A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

[Roadsport]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

30 thou squish is damn near perfect.

[stephen bahr]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Well, now this thread is past it, I thought i'd be sentimental and look back at some of the things you've done in motorsport over the years. Excuse the order, it's just in what order I remember them! Going back many a year, I think it was your first sprint at lydden, obviously it was the 2002, when it was road legal, I sat in the car with you as you drove down to lydden. I remember saying my hands were cold, so you told me to sit on them, shortly afterwards I fell asleep. I remember being so excited at the prospect of you racing, as we arrived I mentioned you could get a trophy, You kind of laughed at that saying it won't happen, come the end of the day, you walked away with a second in class trophy! Fast forward many a year, the 02 was blue and white, and it really did look good. It was at Silverstone, now I remember how happy you were with the 02, and how quickly you could get it to shift off the line. You'd made 8 places by the first corner, at the end of the race, you pulled back into the paddock and were ecstatic at how well you'd done. It'd be quite a few more years until there was a smile with nothing but teeth visible through a full-face lid.
So I guess from there, i'll go to the E30, more precisely when it was turbo'd. It was a great day at snett, you were on new rubber and looking forward to being out in the E30 for the first time with some lovely rubber. Chasing Rick May down like there was no tomorrow, even though he had monumentally more straight line speed, the beemer really stuck to the corners. You chased him hard all the way to the end, the only saving grace for rick being the drizzle that had started, allowing his tires to recover. Come the end of the race, you came cruising round Russell, a smile so big you'd be mistaken for a Cheshire cat. From memory that was a broken Perspex window, arm waving out the side, only to break the Perspex, poor window.
Where next in my non-sensical order I wonder? I'll go for Lydden again, fast forward a few years, possibly an m10 in the car at the time, it kind of gets difficult to remember at times chopping and changing. You'd said the car was overweight and underpowered, the rubber was too hard etc. But that didn't stop you having a fantastic race with Mr Richards, Mr Brent & Mr lindridge. You drove hard all the way, I'd call it a giant slaying accomplishment, the hefty beemer chasing the much lighter front wheel drive cars around a tight twisty circuit. Passing James on the last corner of the last lap to pickup second in class.
More Lydden now methinks, back to a turbo'd S14, the look on your face in the paddock after outdragging John Cross' V8 focus up the hill, it really did shift!
Onwards (or backwards) to brands indy, once again a turbo'd s14, picking up 3rd overall, a very comfortable 3rd overall, closing the gap quickly on David Oates space framed opel/Vauxhall, you called it your podium for the year, though there were more to come. It was only the great british summer that threw a wobbler for race 2, good old rain eh?
Now, rain, you've always said you don't like driving in it, but you really could, for someone that disliked the wet, you got on quite well with it, more Silverstone in a blue and white 02, leading the pack in a torrential downpour, possibly tony ryan's sierra behind, the very picture that you have hanging up in the hallway.
Still on the subject of Silverstone, fast forwards to the E30, with the turbo'd m10 in it, shortly after the 02's demise. It was the stowe circuit, you were out with a lot of small tiger/caterham styled things. You had the drive of a lifetime and chased the bike engine tigers all the way. Back in the paddock, you were talking to some of the tiger drivers, they were complaining about the black beemer, the amount of straight line grunt it had, a smile appeared on your face only for you to reveal you were the driver!
Still on Stowe, backwards some more years with the 02 again doing the fantastic giant slaying act of eating the cossies, in a straight line they well and truly had the legs, only for you to anchor up hard and late for the corners, and then to carry tremendous speed around them. I liked stowe, as you were braking for the hairpin, anyone stood at the sideline could see the discs glowing for all they were worth.
Back to lydden...again, chasing down pete reeve, catching him hand over fist, only to find a traffic jam at north bend, nowhere to go, you took to the grass, the front splitter took a bit of a battering, but everything came out just fine, only to continue your charge on pete.
More snett, everybody needs more snett! turbo s14, absolutely sailing past the seats like they weren't moving, the grind on your face when you were past and long gone before reaching the start of the pitwall!
The turbo'd S14 was a labour of love, silly things going wrong here and there, but that's just what happens when you're developing something yourself. All that you achieved was fantastic, the power you were able to get from all the various guises of engines, that was good, but the real great bit? Doing it all on a budget of naff all, and still having all the time in the world to help out other competitors when they needed it.
So in short, damn well done, it makes me gleam with pride when I look at what you've done, and I know it makes you smile when you look at some of the highlights. Give it a few years, and you can be back to giant slaying on a budget of a gnats chuff!

[Tristan]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Thanks for typing all that Stephen , like you , I grew up with my Dad building and racing his own car(s) , a lot of what I learnt about tuning (and ALL I learnt about Fiat twin-cams! lol) came from him .

I can't wait to see the next phase , and wish Graham the very best in his new venture .

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

thanks son you bought a tear to my eye.

if i had pots of money i'd have another E30, an m3, and probably a pair of m10 powered 02's, a 2.0 and a big arse 2.7

the immediate future holds nothing but work, oh and a trip to the isle of man on the Tl1000, but

my vision is to do some endurance racing oh and perhaps the odd sprint race to beat the turbo cars with an e46 m3,

the real trick there will be trying to get it down to the weight of the e30 them things weigh a ton and half, literally

[Toymex]

A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

I look forward to seeing you back on circuit Graham
Fair play for wanting to do endurance racing , trying to keep it on the island for 15mins nearly kills me

[alladdin]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

i wont quote it all what more could you ask for

[david_white]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Would love to see your take on an E46, sure there are loads out there racing already but I bet you could bring a whole load of new ideas to the party.

[IainRS17T]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Wow, that's it. I've done it..
51 pages of sheer enthusiasm, will power, know how, and inspiration from one man.
It's taken me 5 evenings, but it was worth every minute.
I'm sure I'm not the only one richer for reading your posts Graham.
Thanks for taking the time to write about your experiences on and off the race track. I've learned alot!
My fave bit - alternator off the diff output flange with out a doubt!
Best wishes for the coming season.
Cheers
Iain

PS, Now for David's Sierra!

[dangerousdave]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

You didn't read his other posts! There is no coming season as graham has broken the car up and sold most/if not all of the car to put towards his planned future business venture unfortunately!

[IainRS17T]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Oh, shame...
No, I've been beavering away soley on this for a good few evenings now after being away from TS for sometime...
Well I hope the new business takes off Graham. If you apply yourself to that, like you have with your race car, you won't fail
Iain

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

You didn't read his other posts! There is no coming season as graham has broken the car up and sold most/if not all of the car to put towards his planned future business venture unfortunately!

yep, although i have recycled a little of the money from breaking the race car into a new, older car a bmw 2002, whilst i had a terrific time racing the E30 i was never quite as at one with it as i was its predecessor a 2002tii, a car i used to drift without actually realising i was drifting, after a race it wasnt unusual for people to comment on me drifting it, although i wasnt often aware that was what i was actually doing!

my memory not being quite what it was this threads coming handy already as reference material for some aspects of teh new car.

when ive made a million i'll revive it properly with another e30 project, for now watch this space http://www.turbosport.co.uk/showthread.php?t=329587

[Mark-e21]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Enjoyed reading through the thread. Great race at Brands too! I had the same thing in my old e21, except I was the one who couldn't get past and it was a Manta not a Mini keeping me back.

[400motor]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

great thread, pity about splitting it

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

yes, but 99% of it lives on in other cars, quite a few bits ended up going down under.

when i have 30K to spare i'll by myself another one!

[alper]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

wow..