Spending a lot of money to ruin a perfectly good car

I'm about to go to OG Racing to try on seats, and safety gear.

Over the last 3 years my very clean, one owner, 58K mile '98 M3 - a wonderful street car - has morphed from DD that gets lined with mover's blankets before the autocross wheels are loaded to STU class autocross car that's still streetable albeit not too comfortable to track day car that can be driven to events and to work if it's nice out. Which by the way gets mercilessly beaten on, session after session, windows down, in the rain, covered with track crud and brake dust and (especially at Summit Point) big black worms of tire rubber all over the lovely all original paint.

Escalating pace on track and having seen one too many really balled up cars at VIR, and a desire to start doing TTs and instructing has lead to the inevitability; it's time for a roll bar, seats, mounts, harnesses, and a HANS device. I considered the idea of returning the M3 to "stock" condition and finding something like an e30 325is which would be great for DEs and eventually become a spec e30 car, but I've already got a gazillion dollars and 2+ years of development in the M3. Ultimately what it came down to is that the car works perfectly, handles great, and is sort of fast which is fun. I raced slow motorcycles and karts for years. I raced skateboards and bicycles and RC cars. It's got enough HP that some measure of restraint is sometimes necessary, but not so much that say, a well driven spec Miata is effortless to pass everywhere.

I'm sure my ambivalence about dropping more money on safety gear than my first 3 cars cost combined, and hurling myself down the slippery slope headlong toward making this great street car un-streetable - will subside, particularly once the car is in the paddock at an event looking all snarly and purposeful. It'll seem like a ~great~ idea if I ever have "the Big One" and exit the smoking, inverted wreckage by crawling out the window.

Right now though? It seems a little crazy.

I'm with you. You'll probably get pangs of remorse down the road, too.

I look at old pictures of my car, and wonder to myself sometimes: "WTF was i THINKING?!?!?! That was a PERFECT car!"

In the end? It's worth it. You can always get another E36 M3 for street use only, right? RIGHT?

Nice to know this bunch of enablers can push a brother the right way in less than 2 minutes.

I'm off to spend a lot of money.

See? It's just that easy. I tell myself that every time i spend more on tires than i bought my car for.

And then when i spend more on seats than i bought my car for.
More on a cage than i bought my car for.
More on springs and struts than i bought my car for.
More on wheels than i bought my car for.
6x more on a new motor and transmission than i bought my car for.
More on a hood than i bought my car for.

See the pattern here? It's all relative. After you're done building this car, $8k or so for another nice E36 M3 will be an EASY pill to swallow.

Nice E36 M3s are still pretty easy to find in case you ever get a hankering for another stock one.

93celicaGT2 wrote: See? It's just that easy. I tell myself that every time i spend more on tires than i bought my car for. And then when i spend more on seats than i bought my car for. More on a cage than i bought my car for. More on springs and struts than i bought my car for. More on wheels than i bought my car for. 6x more on a new motor and transmission than i bought my car for. More on a hood than i bought my car for. See the pattern here? It's all relative. After you're done building this car, $8k or so for another nice E36 M3 will be an EASY pill to swallow.

I drop that reference point sometimes to throw off people that don't realize I bought my car for $500.

I can relate... Before:

After:

It was so worth it.

yup, thats us....

Nice looking cage. Who did the work?

Maybe an e39 M5 would be a good street car. Or a 5 series wagon M conversion. Or a S4 avant...

That picture of G.P. Snorklewacker's hooptie induces wood practically.

Filling travel mug - going now.

Per Schroeder wrote: Nice looking cage. Who did the work?

K-FAB, a guy named Kolani Gohara out in West Chester, PA. I don't know if he is still in business but... he did do nice work. A little eccentric to deal with though I'd say if you are very patient the final product is worth it.

I have since sold that car to build another and made my own cage this time. It makes me appreciate just how good that one was.

Hell, even that "before" picture gave me wood. Was it really THAT low?

Unevolved, you beat me. Barely. Mine was $600. Talked down from $1800. Fixed it for free. Had the most beautiful $600 car on the face of the planet. (See my reader's rides, the black Celica, more pics recently added of it's past state before i "ruined" it.)

93celicaGT2 wrote: Hell, even that "before" picture gave me wood. Was it really THAT low?

Yeah, it was that low. That was during the "not-quite-fully-dedicated-track-but-almost-unusable-on-the-street" phase. It was like that for one season just after I bought a suspension and before I got a trailer. Once the trailer came home things went rapidly downhill.

this thread is funny, it's like a crack addict asking a bunch of crack dealers if he should spend his money on clothes or more crack!

Raze wrote: this thread is funny, it's like a crack addict asking a bunch of crack dealers if he should spend his money on clothes or more crack!

This should go in to the quote of the month...so true...

Raze wrote: this thread is funny, it's like a crack addict asking a bunch of crack dealers if he should spend his money on clothes or more crack!

HAHAHAHAHAHA Thats great!

I agree w/ everybody else...finish building the m3 into the track demon you really want it to be. Then buy an e46 M3 for a DD!

Raze wrote: this thread is funny, it's like a crack addict asking a bunch of crack dealers if he should spend his money on clothes or more crack!

I think of this forum as not just an ecclectic collection of individuals, but more as a well intentioned but far off base support group. Like AA where the participants are encouraged to get totally blitzed.

"Yes, you don't really NEED a Miata, but early models are so cheap and small that SURELY you could bring home seven or eight before your wife complains of the clutter."

ValuePack wrote: "Yes, you don't really NEED a Miata, but early models are so cheap and small that SURELY you could bring home seven or eight before your wife complains of the clutter."

Another mag worthy quote... I think we all can agree on that!

it is not you, it is the car. the car has realized its true purpose and is now encouraging you to morph it into what it was supposed to be all along. resistance is futile...

IMO it's better to put money into a well sorted car that you know inside and out rather than start over and sift through someone else's headaches.

I just stopped short of that point w/ my '99 Civic Si.

When I was driving it daily, I was starting to be miserable with it. As a 5 month-a-year-on-the-road garage queen that sees fair weather weekend use, I love it.

Small doses, it's fine.

I now know more about e36 bolt-in rollbars than I ever wanted to. And I've found a secret source of very, very affordable Sparco SF3.2/5 suits which I will divulge for all after I get the cool one I have my eye on.

Looks Like I can get the whole deal bought for well under $4k.

motomoron wrote: I now know more about e36 bolt-in rollbars than I ever wanted to. And I've found a secret source of very, very affordable Sparco SF3.2/5 suits which I will divulge for all after I get the cool one I have my eye on. Looks Like I can get the whole deal bought for well under $4k.

How close to NE PA are you? I have a bender, welder and some idea how to properly ruin an E36 ;)

motomoron wrote: I now know more about e36 bolt-in rollbars than I ever wanted to. And I've found a secret source of very, very affordable Sparco SF3.2/5 suits which I will divulge for all after I get the cool one I have my eye on. Looks Like I can get the whole deal bought for well under $4k.

so tell me.. what fits the Ti? I have heard that the sedan fits and the coupe' doesn't.. and I have heard the other way around too...

Enablers...

I'm about to get into the same boat, Plan to have a new DD with taxes and then prep Serenity for SP