I think Jennshark is working on a track day car and not a daily driver. Everybody seems to have their opinion on the best track car. One of my track day acquaintances traded his used 911 for a brand new 2016 Chevy Camaro SS 1LE because the maintenance costs on the Porsche were killing him. The Camaro was significantly faster and it has all the track goodies like big brakes, aero package, and track camera with recording feature and a lap timer.
Car and Driver’s Camaro set a better time than the 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the 2011 Porsche 911 Turbo, and a bunch more 911s. Some of the newer 911s are faster but even used, they still aren’t as cheap to buy or maintain as that Camaro.
For what it’s worth, when I was looking for a track car, the BMWs were generally solid values for the performance they offered. I wound up with something different but I think that I would have been very happy with a couple of the BMWs that I decided to pass on.
I’m going to my third HPDE this weekend and I’ve done some autocross. So, I’m an amateur but an experienced one.
I have three BMWs, I bought this 2004 (330ci ZHP) in March for tracking. So, I’m not concerned about it as a daily driver. The E46 has a reputation for strut tower mushrooming and experts recommend a strut bar as a preemptive measure for both daily driving and tracking.
The seller never tracked the car, but he did install M-style suspension, Brembo brakes, and stanced Pirelli Pzeros (19x8.5 - 235/35 and 19x9.5 - 245/35). He owns a car part import company, so I lucked out. The tower bar is the only mod I need to do.
This would be my starting point, rotate the base to start. It really should fit as is. Might be a waste of time but I would spend some time finding out why it doesn’t fit.
I agree that the part should fit.
But, I just replaced the water pump and heater inlet tube in my F150, and the inlet tube would not fit into the water pump - no way, no how.
I finally took a grinder to the end of the tube to make it small enough to fit. Both parts were after-market, so one (or both) may have been out of spec.
The point being - sometimes parts are made outside of tolerance.
Yeah, I have the right parts, the car has just shifted about in 156 K.
In good news: I’m within .000000000000000009 of having the last hole fit over the post. I jacked it up and it gave some play, enough to get all but this one post in. To be continued tomorrow!
The photo linked to in the OP shows two of the three strut mount nuts (external hex), the third is under the arm that has two internal hex bolts. The strut tower without this gizmo bolted onto it is in the next photo over in that link (click on it), and as in this photo all three nuts are clearly shown.
The “gizmo” is a strut bar, which connects the left and right strut towers to enhance the car body’s rigidity, which can improve handling. Here’s how one looks installed (silver bar with red ends).
The strut’s three mounting studs stick up through the strut tower. These hold the top of the strut in place in the vehicle, and are also used to mount the strut bar. The studs are part of the strut’s upper mount (i.e. welded onto it) thus not feasibly replaceable; furthermore smaller studs would allow undesirable slop in the mounting position.
Anytime you’d like a lot more info than you ever wanted, just let me know!
Hey, Gary T, thanks for the tutorial; I enjoyed it. The right pix with the right instruction and it all makes perfect sense. We should pay you for this.
