More progress and some great pictures are shown in the latest build thread update (click here!) for the prototype BMW E46 LS1/T56 build (and swap kit) we’re making here at Vorshlag. We now have the prototype motor mounts + transmission crossmember completed and are delving into the prototype full length headers next.
Stay tuned for more updates as progress is made!
This is our car with the CCW 18×11″ wheels (not used for GRM competition, of course!)
Vorshlag’s own Fair, Amy and Costas towed 17 hours to the Kumho Tires $2011 Grassroots Motorsports Challenge over Oct 6-8th, with our little BMW E30 LSx V8. We had covertly added a new “BMW Art Car” theme with hand cut vinyl a few days before leaving for Florida, and that extra attention to detail helped us place well in concours among the 48 car field, where we placed 7th in judging.
Then with Costas driving, and our hard work testing and perfecting the rather compromised suspension set-up, we won the autocross event! That was a huge goal for us, and it paid off in a big way when the Saturday drag race portion was cancelled, due to rain. The drag racing was attempted, but shut down after a handful of cars made runs, including us (it rained all the way down the drag strip).
In the end they threw out the drag times, and lo and behold the Vorshlag E30 was sitting on top! We’re extremely thankful to all of the volunteers that helped build this car, and would also like to thank GRM and the event sponsors: Kumho Tires, CRC Products, RacingJunk.com and NASA.
Left: Our 1st place Autocross Trophy. Right: Our GRM “shrine” at our new shop, with the Overall Trophy + 2010 Magazine Spread
You can read more about the GRM event at this forum post. This is an epic forum post that had to be broken up into 3 parts, due to size constraints by more forums. We have almost 1000 pictures and videos, including in-car video of our autocross and drag race runs, as well as video of other driver’s entries. Over the past 2 years of building this car, on the 5 forums we cross post the build thread to, we’ve now topped 500,000 forum views on this build thread. Wow?!
If this is what we can do with a BMW V8 for $2011, imagine what we can build you with a better budget?!? 😀 Vorshlag is now building turn-key BMW LSx V8 swaps at our new state-of-the-art facility, including BMW E36, BMW E46, and maybe even an E30 build or two. Shoot us an email and we can build your dream car.
Costas and Terry spent last Friday afternoon testing the E30 V8 before next weekend’s $2011 GRM Challenge. We learned a lot and had a great time putting 43 laps on the car. You can read more on the Vorshlag forum thread or just watch the compilation video below. See you next week in Florida!
We’ve worked on our $2011 GRM Challenge BMW E30 V8, the scrappy little junkyard dog, for the past 6 weeks. In that time we’ve pulled and reinstalled the drivetrain twice: once to swap out a broken transmission, then again to repair the clutch hydraulics that failed in the interim. Crazy thrash time, but it drives under its own power once again. We have a week before we leave for Gainesville, Florida for the $2011 GRM Challenge shootout, being held Oct 6-8th. So much power + so many junkyard parts = fingers are crossed that we don’t break another transmission or halfshaft. Read more about the latest updates on our forum thread, here.
You can catch up in 1 minute 3 seconds by viewing the video update above.
For some reason our main phone line in our “hunt group” of lines is down today (Sept 15, 2011). If you need to call us and our main line is just ringing endlessly, please try 972-422-7069 (our second line). Thanks!
Amy and Terry ran the Vorshlag STX Mustang 5.0 at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend, and almost came up with a double-win. Amy won her class, but Terry coned away the win in STX. Oh well, still lots of fun at this atypically fast autocross, held annually on the infield road course at TMS. You can read more about the event, and the mods done since out last thread update, on the Vorshlag forum.
Click the picture above for in-car video.
“First time Whelen USTTC competitor Paul Costas stole the show on Saturday, setting a blisteringly quick lap of 1:49.590 in the day’s first session to take the win in his tube-framed Camaro.” (from the USTTC press release) Paul only took two timed laps, and those in traffic, but still managed to win the Unlimited Time Trial class in his AST 5200 equipped GT-1 Camaro. A short “spoiler-cam” video showing his 2 laps is below – turn up the volume!
NARRA is a new group that has a cross-country racing series which includes Wheel to Wheel racing, Time Trial and HPDE sessions, with a heavy emphasis on Vipers. Its even a Pro based series with a Versus TV contract – but with entry fees very much in-line with other club racing/TT/HPDE groups. He said the organizers were great to work with and helped him tech and properly class his car. Look for events near you on the NARRA website at narraonline.com.
As many of you who follow our forum build threads know, Costas is a long-time Vorshlag Tester, our “media consultant”, co-drives our STX 2011 Mustang, and is Vorshlag’s past and future GRM $2011 Challenge autocross driver. He runs his home built GT-1 Camaro at lots of track events, where it does unusually well for the modest budget he has in the car. You can read Costas’ racing blog here.
Vorshlag is closed September 1st-5th while we move into our new, much larger facility. This date range also covers the Labor Day holiday, Sept. 5th. New orders will not ship during that period and phone + email support will be minimal. Construction is wrapping up at the new space, which is located across the parking lot from AST/Moton, in Plano, TX. We should be back up and running, moved in and shipping orders again on Sept 6th. Our new phone number is 972-422-7170. We will announce the date for the grand opening party soon – it will be sometime in late September. Thanks!
Are you a Vorshlag VTPP tester, or just want to show some Vorshlag love? Do you want some 24″ Vorshlag decals for use at the SCCA or NASA National Championships? Drop us an e-mail at sales@vorshlag.com and we will mail you a pair in either black or white, for free! We won’t be at either Nationals this year, due to construction at our new shop that is going to last through August. If you want another color and have your own decal supplier, we can send you the EPS cut file instead. We can even make different, sizes if you must have one bigger or smaller, but the 24″ fits well in a lot of places. Thanks!
Brianne Corn took her 2005 Subaru STi to a Time Attack 4WD class win at Pike’s Peak last weekend. Brianne’s Subaru already has several Vorshlag parts and is getting more Vorshlag suspension bits soon. You can read more about her historic win here. Congrats!
