 

I was also very lucky because @Rekpoint was able to find me this awesome Eibach strut bar for a pretty good deal! I have some more parts on the way, and I will make some more posts as stuff comes in

Hey all! Its been a minute since my last post, but ive been in the business of acquiring parts recently. I was very lucky to be able to pick up these throwing stars and a UUC BBK for my e36 from @ChrisO!!

So for the throwing stars, they are 17x8 square off of an E34 M5. Also the wheel with the center cap pictured has a small crack, so I am hoping to get that welded up when I get the new tires mounted and installed. The SSBC calipers also seem to be in really good condition. I was very lucky because Chris was also able to supply the mounting hardware and brackets and Im planning on having all the stuff cleaned up before I get it on the car. 

I was also very lucky because @Rekpoint was able to find me this awesome Eibach strut bar for a pretty good deal! I have some more parts on the way, and I will make some more posts as stuff comes in

Hey all! Its been a minute since my last post, but ive been in the business of acquiring parts recently. I was very lucky to be able to pick up these throwing stars and a UUC BBK for my e36 from @ChrisO!!

So for the throwing stars, they are 17x8 square off of an E34 M5. Also the wheel with the center cap pictured has a small crack, so I am hoping to get that welded up when I get the new tires mounted and installed. The SSBC calipers also seem to be in really good condition. I was very lucky because Chris was also able to supply the mounting hardware and brackets and Im planning on having all the stuff cleaned up before I get it on the car. 

I was also very lucky because @Rekpoint was able to find me this awesome Eibach strut bar for a pretty good deal! I have some more parts on the way, and I will make some more posts as stuff comes in

Hey all! Its been a minute since my last post, but ive been in the business of acquiring parts recently. I was very lucky to be able to pick up these throwing stars and a UUC BBK for my e36 from @ChrisO!!

So for the throwing stars, they are 17x8 square off of an E34 M5. Also the wheel with the center cap pictured has a small crack, so I am hoping to get that welded up when I get the new tires mounted and installed. The SSBC calipers also seem to be in really good condition. I was very lucky because Chris was also able to supply the mounting hardware and brackets and Im planning on having all the stuff cleaned up before I get it on the car. 

I was also very lucky because @Rekpoint was able to find me this awesome Eibach strut bar for a pretty good deal! I have some more parts on the way, and I will make some more posts as stuff comes in

Hey all! Its been a minute since my last post, but ive been in the business of acquiring parts recently. I was very lucky to be able to pick up these throwing stars and a UUC BBK for my e36 from @ChrisO!!

So for the throwing stars, they are 17x8 square off of an E34 M5. Also the wheel with the center cap pictured has a small crack, so I am hoping to get that welded up when I get the new tires mounted and installed. The SSBC calipers also seem to be in really good condition. I was very lucky because Chris was also able to supply the mounting hardware and brackets and Im planning on having all the stuff cleaned up before I get it on the car. 

I was also very lucky because @Rekpoint was able to find me this awesome Eibach strut bar for a pretty good deal! I have some more parts on the way, and I will make some more posts as stuff comes in