VS Motorsports NASA GTS/ BMW CMOD Build

[VSmotorsports]

After the SCCA runoffs our E46 M3 started to make a big change as it will not be racing in T2 class anymore. The E92 M3 will be taking its place but the E46 will be built towards the NASA GTS class and enduro series. We started with making a big weight reduction and rebuilding the motor. The motor was a 100k street motor (That we used for one race) so it was in a need of a rebuild for racing. Nothing major is being done but just a rebuild to freshen up the motor.

Right now we are working on cutting out the unnecessary the wires and brackets. Originally we were going to grind away all the seam sealer but instead it will be getting a chemical bath to remove everything from undercoating, to seam sealer. There are a few other mods to the cage we will be doing to stiffen up the chassis, but this will be done after the bath.

We will be trying to keep this thread updated as the build goes on.

[Imran@Evolve]

Good luck - looking forward to updates on this!

[mkPOTO]

cant wait!

[klammer]

Looks nice, excited to see the finished product.

[IND-Distribution]

Sweeeeet! I'll stop by and help you cut some brackets off sometime.

[VSmotorsports]

Originally Posted by Imran@Evolve

Good luck - looking forward to updates on this!

Thanks Imran, hopefully the chemical bath does not take as long as they say it will. Looking at maybe two months before we get it back.

Originally Posted by mkPOTO

cant wait!

Originally Posted by klammer

Looks nice, excited to see the finished product.

Thanks, its hard to believe this is the car we were racing a few weeks ago and now all its just a shell with nothing on it.

Originally Posted by Ilia@IND

Sweeeeet! I'll stop by and help you cut some brackets off sometime.

Hahaha nice. Come by its soo much fun using the spot weld cutter

[flipm3]

Oh man I am so excited to see this build and what parts you guys decide on.

This car will probably end up being what my E46 M3 dreams of being, hahaha.

Hopefully I get to check it out when I'm back in the country in a couple months

[VSmotorsports]

It should be a really fun build since we are not confined to class rules for modifications. Only thing will be power to weight, but that can be adjusted with the tune or adding ballast.

[flipm3]

Originally Posted by VSmotorsports

It should be a really fun build since we are not confined to class rules for modifications. Only thing will be power to weight, but that can be adjusted with the tune or adding ballast.

Definitely sounds like a lot of fun!

Will you guys be doing the engine rebuild or out sourcing from another shop? Any plans to do some preventative measures on the VANOS for reliability?

[VSmotorsports]

Originally Posted by flipm3

Definitely sounds like a lot of fun!

Will you guys be doing the engine rebuild or out sourcing from another shop? Any plans to do some preventative measures on the VANOS for reliability?

The engine is at the machine shop right now getting rebuilt. This one is only getting upgraded pistons because it needs to be over-bored. However we have a spare block and we will be using that one to do our tricked out engine build. We use our local machine shop to our builds but the vanos we are not sure of yet. It all depends on our ECU and cam set up. Most likely the vanos is staying for now.

[CPWINCH]

chemical bath 2 months. can u explain why your doing a chemical bath

[mkPOTO]

i believe they are doing it so they can re-enforce the body and just start clean

[VSmotorsports]

Originally Posted by CPWINCH

chemical bath 2 months. can u explain why your doing a chemical bath

We actually got another place to do it faster for us so we will only have to wait about two weeks. Originally we were buying grinding disc to clean off all the seam sealer on the car so we can seam weld. We kept going through grinding disc that were not cheap, so it became a better idea to chemical bath the car. That way everything is stripped off the car from the seam sealer to the undercoating. Plus that will help us lose weight off the car in the end.

The chemical bath will strip everything that is not steel off the car. So if you had any aluminum, seam sealer, etc. It will strip off like alka seltzer in water.

[flipm3]

Originally Posted by VSmotorsports

We actually got another place to do it faster for us so we will only have to wait about two weeks. Originally we were buying grinding disc to clean off all the seam sealer on the car so we can seam weld. We kept going through grinding disc that were not cheap, so it became a better idea to chemical bath the car. That way everything is stripped off the car from the seam sealer to the undercoating. Plus that will help us lose weight off the car in the end.

The chemical bath will strip everything that is not steel off the car. So if you had any aluminum, seam sealer, etc. It will strip off like alka seltzer in water.

That sounds really cool! I'm going to YouTube some time lapse videos of this chemical bath later, hehe.

[VSmotorsports]

Strapped down on the trailer, ready to go to the chemical bath!

[mkPOTO]

Very nice, can't wait to see it done

[E90///M3`]

chemical bath FTW... i've seen the process done on video one time but i hope you guy can get some video of the bath itself and time lapse it =D

[flipm3]

Cool!!! I can't wait to see this build progress!

[VSmotorsports]

The time lapse is a great idea and wish we could do it. However the place we take it is having us drop off the car because they can not get us in right away, and its 4 hrs away.

[zhangzeyuandss]

Can't wait to see the end result in person..

[VSmotorsports]

Few More Pictures!

[VSmotorsports]