There is confusion surrounding our two models of BMW E46 camber plates and we get asked about the differences all the time. We make one for the E46 “non-M” cars, like the 325, 328, 330 and Z4. We make one with different initial geometry for the E46 M3, but only for street and dual purpose cars. This forum post hopefully explains this in better detail.
The key differences is for a dedicated E46 M3 or Z4M race car, you should actually use the non-M camber plate versions. This one has more negative camber potential, but not enough positive camber travel for a pretty street car alignment. Still not clear? Read this to learn more. Thanks!
We haven’t posted in the 21st Century Fox’s forum build thread for three months, but we’ve been busy working on this 1988 Mustang – mostly tackling a V8 swap, along with a ton of other upgrades. We’re doing all of this work so we can get a more realistic “baseline track test” in this car before we tackle much needed suspension upgrades, which will include all new creations from Vorshlag. And it ended up being pretty dang light for a full interior street car at 2732 pounds!
In the latest round of work we tackled a whole new cooling system to connect the 6.3L built LS V8 engine to the rest of the chassis, including this massive How radiator shown above. This work includes custom radiator hoses, heater hoses, remote coolant reservoir, steam vents and more. This update also covers the intake manifold, throttle body, fuel rails, injects, and remove ignition coil mounting.
The V8 required a whole new exhaust system and we opted to build a dual 3″ stainless setup with classic Flowmaster series 40 mufflers. This connects to the (temporary) log manifolds and has provisions for twin Wideband O2 sensors, which will be sending data to the Link G4X fuel injection system.
After the exhaust was finished we could then tackle the new fuel line system. This forum update shows the dual 1/2″ aluminum hard lines and Fragola -8 AN flex lines running the length of the chassis and into the engine bay, where the regulator and fuel rails take over. The conversion to fully hydraulic clutch actuation is also covered.
The dash was out for a long period while the entire wiring system was upgrade, going from the NOCO 5 pound Lithium battery underhood to the stock fuse box, alternator, starter, and auxiliary fuse / relay system that came with the Link ECU. In the latest update we show the cleaned and weighed dash going back in as well as some lightweight carpet, shifter, seats and belts.
Last up is the EFI system wiring and base map tuning, which was tackled in-house with some help form Link ECU tech support. We got the engine fired up in late December 2025, verified data on the Link software, and even managed to get the factory dash and gauges to work. We did this with a duplicate set of sensors as well as a heavily modified speedometer cable assembly. You can read about all of this and more on our forum. Next time we post about the car will be after the next track test and we will hopefully, finally be offering some real suspension solutions for the Fox chassis!
My Dec 7th blog post here was all about our E36 M3 Project #Hellrotten moving from SCCA Time Attack Max5 to Max4 class, with a BMW S65 8400 rpm 4.0L V8 + DCT transmission. I had entered the car for UTCC and been dragged into a battle amongst other automotive journalists and bloggers, which fired me up!
On December 10th we had the E36 on the lift, coolant drained, splitter removed and were about to yank the perfectly good S50 engine to get started on the swap. We had just done a compression check and videos of it running, to help sell the S50 3.0L inline 6, the 5-speed transmission, the long tube header + custom exhaust, Link ECU and engine harness, plus the S50 specific fuel system upgrades. I had a bad feeling and I bolted up from my desk, ran out into the shop, and stopped this work! I explain this in detail in this post in the Hellrotten forum thread. Long story short, we will keep the E36 as-is and move this S65 swap to an E46 chassis.
There was a very recent rules change in SCCA that allowed caged cars to use Lexan behind the driver, and we had this unfinished and ignored E46 coupe chassis that fit the bill – it was fully caged, sitting on new MCS triples, wide wheels, EPAS steering column swap, and an E46 M3 rear diff and subframe. It has been untouched since 2022. This car also had a good race seat, carbon hood and trunk, and lots more. We also had another E46 coupe with a full Flossmann GTR widebody kit, carbon doors and carbon roof. The car had Lexan rear quarter and back windows, and was thus not legal for SCCA Max until this change in late November. I talked to the crew here and suggested: “Why don’t we just S65 + DCT swap the caged E46, then steal all the carbon and widebody panels from the other coupe, and make a GTR tribute?!” They all agreed. That gets explained in great detail in this new E46 GTR forum build thread.
