Terry Sayther Automotive-E36 M2002?

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"You just can't do anything the easy way, can you?"
The story of FrankenBimmer.

Introduction:

It's not that bad, really. It makes sense; you'll see. Let me explain. It all started when my chief financial officer kindly suggested that we have to pay for last years' adventures before we committed to any new ones. I took that to mean that we better forgo travel to distant BMW CCA Club Races and postpone our return to La Carrera Pan Americana for a year so that we could catch up on the credit cards.

So...that meant it would be awhile before the '75 2002 race car would see any action---plenty of time to put into action some of the more time consuming projects I had been contemplating. Take the suspension, for example.

In March at Tech Fest West I talked at length to Jeff Ireland of Ireland Engineering and Jay Morris of Ground Control about updating a 2002 suspension to something more modern. THEY didn't tell me I was crazy. Later I talked to Brett Anderson, probably the smartest BMW technician in the country, about which modern suspension would theoretically be the best to use under an old 2002, and HE didn't try to talk me out of it. So how bad can it be?

Here's how it happened. A couple years of Club Racing has allowed me to make an observation: newer BMWs are faster and handle better. Logically continuing that thought, if my 2002 had a newer engine and suspension, it would be faster and better handling.

I considered and dismissed the E30 suspension as not sufficiently different or better that the 2002. The E36, on the other hand, now there's a modern suspension. But how could it fit under a 2002? It sure won't just bolt in. It seemed like the answer was to cut out the portions of the E36 floor that held the suspension and graft them into the floor of the 2002. That sounds relatively easy, but when reality steps in, the front suspension mounts/shock towers just don't readily lend themselves to any kind of simple transplant. What to do?

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like the only good way to accomplish the goal----complete modernization of the 2002 suspension----was to transplant the entire bottom panel of an E36 into a 2002 body. Of course, there were some potential problems: the wheel bases don't match and the E36 width is significantly more than the 2002. Well, wheelbases can be shortened and fenderflares can cover a myriad of sins, so those problems could be overcome----hopefully any others as well.

THAT kind of project is NOT a modification project, it is more of a NEW race car project. Stripping an entire 2002 body, cutting out the complete bottom of the car, stripping an entire E36 body and cutting away everything except the bottom, shortening the E36 floor 8 inches, trimming away the details, fitting them together, making a really strong rollcage to put back the strength----it's a pretty big deal. Impossible? No. Sensible? No. Reasonable? Not even close. But fun? You bet!!

Let's get started...

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