For the last few years I’ve been trying to cajole my friends into building a car, and just never got anywhere. So I brought it up with the local autocross guys. I had imagined getting 4-5 guys interested and we could try to get a car fielded for the end of 2015. I have little driving or wrenching skills but I am the overly anal, organized/prepared and research type. I figured I’d have plenty of time to make my lists, budgets etc.
Well that all kind of got blown out of the water when the first guy that shows interest says he has a fully caged e36 that just had the engine rebuilt, just needs to be put back together! Awesome! However this has greatly accelerated our time frame. I’m desperately trying to put together a realistic budget so everyone knows this is NOT a $500 race endeavor, but something that is a black hole of money.
What is a standard spare parts list consist of? Anything e36 specific that we should bring extras of? How much fuel will one of these go through per hour (m50b25 engine?) how long will tires (probably rivals or star specs) last? What about rotors and pads? What are the weak points of the e36 we should address up front? What other pit equipment do you recommend?
Do yall have any budgets forms, or team agreements you’d be willing to share?
icaneat50eggs wrote:
Do yall have any budgets forms, or team agreements you’d be willing to share?
Team agreements can be found on the chumpcar forum with a little searching, I think. There's also a current thread over there on budgets. You're looking at $3k-5k per race, typically. Depends a lot on how long of a tow you have to get to the track and how big/heavy your car is.
As far as spares, the more you can have on hand, the better. Obviously, brakes and wheels/tires are going to be among the top priority. Specific to the car, I recall the e36 motor mounts being an issue, so you'll probably want those. I'm not familiar with the chassis though, so can't say what else.
You can read through my chumpcar build to get an idea of some of the other items you might want/need. I think I posted some comments about consumables that would be pretty similar with an e36 too (towards the end of the thread).
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/chumpcar-1992-lexus-sc300/75586/page1/
I'm struggling with the search I've found lots of discussion about team agreements but no actual docs.
our e36 returned about 6-7 mpg on track if I remember correctly. We would add 1 or 2 5 gallon cans each driver change, so about every 1.5-2 hours.
One set of tires would generally last us a weekend, but we would always have a spare set around (I think we used nitto 555s... but not sure on that). Same with brake pads and fluid. Surprising what taking 500lbs of stuff out of a 3000lb car will do for longevity of such things.
In terms of spares, think about what you can and can't fix trackside (this will depend on the group, of course, but it makes no sense to bring an extra engine if no one in the group will be willing to thrash it in and out in the middle of the night just to have no shot at winning the next day)
Bring a waterpump or two on any e36. Also rad hoses and clamps. Bring a radiator too. Brake light bulbs. Belts (bonus for planning a few different routings and lengths in case something happens to say the PS pump pulley). Fuel pump? ECU? Wheel bearings? Spark plugs and coils? General stuff like wires, tape (all kinds), zip ties, rags, pen and paper, whiteboard. I found that stop leak products can actually work, so it might be good to have a plethora of them. Nothing like a quick fix that keeps you on track.
Each event should have ALL fresh fluids on the car. This can be a significant expense by itself. Use good fluids.
Bushings/motor and trans mounts/etc should be fine during the race if they are all fresh to start with. on e36s the 'money shift' is usually linked back to failed trans mounts. Trans mounts are cheap and super simple on the e36. start with new ones.
icaneat50eggs wrote:
I have little driving or wrenching skills....
What is a standard spare parts list consist of? Anything e36 specific that we should bring extras of? How much fuel will one of these go through per hour (m50b25 engine?) how long will tires (probably rivals or star specs) last? What about rotors and pads? What are the weak points of the e36 we should address up front? What other pit equipment do you recommend?
I'm kind of in the same boat as you as far as limited wrenching skills, so I can't get overly technical. I only run LeMons, because I like to mix some fun in with my racing 
, but I imagine the consumables are similar between series.
Our team runs Rivals. Our Civic, which weighs in around 2200lbs, will get several races from a set of tires. We rotate them regularly to get the most wear out of them. Our boat, which has to weigh something like 3300-3400lbs, can also get a few races per set of Rivals. You've obviously got to make sure the suspension geometry is right (i.e. too much negative camber and you'll wear out the inside, etc...) and don't flat spot them. I don't know the E36 weight, but I'd guess it's a bit more towards the heavy side, so figure 2 races per set of tires, 3 at the most?
Just a wild guess, but I'd bet the E36 will take about 10-12 gallons of fuel for a 2 hour run that has few cautions.
For pit equipment...definitely a cart to pull your fueling jugs and related gear (fueling gloves, etc...) too and from the hot pits. Good air compressor and gun, torque wrench, low profile jack and good stands, box of nitrile gloves (a lot of our guys bring mechanics gloves, but we also wind up using lots of these) are just a few things off the top of my head. Plus as many tools as you can transport.
If you have multiple sets of tools, use an old climber trick that we use to keep track of caribiners and such. Buy a roll of colored electrical tape and wrap a stripe on each piece. Ratchets, wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers, everything. Then put a big stripe of that same color on your tool box. Now everyone knows the proper home for the tool they are holding. Bonus points if you choose a color like yellow or white, now you can use a sharpie to write the size of the wrench/socket on the tape in an easier to read format than what is stamped into the tool.
In reply to mazdeuce:
Hey, I used that same trick as a climber. I used a nice pastel pink, cut down on guys wanting to walk away with my stuff.
Speedjw
New Reader
11/4/14 8:37 a.m.
Don't forget pit support and driver comfort equipment. Most of these are one time purchase, but they do go into the overall budget.
- Fast fill fuel jugs (you want 5 gallons to dump in less than 20sec)
- Additional fuel storage and transportation equipment (5 gallon jugs and a cart?)
- Radio's (don't underestimate pit to car / car to pit communication)
- Driver cooling / comfort (lookup homemade cool suits, racing in florida in summer is BRUTAL!)
- Chairs for crew
- Canopy for crew
- Fan for pit stall
- Table for pit stall
- Cooler for food/drink
- Window cleaner
- Oil / Coolant / Brake Fluid / Gear Oil
- Spare Tires / Wheels