One of the goals for this E46 M3 GTR build is also to finally replicate the low weight, 400+ whp output, and big tires from our “E36 Alpha car”, shown above. I started building this LS swap E36 in my home garage in 2000 and due to business reasons we had to sell it in 2009 – when it made 488 whp with 315mm Hoosiers and weighed 2550 lbs with a cage and two racing seats. I have not had a race car this light with more than 400 whp in the 16 years since, and I miss it mightily! The Alpha car was so fun to drive, so light, so effortlessly fast. Which means this E46 has big shoes to fill…
In under 3 weeks in December we have made tremendous strides on this build, with the S65 engine + DCT both mounted into the E46 chassis, the bodywork from the Flossmann car moved over, the carbon roof swapped, and much more. We had an instant reaction to my daily Facebook posts of the progress on this build and we’re now considering a production run of the engine + DCT mounts and possibly the long tube headers we will have to make.
An initial weight check was very promising (see above or in this forum post), and with a bunch of known weights of parts added in we can extrapolate a sub-2500 pound finished chassis weight. The Max4 class we are building for has a 3000 pound minimum weight with driver, so we’ll need “a bit of ballast”, and for UTCC we can and will remove the ballast needed for SCCA’s Max4 class. In the UTCC “writer’s shootout” against two 3600 pound F8X BMW M cars and Tom’s gutted Nissan 350Z LS swap, we’ll possibly be the lightest car by as much as 1000 pounds (at least compared to the F80 BMWs). The S65 engine might be down 200 hp to the twin turbo Bimmers, so we will need very trick in the book!
Thanks for reading along and encouraging this madness! – Terry @ Vorshlag
Ever started out a Track Race Car build on a dare? Maybe it was from a bench racing session with a buddy, over a few beers. Maybe your existing car just doesn’t “fit the formula” that your favorite racing groups has for class rules. Maybe you think you can find a loophole to exploit, or just want to build a car to the minimum weight, maximize power, and run the bleeding edge limit on aero, tires, and suspension – but within a budget.
Sometimes you are so busy bench racing that a buddy finds you a free chassis for the car you have been dreaming up. That’s what happened here with our buddy Paul or Pontini Racing – he had been talking about an RX8 build for SCCA Max5 or Max4 Time Attack for so long that you found him a car, to see if he’d actually do it. And he did!
In this forum post we explore the ideas, the class rules in question, and even the three “Levels of Safety” that SCCA prescribes for their Time Attack series. We dive into two potential classes and 7 potential drivetrain swaps on this 2004 RX8 – and none of them involve the dreaded rotary (a seriously cool idea on paper, that never seems to work out as well on track).
If you have ever day dreamed about building the ultimate car for a given class – even one with rather mild limits – this forum build thread might be worth a read. And you can comment with your suggestions in the forum! Follow the instructions on how to sign up on the vorshlag forum and join in the discussions! We’ve had this forum up for 25 years and it is chock full of tech. Thanks for reading!
Howdy folks! Terry from Vorshlag here. Just wanted to make a quick post about some big changes to our shop’s race car lineup that are in store for 2026, and the reasons for all of this.
We had a great year testing new products and Amy had fun competing in SCCA Time Attack in our 1995 M3 Project #Hellrotten, where we transformed this ratty barn find into a pretty solid track weapon. It started out not-running in 2024, and we repaired rat eaten wires, got the S50 fired up, added this Fitment Labs widebody, 18×11″ wheels, 315mm Yokohama A052 tires, Nine Lives Racing wing, and a custom Vorshlag splitter and other aero treatments. The MCS remote reservoir doubles (RR2) plus the entire catalog of Vorshlag suspension bits – along with the original S50 3.0L inline 6 controlled by Link ECU, and a custom exhaust / header – allowed Amy to take the Texas region championship in Max5 class for the 2025 season with 6 wins and 2 second places.
We didn’t make it to the 2025 Time Attack National Championships at PITT Race this year, for a variety of reasons. My S550 Mustang was still having teething pains, but also : this M3 was 500 pounds overweight for Max5 class, which is a real determent to any entry’s competitiveness. It does have what is considered a solid 3.0L engine for this class (the largest displacement allowed), but even cranking out 246 whp, it was not enough to make up for a 500 pound penalty. As we considered how to rectify this for the 2026 season, two things happened that changed the course of this car’s future – as well as my bank account.
