E36 M3 Track Day Preparation
By Thorney Motorsport
Whilst aging gracefully, the E36 remains one of the best to develop into a race car, its light shell, a myriad of racing parts being readily available and the relative cost of a donor car all add up to make the E36 M3 a great start point.
The crucial part of the development is the cage, whilst bolt in cages provide additioanl safety to a shell; a full multi point weld in cage is essential for multi series racing or racing on slicks where the extra stress of the tyre grip manifests itself in chassis flex in a bolt in caged car. We design our own cages based on many years of direct race experience, our E36, E46 and E92 cages all share a variety of common design features proven in racing and (sadly) in impacts. Our E46 cage survived a 60mph sideways hit into concrete wall with near zero intrusion into the passenger compartment despite the impact literally folding the shell over itself, the E36 cage shares the same overall design.
Getting the weight down on the E36 is relatively straight forward, a lot of course depends on the series in which the car will compete but carbon fibre or composite bodywork and lexan / perspex windows will alone make a dramatic difference.
With suspension a lot is determined by your budget and again series regulations. Bilstein have a well developed range for the E36 and are the preferred choice of a lot of German teams and are an excellent choice at all price points. However both Nitron and Moton have excellent race proven options that we have used to great effect, 2, 3 and 4 way adjustable options are available.
Brakes are a simple choice – Alcon or AP Racing, both have effective race kits readily available which we mate with Pagid RS29 pads, still unbeaten in our view.
As with all race car builds the devil is in the detail, we can provide any level of race car engineering you desire for any level of racing from Kumho through Britcar up to and including British and FIA GT. The race car building process is very much a partnership between us and the owner to achieve the perfect build for the right price.
New for the 2010 season is the E36 class in the CSL Cup, technical regulations allow for the E36 to compare well with the E46 cars and we can offer a complete service for E36 M3 design and build for the CSL Cup as well as keeping the car eligible for other series such as Kumho BMW and Britcar.
Of course we also offer a complete racing package from simple race weekend support to complete car storage, preparation and season team preparation, the choice is yours.
Contact John directly on 01908 238 798 to discuss any requirements.
