Street car.

Hey everyone, welcome to my build thread.

I moved to London a couple of years ago and since I did, the biggest thing I missed was driving. London is not the town for owning a car, they have road taxes, congestion charges, and insurance is 3x the cost of the car. So after working for two years in a pub I had saved enough for a car and moved to Leeds, where there are no congestion charges and the insurance is only slightly more than the cost of the car.

I decided that I wanted 4 doors and a straight 6 with a manual box, initial thoughts were for a Chaser or an ER34, but unless you have no need for your left testicle and right arm, you're not going to find one over here for a reasonable price, upwards of £15k easily let alone the £4-5k insurance quotes. I started to look at BMW's, something I never thought I would do, E36 estates and sedans were an alright option, but I wanted bigger and more luxy. One day I was browsing Facebook Marketplace and 5 series were popping up for £1-2k for a decent 525i or 530i, and after getting insurance quotes it planned out to be the best option.

Then this popped up



Made my way down to London to go and check it out once, made an offer, but my Aussie license f***ed up my insurance quote so I had to get the train back home. Figured it would be gone by the time I had swapped my license to a UK one, but fortune was on my side, my license came, I asked the guy if it was still for sale and it was so I made the trip back down to London and picked her up minus the wheels.


Got it for £1900 + insurance, in total just under £4k. As a good base car, it was a decent find. BC Racing coilovers, New clutch and flywheel done 15k and a 2.5 cat back, and a lovely beige and woodgrain interior.

I had already decided what wheels I was going to put on it, had been searching for weeks, found a set, so on the 6hr drive home I made quite a decent deviation and picked up these bad boyz!



With some torn up tyres, but a nice gunmetal grey finish to complement the Titan Silver.

got the car home, ordered some PCD adapter, with a little bit of hesitation, but not too much because they needed the spacing for the right fitment so it kinda worked out.

Booked in for some tyres and got the wheels fitted.



Kuhmbros on the front and Mangkangs on the back.

The guy who sold me the Beamer had a horrible tiny Momo Steering wheel, but luckily the guy I bought the wheel off had a nice wide nardi he was going to use with his sim that I was able to swap him for, suited the interior really well.



It's a nice place to be.

I have had the car now for just under a year, had to replace both front hubs, the spacers didn't help. I have also upgraded to braided brake lines in the front, I need to replace the rear hardline before I fit braided lines in the back.

I have decided to tackle the build in two phases, Phase 1 being the essentials for getting the boat sideways, and Phase 2 being a bit of a power increase to support the boat staying sideways.

Phase 1 Includes -

- Higher ratio diff, Welded 3.47 from a 2.waste open diff designed for the Autobahn, with Powerflex bushes.

(currently occupying my boot along with prop shafts to swap in, because I live in Manchester in an apartment with no storage space)

- All new front arms and track/tie rods with rack spacers

- PMC Solid mount Short Shifter with a UUC Motorwerks Dual Sheer Selector Rod

- could do with a service and a new thermostat also.

-Rebuild rear brake shoes and make the handbrake work.



Kamoka Suspension Set



PMC Short Shifter and Selector Rod



They sent me the wrong series Rear Diff Bushes so I am waiting for the black set to replace them.


Phase 2 Include

- M50 Intake manifold with M52 throttle adapter

-Remapped ECU

- Schmiedmann high flow Sport manifold



The goal is to have a fairly versatile street/track car that is also a decent grocery-getter, It isn't needed for daily duties, I cycle to work and only get away on weekends, and hopefully, an occasional cheeky 1 am roundie sesh.

I have some ideas for future plans once I have completed these phases, I'm toying with the idea of swapping the front setup and fitting s14 knuckles and arms if there isn't enough range in the standard set up. As well as a GKtech Invisible Hydro if the standard handbrake doesn't play ball.

I also don't think that the welded diff is optimal for the long term, so I want to drop a cradle and diff out of an M5 with an LSD and build a cradle with adjustable arms and maybe modify the stud pattern so I don't need to run spacers.

I also keep playing with the idea of swapping an RB25 into it if the M52 ever decides to shit itself, But that is a way down the track.



I hope you enjoyed this build so far, please stay tuned for update and vids of skids in the future.

 

Well i am based in Manc, so i think the closest track is Three Sisters, Hopefully, get out by the end of the year or the start of next if I can find somewhere to do all the things to the car.

 

Will keep you posted, I should have sorted a place to do everything within the next two months. It looks sturdy and simple design, should be good.