Touring Car pics uploaded (finally)

[v8m3]

jimmy have spoken to nigel today he told me if i have the chassis no off you he will look into it further for me, the only reason prodrive arn,t so forthcoming i understand they and frank sytner want to purchase all the original cars back cheque book open, why should they have all the fun?


wayne

[Mick]

Wow Jimmy, It 's great to finally see the beast. It looks amazing. Can't wait to see it in person.

What is the connector sticking out of the firewall behind the valve cover? It looks like an RCA connector, black with gold tip. Just curious.

[autohabit]

jimmy,

Congratulations, you must be well pleased with the result, I suppose we should share one of our favourite photos with the rest of the S14 community.

Alan

[Jake]

Wow! Just wow! What an awesome job Jimmy. I'm so happy when I see someone take the time to do these cars some justice.

Thanks!
Jake Larsen

[Dietrich]

JP,

Great work. The car looks fantastic. So glad it's in proper hands. Best wishes.

-Dietrich

[jimmy p.]

Wow guys, Thanks for all the responses.
Totally unnecessary,,, I didn't post the pics to hear any praise,,, I just wanted to tell someone,,, and you guys are the only ones who would understand. But, it is really much appreciated.

I'll try to answer some of the questions people have posted...

<< jimmy have spoken to nigel today he told me if i have the chassis no off you he will look into it further for me, the only reason prodrive arn,t so forthcoming i understand they and frank sytner want to purchase all the original cars back cheque book open, why should they have all the fun?
wayne >>

Thanks Wayne, I have given the chassis number to Nigel about 6 times I think. He must just have forgotten. He is the one who told me the day it was delivered to Prodrive. He is also one of the people who told me that he had several people interested in buying the car. I told him I really was not interested in selling it, that I didn't buy the car to sell or as an investment, it was something I loved. After that I stopped hearing from him,,, and after that saying the same to Prodrive, I stopped hearing from Prodrive. It seemed they were only talking to me when they thought they might have a chance of buying it...

I guess I should have posted,,, when I bought this car,,, its PO nor me knew which car it was.
It was just some random nameless "white" Touring Car. We didn't know any history about it. It was just a car. I didnt even care.
I really figured it was some random early chassis privateer car. I didn't care I just wanted a Touring Car,,, any Touring Car.
There were actually nicer cars out there to buy,,, I just didnt want them (well in a weird way).
I was looking more for a survivor,,, than an already done museum piece (like Ron Checca's 11 out of 10) that someone else had all the fun of restoring.
I wanted one I could dig into every piece myself, touch every nut and bolt on the car, clean it, paint it or replace it, then put it back together.
It was not until I started digging did I find some history on this chassis through the kindness of a long ago previous owner whos name I found in some papers in the trunk. This was a bonus for sure,,, but it didnt make me any more (or less) proud to own it if that makes any sense.
I think I enjoyed the digging most of all,,, dont know why, it was very frustrating, but fun in a way.

<< What is the connector sticking out of the firewall behind the valve cover? It looks like an RCA connector, black with gold tip. Just curious >>
Fire system nozzle

<< I suppose we should share one of our favourite photos with the rest of the S14 community. >>
This is my desktop. My absolute favorite photo... Thank you Alan for bringing out of your hard drive.

<< Any chance you will be able to run this car at vintage events like Lime Rock? It would be cool to see it running there and that is certainly a great place to bring a tuly vintage racer. >>>
Thats mainly why I built it,,, or I should say what I intend to do with it. Its going vintage racing,,, probably do some track days, open lapping days kind of things. I dont see me BMWCCA Club Racing it,,, (they are wrecking a few too many cars for my tastes),,, but the Vintage guys seem to really observe the 13/13 rule "alot" better,,,, so thats where I'm headed with it.

Again guys, thanks for all the kind words,,, not really necessary though. I was not looking any undue attention.
I posted these pics purely because if I didn't tell "someone" I was going to burst and you all are the only ones who would "get it".
Cheers
jimmy

[trent]

Fantastic car. Beautiful!

[Eric]

beautiful car jimmy, it's a shame prodrive is being stinjy.


I got a couple questions:

do you happen to have any pics of the shifter as a part off the car? I've always wondered how long the distance is between the pivot ball, and the bearing that connects to the selector rod. I would assume that it is longer than normal to help reduce the travel length at the top of the shift lever. also what is the length of travel at the top of the shift lever?

Would this work on a stock car? I'v always hated how far away the stock shift lever is from the stearing wheel, and always was jelouse watching the WRC guys with the shift lever almost parallel with the stearing wheel hub.



Also, is that the factory Group A rear bumper with the exhaust cutouts, and you decided to go with side pipes, or is it a stock E30 M3 bumper? I'm not a huge brain of DTM car info, but I seam to remember a clip of an E30 M3 flipping over, and it had a full exhuast, not a side exit exhuast.


I'd love to have you lap me in that car!

