Car of the Month

February 2009

Ian Elliott's 2002 Straight-Six Touring

Want to see your 02 featured here? Email me any 02, any condition richstern@hotmail.com.

I bought the car back in 2005 it belonged to Alan Trindade originally and was converted by him. It was originally a 2002 Touring that I think Geoff Weekes had some dealings with. It was converted to run originally throttle bodies on the old 2000 lump.

I don’t who who converted it to 3500 spec but it was very agricultural… I remember the car being offered for sale in about 2000 having the conversion done. It was offered for sale at that time for about £4000 but I remember it being too expensive and fairly shagged then. It was fitted with an old pair of Britax orange vinyl buckets which were sodden and falling to pieces then.

We took it for a drive and I remember the brake servo being mounted on some rough angle iron frame which was mounted in the passenger footwell. It was so dangerous that if it was ever involved in a frontal accident the brake master cylinder was fitted about a foot in front of the passengers head. It would have gone straight through the passengers skull.
This was one of the reasons that I left well alone.

It then went through a number of peoples hands whom I’m afraid allowed it to fall into disrepair.
I next had a phone call from Geoff Weekes in early 2005 saying that the car was back on the market for about £1200. I bought it unseen thinking it was worth that for breaking alone… little did I know….

I never met the seller but when I finally saw it it was apparent that it had been left in a very damp garage and almost abandoned. Geoff said it was delivered with no brakes and a sticking clutch. It was apparently driven off a truck and straight into Geoff s yard where it rammed his old recovery truck causing a large dent in the tailgate and rear panel effectively scrapping them!

I was somewhat disappointed seeing exactly how bad it had got. But in for a penny in for a pound and decided just to make it a very cheap trackcar….

We started by cutting out the old seats and belts as they had now fallen into unusable state.
Then we removed all of the dash and most of the support frames and secondary firewall. This had been done by completely cutting out the original firewall and recreating a new one further back in the car. This again was very agricultural and sharp edged so this was remodelled and reprofiled to make it appear as smooth and original as possible.

Then came the turn of the rollcage. I wanted to upgrade it so the original six point cage was then braced to the shell, and then extended through the front bulkhead upto the front turret mounts. There was a considerable amount of work involved in this which meant cutting through the inner wings plating and then joining the tubes to the front suspension pick up points.
We did the same at the back and triangulated the rear rollcage to meet the rear turrets and crossbraced across the rear of the car and made suitable points from the safety belts to be mounted.

The dash then came out as did the old original pedal box. This assisted repairs to the inner wings and gave access to the steering column. Upon finding that this column was originally an 02 one that had been cut and welded in three different places without any sleeving it left me with no confidence so this was junked as well!
The rollcage was then extended along the floorpans tying in all the sills. This was then triangulated upto the front suspension as well. Just for good measure the rollcage was extended across to both A pillars and again triangulated. This not only stiffened the shell incredibly but allowed us somewhere solid to mount a new E30 steering column.

Then we had to do something about the pedal box so purchased a mark 2 rally Escort complete bias box assembly. The bulkhead was then strengthened and mounting plates created for this.
After the dash was removed we realised that the wiring was also in a state which had been added to considerably and cut and converted using only red wires. So rather than try and deal with this original plate of spaghetti we ripped out the entire loom and binned it!

So my quick cheap track day project started looking a little more safe at least if not cheap anymore!
Doing all of this on a budget wasn’t ideal and if I had known exactly how much time and money the car was going to be I would have left well alone. In hindsight I would have totally stripped and replaced all of the body panels. I think for anyone doing this project again I think it was a false economy not replacing the shell components but remembering this was never going to be a concourse car and always a track car for thrashing was the reason I did’nt spend a fortune on it.
We then got to the stage of fitting race seats to it. These are mounted on the special brackets welded to the floorpan and rollcage and obviously needed to be fitted prior to any sort of interior paintwork.