First up – Amy decided to go back to her 2013 FRS for the 2026 season, which we were already swapping to Honda J37 V6 power. This lighter car also sports 315mm tires, MCS RR2 coilovers, and with 300-350 whp it should be a bit spicy in Max4 class with full aero and Link ECU power. That leaves the M3 without a driver…
And then SCCA dropped a nuclear b0mb on us – after it was announced that PITT Race was being sold to for AI garbage uses, the 2026 SCCA Time Attack Nationals (and Grassroots Motorsports’ Ultimate Track Car Challenge) was moved to Eagles Canyon Raceway, which is right in our back yard. We have driven at ECR since it opened in 2008, I have made 1000+ laps and set dozens of class track records here, and that “home court advantage” was a HUGE motivator to do something radical with the M3 to make it more competitive for 2026. I started hitting eBay looking at a really bad idea…
Within 2 days I went out half cocked and bought the cheapest 4.0L 32 valve BMW “S65” V8 on eBay, then looked into what it would take to swap this plus the 7 speed DCT (dual clutch sequential) into an E36. Yes, it is foolish “to buy first and research later”, but if any shop is capable of V8 swapping a BMW with something new, maybe it is Vorshlag? We have swapped and sold kits to swap hundreds of GM LS V8s into the E36 chassis, plus 8 other chassis, going back 25 years, How hard could it be?
Luckily the folks at EPIC Motorsports heard about this idea and they DO have the knowledge to make the E92 M3’s V8 engine and DCT transmission to work as a stand-alone for a swap, but for the mechanical integration to the E36 chassis, we’re on our own. But I’ve got a great crew here, and we’re up for the challenge. Make headers, engine mounts, crossmember, driveshaft and more? That’s all in our wheelhouse.
So many folks were SHOCKED when they heard we were actually swapping a BMW V8 into a BMW, and a few shops have already reached out to help make it happen. BimmerWorld gave us their S65 dip stick kit (this engine only has a sensor to detect oil level), then the folks at Emporium are working with us to get proper S65 valve covers + VANOS bits, then AAF got us their wet sump baffle kit. We still have a lot of spending ahead, but I’m not afraid to fire the Money Gun to get this solved!
We have been learning quickly about the S65’s known issues, and this oil pan baffle was a pretty sizable chore to install. We’re already getting this used engine cleaned up and reliable, and even swapped in aftermarket rod bearings – a known issue on this 8400 rpm engine. We’ll get it sealed up next week and start the actual swap by pulling the 3.0L S50 engine, header, exhaust, Link ECU, cold air, 5-speed transmission and RTD shifter – all to be sold as a package, to help pay for (a small part) of this crazy S65 swap.
Of course we signed up for the GRM “UTCC” event – which has been held on the same weekend / track as SCCA Time Attack Nationals for years. In fact we were the 6th car to enter and be accepted. To make the car more competitive for Nationals and UTCC, we’ve been firing the money gun and have lightweight Konig Hypergram 18×12″ wheels coming (to replace the heavy 18×11’s), new MOMO Daytona EVO (halo style) composite seats, and many more items to make the car lighter, faster, easier to drive – or some combination of those three things.
As if an SCCA Time Attack Nationals and UTCC at ECR weren’t enough of a incentive, I got roped into a mini-challenge with 3 other driver’s who write for car magazines and blogs. The list so far includes a couple of two ton BMW F87s with lots of boost, as well as an LS swapped 350Z race car – the gauntlet was thrown, and I accepted the challenge! We all agreed upon a limit of only using 200 TW tires, but that’s it. Will a 414 hp E36 M3 with some aero and 315mm tires be enough to keep up with 3 other hot shoes?
Yes – I plan to beat these 3 guys so badly they are going to QUIT the sport! 😉 I don’t care what we have to do, we’re going to get this car down to the Max4 class minimum weight (and then some, so we can add ballast back for Max4 and take it OUT for this UTCC challenge!) It might be foolish, but this writer’s challenge fired me up – something my dreadful 2025 season had almost extinguished. This fire is LIT boys and girls, and I’m going to run as many events and laps at ECR that I can possibly shove into the next 10 months. Chase every pound, wring out every horsepower, and squeeze out every ounce of grip.
