The Official IDB Racing Pikes Peak International Hill Climb build thread

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civicious

Buck Futter
VIP
EDIT: I'll be editing this first post and adding the most recent photos/videos at the bottom of the first post. I'll be posting updates, photos, and videos at the 'end' of the thread :)


Back story:
I started racing motorcycles several years ago, and while I wasn't particularly 'great' at it I managed to win some races and even an overall first-place regional class championship. In 2011 I got an Aprilia SXV 450, and shortly afterwards got turned on to Pikes Peak. I ended up racing in 2012, and had a heck of a hard time - but I finished! (If you'd like to read about that whole experience, the thread is available here: My Pikes Peak International Hill Climb experience


I learned a LOT my first year on the mountain...but the biggest thing I gained was the urge, or the NEED rather, to race a car up that sucker! While in the bar at the host hotel for the 2013 Hill Climb, I found a beat-up worn-out E36 M3 on Craigslist back in Houston, and immediately made arrangements for my friend that owns a wrecker to go pick it up. I don't remember how much exactly I paid for it, I believe the seller was asking $600 for it, so I gave Eric $600 and told him to haggle the guy down as low as he could and he could keep the difference - pretty sure he ended up getting it for $400. Either way, decent deal on a car that, while stripped, came with a (salvage) title.


From there, we threw as much awesome at it as we could. Enjoy!

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Last edited:
Just got back from the shipping terminal at the airport from picking up the widebody fender set from Sarto Racing in Japan. Sarto has graciously agreed to hook us up with some of their new bodywork, which has AMAZING fit and finish - I've done Lamborghini front end retrofits with crazy high dollar aftermarket bodywork that hasn't been this high quality.

The kit is for a non-M, so I'll have do to some minor trimming on the front bumper panel to make it line up - but nothing too terribly complicated. The kit is also for a coupe, so I'm losing rear door function (who cares), we'll most likely weld panels in over the rear door handles, and we'll have to modify the fronts a bit to clear the doors...but, for the most part, I has widebody!!

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We also got one of the carbon fiber wings that we'll be testing, shown here on my '72 Benzo:

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More updates to come soon! The window set is scheduled to arrive on Monday, and our cage should be here shortly afterwards - and as soon as that's here, we get to start seam welding!
 
A few more pics of mounting up the bodywork, we picked up this super ricey 'Bomex style' rear bumper on eBay - it's essentially a cheeseball version of what we're actually going for, so we're going to cut the lower 'diffuser' off and mount our REAL diffuser in place of it...AND it was cheaper than an OEM style aftermarket bumper!

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I got composite front & rear bumper supports, and on the front I'm going to have the splitter hardmounted to the bumper and the bumper support, with a fitting on the lower subframe that the splitter will attach to under the car. I then put hood pins through the front support, so I'll be able to pop the hood pins out and slide off the whole front clip as one assembly - for easier loading on the trailer and quicker disassembly. Yay!

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We also just received the window set from ACW Motorsport Plastics, they're located in the UK and make a REALLY nice set of lexan windows for the E36 sedan. We got all four door windows, both quarter windows, and the rear window (for Pikes Peak, we're required to run an OEM windshield). I got sliders put in both front windows, not sure why I got one on the passenger side since this is a one-seater...but, for something this minor I figured it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

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Got the fenders cut & welded up for the widebody today. I don't have wheel spacers or our suspension in yet (both should be here by the end of the month), but I have an extra set of Gallardo wheels kicking around the shop - so we stuck one in the back to see how she sits.


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More work done this weekend, think I've decided to keep a rear diffuser to the same design as I'd originally planned, except with no rear bumper at all. Mostly, because this:

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What's that rule about "Watch what the fast guys do" ?


Anyways, regardless of what I ultimately decide to do with the rear bumper, the spare tire well has to go. I'm going to keep the battery in the back passenger corner, so I'll have to reinforce that a bit beyond the sheetmetal that's getting put in today.

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...and, of course, some Instagram pics with the Gallardo wheels mocked up:

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This week I'll be cutting a template from the spare tire well to weld in place, then boxing in the right rear corner where the battery will be mounted. Stay tuned!
 
A bit more progress so far this week, haven't had a chance to get the new trunk floor cut and welded in; we were able to get all the solid rear suspension bushings put in, and we seam welded the rear underbody. We also went ahead and installed the new rear wheel bearings - lemme tell ya, there's NOTHING as nice as having a hydraulic press! :D

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Getting these little guys installed SUCKED. Even with freezing the bushings and heating the subframe, they did NOT seem to want to go in there. Again, hydraulic press and a buncha flinching to the rescue!

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We still have to go over the entire underside of the car and powerwash / clean everything, so pardon the not-spotless suspension bits :D

Also got our 996tt calipers back from machining, so they can be mounted up with the RallyRoad brackets once our new caliper mounting hardware shows up in a day or so.

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Yay!
 
They were FREE! We put a big brake kit on a customer's Porsche, and he was like "You guys can throw the old calipers away for me, I don't want them."

Yep. Can't beat that with a stick.
 
Large piston small piston. I don't gain much more pad area with these versus the stock M3 pad, but it allows me to run a 345mm rotor....AND I get the super-quick-pad-change-style caliper, too.

Gonna be running Hawk DTC-60's front and rear, btw.

I think. Maybe DTC-70's. Probably 60's.
 
Very cool build

What are your horsepower plans?
 
