Vorshlag Blog

The 2nd installment in our very detailed Forum Build Thread for this 1995 M3 shows work we have done from July into December 2024 on this barn find E36 we call Project #Hellrotten – both from the “Hellrot” factory color as well as the fact that it needed a good bit of restoration to make it into the Vorshlag team of track cars. Hundreds of pictures and videos are linked within this latest post. Vorshlag co-owner Amy will pilot this car next season in SCCA Time Trial competition, so we had a lot of work to do this Fall to get her ride reliable and fast. We have already put this car through two track tests and have another lined up in just a matter of days, to get ready for the 2025 season.

In this linked installment we show the restoration and race prep we performed over a 5 month period. This included a complete cooling system upgrade, with Mishimoto radiator, electric fan, radiator hoses, reservoir, a new water pump, and more. We also chased vacuum leaks in various forms, replaced an injector, added Vorshlag engine and transmission mounts, and so many other little repairs to get this 2.99L S50 BMW engine running strong and reliably. Of course we added an oil pump shaft/sprocket upgrade as well as an oil pan baffle kit from Achilles Motorsports, to keep this inline 6 supplied with oil when pushing hard on track. A good bit of detail time was spent underhood making this M3 look better than the day when it was new.

The suspension upgrades made to this car were extensive and included Motion Control Suspension “RR2” remote reservoir double adjustables, with Vorshlag camber plates and shock mounts. SPL Parts rear arms and sphericals, the entire Powerflex catalog of poly bushings, Whiteline adjustable swaybars, and even some elusive Hotchkis rear end links. The venerable RTAB bushing was replaced with sealed spherical Moog parts, and a Vorshlag welded RTAB pocket reinforcement keeps all of that squared away. We completely rebuilt the entire rear subframe assembly and detailed everything we touched along the way.

The interior needed a major clean up, but it turned out nice with Sparco EVO QRT racing buckets, MOMO Montecarlo 350mm Alcantera steering wheel, and an NRG QR hub – with a working horn button. We cover the development of new Vorshlag E36 seat bracket base mounts, which evolved over several weeks in this car. This E36 also got a custom mount for the Garmin Catalyst lap timer, USB ports, a modified 4-point roll bar, Sparco 6-point harnesses, and a custom rear bulkhead panel to separate the passenger cabin from the trunk. You can read the huge 5-part forum entry starting here. Thanks for following along and encouraging us with this 30 year old race car build – we’ve had fun developing new parts for the E36 chassis, which is as popular now as it ever was!

The latest entry into our long form chronicle of our LS swapped 2015 Mustang Time Trial pig we call Trigger is up on the Vorshlag Forum. Inside this 3-part update we cover the major upgrades we made in late 2023 with this car. We wanted to catch up on all of the 2023 struggles, victories, and breakthroughs we had with this car before 2024 was in the rear view mirror. After reading this, maybe you can learn something from our trials, testing, and tribulations.

A big part of those late 2023 updates included improvements to the aero balance of this car. Our version 3 of our “C-pillar mount” swan neck wing uprights lowered the dual element Nine Lives Racing carbon wing and moved it forward, effectively reducing rear downforce. We also added a new splitter with a full 12″ forward extension, large ducted fender vents, and new end treatments on the splitter that acted as both an end plate and a wheel wicker.

This latest update also includes a few more race and test events, with video and results. And at the very end of 2023 we took the car to Rapscallion Motorsports and had them install a Haltech 2500 Elite EFI system replacing a troublesome Holley Dominator EFI system we fought with throughout 2023. That solved a lot of problems, added some new capabilities, and the initial dyno pull even uncovered a dead ignition coil – who knows how long that 110 hp was missing? We tell our customers all the time to have an annual “check up” dyno pull done, which if you do this at the same dyno every year can show mysteriously lost power – so those errors can be tracked down. Again, you can read the latest here – and we’ll get to work on writing up what we learned in 2024 now!

We love endurance racing and so do a lot of our customers. Our friends at Pontini Racing were building a new race car and I was able to chronicle both their decision process and the build up to their first ChampCar Race. I was also lucky enough to share some of this in an article for Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, which is in the December 2024 issue. I cannot link to the digital version that is on GRM+ because it is behind a paywall, but if you are a subscriber it is easy to find on their site. Pick up an issue, which is out on new stands now!

The second part to this multi-article series is now live on our little forum. That will be cleaned up and edited for GRM in a future article, we suspect. Thanks for reading!