If you are keeping up, yes – the E36 M3 with the 4.0L V8 now moves up to Max4 class, with a 3000 pound minimum weight with driver (which will be easy to hit). Amy’s 2013 FRS with the 3.7L V6 has a 2700 pound min weight with driver, using a different formula also in Max4. So now we’re building two cars for the same class, husband vs wife, racing heads up all season?! This will be a fair fight, as the J37 could crack 330-350 whp with the right intake, exhaust and tuning. Same tires, same dampers, same aero, different weights – it could be a solid battle all season. She’s got a ton of wins and track records in her own right, plus several SCCA Solo National Championships, so this could be a very tricky season for me in the E36 M3.
Stay tuned to see how it all goes! – Terry Fair @ Vorshlag
After sitting in hibernation with an engine for a while, our 2013 Scion FRS (86) is back on the schedule and we’re installing a 300 hp engine. But it is unusual – as this is a 3.7L Honda SOHC V6, called the J-series. These engines are normally sitting sideways driving the front wheels of Honda cars, SUVs and minivans, but we’re turning it 90 degrees and driving the rear wheels in our 86. Read more starting in our Forum build thread here.
Is this an easy swap? In a word: NO. But we’re making it easier for others by machining a new bellhousing and crank adapter to work with a late RX-8 6-speed manual. Why not use a Toyota 2GR? Or a Nissan VK? Or “insert other engine here”. We explain all of this with technical reasons – competition class rules, abundant supplies / low costs, engine weights, and more – in this forum build thread.
We are known for LS V8 swaps, so this one is a little different for us. Instead of 600 hp it will be making 300 hp, which means we likely won’t break EVERYTHING in the 86. We’re going to keep the stock axles, limited slip, wheel bearings, and the rest. This will keep costs way down, and that thinking seems much more popular than the normal $50K LS swap and all the many upgrades we normally would have to do for reliability. We explain the costs and weights in the forum thread.
We started this swap just 6 weeks ago but have already made some major progress. We have 3D scanned, designed, machined and installed the bellhousing adapter and crank adapter shown above, we have the engine and transmission installed and have begin engine mount fabrication, and are deep into the Link ECU integration and wiring – Link is going to make this a plug-in ECU + harness install. The exhaust is super simple (monoport exhaust on each cylinder head), and we will supply all of these parts and more for others to be able to benefit from our engineering and testing.
Look for this car on track in early 2026 with Amy competing in SCCA Time Trial Max 4 with the widebody, 315mm tires, MCS RR2 remote doubles, and full aero. We loved this car with the big tires and suspension upgrades, and its only going to be more fun with another 50% more power than stock. Again, there is a huge write-up with pictures, video, and explanations on the Vorshlag Forum. Thanks for reading!
What on earth has he brought to the shop now? This 1966 Honda S600 coupe is one of Honda’s first sports cars, heck one of the motorcycle company’s first ever production cars. And we have one, and we’re going to do something cool and crazy with it – which you can read all about here.
This unusually smol car came from the factory with a super high revving (9500 rpm!) motorcycle based engine, but that is long gone in our car. So we’re going to do what many folks have done with this chassis – swap in a modern 1000-1200 cc sport bike engine! The 1200 cc inline 4 in the S600 roadster above gives you a glimpse at how small the engine bay is, and what we have to work with. We discuss two possible Honda motorcycle engines to use – including one with a DCT transmission! – in the forum build thread’s first post.
We also talk about the possible suspension upgrades we have in store, as our coupe is sitting on a temporary frame and Miata front and rear subframes, which we will likely incorporate in our final design but in a much narrower format. We’ve got some rust removal in store using a “LASER” later this week, and we will show more of this ugly duckling soon – and hopefully it becomes a beautiful swan when we’re done! You can read more starting here.
At the end of 2024 we had our barn find 1995 BMW M3 – which we dubbed Project #Hellrotten – running once again with the original BMW S50 3.0L inline six. The Vorshlag crew had done a good bit of restoration to get it to this point, and a set of Motion Control Suspension “RR2” coilovers with Vorshlag top mounts had improved handling dramatically at the first Track Test. This is where the latest 6-part Forum Build Thread starts…
It was late December 2024 and we had a little more than 3 months until the first SCCA Time Trial event in Texas for the 2025 season. So during an already busy time at the shop we managed to transform the M3 from an E36 with a stock drivetrain and bodywork into a widebody, big tired, Link ECU EFI, custom exhaust, and very lightened race car. We started off with some ABS repair work after we had a fault at the previous track test.
