So I actually have an e36 m3 chassis sitting in one of my barns right now with a cage in it and it is up on jackstands. Typical project start that usually never get finished. Here at GRM I see a lot of builds get finished and I wanted to not only share this build, but just incorporate all of my passions and hobbies in one build thread.
A little bit about me:
I am a Agriculture banker by day and hobbyist by night. I am married with a 10 month old daughter. I enjoy learning new things in my life and I like reaching out to people for information on stuff I do not know. I started racing in 2010 in the parking lots with a 2005 Subaru STi. I built that for ASP on a national level. It lead me to doing a test day and ultimately now I just stick to endurance racing with ChampCar Endurance Series. For more information on the race team you can visit https://racecyr.com or go to our Facebook or instagram page https://facebook.com/CrankYankersRacing. You could even check out some race videos on YouTube at https://youtube.com/crankyankersracing.
I started out at 16 messing around with my first car an Eagle Talon automatic. I hate to admit it, but The Fast and Furious was a stepping stone in to me wanting to work on cars. I upgraded to a 1998 Honda Civic which I went on to put a b16a2 in and then a turbo. That lead me to my Subaru days in which I decided to own (8) Subarus. I moved on to BMWs when I couldn't keep a Subaru alive in endurance racing.
Here are my current projects I have:
- 1989 BMW 325i known as Violette - This is the racecar and it is worked on a lot between events. I will go more in detail about this car later on in this thread
- 1995 BMW M3 known as Sylvester - My wife and I picked this car up over Labor Day weekend in 2016 in CT. It has sat for a while and I am now going to be able to get around to getting this project going. I am planning on making this an endurance car for under $10k.
- 2005 Suaru STi known as Boppity - This was the autox car that I have owned now for 10 years. I am working on getting seat belts reinstalled, tires put on the wheels and a tune so it can be put up for sale.
- 1997 Legacy Rally Car - This car blew up a transmission in 2013 and it has sat since then. I have not been motivated to work on it. The plan is to start parting this car out.
- 1995 Subaru L endurance car - This chassis is stripped with some items installed on it right now. I think I will end up selling it or it will stay in my barn until I figure out what I want to do with it
- 1987 BMW Base car - I bought this for $450 from a friend. Not sure what I am going to do with it as it is stuffed in one of the barns. I thought it was a cheap parts car at this point
So what you will see in this thread is just daily occurrences of what I am working on and what I am interested in sharing. I also enjoy road biking, house projects, cigars, bourbon, beer, traveling with the family, etc.
I will leave you with a current picture of Violette and will update this thread as much as possible whether it is car projects, hobbies or house projects. Feel free to ask any questions.
Yo Tyler!
Welcome to the asylum!
Those pics of your patio being done would be a great addition to this thread!
So the wife and I agreed that during all this COVID E36 M3 that we would upgrade our patio in the backyard. We talked about doing it for three years and we are making it a reality.
We enjoy hosting get togethers and the old deck was not in the greatest shape. The old owner did not take care of it and we knew we would replace it shortly after moving in. Well 3 years later here we are.
Here is the area before the demolition started
We started with the easy parts and what pieces of wood would come off easier than the others. Here is how it looked after day one:
After enjoying a lot of beer that night in late June we started in on day two. I found it easier to break out the sawzall and start just cutting up the deck in sections.
Wood pile after day two
My neighbor has a lot of cool toys at his place and I wasn't about to call up five of my friends to move a hot tub. My friends enjoy too much pizza and beer so it would be an expensive labor job. He came over with his bobcat and loaded up the hot tub. We ripped out the rest of the deck and took out a tree.
Here is the aftermath after day three
As you can see we have electrical conduit running to the hot tub across the pad where the new patio is going so I spent the fourth day digging a trench while my buddy rewired the electrical boxes.
We were all set for the contractors to come in and start the patio. I know this is GRM but I was not about to learn how to pour stamped concrete myself. They moved in some equipment yesterday and started in on the pad today.
Lunch break as they needed to get more fill dirt.
After the pad is ready for the framing group to move in.
Now you are all up to speed on the progress. Should have stairs poured by Friday.
I am currently working on making temporary posts for the awning on the front shop so I can replace the main posts and they can pour around the pedastals that they will make.
