My Garage Imaginarium

For the record though about VEMS - it might be old and unglamorous but it's really tough to beat, even at higher pricepoints. It's one of the reasons I resisted changing for so long - because short of something like the Infinity 7 or a Motec M150, there's really nothing out there that wouldn't be a backwards step in one way or another (for various reasons but one of the biggest ones being the dashboard - many guys with standalones I see don't even have a fuel level gauge on their dash or a relatively straightforward way of adding one). Even though I'm leaving the club, I do wish them well and I hope this new platform they're working on makes them a modern contender.

Need new tires, good time to go bigger...

WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? Finally the car works perfectly, is tuned perfectly, drives perfectly... so obviously the best thing to do is to rip it all out. Sucks how easy things are to ruin after they were built. It's a good thing this car has developed my imagination as a coping mechanism because while the end product is exciting, it still starts with some BIG steps back.

It's not a car, it's an engineering exercise. <- that's what I tell myself when I have big setbacks. Self inflicted or otherwise.

Keep us posted on the progress with these changes!

Mezzanine said:

It's not a car, it's an engineering exercise. <- that's what I tell myself when I have big setbacks. Self inflicted or otherwise.

Keep us posted on the progress with these changes!

Yeah, and up until the events of this year, I started accepting the idea that I may just be a builder, that the car would never really see any action. And I would have been fine with that. It truly is primarily a learning exercise. Pretty much everything I've done to this car is the first time I've done it. So the fact that it all works and works as well as it does is, well, frankly mind blowing.

Will do! The parts which will remove the need for the fusebox should be here Wednesday.

BigD said:

Will do! The parts which will remove the need for the fusebox should be here Wednesday.

PDM? You tease! Which one are you going with? I was sorely tempted to go this route but I just couldn't justify the cost in a casual use mostly street car.

Mezzanine said:

PDM? You tease! Which one are you going with? I was sorely tempted to go this route but I just couldn't justify the cost in a casual use mostly street car.

You'll see :) Well, put it this way, if I could afford Motec, I wouldn't be here talking to any of you plebs. I'd be at the airport 2nd floor looking down through the glass at you people.

I have been drooling at the idea for a long time since I was introduced to it, since it is such a perfect and obvious solution for a racecar. But I couldn't justify the cost, even the non-Motec version. But now redoing the whole dash wiring, it made me cringe having to continue mcgyvering the E30 fusebox so I decided I need to go solid state at the same time. All the gauges are coming out, all switches and buttons (incl blinker/light and wiper stalks), except for the fire handle and two rotary knobs for boost and TC. The rest will be replaced by one keypad and the AEM dash.

Awwyeah!

Making good progress. Got all the ECU wires labeled, same with the relevant chassis side stuff except for the pickup pumps and fuel level, just need to isolate and clean that up, and the fuse box can come out. It's a bit nuts how much this project is simplifying the wiring. The first wiring pic is after I already removed the traction control, that was an additional big pile of wire.

Starting to brainstorm a pretty 3D panel to show off the new hardware and mount things solidly.

The final goodies to complete my wiring madness have arrived. Going to wire all the grounds to that bus bar instead of ring terminals and the MSEL main relay instead of a kill switch.

One of the last remants of 80s BMWness is gone

Almost there! Now to design a panel to mount the new hardware and start crimping pins.

Alu mandrel bends, plate, thin plywood and balsa... what does this have to do with a dashboard? Not sure yet but should be fun!

Starting to look like something... Hope to get the hardware mounted and dash prepped or almost prepped to go for carbon work.

Making progress, a lot more work than I envisioned, definitely need a plasma cutter. But so far so good. Platform for the new hardware is ready, moving on to the dashboard, hopefully get it done this week and off to get the carbon treatment

My new outers arrived for the front rims to turn them into 11s for the 315s

Was sent this pic of my car from one of the events this year. Such an amazing year of milestones for it that it's still hard to believe but I'm actually looking forward to driving it next year and making more progress rather than wondering if next year is the year I actually get to drive it as I meant to

Getting close!

Good lord!  Every few months I check in, and this car gets crazier and crazier.  At some point in the near future when I next check in, I expect this thing to have antigravity propulsion and landing skids.

I actually thought about putting a flux capacitor in with this project but at 700 bucks they're either high off their ass or it actually works but they priced it so no one would mess with the space/time continuum

https://www.amazon.com/DIAMOND-SELECT-TOYS-Back-Future/dp/B001M5PTQM

Home stretch, once the right wall is done, a bit of glazing putty, some finish sanding and off to get a skin.

There is a future for you in bespoke hand dryers--Dyson has nothing on you when it comes to design.  That said, if you could find a more appealing process than hand blowing, your work may find a purpose in Hollywood, where pointless and expensive come together like magic (profit!).  Perhaps the key is your design and fab presented as a face dryer that will not negate the great benefits of various surgical procedures or man-makeup.

In all seriousness, I am a huge fan of the car and your fabricational tangents.  Rock on with your crazy!

I like it! I'll talk to Borg Warner at PRI, maybe they can supply me some titanium EFR wheels to make titanium Borg Warner hand dryers out of! They'll come complete with anti-lag mode for the important man on the go.

Haha, thanks a lot!

Getting there. Going to dig into the rear bodywork this weekend and hopefully get it all filled, sanded and primed and paint next week. It's getting too cold to paint so hopefully I can get enough heat in there consistently for a few days. Cleaned up my garage too, I can actually see the floor and my workbench again! Dash is progressing nicely too and it's turning out quite sexual.

I need Adderall. A lot of it.

Feels like I'm over the hump, hopefully things are downhill from here, in a good way. Less than a month to PRI

My name is Darth Vader. I am an extra-terrestrial from the planet Vulcan!

Is the car going to be at PRI? I'm having some strong book-a-ticket-and-go-last-minute thoughts. I'd love a chance to see this thing and meet you in person!

Mezzanine said:

Is the car going to be at PRI? I'm having some strong book-a-ticket-and-go-last-minute thoughts. I'd love a chance to see this thing and meet you in person!

Yessir, at the ARE drysump booth. Kinda crazy that my hooptie will have pretty prime placement, their booth is one of the most prominent, they're next to ATI, at the corridor where all the traffic goes between the halls, by the machining gear.

Precious is home! Need to be patient to install it, gotta clean the car up after painting and finish the wiring. SOON