We custom ordered this 2024 Mustang Darkhorse with the optional handling pack and received it in October of 2023. We utilized this car to test fit many of the S550 suspension parts we sell, and even developed a few new products for the S650 chassis using this car.

In August of 2024 we stopped driving this car then detailed it inside and out for a quick sale. At the time we had MCS triples and aftermarket wheels on the car with an elevated price.

That “hopped up” Darkhorse did not sell, so in October of 2024 we removed the aftermarket suspension and put this car back to stock. It has 1765 miles and many parts have fewer than that. We have it priced aggressively – you can see all of the details and a lot more pictures at this classified page.

Please first check the classified page to see the status of this car (has it sold yet?), but if its still listed with a price it is still available for purchase. This car has always been stored indoors and looks flawless in person. Give us a call to schedule a test drive. Thanks!

We haven’t introduced a new Project Build Thread onto our forum in a minute, but we started writing this one of our E36 M3 “Barn Find” (Project Hellrotten) back in July when we took it out of long term storage. That goal was to see if we could restore this car to a running state and/or make it into a usable race car and product test mule.

The paint + interior condition and 214K miles prevented this one from being a good “restoration” and flip candidate, but a race car don’t care about any of that! In only 3 weeks our crew had this car running again, swapped in new rotors / hubs, developed a new brake cooling solution for the E36, and began much of the deferred maintenance that this car needed.

This link goes to the Vorshlag E36 Development thread which will cover the build up of this car as well as bring in some E36 tech we have learned over the last 20 years of owning and racing these cars. We stopped our first entry after we got the car running, but will go back and fill in the blanks of everything we have done to date. Stay tuned for track test #2 in this car soon! #E36tech

The last year competing with our Time Attack Mustang we call Trigger has been pretty amazing, but it wasn’t without some tough beginnings, from January to October of 2023. In our latest update to our S550 Forum Build thread we cover the challenges we had in the summer of 2023 – with low oil pressure plaguing the performance of our HPR 454″ LS7, to the lack of grip before we added some aero enhancements.

This thread update extensively covers every step of the front splitter construction and rear “floating C-pillar” wing installation on our S550 Mustang track car shown here. We delve a little into the theory, the rules, the tunnels added, the rear mounting bracket, and the exposed splitter struts. We also talk about our dual element Nine Lives Racing carbon rear wing, how we mounted that, and then our initial testing with aero – which was still with the factory GM “LS7” based internal 2 stage dry sump system.

Adding aero and more lateral grip made our low oil pressure issues even worse, so we immediately paused the race season so we could add an external 4 stage dry sump pump. That “bolt on” job snow balled into custom machining virtually every part we started with to fit correctly. This was a huge amount of work, and once it was finally mounted, it was still a lot of plumbing. We take the time to explain all of the steps of this external dry sump pump conversion, with pictures and warnings to others, in the forum thread. But all that work paid off, big time.

At our first competition event after this work in October of 2023 we had our biggest lap time drop and a huge win, which we discuss in the forum build thread with pictures and video. We have since changed the aero package in several ways, which we will cover in future updates, but this initial setup was a massive upgrade to this car and makes it much more enjoyable to drive on track. Thanks for reading!

After 7 years of ownership, and spending way too much time and money building it up, the Vorshlag “parts runner” 2000 Chevy regular cab / short bed Silverado 1500 has a for sale page, that reads like a build book.

This Arctic White truck has a lot of unique modifications and parts, including a Belltech 5/7 drop suspension kit (with numerous customized tweaks by Vorshlag Motorsports to get the ride height level), C-notched frame kit, an auto leveling Air Lift rear bag setup, Bilstein 5100 monotubes with remotes, and an upgrade to the biggest OEM brakes from this GMT800 trucks and Tahoe.

The engine was changed for a spicier LS variant built by Erik Koenig of HorsePower Research, which is a 5.7L inside an iron LS block, all forged internals, and completely rebuilt and dyno tuned by Sergio at LG Motorsports. It has a port matched Dorman TrailBlazer SS style intake, American Racing Headers 1-7/8″ stainless long tubes, and a custom stainless 3″ exhaust with a massive MagnaFlow muffler. The 4L60 is rebuilt with a 2800 stall, and the rear end has a new Auburn LSD and 3.73 gears, as well as new bearings and seals.

