Hunter S. Thompson used to end many of his published letters and essays with the Latin phrase "res ipsa loquitur" (loosely translated as "the thing speaks for itself.") I'd seen it many times and never really understood it until recently.

So I got a call the other morning from my friend/housemate Chris, a former Ducati roadracer who walks with a permanent limp but still has the track jones. His excited words were something like "Do you have $250 right now and the desire to have some fun next season? I've got a plan."

Trusting his judgement as always, I had to hear more.

As it turned out, he'd found an '89 BMW 325is with 12X,XXX miles that "probably runs ok but has some issues" for $500. He wanted to split it with someone, for two purposes: the Grassroots Motorsports $2004 Challenge and NASA Spec E30 roadracing (plus regular track days as necessary.)

So I saw the car very briefly earlier today and its main "issues" center around the fact that its roof is totally crushed and its windshield is shattered due to Hurricane Isabel / tree-falling damage. On Monday we'll get a chance to twist the key and see what happens. Ordinarily I would be very worried... but not with Chris. He's a five-time E30 owner (including his, and his girlfriend's, matching blue daily driver 325's) who also holds the title to an awesome parts car, a Euro-spec E30 323i (170k-mile former BSR instructor car) with a perfect roof and windshield, donor suspension and exhaust, and more... but terminal rust in the trunk and the rear shock towers. He's also a helluva great mechanic, having worked on Euro cars and cycles professionally and recreationally for many years.

So long story short, I'm in. We're planning on building a GRM $2004 Challenge entry, which will be NASA Spec E30 legal (SAFE and reliable, if not fast) and built-up over time into a hopefully competitive racecar. The goal for now is at least to get licensed and get out there in our 168hp beater to duke it out with the well built 121hp 325e's... and make our car fast/competitive during 2004 as time and money allow. We don't even have this POS in the garage yet and we're already calling in favors left and right!

It's not a perfect dream but it's a realistic one. After ~5 years of watching from the sidelines, I'm ready to get out there and learn and have some fun in the race groups. It'll be awesome to have a cheap, logbooked track ***** we can pound on, and loan out, and thrash indefinitely... without a huge investment (i.e. less than half as much as my aborted Spec Miata idea.) With any luck it will also do ~1:28's at Summit Point! This situation speaks for itself and I just can't say no... but I can say "see you at next season's NASA-VA events." I'll be the guy in the crappy old slow BMW with the big friggin' grin on his face!

I'm sooo excited,

Jon

 

Good luck Jon, can't wait to bump draft ya!

 

Welcome to the financial nightmare

 

LOL, thanks guys! I can't friggin WAIT.

Jon
who has already sourced a slightly used
Autopower cage and camlock harness for
a car that isn't even in the driveway yet

 

wooo hoooo.....nice score JON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hey.....are you going to be doing any "independant track days?"

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by chad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">hey.....are you going to be doing any "independant track days?"
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not to change the subject but yes, although they are strictly private events for the pro boys to set up their 90-way-adjustable suspensions etc. We may do some public stuff next year if we can find some investor $$$ for rental deposits, etc.

Thanks for asking,

Jon
who takes half-ownership of said BMW this week
and is salivating at the thought of its presence

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by getfast &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">who takes half-ownership of said BMW this week
and is salivating at the thought of its presence</TD></TR></TABLE>


Title's on the kitchen table & car's in the back yard! Pics:

 

Did I mention that it starts and drives fine???

What a steal for $500 IMHO,

Jon

 

chop-top e30!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">chop-top e30!</TD></TR></TABLE>
Seriously, just chop the top off for $2004, cheaper and weight savings Worry about putting a good roof back on afterwards!

 

We seriously thought about that, but decided that the remainder of our $2004 Challenge budget should be spent on Spec E30 roadrace prep, so the car will be more trackable after April.

