My spec e30 project

#1

I got my e30 back Sat. The cage was installed and the rust was repaired. Next step is the rear suspension. New bushings, LS diff. I’ve posted pictures at photobucket http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a280/bmwbadboy/

#2

thanks for taking the time to document the build.
Makes me appreciate my socal donor car!

Hate to break this to you, but have you read of Igor’s plight in the recent cage thread (your pic 17)? Welded rear shock tower brace not allowed.
Also, on pic 30 it looks like you have an A piller down tube welded to the floor (ok) and then another tube extending down from the door bars to the floor. That makes an additional attachment point that isn’t allowed.
On pic 29 it shows the lower rear bars going to the wheel well, and the upper rear bars going to the shock towers.
So, it appears that you have a 10 point cage, with no front footwell protection … :frowning:

cheers,
bruce

#3

To echo Bruce, :frowning: it’s not NASA legal:

[quote]15.6.13
The roll cage shall be mounted to the floor of the car in six, seven, or eight points. The cage shall not go through the firewall. The seventh and eighth points must attach to the firewall or front fender wells.[/quote]

And the rear strut brace is not legal as per SpecE30, which allows bolt-in only:

When you take the car back to your fabricator, I strongly suggest that you have the a-pillar bar triangulated to the front wheel well – the E30 footbox is notoriously weak in front-end impacts.

(www.Get-Fast.net)

I’d also suggest printing out the roll-cage section of the NASA CCR and checking over every inch of the cage for anything else that might not be legal.

:frowning: :pinch: :whistle: :frowning:

#4

It sux to have to tell someone their car is not legal but there are some real flaws with the cage as far as legality goes. the previous posters mentioned all the things wrong, but I just hate the fact that you have to get it all fixed. An experienced cage builder should also tape the rules to the windshield as well

#5

Trust me, it wasn’t fun to have to give such bad news. (Someone else recently had a newly-welded rear strut brace that had to be cut out.) And it’s definitely not fun to have be on the receiving end.

DMoses wrote:

That’s exactly what my fabricator did – I was foolish and didn’t think about it; he took the initiative and downloaded the CCR and SpecE30 regs to make sure that what we’d talked about would be legal for the series and the sanctioning body. (He actually handed me the print-out when I picked up the car, to drive the point home that I needed to pay closer attention to the regs.)

The good news, David, is that it looks like, aside from putting a new diagonal or two from the hoop to the wheel wells, that mostly, you’re just going to have some cutting to do, presumably (cutting the rearmost braces, door bar attachment points).

I’d also suggest triangulating the door bars, or adding at least one more horizontal brace. I don’t know if I’d trust that in a collision… there’s a jihadist thread going on over at BimmerForums’s Track sub-forum about that very subject right now.

#6

Thanks for the feedback. I was aware of the deficiencies. When I first met with the guy, I gave him the rules and verbally gave him my specs. The first cage he built was like a bolt in. I wanted the bars down the A piller behind the dash. So I gathered a bunch of pics from the forums and the one pic was igor’s cage. So the rear brace is my fault, but easy to fix. I going to change it to a bolt in bar. I told him and showed pictures of an 8 point cage with the foot well braces. When I went to pick it up, thats what he had. I was pissed at this point and figured it was 80% right and I needed the car back to get it ready for next season. He charged me $1600. I gave the guy pictures, and two sets of rules and reviewed them with him and he still had problems getting it the way I wanted. I figure a few hundred to fix it, since I’m still doing HPDE, it’s better than no cage.

#7

bmwbadboy wrote:

Dude, that sucks. (Possibly to the point of needing a professional law-talkin guy.)

In that case, he owes you a proper, legal cage… no additional money should be spent, on your part.

I’m not asking you to identify/badmouth whomever built it, but are they an established cage builder?

#8

I not that concerned with the money part. It’s still less than the $2400 that another cage builder wanted. The problem is finding someone close enough to my home to do the job. Next time I will take it too the shop that Cobetto had his done.

#9

I not that concerned with the money part. It’s still less than the $2400 that another cage builder wanted. The problem is finding someone close enough to my home to do the job. Next time I will take it too the shop that Cobetto had his done.

#10

bmwbadboy wrote:

Ouch, $1600, that’s a lotta coin for that cage. Where are you located? For that much money you should have been able to get a much better, and compliant, cage. Hopefully that guy, or someone else, can fix it for you for little cost. Good luck, I hope it turns out well. Certainly you should post here if you need any assistance. Cheers.