The body was repainted in 2021 with a 2005 Silverado SS front end conversions, which includes: new fenders, hood, lights, grill, bumper, and SS nose. This truck sits on Weld Racing 20×11″ wheels and 315mm Bridgestone rubber, which are also new. The interior is immaculate. This truck has numerous Vorshlag details throughout and will make the new owner very happy, and popular every time it pulls into a parking lot.

We are here to answer any questions – just call us at Vorshlag at 972-422-7170. The classified ad also has a LOT more information inside, linked here. Thanks!

In warmer climates driving a race car on a road course for 10-45 minutes can be taxing in the summer months. In this latest article on our forum we describe the types of Driver Cooling Systems out there, what they do, and differences between the two main types: Iceless and Ice Chest based systems. These both have their own Pros and Cons, differing price points, and we give some insight into using and installing both types.

In this article we show how to mount the units, how to wire them, where to put the on/off switch, and even discuss flow controllers for the ice chest based systems. We then talk about a few players in this very small industry, and even show how we made our own mounting tray (twice) and made our own ice chest based cooler, when we couldn’t get to our normal vendor. So yes, we have a DIY build your owner cooler section, which I’m sure some of you will love.

Thanks for reading this little blog post, but don’t forget there is so much more at this article on the Vorshlag forums. Thanks!

It’s been 3 years since we updated this Forum Build Thread for our 2000 Silverado “shop truck”. That thread was started in 2013 and was originally for a similar 1999 GMC “regular cab short bed” truck we called Truck Norris. This was replaced in 2017 by a somewhat vanilla 2000 Silverado “regular cab short bed” truck, and many of the parts from the GMC were swapped over.

We got a little crazy during the pandemic and in 2020 this truck got a race built 5.7L engine from HPR, a built transmission, 3.73 gears, a limited slip, a 5/7″ drop kit from Belltech, and a wheel and tire change. Then a tree fell onto the truck and damaged the front end – so we upgraded to the 2003-07 Silverado front, with the Silverado SS bumper cover. That was what we showed in the last update, but shortly after that it went to see our friends at Heritage Collision for the proper alignment of the new body panels, and of course a full respray. This entry into the forum build thread finally shows the work from 2021-2024, including the paint work.

After the truck came back from paint we did a number of upgrades including: the automatic leveling system for the rear bags from Air Lift, an Addco rear swaybar, new window motor, a new dash top from Dashskin, 20×11″ Weld wheels and 315mm tires, and much more. All of that work is covered starting here.

We had the truck dyno tuned at LG Motorsport in early 2024 and that really woke up the truck, as well as fixed some weird tuning issues that 5 previous tuners struggled with. Now that the truck is finished, driving right, and perfect – we’re going to sell it. Why? Well with 4 “shop trucks” now, and one of them needs to go. Look for the classified ad on our website soon, and again you can catch up on the last entry into this build thread here.

We have been building roll cages for race cars at Vorshlag for more than a dozen years, and it is never fun. It is very time consuming, involves a lot of engineering for layout and material choices, takes real math and measurement during construction, tube bending and notching, then a good bit of welding. We wrote about the costs of a building a proper roll cage back in 2015 in this thread, and it has racked up 25K reads. There were a number of shop owners who reached out and said they raised their prices after reading this, and the text we wrote even ended up verbatim on somebody’s website…

Over the past few years in this industry, something has changed – a select few Motorsports fabricators have fully embraced modern technology with and 3D scans of cages, CAD designed tubing, and CNC bent + notched “cage kits”. We have utilized “cage kits” here at Vorshlag in the past, but our latest experience with a kit from Trackspec Motorsports for our shop 2015 Mustang “Trigger” was an amazing experience. We wrote up some of our experiences in this updated forum post.

Everything from the kit just fit perfectly – every tube was bent to fit tightly to the chassis every notch lined up with the marks on the tubes with very tight gaps, and over the course of 15 hours logged we had the floor prepped, plinth blocks placed, and the entire cage installed and tack welded! That included some tricky dash cuts for the A-pillar pass-thrus, shown in the video below.

We managed to get some good images and video clips over the 2.5 days spent prepping the chassis and installing the Trackspec S550 cage kit, which you can see in this 7 minute video. Then we added to our original “roll cages cost money” forum post with additional content on this and another cage kit install we had done on an E46 coupe. We do not have the “right fabricator” on staff to scratch build a roll cage to this level of quality, so for the foreseeable future we will be using pre-bent cage kits for all of the race cars we build. Using one of these CNC built kits saves time, saves money, and gets you a more consistently high quality / tighter fitting cage than a scratch built cage could hope for.