The patio will be right around 1,170 sq ft
Alright back to the car work. The next race for Violette is Indy Motor Speedway but I always try to test the car before the event. There is not a test day at Indy, so I am trying to get the car in race ready trim before the event.
I have replaced the front and rear wheel bearings, driveshaft center bushing, the driveshaft alignment bushing, rear axles, and front tie rods. I need to connect the exhaust, check fluids and bleed the brakes. I also need to build a new front splitter and tire guards. 4 days left before I need to load up.
Here is a good comparison. We had some troubles at Nelson's but always use more front pad than rear. We had about 8 hours on these front pads.
New:
After 8 hours:
What lap time are you shooting for an gingerman?
wvumtnbkr said:
What lap time are you shooting for an gingerman?
Our best is a 1:45.9. I would like to be at a 1:45 or into the 1:44s. If that happens then video will be posted :)
That picture of Violette has a certain worn out black Miata behind it that is either me or one of my teammates driving. You guys looked good out there this year but I feel like you either stopped part-way through Saturday or just didn't run Sunday. Figured something went wrong.
Will you guys be at PittRace in October?
AxeHealey said:
That picture of Violette has a certain worn out black Miata behind it that is either me or one of my teammates driving. You guys looked good out there this year but I feel like you either stopped part-way through Saturday or just didn't run Sunday. Figured something went wrong.
Will you guys be at PittRace in October?
We had a lot happen at the race. On Saturday one of the drivers went off and hit the tire wall. Screwed up the front splitter. We fixed it and went back out. Ended up passing for the lead then 12 laps later the driver had an off. Could not recover and had to come in to again fix the splitter. I drove last and the car did not feel settled at all. The rear wheel bearing went out on us.
On Sunday we found the strut mount failed plus the driveshaft center support. Just a tough weekend. Honestly if we would have won Saturday then we would have just cracked beers and bourbon the whole night.
We won't be at Pitt. For my car I have Indy and Road America.
In reply to TylerCYR :
That's a string of bad luck. We actually had a wheel bearing go for us as well but only lost about 1.5 hours having to run a pull one off another car.
We thought about Indy but I don't think we'll make it this year. Are you in the Cleveland area?
In reply to AxeHealey :
Yeah but that is racing! We are in the NW OH area. I live in Edon, OH. It is the last exit on the turnpike as you head west and then 2 miles north of there. I live 5 mins from MI and 5 mins from IN. Literally in the corner of the state.
Tyler, you should talk about your current situation once you have more info.
I know there are insurance person's and contractors on here that could offer insight.
In reply to TylerCYR :
Sure is.
Cool - hope to see you guys out there again soon.
Made a new template for the splitter. I was going to trace the old splitter but it was not square. wvumtnbkr helped me square up this fancy piece of cardboard from my daughter's new carseat.
So I used a blue pen like a rookie so the lines do not show up well. We used a level, a small t square and a tape measure.
Here was the final product after transferring the cardboard to this fine piece of maple.
I also used Gorilla tape to seal the seams.
Also update on the concrete patio. They poured the first part of the stairs. It cracked due to low humidity and direct sunlight. They will be back tomorrow to try again. They did get the new posts set. I was happy with this progress.
Hey Tyler, just wanted to say that I've shared the track with CYR a few times, and you all have been both fast and courteous. Great racing and beautiful car. Good luck with all of life's E36 M3 as well as your own E36 M3 :)
In reply to Wizard_Of_Maz :
Hey! We try to be courteous on track and try to pick good drivers to help with tha . What team have you raced with and where? I don't see too many racecar builds here so wanted to share my adventures with everyone at GRM.
The E36 M3 build will be fun and will go full steam ahead this winter :)
So it took three late nights to get to this point. Last night I was able to install the new splitter, make new tire guards and check the toe. This has been the easiest splitter to mount and so happy I made a cardboard template. It took many beers to get to this point.
Also the steps were poured yesterday on the concrete patio.
