Slight change of plan...

I've spent the last week scraping glue-like sound deadening out of the car's interior. It was well worth the effort as I've ended up with a bin bag full of the stuff - approximately 7kgs of weight saved.





The car was due to go for paint last Monday, but Kev my painter has had the builders in and he isn't quite ready at his end. Just as well, because after a long discussion with my brother in law, Gareth, I've decided to send the car the car back to Brian for some more surgery. Weight is the first emeny of acceleration and I knew that the Beemer would need to go on a serious diet. After a good look around for more weight saving, I'm going to ask Brian to cut out the spare wheel well in the boot floor and plate it over. This should save a few more kilos and will also create a space underneath the car into which we can fabricate an air diffuser out of ally. The photo below shows the space created by getting rid of the spare wheel well and the rear valance cut away in prep for a rear air diffuser. Whilst the car is with Brian, we'll also look into the possibility of flaring the exhisting wheel arches.

Roll Cage Arrives!

Finally, I'm beginning to feel that I'm getting somewhere. Demon Tweeks might not be cheap, but their service is very good. I ordered this OMP 6 point bolt in cage at 4pm on a Thursday afternoon and it arrived at my work address 22hrs later!

The car is to go's to Kev Morgan my painter next Monday. He and I are going to prep the interior for paint before the roll cage is installed. Once in, the cage and the interior will be painted BMW Alpine white at the same time.

Keep Smiling!

Two months in and I'm still smiling- just! I knew it was going to be a lot of work, but not this much. I've decided not to use the fibreglass M3 replica wide arch bodykit. I've based my decision on:

1) The car is being built for sprinting and hillclimbing, which means driving at high speed inbetween trees/hedges/gatepost/etc. Should I hit anything (inevitable if I'm being realistic), there'd be shards of fibreglass everywhere and a lot more to fix.

2) The kit I bought was cheap and needed TLC to bring it back - at least 10-15 hours work to spruce it up and fit it. Time better spent elsewhere. Plus the money I got for it will help pay for the next major step ... the roll cage. An OMP 6 point bolt in has been ordered from Demon Twix for a pricey £467 delivered. It should arrive in the next few days.

So, for the time being, she'll remain un-arched. I am going to investigate the possiblity of modifying fibreglass Escort Mk2 arches to fit before she go's for paint...

Which brings me onto what's I'm doing right now. Kev, my painter has been up to see the car and we've discussed what I want. We've agreed on a solid BMW white with light blue/dark blue/red stripes. He's going to spray inside and outside the car and is going to wait until the cage is in before starting. In the meantime, I'm sanding and filing for hours and hours and hours...