[jimmy p.]

Originally posted by Eric
beautiful car jimmy, it's a shame prodrive is being stinjy.


I got a couple questions:

do you happen to have any pics of the shifter as a part off the car? I've always wondered how long the distance is between the pivot ball, and the bearing that connects to the selector rod. I would assume that it is longer than normal to help reduce the travel length at the top of the shift lever. also what is the length of travel at the top of the shift lever?

Would this work on a stock car? I'v always hated how far away the stock shift lever is from the stearing wheel, and always was jelouse watching the WRC guys with the shift lever almost parallel with the stearing wheel hub.



Also, is that the factory Group A rear bumper with the exhaust cutouts, and you decided to go with side pipes, or is it a stock E30 M3 bumper? I'm not a huge brain of DTM car info, but I seam to remember a clip of an E30 M3 flipping over, and it had a full exhuast, not a side exit exhuast.


I'd love to have you lap me in that car!

The shifter below the bearing plate is not particularly long, maybe a bit longer than stock.
The shifts are not super short,,, but everything is solid mounted so its very precise. I have some pics of the shifter mechanism,,, but they are in a file of about 200 unnamed / unsorted pics I took while all that stuff was apart. I'll have to look for them.
the shifter handle I had made, the one that came with the car was all beat up, so I had that one machined out of stainless. I did make it about an inch taller than what came with the car.

It would definety work on a stock car. In fact next time I have it apart I am going to make a knock off of it for my silver car. Prodrive did their own thing on the shifter mecahnism, a bit different than the DTM teams did. Its pretty nice. Thats why I am gonna knock a copy off for my other car.
If I do one, I could probably do more,,, but at this point I have no idea what it will cost. I just want both of the cars to be the same.

The side exit was a leftover from the BTCC days.
The bumber is a fiberglass shell replica with lightweight Grp A hardware..
I think that may be the only part they were allowed to do in 'glass was bumpers. If not they were changed at some point in the cars past.
Both bumpers are decent faithful fiberglass replicas (which pretty much confirms that they didn't come from anywhere in the US).
I know the BTCC teams were able to do the side exit exhaust because its actually documented in the '91 season DVD. The DTM teams may have had to retain stock exhaust configuration to meet rules. The stock setup is much nicer than this one.
It provides more ground clearance. This one is probably a little lighter. I have considered re-routing it out the back as stock,,, but at the same time for authenticity sake, I'll "probably" end up keeping it side exit,,, but possibly switch to some ovalised NASCAR type tubing to get back some ground clearance.

HTH
jimmy p.

[Eric]

Originally posted by jimmy p.
The shifter below the bearing plate is not particularly long, maybe a bit longer than stock.
The shifts are not super short,,, but everything is solid mounted so its very precise. I have some pics of the shifter mechanism,,, but they are in a file of about 200 unnamed / unsorted pics I took while all that stuff was apart. I'll have to look for them.
the shifter handle I had made, the one that came with the car was all beat up, so I had that one machined out of stainless. I did make it about an inch taller than what came with the car.

It would definety work on a stock car. In fact next time I have it apart I am going to make a knock off of it for my silver car. Prodrive did their own thing on the shifter mecahnism, a bit different than the DTM teams did. Its pretty nice. Thats why I am gonna knock a copy off for my other car.
If I do one, I could probably do more,,, but at this point I have no idea what it will cost. I just want both of the cars to be the same.

The side exit was a leftover from the BTCC days.
The bumber is a fiberglass shell replica with lightweight Grp A hardware..
I think that may be the only part they were allowed to do in 'glass was bumpers. If not they were changed at some point in the cars past.
Both bumpers are decent faithful fiberglass replicas (which pretty much confirms that they didn't come from anywhere in the US).
I know the BTCC teams were able to do the side exit exhaust because its actually documented in the '91 season DVD. The DTM teams may have had to retain stock exhaust configuration to meet rules. The stock setup is much nicer than this one.
It provides more ground clearance. This one is probably a little lighter. I have considered re-routing it out the back as stock,,, but at the same time for authenticity sake, I'll "probably" end up keeping it side exit,,, but possibly switch to some ovalised NASCAR type tubing to get back some ground clearance.

HTH
jimmy p.

cool info, congrats on the car!

[Magnus]

simply... WOW.

[BlueMonday]

I saw the BTCC at Donnington in 1989, with Frank Sytner and Mike Smith driving. Pretty sure I have a photo of the Mike Smith car on the start/finish straight with his right front wing hanging off... I'll see if I can dig it out.

That day also happened to be the inaugural TVR Tuscan Challenge race. I thought I was in heaven... M3s and TVRs racing on the same day.

[I_Love_Eating_Cum.]

VERY NICE JIMMY

[BMWM3DTM]

Wow !!! It´s a wonderful Car Thank you for the pics. You have done a great job.

[JEDM3]

I hope to see it at Lime Rock this year then!