In reply to TylerCYR :
I've run a few races with All Rhodes Racing and then with JCM Motorsport. I race with AER a bit more now but still love Champ. Hoping to get to a number of events next year
So here is our last update from the CYR Headquarters:
In September we went to Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Violette. I was able to get her ready to go. On Saturday we were up into 4th place after getting a phantom yellow flag call and working our way to the top. While we were working for a 2nd place finish, our throttle cable snapped. We only had 3 hours to get the car ready for Sunday after finishing 12th on Saturday. During our time in the garage we noticed a big oil leak under where the motor and transmission meets up. Couldn't change the rear main seal, so we figured we just had to send it. We did find a rear wheel bearing needed to be changed with a new axle so we were able to get that done. On Sunday we were able to put together a perfect race. What happened is we ended up winning Indy Motor Speedway ahead of the Riley team who was hard charging the whole day to make up laps from the previous day win. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!
More updates in the next couple of days with other items that have been going on in life.
Any news on the next build?
wvumtnbkr said:
Any news on the next build?
More updates will be coming on what's on tap. The E36 M3 build is going to be put on hold as a new build is coming in early December. It will all be documented using ridiculous filming skills in the CYR HQ shop.
Just doing some lighting testing for some filming for future projects.....stay tuned
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyH9Oz8VzZg&t=10s
So we went and raced at Road America with the e30. We had some issues on Saturday. The rear subfrsme broke in the area in the passengers backseat. We ended up doing some fabrication to make sure the car would get back on track for Sunday. This was probably failing towards the end of the Indy race.
So now it is time that we build another e30. The e36 project will have to be put on hold, but I have been documenting all of the build process by video so far. I am working on pushing out some episodes on YouTube for you all to check out.
For now here is the story about new shell that I bought for $900 down in Birmingham, AL. I wanted a southern car to avoid the rust. I also wanted a car that was straight. This car had a locked up motor. I had a buddy from Missouri check it out and after he said it was good to go I bought it. I had another buddy tow it to his shop.
I flew into Charleston SC to hang out with wvumtnbkr. We drove to Birmingham to race his 3500 swapped rx7 at Barber Motorsports Park. Another one of our buddies drove his truck down from MI and another buddy flew in from Fort Wayne IN. I rented a Uhaul trailer the week before. On Friday, we went to go and pick it up in a rundown strip mall. We went into a store and they did not have my registration in the system. So on the phone with Uhaul and 30 minutes later we went 3 miles down the road to a roadside junk yard/repair shop. The feller was very nice and he gave me an extra day for free. We went and looked at the trailer which he just put brand new tires on. After 45 minutes worth of paperwork and figuring out the system we were off to go pick up the shell.
We showed up and was able to get the car in neutral. It only took us three times and three guys to push it up on the trailer to go race at the track.
On Sunday, after the races my buddy from MI and IN drove the truck and trailer to my house in OH and I was on the road to SC to head back home. When I came home Monday afternoon I had a car and trailer in my driveway to unload.
Here she is in all her glory with some sweet wheels: 
Those wheels continue to give me nightmares.... they are even fuglier in real life.
wvumtnbkr said:
Those wheels continue to give me nightmares.... they are even fuglier in real life.
So awful looking. Not my style but they will be for sale soon :)
I have been prepping Violette 1.0 for the past month or so for the National Championship. I felt I was in a good spot with that chassis that I can focus on the new one. Now there is more to get done on Violette 1.0, but I wanted to get 2.0 stripped and ready for the cage work.
The first item on the agenda was to see the shape of the interior of this new car under the fancy carpet and seats.
I pulled out a lot of the interior in one day. The driver's side seat had a block if wood under the backside as a stop to keep the seat from rocking back more. I did find a Red Stripe bottle cap on the passenger's floor, which means someone had some fun before I took possession of this car. I didn't break out the black light as I was worried what more I would find.
At the end of the interior stripping on day one here is what I found on the passenger's side floor.
There is a cap that goes in here which is used as a drain. Well it is pretty rusted. The carpet was soaked and it was just not in good shape. My assumption was it was a leaky sunroof and/or a leaky door seal where water just sat in the carpet and on the metal for years. So much for a non rusted southern car.
The plan is to cut out the rusted part of the floor and weld in some cold rolled 16 gauge steel which should hold up to what I need it to in racing.
Next up is the dash, defroster and the rest of the carpet.