Externally we made some big changes, including a fiberglass Fitment Labs Phase 3 widebody overfender kit. This was installed and track tested with 18×11″ wheels and 315mm A052 tires all around, and we finally had a “drama free” track test #2, followed immediately by a baseline dyno test with the stock drivetrain – all covered in the forum update. Back at the shop after that test, a custom splitter was built and installed with double canards up front, and a Nine Lives Racing 71″ wide wing out back. The overfenders and sunroof delete panel were refinished in the OEM Hellrot red color.
Then a custom exhaust was built using stainless long tube headers and a proven dual 2.25″ into single 3″ mandrel bent stainless exhaust – that both dropped 57 pounds and picked up 30 whp at the peak. We were able to tame this with a Plug-in Link ECU system that we show the installation of in this update. With some clarification on rules we were able to knock another 123 pounds out of the interior and still be SCCA “Level 2 Safety” legal. We also refinished the headliner, rear deck panel, and the A- and B-pillar coverings in microsuede, and it looks really nice. An RTD shifter went inside, too. We had all of this work ready and tuned just before the March 29th event we were aiming for. It was a major thrash for those 3 months, and we chronicled every step – every image inside the forum thread can be clicked for higher resolution images or videos. Thanks for reading!
We have been busy on the little 1988 Mustang LX notchback this summer and we’re close to firing it up with 3x the engine displacement and heading back to MotorSport Ranch for more test laps before we dive into the suspension development work we have in store.
In the latest Forum Build Thread update for our 21st Century Fox project we cover the dismal June track test we did with the original 2.3L four cylinder, which lasted four laps before the engine began sputtering and shutting off. Max speeds of 74 mph, slowest lap time we ever recorded – just awful. Shortly after getting the Fox back to the shop we found the cause, and dove into an engine swap using an “all aluminum V8” and a Tremec TKX manual transmission – with the goal of a “quick upgrade” to get back to the track for a proper baseline test with the stock suspension. Best laid plans…
Things quickly snowballed and this turned into a full on 500 hp upgrade, which is the opposite of what we advise our customers to do (chasing power is last!), but we have our reasons – explained in the Forum update. The V8 swap went pretty far afield, with an 8.8″ limited slip axle upgrade, complete fuel system, new cooling system, hydraulic clutch conversion, and much more.
It happens – just a simple plan that snowballs, as one upgrade leads to needs in other areas. We cover a lot of these systems, the decisions and actual work, in the latest update. Even if you have no interest in this chassis or even this engine, many of these techniques we show in detail could apply to your project. Who knows?
One of the wildest revelations from this “quick upgrade” to the drivetrain was how heavy the 1980’s iron four cylinder and T5 manual were compared to the modern aluminum pushrod V8 – the latter was actually lighter, which we did not expect. Lots of weights are given and great detail in the thread.
We covered about three months in this 4-part forum update, which is chock full of pictures and video. Lots more to cover next time, as we’re ahead of where we left off already – but have so many other build threads to update. Thanks for reading!
The latest 5-part entry into the massive S550/S650 Development forum thread covers work we did on our 2015 Mustang Time Attack Car we call #Trigger in the first third of 2024. Yes we know, we’re behind, but these entries are massive undertakings with hundreds of images and videos, and tens of thousands of words. You can catch up with what we have written starting here.
We cover in detail the addition of a roll cage, carbon widebody fenders, and massive 18×13.5″ wheels and 345mm Hoosiers to the existing setup, which included 315mm A052 “200TW” tires on 18×12″ wheels. There was also a Haltech based adjustable traction control system that Billy at Rapscallion Motorsports added and helped dial in.
Ever wondered what it took to add massive tires? The flare addition is the easy part – the REAL work is underneath the flares! We show this step-by-step in exhaustive detail starting in the latest forum build thread entry.
In the first 4 months of 2024 with this car we fought with front end lift, added vents in numerous places, had faulty clutches, wore out some synchros, cheap coils, a bad starter, chased an ABS fault, tires rubbed, and we did a bunch of track tests and competitions. It wasn’t all bad, as there were some wins, and more wins followed later in 2024 – which we will cover next time. Again, you can read the latest entries here – thanks for reading!
