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With the Spyder I just set out with an image in my head of how I wanted it to look and that's pretty much how it turned out.
For my next project (don't hold your breath, it's two years away from me being able to afford a second toy) I'll be going for the stripped out race car look inside and out. As it'll be my daily driver engine size won't matter to me, even a 1.8 or 16v 1.9 will be fine, but I do want a/c for trips to sunnier climes and my ebay watch list currently runneth over with potential donors.
Looking forward to seeing your car come together over the next few months, it'd be nice to meet up for a photo shoot and a chat once it's on the road. You might want to resin polish your car beforehand though so my drool doesn't tarnish the paintwork.
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From talking to Chris and Dan at Donington it won't be their panels that need cutting up, but the donor Z3 needs some, ahem, adjustment with a lump hammer to squeeze it into its party frock.
Something must have been lost in translation at the show Dave, the only modification to the Z3 base car, apart from stripping off the outer panels of course, is to cut off two small brackets from the front grille area. I will post up some pictures when I have them.
An interesting point with the taller profile tyres that are fitted to my SWB is that it corrects the over reading on the Z3 speedo, according to my GPS, almost exactly.
Something must have been lost in translation at the show Dave, the only modification to the Z3 base car, apart from stripping off the outer panels of course, is to cut off two small brackets from the front grille area. I will post up some pictures when I have them.
An interesting point with the taller profile tyres that are fitted to my SWB is that it corrects the over reading on the Z3 speedo, according to my GPS, almost exactly.
Oops, didn't mean to muddy the waters there and I stand corrected.
As for the speedo error, from experience of checking uncalibrated speedos on a lot of cars against laser speed guns (100% accurate), almost all read around 10% higher than actual speed, so 70mph is actually 63 and 100 is 90. A 10% increase in rolling diameter on the tyres will take out this error and that's exactly what happened with mine. Just bear in mind that if your speedo under reads significantly you'll probably pick up points from average speed and Gatso cameras.
This tool is useful to work out what tyres will fit and how they'll affect the speedo -
Mister Towed having looked at your previous work a SWB built by you would be something to look forward to , i think i have just seen the colour for my car , thanks Geoff .
Slver was yesterdays colour! today i am going for Red! tomorrow who knows , Geoff .
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smart alloys, you may be able to fetch a few £ back on them.
I still think the best tip for buying a z3 is to buy in Jan/Feb when the prices hit the lowest!
Also I've found people seem to sell cars cheaper on [url]www.gumtree.com[/url], not sure why though but they always seem cheaper....
Yep, will be aiming to get as much back as possible from selling off the redundant panels/wheels/interior so a mega cheap donor could be a false economy.
With the Vitesse I used for my Spyder I got more back for the spare parts than I'd paid for the whole car in the first place. £££!
Really hoping to find a 2.0 or a 2.2 with a/c, when the time is right, but won't walk away from a 1.9 if the deal is too good to pass up.
I've done a bit of research on the perceived weakness of the 1.9 (M44 16v) on t'internet - it seems its flywheel is too heavy to allow it to spin up freely and the inlet tract is too restrictive to allow enough air to flow for it to develop any more power above about 5k rpm.
On the plus side, with half decent maintenance they last 200,000+ miles, will return 35mpg and would cost pennies for me to insure. And with a car as good looking as the SWB I'll want to go a bit slower to show it off anyway.
So ,with a lighter fly wheel possible different cams and a sports filter and turbo charger/intercooler with the lighter engine could be a good option :-) oh brain wave how bout a mini cooper 1.6 engine with the turbo. Lighter more bhp. Better mpg.
So ,with a lighter fly wheel possible different cams and a sports filter and turbo charger/intercooler with the lighter engine could be a good option :-) oh brain wave how bout a mini cooper 1.6 engine with the turbo. Lighter more bhp. Better mpg.
Will it fit? By that I mean does it just bolt up to the z3 gearbox?
Having read up a bit about the 1.9 motor, most forum contributors just recommend buying one with a six in it in the first place if you want more than 140bhp, as engine swaps will quickly soak up the gdp of a small country.
This type of car really should be about more than just going fast though. If you want fast you could always pick up an M3/Evo/Scoobie/Skyline for similar money. It won't make you feel anywhere near as good as driving a SWB with even a humble 1.8 under the bonnet though.
The LS7 is a seven litre engine, and the totally dressed engine weight is given as 497.2 lbs or 226 kilos, and that is without the gearbox. I would have thought that the BMW 2.8 was a bit lighter than that?
Still musing over the side window treatment I'm afraid. Rather like the way these two Ferrari's have theirs at Goodwood:
Simple 'hatch' on perspex runners -
Slightly more elegant solution on this one, the forward section slides back and the rear section is shaped to accommodate it. Viewed from above the rear section is 's' shaped in the fashion of the lapel badges on an ss officer's jacket, allowing the front section to overlap without going too far back -
