05-26-2016, 11:32 PM | #1 |
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SCTS Racing M4 Race Car Build
Hi All -
Recent edit: It has come to my attention that the links to most of the pics have somehow changed and are now broken. I will try to fix them, but in the meantime, I will at least try to put a link to the photo album the pictures are in at the beginning of the section where they appear. So the first album is 2015 M4 Build (58 pics): https://www.facebook.com/26857413333...00953356760647 After 10+ years of racing, we recently lost a race car to bad crash at VIR. The driver was not injured, but it did present an opportunity for us to start over and build a new car. So with this thread, we're going to try and take you through every step of the build process and on into its racing days. Here in 2016, we thought our best choice for a BMW race car was the M4. So we started the search and found this car at a salvage auction yard in Anaheim, Ca. More pictures from our visit to the yard to see the car are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/1124397...eat=directlink It had some obvious right front suspension damage. It looked like the car had spun and stopped on a curb. The wheel was crushed, the hub still bolted to the wheel pulled off the knuckle, the wheel went back and contacted the front sub frame and then damaged the fender on it's way away from the car So we decided to go ahead and get that car. It was about $35K with auction fees. Then we had the fun of getting it home. Scary to see them bring the car out just like this length-wise on the forklift. With the car in gear and no power, it took an hour for us to get it off the flatbed and into the garage, but we got it there. So we had us an M4.
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05-26-2016, 11:46 PM | #2 |
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So now that we had an M4 home in the garage, the first thing is to try and get that car rolling on 4 wheels. We got a lower control arm, wishbone arm, knuckle, hub and some brake rotors.
But the first problem we encountered is the fact that with the BST cable blown and the battery dead, we couldn't get power to the car or open the trunk to get to the battery. We 'broke in' through the rear bumper cover and battery vent to pull the emergency release handle. These cars have an awesome Li-ion battery (saves 25 lbs. over the old batteries) and we were able to get it out and charged
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05-27-2016, 12:40 AM | #3 |
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So we changed the Lower Control Arm, Wishbone Arm, Knuckle, Hub and put on some RacingBrake.com rotors
The old parts along with the damaged fender went out in the alley to ybe picked up by the metal re-cyclers We also had to re-squeeze the BST cable back together to get battery power to the car. We were also able to start stripping the car of the interior of the car so we could sell it and the 3 wheels/tires that were on the car.
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05-27-2016, 08:21 AM | #6 |
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Nice.
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05-27-2016, 08:19 PM | #7 |
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So along with the leather interior, we stripped out a bunch of the rest of the car. It's amazing how much stuff can fit into a car, that when you take it out, it could fill up a room. More pics of stuff coming out of the car are here:
https://www.facebook.com/sctsracetea...00953356760647 Craig, Steve and Vince with the seats out and now looking to get the carpet out Here's what a BMW M4 interior looks like on a pallet ready to ship to NJ
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05-27-2016, 08:27 PM | #8 |
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Now that we had the car stripped out for the most part and some suspension on the right front, it was time to source a right front fender, a race seat and some harnesses.
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05-27-2016, 11:48 PM | #10 |
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So when I opened the garage on Sat. morning of the first weekend to work on the car, we had yet to even power up the car. By the time we closed the garage on Sunday night, it was running and able to move under its own power on all four wheels. Doesn't seem like much, but for having the char home for one weekend, we felt pretty good. Oh, and the car is already half stripped out to be a race car.
(If somebody knows how to post these so they show up as videos, let me know) Video1 - starting the M4: The salvage yard said the car started and ran, but until we saw it for ourselves, you can never be sure. https://www.facebook.com/sctsracetea...9122029277113/ Video 2 - moving the M4: The only wheel we had for the right front was an APEX EC-7 with ya 300x18 tire on it and on a 12mm spacer. So we were only comfortable going forward and backwards at first. https://www.facebook.com/sctsracetea...9122929277023/
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05-29-2016, 12:26 AM | #11 |
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Thanks. It was a really long hard weekend that first weekend with the car, but we got so much done, it was a real sense of accomplishment to have that salvaged car running and rolling.
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05-29-2016, 01:27 AM | #12 |
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This is a great read!!! Keep it coming!
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05-29-2016, 09:51 AM | #13 |
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This will be interesting to see how you and the car deal with heat. water, oil and am guessing you will be running oem dct. Plus as you know on the leading edge of development for this car as I don't know of anyone else running a M4 in North America. There are some running the M4 in GT4 in Europe. Any thoughts on cooling and or suspension parts and development?
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05-29-2016, 09:02 PM | #15 | |
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I don't believe they ever went racing with it, however. https://www.turnermotorsport.com/t-project_F80_m3 a
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05-29-2016, 09:13 PM | #16 | ||
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05-29-2016, 09:53 PM | #17 | |
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The plan for us is to start slow in Sport class and see how little aftermarket we can put on the car and still race it.
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05-29-2016, 11:28 PM | #18 |
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For reference, pics for the next section of the thread are in the album M4 Build Part 2:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/sctsrace...07550072767642 Part of the problem from weekend 1 was that our Apex ARC-8 18" wheels will not fit over the M4 front brakes. And the only Apex EC-7 wheels we had were 18x10.5" with 300x18 tires. So we needed to solve that. Apex 18x9.5" wheels to the rescue and some Achilles 123S tires in 265/35x18 Figured if we're going to try to drive the car around the block, maybe we'd better get that race seat in. We went with the Sparco Pro ADV. Some steel plate, a hacksaw, a drill and a file and one race seat mounted. The trick is making sure the sliders stay square to each to other thru the whole slide range. So by the end of the 2nd weekend, we ended up with a car that could be driven around the block Video of Craig taking it for a spin around the block. Again, if anybody knows how to post this to this thread as a video, feel free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=gKxpfrSqamE
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05-29-2016, 11:52 PM | #19 |
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Okay, we had been able to drive it around the block and that was great but there was still some concern about the front sub-frame. So we found a frame shop to loan us a tram gauge so we could check out how straight the car is (or isn't). So get the car up in the air and get ready to measure
A tram gauge is a really accurate, telescoping caliper or ruler that can tell you how many millimeters apart 2 points are, even if it's over 10 feet apart. We measured cross-ways from the front sub-frame to the rear suspension all up and down the car. It came out straight to millimeter!!!! With the car straight and convinced we don't have to go to the frame shop, Ralph celebrated by doing a little home body work on the right front fender area.
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05-30-2016, 07:20 PM | #21 |
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More work to do. First, we stripped out the Limo tint
Wonder how BMWs are so stiff and sturdy now? Stuff like this 'main roll cage hoop" inside the b-pillar area. Time to get some harness attachments in. Sparco harnesses come with a 7/16"-20 thread eyebolt Harness attachment spreader plates need to be 40 sq. centimeters (5 cm x 8 cm) and need to be at least 3 mm thick Getting sub belt and lap belts mounted We needed something for the shifter box and all the controls and we didn't want to put the center console back in the car. So we decided to fab something out of some left over alumilite we had Craig came up with a way to use the shifter mounting structure. Here he is modifying it. To end up with this for our control console
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05-30-2016, 09:07 PM | #22 |
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Amazing work!
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