For our Driftworks Christmas do, Dan decided to pit Bon in his 328 Touring (video here). So to say sorry Dan gave Bon an E36 compact shell, and they put the 328 running gear into it and made a rear exhaust section. Bon also fitted a used set of E36 HSD MonoPro's inverting the rear top mount to reduce shock length for the compact. He then drove the car to Norway with studded tyres and did winter Ice skids with Fredrik Aasbo who left 4 or 5 tyre marks that burnt through the paint on both sides of the Compact . Then the last Angelsey practice came about at the same time Bon decided he needed some money, so I bought the compact a couple of days before Angelsey and did these things to it: Serviced the engine Fitted some 15x7 mesh with 195/50/15s from treads of malvern, and some Yoko A539's on the front. Lowered the coilovers Found the rear coilovers were now bottoming out, so modified the rear lower brackets to shorten them by 25mm. Fitted some 20mm wheel spacers Rolled the rear arches Made and fitted some 4mm steering lock washers - Will be available in the shop in the next day or so. Aligned the car - Found out the rear of a compact isn't alignable and had 4 degree's toe out each side. Corner weighted the car to see how badly the 328 engine transplant has effect the balance. Modified the bucket seat mount from my E46M3 and fitted it along with my Trackculture seat. Fitted a Personal steering wheel that was in my AE86 before it started getting chopped up for the Nascar conversion. Modified the lower bracket to reduce shock height. I also offset the bracket to move the shock away from the car body as it was touching ever so slightly before, and offset it backwards a little to clear CV boot - I'm currently having the HSD factory make up a sample set of these properly, along with a shorter stroke shock so we can sell a HSD E36 Compact coilover kit in the future: Lock Washers: Corner weights - Really not bad as it had a completely brimmed tank of fuel! The car at Anglesey. I took these as I was pretty sure I was going to write it off. I solved that fear by taking the shocking Yokohoma A539 tyres off the front, and suddenly I had 'some' driving skill again Once the tyres were taken off I had a ball - Thanks Drift-One So once it was back at DW HQ here's what I did: Replaced the two engine mounts I'd snapped in half at Anglesey (good old ratchet strap got me through the day.) Fitted a Powerflex Black edition diff mount. We now have the entire powerflex range available in Black edition (25% stiffer than normal Powerflex) Fitted some Powerflex rear subframe bushes, and A arm bushes as we had them in stock so why not eh! While the subframe was out I slotted the mounting holes for the A arms - Outboard ones slotted backwards and downwards, and inboard ones forwards and upwards. This means I can get rid of the mental toe out, and get rid of some of the camber. Each A arm is mounted with a washer either side, then once aligned the washer is tack welded to the subframe to make sure it doesn't move. I've aligned the car now, and have a love 1mm toe in. The car has insane traction compared to before. I'm chuffed with my little mod! Fitted some new brake drums and shoes as the handbrake sucked donkey balls even in the wet. Decided to have Dan fit one of our Hydraulic handbrakes using one of the mounting plates we made for the Christmas cars. Also got him to cut the trim nicely and move the window switches over to the left using one of the 4door 323 trims we had in the cars. After about 7 years of bleeding it works really well! I put the standard seat back in for a bit as I'm daily driving it to work out the bugs. The Driftworks lines mount here at the back if anyone's interested I fitted an M50 Manifold last weekend while we did another 328 conversion into a compact on Paz's car! Today I thought I'd have a laugh and see if it's worth the effort of trying to get the Diamond Racing Steels off our ASCAR to fit. They are awesome wheels. Mounting them would be relatively easy in terms of re-drilling the correct PCD in the centre. But making them fit the arches is not so easy!. I'm not sure I can be arsed doing heavy bodywork flares on this car, and the wheels are 15x9.5 ET-17. Maybe there's some fenders I could fit to make them work? Mounted a 195/50/15 to the 15x9.5 ET-17 Diamond Racing Wheel. Front clearance check, mounted on two bolts as the PCD's wrong. Mounted to the Rear. I like! But do I like enough to do a shitload of bodywork? Not sure. And that's where we're at as of now. I'll be on it again tomorrow, so I'll try to keep the updates flowing if it's of interest!
Nice little project man! Them compacts are growing on me and I used to think they were gay as Christmas!
Awesome little project. This car is exactly what drifting should be... FUN! I reckon this should be a keeper. chop and chuck on some overfenders to get the wheels on dude Properly enjoyed trying to chase you around Anglesey in this.
Looking good, any chance you could post more pics of your solution to the e30 rear camber adjustment? Need to do somthing with myne its shocking.
Ah sick another 328 Compact. Simple stuff people should do to compacts to get a good spec is what you done but the 4 deg toe out on the rear? wtf? that isn't normal! I have roughly 1 deg toe IN. they're meant to toe in! haha The rear diff bush will soon rip out with a stiff polybush if the bracket isn't strengthened On the corner weights, is that with you in the car? The balance of the compact is awesome with a lightweight 6 cylinder engine! Mine was 1150kg with 1/4 fuel and me in it (about 70kg lol)
I did many passenger laps at Anglesey in this, and i thought it was awesome! So last Saturday me, Phil, Jay and Dan did the same to my daily 318Ti, and im really impressed with it! We fitted HSD MonoPro's, a 328 motor with M50 manifold, Welded the diff, stuck in a Bucket Seat and a dished Wheel... And i think it rips, proper quick lol!
Thanks for the advice Momanatorz. How do people normally reinforce the diff bracket? No, that's the weight with a full tank of fuel. and no rear seats, boot trim etc. It's still got full front trim and seats. Do these things kill driveshafts? I'm wondering if I should get some spares ready for the bad times?
you will want an e36 back plate and another diff mount welding on as the single one will soon snap off.
Looks like it's stock diff? (small case) E30 325 diff and shafts are best, you get a better ratio too. NEVER break. They come in 3.73, 3.61, 3.91 and some others irc. Been running it for 2 years now!! Fits in no prob as it's E30 rear end (mostly haha) I reinforced mine by stitch welding the beam that the bracket hangs on, as the spot welds pull away. And from above cut a space in the floor and have something welded to hold the beam up right above where bracket is, box section or something. works a treat.
Slightly off topic I know, but I'm seeing more and more 2.8s going into compacts recently! Its something I definitely want to do to mine, just wondering how involved a job it is? What bits I'd need, and the best place to get them that wont rape my bank account?
