So I figured since nobody actually knows that I own this car, so I'm posting an update.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68503270@N02/
This is when I bought it. The PO's flickr link still works miraculously. Anyways, I bought this withmy friend Justin in the parking lot of a Loan Max in 2011. I had just sold my 'way more work than I am ready to invest in' LS6 Porsche 944 project, and a friend of a friend had a sketchy friend that was looking to get rid of a 1997 M3. Poor guy got a whopping $300 after paying off his 'we're repossessing this bitch' title loan on it. Like really, I test drove it in the parking lot, went inside and paid off the loan, got the title from the loan lady, and paid the guy $301.xx to reach the final sale price. It was a strange and fortuitous transaction.
Anyways, that was a long ass time ago. In fact, this is the longest I've ever owned any car. It started as a 'fix the stupid E36 M3 and make it a sunny day cruiser' for the first couple years. I even drove it out to Niagara Falls 9hrs to a friend's wedding, which was fun! Overall, the car was in pretty good shape, with lots of little, naggy stuff wrong with it. Unfortunately, the interior looked like someone got murdered in it. Poor Modena interior... I ended up fixing dumb stuff like broken side skirt clips, burnt out gauge cluster bulbs, broken a/c and radio (don't need those, junk it!), etc...
Cue rabbit hole- I started tracking the car in 2012 when I went to a BMWCCA skidpad event one fall and got completely hooked. I met up with a few instructors with very similar cars and age to me, and they became good friends. I started with autocross, then moved to HPDE's and Time trials. I was happy to report that, to that point, I put almost 30k miles on it, most of them involving racing or going to racing events, without the car skipping a beat save for periodic track maintenance.
It was at that point that stuff got real. Because the track bug bit me pretty good, I decided to park it over the winter and re-define the car's usage goals- A street registerable/inspectable track car that I could drive to the track, beat the snot out of it, and drive it back home. With that came a host of modifications- adjustable coilovers (Bilstein PSS9's, stickier tires, adding lightness, and poly/spherical bushings were all in store. I gutted the car, spent about 20 hours chipping the tar-like sound deadening insulation in the interior, installed fixed race buckets and a very nice 4 point bolt in cage, reinforced all towers, suspension pockeys that make e36's flexy pieces of poo under extreme service, and replaced every bushing on the car.
Then I went racing... for 2 events. The car performed admirably, but needed some tuning time.
In 2014... life happened. A yucky divorce, losing my garage, and a multitude of other issues in life sprung up, and I didn't get on track at all. 2015 didn't fare much better, with doing the bare minimum to keep my instructor credentials active in a car that needed serious maintenance.
Cue 2016 and almost present day and I have my garage back. My car, however, is a raging pile of junk. I had a huge battery current suck that was killing my battery within 3 days from fully charged. My windows or sunroof won't work (a pretty large problem considering track day rules require windows down), and a couple years of sitting outside at my dads have done a number on things. Coupled with general neglect, and the car was in a sorry situation
I finally got her moving under her own power this spring with a brand new battery, 5gal of fresh gas, and a couple rounds of the rosary. I drove her home from my parents completely out of tune, unregistered, and pretty well berkeleyed, but it didn't let me down.
This is the pic from that night.
First night in her new home!
Wait a minute. It's coming from the rear of the car, what the berkeley? Apparently in my 'I need to get all of my valuables out of the house before my soon to be ex wife pawns them on craigslist for what I actually told her I paid for them' haste, I stored all of my spare fluids in the car. In the trip to the house, one of the coolant jugs caught the spare tire bolt and punctured. Phew. I'll take a blown up coolant mess in the trunk over a broken radiator any and all days of the week.
So I emptied the car out, addressed my punch list by finding most of my electrical gremlins and going through all of my fluids and preventative maintenance. I'd take the car out for shakedowns, fix a couple things that came up, and park it for the next day.
Then, one sunny day, this happened-
That, my friends, is a severely dusty, dirty and smelly E36 M3 that is registered and at my office! Officially road-worthy again.
Then I cleaned her up a little bit-
Lipstick on a pig, but berkeleyit, run it. I also made an appointment with my friend who owns a BMW performance shop a couple hours away for a bunch of things I didn't have any business doing myself, including alignment, tune, and annual track inspection. I gave him carte blanche to go over my work, criticize any and all hack jobs, call me a dickhead for molesting a perfectly decent M3, etc... I also told him to shake it down and check every bolt, because I had thrown so much E36 M3 at it that I was sure I'd overlooked or forgot to tighten something.
I drove it down the 2 hours to Wile Motorsport 2 weeks last Saturday... In 95 degree weather... in a black car... with no interior... or a/c... in a fixed seat Cobra and 6pt harnesses... after doing a tough mudder... hungover... Besides the driver being completely berkeleying miserable, coolant and oil temps were the best I'd seen, ever. the new oil cooler and radiator definitely improved temps underhood. Also, no LEAKS!
Fast forward to yesterday and it was on the lift for 4 hours. Aside from a sticky rear brake caliper which was rebuilt, the car got the thumbs up and track-ready blessing.
The car did so well at the shop that it even got a shiny new +80hp windshield sticker! Does this mean I'm sponsored?!
So the plan for this year is autocross next sunday, then a 2 day instructor DE at Palmer Motorsports Park in MA, followed by the big 3 day time trial at NHMS in October. I'm excited to get some miles on in its current iteration. Lots of new go-fast and handle better parts have been installed and haven't been road tested. I'm sure the car will take some time to dial, but I'm excited to see what it can do.
Anyways, the end. Figured I'd at least update people so they know I actually do work on cars.
ALSO ALSO, Bonus points if anyone can point out the 'WTF is that???' in the pics. The answer is worth asking the question, haha.
