Carrera 3.2 to 3.5 R/T (Road and Track)

[Nick Moss]

This has been a long project that has been detailed on IB.com, and I have spared DDK the boredom of an impact bumper build, but I thought some of you may be interested in what has turned out to be quite a car.

I started with a cheap 1986 3.2, which had some history, and was surprisingly rust free.



I had intended to use it through the winter 2 years ago and while doing a Saturday morning service discovered a broken head stud, a very common failure of 3.2s.



By the end of that afternoon the engine was on the floor and partly dismantled. The original plan was to fit some new studs, a set of rings and valves/guides and get it back on the road quickly.

[Nick Moss]

A germ of an idea gestated into my vision of the ultimate 3.2. I considered fitting a 3.6 from a 964 or 993 but decided that I wanted to see how far a 3.2 based engine could be taken without turbocharging, so off went the various bits to Nick at Redtek with instructions to get over 300bhp. The orginal cases were cleaned, shuffle pinned, gas flowed. The standard 3.2 crank was balanced and reassembled with ARP bolts, the cases were also treated to a set of ARP head bolts to hold down the twin plugged heads onto Capricorn 100mm barrels and 10.5:1 JE pistons. A set of RSR spec cams came from Kent Cams. PMO supplied a set of 50mm throttle bodies



and Omex supplied the 710 ECU



1.75" headers came from OBX



The result:

[Nick Moss]

Meanwhile the body had the sunroof panel chopped out, a job that Nick the Chisel always relishes and Dom at SVP fitted the Custom Cages FIA cage for me



We then fitted a carbon fibre roof





A set of Turbo rear arches











An RSR style front cooler

[Nick Moss]

The suspension was upgraded with Bilstein Sport dampers and Turbo 26mm rear torsion bars. A set of Carbon 12 six and four pot calipers with Ferodo DS2500 pads:





The front and rear bumpers were replaced with very light 3.0 RS items



and the body treated to a coat of Tangerine paint

[yoda]

And .........

Looking good Nick!

[Nick Moss]

Black anodised window frames and black chromed door handles







I have gone custom with the interior; grey alcantara on the seats, door panels and rear bulkhead





Black leather on the dash and door caps

[Nick Moss]

[Nick Moss]

The end of the road of this very long project is in sight. I took the car to Snetterton on Wednesday for a £100 BMW Car Club trackday. The noise level was higher than I expected, measuring 105dB at 4800 on the tacho (more on this later)
As I had never driven the car, nor been to Snetterton before, and the track was very slippery in the morning, I took it very easy to start with, and was not worried by an apparent misfire at 5000, there seemed to be be plenty of power, so I was looking forward to a dry track in the afternoon.
The afternoon was dry and bright and the track had dried out over lunch, so I began to work out the misfire, lifting off the throttle to try and drive through it didn't work, so it didn't seem to be a fuel problem and had be be timing related. A quick call to Nick Fulljames didn't reveal a solution, after all it had been revving to 8000 rpm on the dyno before setting the limit at 7500 in the Omex software. Even so it was more than keeping up with the other cars on track, out accelerating M3s, M5s and TVRs, so it certainly was not lacking in grunt.

Had they checked my tacho? On the rolling road they would have been looking at the laptop or the RR screen, so I guess they forgot to change the tacho "gearing" in the software. So the noise test was carried out at over 7000 rpm!

The rest of the day proved how quick the car is, if not me, being quicker than everything else I came across apart from a 997 GT3RS. The suspension set up is -2° front camber and -1° rear, 205/50 Toyo 888s on 7 x 15 front, and 235/50 on 9 x 15 rear. Turn in is very good, but understeer in the slow corners with power on is surely due the very tight LSD, so I need to tailor my style to suit.





I am a happy man. The car is going back to Nick to sort out the low speed drive-ability, which is pretty good despite RSR cams, and set the tacho correctly

Once back with me it's off to Silverstone for another BMW day on November 23rd. If anyone is passing by and wants to try the car out, please give me a call.


I put the car on corner weight scales yesterday; 1087Kg with 30L of fuel on boad, say 1065Kg without fuel. I am happy with that result as I didn't build the car down to weight, it has steel doors, front wings, bonnet, full trim and sound proofing. 300bhp per tonne is satisfactory

[Bootsy]

Great result Nick. Looks wonderful

[Nige]

oooo that looks naughty

[Highfield]

Very nice indeed Nick, and potent by the sounds of it.

[pht9]

Nick, top job, nice to see it completed, now resist all temptation to sell it

[Darren65]

Absolutely awesome!

I heard the story on Friday of you blowing everyone away last week, sounded like tremendous fun!

I think I might find my way to Silverstone on the 23rd just to have a look; fantastic build Nick, the car looks great

[Ferry Man]

300bhp per tonne is satisfactory

I would imagine it is.

Well done Nick, the car looks superb.
'Might well wander by and take a look at the car at Silverstone. If it's not raining.

[Uk911]

It looks lovely a credit to you and from what you say a very quick car..................enjoy......mark