"You just can't do anything the easy way, can you?"
The story of Frank N. Stein

Introduction:

    It's not that bad, really. It makes sense; you'll see. Let me explain. It all started when my chief financial officer kindly suggested that we have to pay for last years' adventures before we committed to any new ones. I took that to mean that we better forgo travel to distant BMW CCA Club Races and postpone our return to La Carrera Pan Americana for a year so that we could catch up on the credit cards.

     So...that meant it would be awhile before the '75 2002 race car would see any action---plenty of time to put into action some of the more time consuming projects I had been contemplating. Take the suspension, for example.

     In March at Tech Fest West I talked at length to Jeff Ireland of Ireland Engineering and Jay Morris of Ground Control about updating a 2002 suspension to something more modern. THEY didn't tell me I was crazy. Later I talked to Brett Anderson, probably the smartest BMW technician in the country, about which modern suspension would theoretically be the best to use under an old 2002, and HE didn't try to talk me out of it. So how bad can it be?

     Here's how it happened. A couple years of Club Racing has allowed me to make an observation: newer BMWs are faster and handle better. Logically continuing that thought, if my 2002 had a newer engine and suspension, it would be faster and better handling. 

     I considered and dismissed the E30 suspension as not sufficiently different or better that the 2002. The E36, on the other hand, now there's a modern suspension. But how could it fit under a 2002? It sure won't just bolt in. It seemed like the answer was to cut out the portions of the E36 floor that held the suspension and graft them into the floor of the 2002. That sounds relatively easy, but when reality steps in, the front suspension mounts/shock towers just don't readily lend themselves to any kind of simple transplant. What to do?

     The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like the only good way to accomplish the goal----complete modernization of the 2002 suspension----was to transplant the entire bottom panel of an E36 into a 2002 body. Of course, there were some potential problems: the wheel bases don't match and the E36 width is significantly more than the 2002. Well, wheelbases can be shortened and fenderflares can cover a myriad of sins, so those problems could be overcome----hopefully any others as well.

     THAT kind of project is NOT a modification project, it is more of a NEW race car project. Stripping an entire 2002 body, cutting out the complete bottom of the car, stripping an entire E36 body and cutting away everything except the bottom, shortening the E36 floor 8 inches, trimming away the details, fitting them together, making a really strong rollcage to put back the strength----it's a pretty big deal. Impossible? No. Sensible? No. Reasonable? Not even close. But fun? You bet!!

Project Progression:

October-December 2003
Rollcage construction. We bought a tubing bender and a notcher, ordered and received a bunch of special DOM seamless steel tubing, and did an extensive internet study of E36 and E46 factory roll cages. There is a Rollcage Symposium website that was instrumental in our final design. We have copied the factory E36 cage and modified it for a car 8 inches shorter. We have also closely examined factory E46 cages and added details to our cage that we learned from that examination.
We are very happy with this cage. The cage ties together every suspension mount point, adds substantial rigidity to the car, gives occupants an exceptional margin of safety in the event of roll-over or side intrusion, and looks very substantial.
We are also very ready to move on.

December 2003-January 2004
A bit of cosmetic prep now: flip the body upside down, clean off all the surface rust, prep the surface with a phosphoric acid surface prep, prime the metal with a metal etching primer, and finally paint all the bottom surfaces with bright Dakar Yellow.
Next, flip it over and do all the same things to the interior and roll cage. Painting a complete roll-cage is very time consuming and uses a lot of paint. Next, do the same thing to the inside of the roof and weld it back onto the car. NOW, it looks like it is really going to be a race car.

February 2004
Now it's my turn to work. Cleaning and preparing the front and rear subframes, welding in Turner reinforcements for the rear sway bar mounts and front motor mounts, installing Ground Control racing parts at the rear semi-trailing arm bushings, the rear lower control arms, and the front lower control arm bushings. Ground Control also sold us springs and front upper adjustable camber plates to go on our used but Bilstein rebuilt Group N racing struts. Stock E36 M3 rear brakes compliment front Euro E46 rotors with 4-piston Brembo calipers from an 850i. Finally, the complete front and rear subframe assemblies went into the waiting car---and the beast rolls!

March 2004
Next, of course, it needs an engine. We'll start with a '97 3.2 liter M3 S52 engine and replace the stock oil pan with the race pan made for the 95 M3 lightweight. This is the dual pick-up pan that has a two-stage pump where one picks up oil from a front sump and delivers it to the rear for constant supply to the engine. Beautiful!
Ebay supplied us with a set of Euro M3 headers to bolt on. A new aluminum flywheel and stock M3 clutch went inside the bellhousing of the stock M3 trans with a JT Design racing trans mount bolted on. The plastic water pump and thermostat housing were replaced with real ones and the stock OBD II intake was removed and chucked
Duncan helped me install the engine and trans; then I finished the OBD I conversion. Lookin' good.

April 2004
It's Paul Webb's turn:
First Paul parked a 95 325ic parts car besides the race car and began removing and transferring brake components. He started with the ABS hydraulic unit, then one-by-one all the steel brake lines. Finally he removed the entire wiring harness from the parts car and cut out the complete ABS harness---that's a huge job!

Late 2004- Late 2005
Bodywork, bodywork, bodywork! Paint, paint, paint. Take a look below:

2006

Details, details, details! Radiator, nose section body reinforcement, fuel cell, hydraulics, dash, wiring, brake lights, fuel line and 'AN' fittings, more, more and more!

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