Again in the ideal world I would have loved a pair of period Scheel seats but being a track car required the need of a pair ‘manufacture dated’ modern race seats. Being of broader frame these were Corbeaus, but even this was interesting as I had to make sure the doorbars would fit. So we had to trial fit the seats and pedal box in place and then sit myself in the car knowing where everything would fit before we then welded the rollcage doorbars in place. It was a nice feeling knowing that I was tailor fitting the car to me rather than the other way round!!!

I was then trying to find a left hand drive dash for an 02! Not particularly common in the uk! The car being originally RHD the original dash having long disappeared. A homemade aluminium affair held in place with angle iron was the original dash when purchased and yes as you guessed it was all binned….
A rather fortunate conversation with Jaymic then followed where he let slip than in their loft they had a Alpina Glass fibre racing dash which they had had for years which no one ever wanted as it was a LHD and therefore no one wanted. I played along feigning disinterest and ended up getting for next to nothing! Who’d have thought it, getting something cheap from Jaymic???.

This then followed a period of very very carefully cutting it in pieces to get the dash now to fit around the integrated rollcage. This was then sent off for flocking….
My original intention of getting the car finished to get to the 2006 Le Mans Classic was put to bed…
2006 came and went…. The car languished then for some months in ETA’s rear yard as their workshop was incredibly small… Unfortunately money time and work commitments were all taking their toll….

In early 2007 the car was then taken to Altered Images in Strood for paintwork inside and out. I had stripped the car of windows, panels etc. I had managed to acquire an almost brand new rear tailgate.
Another stroke of luck and I found a man who had put a touring tailgate in his loft 30 years ago… Mine was totally rotten and damaged in the pre delivery accident… Fifty quid later and a result… BMW Tradition wanted £995 plus vat!
Off to the paint shop it went… Due to the layers and layers of 35 years of paint and filler which was deemed too unstable the whole car was taken back to metal and the rear panel pulled out…..

The interior was painted Peugeot gray and all the floors and rollcages painted. Grey was chosen not to show the inevitable dust and rust in the future…..
The outside colour was a lot harder to choose, but in the end choosing a turquoise blue from the Seat range which I think still has the retro 70’s look about it!
Extensive repairs also had to be made around the rear arches as the previous owner had just cut them off behind the turbo arches and left them flapping in the wind. The outer wings were not joined at all to the inner wings. The driver must have been sprayed from the inside of the car if it rained previously as they were just no inner arches where they had been cut to fit the bigger wheels with the lowered suspension.

The original steel rims were also binned. 8x 13 geniune Minilites were then purchased and fitted with 205/50/13 Toyo 888’s which are excellent track day just road legal tyres…. Some people have asked why not fit 15’s? I think the answer is that the car had to look period and retro to appear like a 70’s tarmac rally car was my intention….

This did cause a further problem though… Brakes…. I wanted to upgrade the 02 calipers and still remain from the BMW parts bin… So I fitted Tii front legs which allowed a new pair of E12 535 4 pot callipers to be fitted under the rims… well… not without a fair bit of grinding of the surplus edges… heartbreaking and also a little delicate trying not to bugger a nice new pair of callipers too much.
Next was the E21 vented front discs to be fitted, which also required the front E21 hubs to be machined to get the disc to sit evenly within the calliper.. More swearing but we got there in the end.

Made it - Parked at Classic Le Mans 2008

All the suspension was then renewed with new balljoints , bushes and rubbers upgraded with poly bushes where applicable.
So i was really against the clock two years later to get her ready for July 2008! Le Mans classic beckoned again.
She came back from the paintshop and fitting up began in earnest. Trying to find how things go back together some two years after you had taken them apart was a bit of a challenge!
Under the bonnet i took off the Weber 40's and replaced them with 45's. The engine was due to have just a light fettle and mild porting of the head.
Unfortunately when the head was taken off it was apparent that the no.6 cylinder had taken a considerable amount of water into it over the years of sitting outside and not being turned over. Despite reboring the damage was deep and effectively rendered the block scrap!!

