Project 328i - a lot to learn

After round 1 I realised I hadn't focused on getting the car set up right, mainly the front end.
New steering tyres, new brakes and discs, new bushings and droplinks were fitted.
Huge thanks to @MicksGarage for coming on board to give me a bit of support and help reduce costs on new parts.

Went to Club Loose last friday, I have to say it was an epic day's craic, even though I had a nasty crash, made bits of the back of the car.
Video of the crash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7ScJUfbyOk


Got it sorted and back out on track for the afternoon.

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...psziyshzes.jpg

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...psqy0d3rfq.jpg

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...ps08kcngrk.jpg

Some on board videos:

2 laps during the afternoon, track was pretty moist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5TkEMylEnM

One lap chasing Sean Corley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgKhHcd-WFs


Really enjoyed the day and was very happy how the car was performing after the few changes made.
Ended up getting a little prize of a medal and Club Loose T-Shirt! :)

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...pszrdqmvvt.jpg


Now it's just to get the Fibreglass fixed, rear straightened, new bumper, new legs for the wing and make up a rear crash bar.

Can't wait for Round 2, staying in Killarney so it should be a bit of craic.

I'm giving away a free ticket to Round 2 on my facebook page also so check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/PaulKennedy...68642593252851

Looks great :-)

Couple more photo's of the crash from the Club Loose practice day.

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...psms6zlxnx.jpg

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7qmx8pye.jpg

Now I'm pretty glad I chopped up the whole back of the car. It left it very easy to get it reasonably straight again. It's far from perfect with hopefully it'll be rubnbing walls in Millstreet this weekend so no point trying to get it 100% again.

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...psmugzmn4q.jpg

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...psemkq2sgm.jpg

Good friend of mine also helped make up a rear frame for the boot, just bolts in should be able to take a little bit of the impact if I have another hard hit.

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0n4wji1f.jpg


Ran a little competition on facebook to guess the weight of the car as it is. Factory weight is aroung 1395Kg's.

The car weighed in at 1080Kg's. 300+ kg's saving on factory weight. Happy enough with that.

Now roll on round 2 in Millstreet. should be a good weekends craic.

Looking forward to seeing you at millstreet

Let this thread slip a bit, been a pretty busy few months. Right, so the last update was just before IDC round 2 Millstreet.

Millstreet was just a disaster for me, wrong diff, too much grip, very little practice, I just couldn't get it right. A crash on my last practice meant I missed the first qualification run. Broke a wishbone, tie rod, an alloy, bumper etc, with the help of a few lads we got it fixed for the second qualification run, which was another terrible run, mainly due to severe steering issues as one wheel was pointing the wrong way! So that was the end of that for me, still enjoyed the weekends craic & Killarney was a good nights craic.

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...pssitspmu7.jpg

Got home and figured I really needed to get the steering and front end done right.
Got some standard hubs and wishbones, stripped them down and sent to to Paul McCarty.
He modified them properly so that everything was equal and the same on each side.
Used new E28 tie rods assemblies as they are longer and have more thread for better adjustment.
Got everything back together just in time to do a day of testing and passenger spins down at Round 1 of IGR Drifting in Tynagh.

From the first run I could instantly tell that the car was handling so much better and I knew exactly what the steering was doing.
I was absolutely delighted with it and confidence in the car grew throughout the day. Had great craic throwing the car at mad angles with passengers on board, think most of them enjoyed it! :p

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...pssodfqmuh.jpg

Car came home safe and I was full of confidence in my driving again, had nothing to do with it before round 3 global warfare.

Friday practice went great, really enjoyed throwing the car in as hard as it could go and I was happy with most of my runs.

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...psqzhuorjy.jpg

Again saturday morning practice went well, car was flying and felt pretty confident for a change going into qualifying.

Here's a video link to my qualifying run: https://www.facebook.com/PaulKennedy...3275857456191/

I managed to score 81.5 in my first run, on my second run I was on too much of a high, wasn't concentrating and didn't score great.

I want so say a huge thanks to HD Engineering/Alienworkshops for getting me a new fibreglass front bumper for round 3 to try to keep the car looking a bit presentable, fair play lads, & it actually survived the weekend!
http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...psfxgrw1zb.jpg

On to the top 32 & I was paired against Richy O'Neill in his monster of an S15, think someone said it is pushing 530hp, so the little 328 was really up against it.
Chase run was pretty good, I got left behind a bit on the run down the hill but managed to reel Richy back in a bit as the run continued, cut the last corner a bit too shallow.
On my lead I had a perfect line through the first corner, but then on transition the car over rotated and caught to much angle which meant I wasn't able to get out to clip 2 and cut a very shallow line up to clip 3. This mistake lost the battle.

Here's some footage from inside the car and also from the livestream cameras:

https://www.facebook.com/PaulKennedy...5015253948918/

https://www.facebook.com/PaulKennedy...7804337003343/

So that was the end of the weekend unfortunately but was more than happy how everything went and the car was flying.

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2vzxvdap.jpg

Delighted to see a photo of the car make it on to Speedhunters :D

http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/...pshhg0ja2p.jpg

Again thanks to all the lads that help me out at each round, it's really appreciated.

Not a lot to do now before round 4 in Fermoy. Give the car a service and a check over, that's about it.

My mindset has now changed, I'm no longer just happy to qualify at an event. Now I need to focus on pushing the car to the next step and see what it can do.

2015 Irish Drift Championship is over!
Incredible final weekend!

2015 was a pretty tough year but to end up with a top 8 finish on Saturday just made everything worth it.
Photo below shows why I lost the top 8 battle with Chuck "Chucky" G, dropping a wheel off track.
Want to say a huge thanks to everyone that's helped me all year.

Zeetex Tyres and Mileage Tyres for the huge support all year, without your help this year would not have been possible.
Mick Luby Auto Electrics for completing all the wiring on the car and having it run flawlessly all year.
Mc Keon's Garage for the constant support and always willing to do what they can for me.
HD engineering/alienworkshops for supplying the top quality fibreglass bodywork for the car.
The Drift Shop for their epic short shifter, I love it!
MicksGarage for supplying quality parts at great prices all year.
Kaber Performance for the quality camber arms and help.
Corrib Oil for supplying fuel.
E Fox Engineers Ltd for the support also.

Huge thanks to Gary for his help all year, building the car and at every event, thanks a million man! smile emoticon
Thanks to Dave and all the crew at the IDC for making the series one of the best in the world.

2016 plans are already in motion, watch this space!

https://www.facebook.com/PaulKennedy...097264/?type=3

hey just wondering but where did you get your rear window spoiler ? seen you down in mill street if i can find the folder on my laptop i should have a tone of photos

Definitely flying on the Saturday dude. Any teasers for what you have planed for next year. M3??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fluffmister

hey just wondering but where did you get your rear window spoiler ? seen you down in mill street if i can find the folder on my laptop i should have a tone of photos

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It's just a standard E36 window spoiler, raised a little at the rear and wrapped in a carbon look.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by derek89

Definitely flying on the Saturday dude. Any teasers for what you have planed for next year. M3??

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Staying with the same car, staying NA, staying BMW NA, more power than M3, should be 120 HP more than what I have now.....

That's all I'll say for now until I get everything sorted, this will be the first place details will be posted, but it should turn this car into a very competitive set up.