Therefore, we've already sourced a roof and glass (not to mention Bilsteins and Racing Dynamics springs, Goodridge lines, and more) off a $300 parts E30 which is currently rusting away in the back yard. We'll swap-and-weld in November so we can install the used Autopower cage I found recently. Depending on how much mechanical **** it needs to get back up to 100% (on top of tires / brakes / exhaust / paint for the GRM Challenge) we may also try to hunt down some of the Spec E30 swaybars (22mm f, 19mm adj rear.) And if there's any money left, we'll install a small, cheap, used NOS system

We're hoping for solid mid-pack finishes in all 3 aspects of the GRM Challenge (concours, drag, autox.)

Jon

 

PS- I realize those $2004 Challenge plans seem extravagant, but the rules state you can part the price of the car off the car in used parts. There's easily $500 worth of **** off this car we can Ebay, so basically the car is free... also, when I say tires/brakes/exhaust/NOS/etc I'm talking about the most used, cheapest **** we can possibly find

It's gonna be fun!

Jon

 

Not to rain on your parade, but am I the only one who sees building a car for the $2004 Challenge and the NASA Spec E30 series to be silly?

I didn't peruse the $2004 GRM challenge articles, but I saw a lot of $50 turbos on cars, splitters made from scrap, and other stuff that wouldn't have a chance being legal in a spec series. The rules of the spec series makes it seem kinda impossible to make it competitive in the $2004 Challenge, no? But otherwise, what a great balanced road racing car! BTW, how do the Spec E30 rules compare to the ITS ruleset?

BTW2, what happened to the SE-R and the SM? (sorry, I haven't been stalking you lately )

 

Good call; that's been our dilemma since minute one. But like so many other things in this sport, we set seemingly impossible goals... then ask "Why not?" to try to get them all accomplished.

Part of the beauty of the GRM $2004 Challenge is that it's perfect for "rare finds" like this one (i.e. a $3500 car that needs &lt;$500 worth of stuff to run fine, for $500.) Add to that the fact that we can get the car's sale price worth of parts off it via Ebay, and you'll see that our budget is actually $2004 *not counting the car itself*.

Within that $2004 framework (and basing my opinion on that of my co-conspirator Chris, who knows a lot more about E30's than I do, and can call in more related favors than me)... I thought we could do both. Build a cheapie GRM Challenge car for now, i.e. street legal and sorted by April via reasonable commutes, autoXes, drift events, whatever... while doing nothing to it that couldn't be reversed for Spec E30 roadracing after-the-fact... and all the while gathering a bigger/better plan and/or a basement full of Spec E30-legal go-fast parts that didn't apply to the GRM Challenge rules because they wouldn't be installed until after-the-fact.

It made sense at the time and the more I research and plan the project, the more I really do think we can do it. The $300 parts car alone has more than $2k worth of parts we'll use in one way or another by summertime. We won't win any of this stuff, but sometimes the journey is more important than the destination... right?

PS- I got rid of my gray SE-R because I was tired of FWD and I wanted to go roadracing after too many years of watching. I used its profits to fund the SM project startup. But once I really figured out what SM was gonna cost, for a car that I had no sexual feelings for, I parted that out, sold the car "mostly stock" to a nice guy from Alabama, and funded this startup plus a whole bunch of bills.

After years of searching, I've finally found a project I'm up late all hot and bothered about. Some people like french vanilla, some people like mint chocolate chip... but it's all yummy ice cream, right?

Time for bed,

Jon
PS- to answer your last question, Spec E30 is somewhere between Showroom Stock and Improved Touring. Here's the rulebook: http://www.northamericanbavari...s.htm

Edit: oops, late night typing

 

Nice. I almost bought an e30 325i, but i got an ae86 corolla gts instead because it had LSD...however, the "is" has LSD, so you got a sweet deal. Best of luck to you, those cars are just great. Smoke those V8 miatas!!!

 

Ahhhhh. I was under the impression that you were trying to do both concurrently.

Very cool!

 

My interpretation of the GRM Challenge is that having the car run properly and look decent will put you mid-pack But getting to the top is difficult. Turbo for sure!