Now I was starting to consider the can of petrol and box of matches more seriously than ever. Le Mans was but a few weeks away and the chances of getting there appeared more and more slim.
Difficulties were then found when looking for a replacement block as the early 535 and late E34 535 blocks are apparently totally different. In the end we took the decision to have the block totally machined and new sleeves inserted. When the block returned it was impossible to see the repairs so well had they been done!
Meanwhile the boys had gone to town on the head. SchricK cam and springs were fitted and the best porting job ever done. The inlet manifolds were ported to the carbs which was inturn ported to the head. The huge pile of aluminium dust on the floor a testament to how much excess metal they removed.

The engine was then totally rebuilt with new everything and the head machined and ported. It was a beautiful work of art and really should be on my mantlepiece! The old M30 twin mass flywheel was binned as it weighed a ton. An E30 M3 Evo Sport flywheel was obtained and also hugely machined to remove all excess metal. This would then cause an imbalance at the front of the engine where the twin damper pulley wheel was so we binned that as well….. We tried numerous aftermarket ones to no avail so they just machined a new one out of billet.. As you do!!!
New pistons, bearings, chains , pumps, tensioners etc and every moving part was replaced in the engine.
The Saturday before Le Mans we finally started the engine… If you’ve heard it you can imagine the smiles in the garage when it fired up! On the Sunday afternoon I drove it for the first time whilst sitting on a milk crate in the industrial estate.
The car still had no windows, trim, wiring fuel lines etc etc so still had an immense amount of work to do.
Of a slight concern was that we could’nt engage second gear…. So Monday morning replaced the clutch master cylinder for a larger one thinking that the brand new Sachs Evo Sport clutch was’nt being released far enough….

Alas this was not to be.. We discovered that the synchro rings on the gearbox were shagged. This was now Monday afternoon. We had three days left.. Calls were made to everyone, Anyone got a manual 1988 535 sport gearbox laying about? Thought Not…. But just when you were thinking of giving up a phone call was made to FAB Breakers in Gloucester… Yes we’’ve got one sitting on the shelf.. Had it ages.. No one wants it.. How much? Oh don’t worry its old stock glad to get rid of it!! Well fancy that?
Well how do we get it back to London instantly? As luck would have it a phone call to my parents who have a holiday home in Gloucestershire,, Where are you? In Gloucester? When are you coming home? Tonight? Well fancy that? Could you just?
The gearbox was picked up from Gloucester delivered to London , picked up again and delivered to the garage at 11pm.
Tuesday morning now dawns.. 2 days to go….. Gearbox is taken out and new gearbox fitted. Old gearbox sent to menders. Propshaft is fitted up.. Oh no! Does’nt fit!!! Unbeknown to us the rear yokes differ. Driveshaft is taken off cut smaller and rewelded…. As you do! Gearbox fitted.

Car is then put on rolling road to run in and try and balance the carbs (X3). A few promising runs are undertaken. Unfortunately hosepipes keep blowing off under pressure dumping all coolant.
At end of evening relatively pleased with ourselves as car is at least running if only keeps dumping its coolant over garage floor! Slight issue as gearchanges becoming difficult again when changing gear on the rolling road.. Put this down to needing to bleed the master cylinder properly…

Examine slave cylinder and realize we’ve messed it up by accidently pushing it when not affixed to gearbox. Now need another new slave cylinder…. Damn oh well get another one in the morning..
Wednesday morning…. One day to go!! Need to finish window fitment, wiring loom, fix cooling fan Need to replace slave cylinder asap not too much of a problem one will be delivered shortly…. Push the car off the rolling road towards 2 post ramp… Whats all those pieces of metal that were’nt there last night….

Take propshaft and gearbox off again to find the clutch has destroyed itself within the bellhousing. This was a brand new Sachs Evo Sport one but was obviously not man enough for the 3.5 engine. It ripped the pressure plate straight off the rivets..
Well I now reached terminal depression. It was now 7.30pm Wednesday evening with one day to go.. There was no conceivable way this car was going anywhere in a hurry. I phoned Alex Elliott who was now in Le Mans with one of the CSL’s and asked him for advice with what we should do. I knew I could get another Sachs replacement but we all agreed that we would just have a repeat performance with the clutch not being man enough.. It looked as though we were going to have to revert to the original twin mass system again.