Very cool build

What are your horsepower plans?
This year I'm running a stock US-market S52B32 with a stock full rebuild, that I'll be building on the 'tight' side, same as all my race motors. I'll be coating piston skirts, camshafts, lifters, and bearing surfaces as well. It's got an M50 manifold, open headers (OPEN HEADER!), and a tune...but I doubt it'll make more than 250 whp before the nitrous. If we run into some extra money before the race this year (otherwise the 'normal' plan for next year) I'll be doing major internal work and a big turbo, and try and make 800. Running 102 fuel either way, because I scored two barrels of Shell LM24 V-power race gas :)


do you really use the brakes that hard on the way up in the cold?
Well, ideally...
 
More updates from today - this week has been minimally productive but maximally awesome...haven't made much progress to the car, but we've got a buncha cool stuff in!

First to arrive was a package from one of our sponsors, Liquid Image Co., who's providing us with some of their wicked little HD cameras to use! Much appreciation to them for supporting the sport! This is great, because the budget was only going to allow for one or two cameras with which to film everything, and we probably weren't going to have much (if any) video prior to the actual race week...now we'll be able to have FIVE angles to film from practice & testing in the months leading up to the race!
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And then, yesterday we got two big ol' heavy boxes from Ground Control, full of even more awesomeness!

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You'll notice that there are rear trailing arm bearings in there, as well as two different front control arm bushings (not sure yet which ones I wanted to use, so they sent me both!). I'd already purchased some solid front LCA bushings from Bimmerworld that I hadn't installed, and we'd already installed the rear control arm bushings that I got from Turner.

Now, a word about Turner Motorsports. I'm not going to sit here and bad mouth their products, because they're top notch; I will, however, complain about their customer service. I contacted them early on asking for information on their suspension and some various other parts, and couldn't get a response from them for the life of me. I spent a grand or so on the bushings that I ordered with hopes that I'd get a response back once I'd purchased something, yet again - not a peep from 'em though. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the products that I purchased from them and that have been installed thus far, as they're top notch - but their unwillingness to offer any support dissuaded me from doing any further purchases. So, enter Jay Morris and Donovan at Ground Control, who were generous enough to hook us up with the above pictured suspension setup - pretty much everything they make for the car! They included their rear trailing arm bearings as well, so it was out with the units from Turner and in with the GC's!

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Yaaaaay! :D



The wheel spacers/adapters from Motorsport-Tech are scheduled to show up on Friday, and the current plan is to spend Saturday and Sunday getting the suspension on the car and, with the exception of the fuel cell, finishing up the underside of the car. More updates to come!
 
It was in the high 20's and low 30's today in the shop, don't hate! lol

I'm not sure if they sync or not, but it's not too terribly hard to sync up 5 different shots. My brother is in film school, and he's going to be helping out a good bit with the videography side of things.





We need to figure out what to paint on the bottom of the car, in case I toss that bitch off the side of the mountain. "Oops!" seems too cliche...
 
Wheel spacers showed up today! Shown here next to a can of water for size comparison :)

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It's going to be a productive weekend :D
 
I was never going to actually use the Gallardo wheels, those were actually sold the same day that we mocked them up. I've got wheels ordered that will be here on Monday or Tuesday - ended up going with 18x9 on all four, and I'll be running 275/35's. The rear wheels from the wagon that I've had mounted up on the M3 and been using for mockup are 18x9 with 275, and I was unsure whether or not a 10" would clear in the front.
 
So I decided that I wanted to run a hood vent from a GT500, and picked one up from some Mustang parts site for around $100 or so. Turns out it's a bit too wide, so it's going to need to be refabricated a bit...

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Whoops, sawzall got away from me a bit...no worries, I've got a file :)

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I use an epoxy called 'Plastic Welder' by VersaChem on all my plastic repairs and glue-ings, I've used this stuff for years and I love it. It's great on older cars that are getting restorations that have cracked trim or trim that's missing chunks where the plastic has disentigrated...just have to let this stuff sit up for a bit and it'll somewhat melt the plastic together; then sand, primer, and paint, and you can never tell! I doubt I'll be doing this particular piece to 100% show-quality smooth (because racecar), but the untrained eye won't be able to tell even up close when I'm done :)

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Now just gotta let this guy sit overnight, then sand/fill/finish tomorrow!

Meanwhile, John has spent the last few hours cutting, fitting, and welding in reinforcements for the rear subframe. Once these are all boxed in, we'll be going back over and seam-welding the whole thing. We aren't doing any reinforcements for the rear sway bar mounts, since we aren't running a rear sway bar. The rear lower control arms should be finished being welded and boxed in this afternoon as well.

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I'll post finished photos once we're done with all the welding.


UPS also showed up with the first set of wheels as I was posting this...they're knockoff BBS LM wheels, but they're GREAT quality - and they weigh about a pound less each than the 'real' LM's (21lbs each). 18x9, et35, and we'll be running 275/35's on all four corners. Would I rather run real BBS wheels? Sure, but given the price, and that I'm confident in the build quality of these wheels, plus the fact that there's a REALLY good chance that I'm gonna tear some wheels up during the hillclimb...yeah, I'll be bueno with these

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what's the brand on those wheels? and why no rear sway? running square in a low powered car, you are probably going to want it.

I was also wondering why no rear sway bar.
 
Not sure of the brand, I got them straight from the manufacturer before they're shipped to the company that puts their name on them and sells them, heh. I've been getting a lot of parts direct from the manufacturers in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea - these particular wheels came from Korea.

No rear sway because we're running a huge front sway bar and crazy stiff springs. I didn't get deep into the details as this was what Ground Control recommended I run, and I've seen several other hillclimb cars run without rear sway bars, so it seems in line with what GC recommended.
 
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