Level Motorsports BMW E30: Part 1 – safety, aerodynamics, and grip!

,

We mentioned the Ground Control camber plates earlier. Looking underneath, however, it's the tell-tale colors of Ground Control coil-overs. Seen here are 700 lb front springs sitting on top fo the GC risers. There's no denying that this car, as Rocco alluded to, was once a rust bucket, as evident up there.
In the rear, the car is sporting Koni shocks with 950 lb springs on top of GC risers as well (you can just make them out on the bottom of the spring).

Since there is a lot more work than meets the eye with Rocco's work, let's continue checking out the chassis. Rocco reports that no new parts were ordered for this car. In fact, all of the fiberglass panels were laid by hand over scrap body panels. And when we show you the engine parts and the aero later, it will all be from second-hand or fabricated stuff. Even the suspension above is all hand-me-down stuff!

 

This is when Rocco was finishing up the fiberglass roof panel, which replaced the factory piece on this E30 325i.
Here is the finished product, looking from above the driver-side mirror. Considering it was made by hand, that is nicely done. Reducing weight up here greatly helps in high speed cornering because being top heavy is a serious detriment to good balance during high speed cornering or in switch-back slalom turns or esses. And that's why you'll see some new sports cars and exotics with fiberglass or even carbon roofs (think of those carbon roofs you see on the newer BMW M3s).

On the next page we'll start getting into the aerodynamic body work. And in Part 2 we'll be checking out the engine and brakes.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*
*