Before finally setting light to it we did a bit of internet searching and found that Helix made a paddle type clutch which looked like it might cope. Thinking this was going to be a longer term project we tried ringing Helix clutches at 7.45pm hoping just to hear the answerphone message so we could find what time they opened in the morning. Imagine our total surprise when the phone was answered by the managing director who happened to be doing some accounts.. We explained our nightmares and upon hearing our stories said he would make us a clutch overnight!!! He told us to be there at opening time at 9am and he would hand it over!!

Thursday 9am last day. Due on ferry in less than 20hrs!!!
Collect clutch from Oxford and travel back to Sevenoaks at high speed. Book MOT with local garage for 3pm. Arrive back at garage at 12.15pm and the team who are now quite versed at gearbox replacement put new clutch and slave cylinder on.
Car started and its first drive ever is to the MOT garage where as a true testament to the boys at Racepower it passes first time!
Oh shit was my first thought!! This car is going to Le Mans! The thoughts of how unreliable and all the problems we had faced over the last week just appear to be too daunting for me. My mind just fills with images of being stranded roadside in a foreign country with the coolant over the road or a gearbox in a million pieces in some French hedgerow thinking how on earth we were going to recover it..

Again Paul the owner of Racepower calms my nerves and we go for a drive to put a few miles under her wheels . At 11pm we are driving up and down the A20 trying to break it just so we can tow it back to the garage in the UK rather than trying to arrange international recovery.
Alas we just couldn’t break it. At 6am we drove into the Maidstone Services to meet the other cars that were to accompany us on our journey including a couple of 911’s, a Maserati, a brace of race prepared E30 M3’s ,
Each of them had been receiving situation reports over the last few days of the disasters and not one was expecting our arrival. A standing ovation lasting several minutes greeted our arrival.

Well the trip was one of the most memorable I have ever done… Fantastic atmosphere, superb company and some of the most outrageous overtakes I’ve ever seen . The drive down was simply stunning…. The engine running in nicely at 120mph+!!!
The best thing of the whole weekend was getting onto the circuit at the end of the weekends racing when they opened the roads up again!
For anyone to experience the Mulsanne with a group of high performance cars then to enter the Porsche Curves and Tertre Rouge. Simply worth everything….
I always had a number of cars joustling to be behind the 02 to witness the fireworks from the exhaust. At night every gearchange up and down the box resulted in flameouts, and it was noticed that on overruns a vortex of curling flames would be emitted… Fantastic! Who cares about the price of super unleaded!

She made the journey back without mishap and I’m ashamed to say I was just a little relieved getting onto UK soil again!!
The car has since performed faultlessly. A recent track day at Brands Hatch proved interesting with the car handling surprisingly well. It highlighted a few things, namely the exhaust needs quietening and the brakes still could do with a little more. I think a new set of proper pads and grooved discs will help to pull her up a little better.
A proper strut brace has now been added since the photos were taken. The next real development needed is the suspension set up and when money allows she will be corner weighted and a proper Gaz coil over set up fitted.

Costs? Don’t go there! I daren’t add it up. Obviously the painting was a major cost.. the engine rebuild..
Seats .. belts .. etc. The biggest cost is actually hidden and always gets overlooked, that of the stainless brake lines and fuel lines . Each fuel line needs the special unions and these cost about £15 each. Times that by 20 and very quickly they become a lot of money. Fuel lines at £33 per metre you start to get the picture…..

Would I sell it? Maybe one day when I’m bored.. but it gives me such a smile to floor the throttle and hold on for grim death.. I had described it as being strapped to a timebomb and that’s probably still the best description. Great fun but still a huge handful and then theres the sound! Who can’t fall in love with the sound of a straight six howling, add to this the spine tingling triple Weber induction noise.. It takes some beating……..