Teach me about ITR 325's

[JeffYoung]

Except, unfortunately, that's illegal.

Where the rear sub-frame attaches should be reinforced (many rip out) and having rust there will make this a miserable job.

[Olson-RRT]

Except, unfortunately, that's illegal.

Where the rear sub-frame attaches should be reinforced (many rip out) and having rust there will make this a miserable job.

Not if it matches the factory repair which has been close to an outright recall for the e46. At a certain point in their production cycle, both e36 and e46 chassis had this from the factory. Rust and wear can still wreck the factory reinforcements though. Not seam welding or anything along those lines, this is installing OEM parts. I don't think this violates item 8 under Suspension Mounting Points. I would not race an e36 chassis without these parts installed.

http://rrtracing.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=223

edit: Item H under 8. Body/Structure
All chassis/structural/electrical repair, if performed, shall be in concurrence with factory procedures, specifications, and dimensions. Unless specifically authorized by the manufacturer for repair or allowed by these rules, no reinforcement, i.e., seam welding, material addition, etc., is permitted.

Knew it was in there somewhere.

[Ron Earp]

Here we go again......

[Greg Amy]

Here we go again......

https://improvedtouring.com...ad.php?t=12163

Start there.

BTW, the Autotechnica photo links on the first page no longer work. But, remember, nothing on the web ever disappears. Just add "http://web.archive.org/web/20050404233644" in front of the failed links, such as:

http://web.archive.org/web/200504042.../gallery/car11

[Olson-RRT]

https://improvedtouring.com...ad.php?t=12163

Start there.

BTW,

Wow. Just, wow. Seems things were wound a bit tight five years ago. Got a few replies down and couldn't deal with reading any more.

They are reinforcing the subframe itself, not the chassis mounting point. The pics in the link to the old post are not the reinforcement, or repair, I am referring to. Again, please look here to see what I am talking about:

http://rrtracing.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=223


Jeff, understand where you are coming from just a *bit* more now.

[Greg Amy]

Seems things were wound a bit tight five years ago.

Five years ago...? Well, I guess we've moved a lot of our tight-woundedness to the Sandbox...

Anyway...to summarize that thread, Matthew...I don't know enough about what I'm looking at to defend or contradict what you're trying to say. But, generally speaking, you can do whatever the factory did when they built the car, whatever your factory shop manual shows as an acceptable repair for the car, and whatever any technical service bulletins shows as an acceptable repair for the car.

The safest and most-legal action, of course, is to replace that whole ripped panel with a new one from the factory.

However, if at any time you perform a "repair" that deviates from original build or any of those official records, you are illegal. One thing that stuck out on that link you posted is "This is an E46 M3 Competition Package shown." Without further knowledge, that implies to me to be illegal to the IT rules.

Make it back to stock, and you're legal. Deviate from stock and you're treading on thin ice.

GA

[JeffYoung]

Matt, no problem. I do get worked up over that one, need to settle down.

I agree 100% with Greg (on rare occasion, that happens, because on rare occasion, he is right...lol....I'm kidding you Greg). He laid out precisely what you can and can't do with a repair.

I also can't tell from you link if that is a legal repair but it sure looks a hell of a lot less like illegal reinforcement than what those Autotechnic photos showed.

Time for me to move, thread got jacked.

Mike, bottom line for me is the E36 is one of those "just great" race chassis. I don't know of anyone who raced or races one that regretted it (outside of the rules crap it suffered through, and despite my believe that 215 whp in ITS it was a mess, I also felt the SIR was a debacle for the car owners). Honestly, while I like the Lude a lot and the build looks great, the E36 is probably a better base for a race car.

Have fun with both!

[JoshS]

So I think I read through all of that, and I've known about this repair for years from the BMW forums, but I still have never seen any factory directive about its use to reinforce cars that didn't come with the reinforcement from the factory. Near as I can tell, only M3s came with it from the factory. Not the 325i, not the 328i. Those reinforcement plates are not listed as superceded parts for anything either, since they are additional parts, not replacement parts. Seems to me that someone just "figured out" that the M3 had reinforcement that the non-Ms didn't have, so it became the de-facto way to repair this problem.

So quickly, did any factory documentation ever turn up?