Help me decide what to do with my 1999 BMW Z3 M Roadster

Motorsports
#1

I purchased a very beat-up 1999 M Roadster about 8 years ago with the intention of turning it into an endurance race car (Lemons, WRL, etc).

I installed a cage about 2 years ago when I was last in a place where I thought I could move forward with it. Life happened and I had to sideline the project for these last few years, but I’m ready to move forward with it again.

Now I’m at a crossroads: try to form a team around this car, or sell it?

I have an appointment in April to get the car prepped by a shop to install the remaining safety equipment (fire suppression and harness) and to tune the car. Beyond that, I can’t decide if I want to keep it or get rid of it. My wife and I finally came together and agreed on a budget that would let me finish it out and possibly debut it at MSR Houston in November. But I don’t have a team anymore, so to actually race it, I’d need some experienced drivers wanting to help make that happen. I don’t even know if there’s enough interest in that at the Makerspace for that.

Alternatively, I’m OK selling it to a team that wants to finish it. Bonus if they are willing to sell me back seat time in it.

Modifications

  • Vorschlag camber plates
  • M50 manifold (needs a dyno tune)
  • Welded sump nut
  • Oil pickup swivel
  • Mishimoto radiator with aluminum overflow
  • Water pump with metal impeller
  • Light weight flywheel
  • Lowered
  • Avanti Storm 18x9 square setup
  • Square tube rear suspension chassis mounts to replace the failed stock body (pretty common on Z3s)
  • Projection lighting

I’ll try to get some photos posted today. I’m also planning to be at the Makerspace today around 3:30 - 4:30.

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#2

@Team_Motorsports will house some of the folks who do the most of this sort of thing 'round 'ere, working with the DMS race car, shopping for others, that sort of thing.

#3

I admire your tenacity for keeping the project alive for 8 years. First thoughts, not knowing anything are: keep it! Race it! Build it and they will come!

My advice is pretty worthless, as:

  1. I have a car sitting in my garage which is waiting to accrue its 8 years of inactivity before it gets to a crossroads.
  2. I want to buy any car with a cage without ever having seen it, despite having a car rotting in my garage
  3. If there was a patron saint of lost automobiles, I’d have them on a bumper sticker

MSR Houston is pretty close, so I would have thought it would be easy to show up and get support from local Dallas teams and drivers.

My understanding of DMS Motorsports is that there were more drivers than seats for the NOLA race later this month, so I imagine that there would be interest. I’m not sure that many of those people are on Talk. It might be worth showing up one Thursday at 7pm and fielding the question there.

If you’ve kept it this long, I imagine that there would be some benefit to finishing the project and racing it - you can always sell it after November - possibly even at the race itself!

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#4

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#5

I thought you said you didn’t have a team, but obviously you’ve got the Crew Chief and lead driver sorting out bolstering already…

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#6

Welcome welcome!

You should come out on Thursday and say hi, you’ll get plenty of discussion and opinions. DMS has an in-house Lemons/Champcar team, and there are two other teams run by members as well. If you’re interested in learning what it’s like, any member who helps work on the car is welcome to race with us, and anyone is welcome to come out and crew.

The motorsports committee is pretty active on the DMS discord server, that’s the best place to ask questions other than in-person.

Very cool car, I’ve always wanted a clownshoe and you’re just one roof away. It’s a little fast for Lemons, you’d be fighting to minimize penalty laps, but you could still race and have fun. Champcar same but you’d be running in EC. WRL is one level up in speed, and you’d need experience to be eligible.

If you’re not comfortable doing stuff like fire bottle and harness yourself, I’d recommend finding some teammates who are, that sort of mechanical and safety adjustment comes up a lot while endurance racing.

Also this is just one dude’s uninformed opinion but if I was looking at the car to buy I’d have questions about the cage. It’s strange to see the main hoop not go all the way to the floor, and it looks like the door bars go straight to the body. It’s not the typical design.

2 Likes
#7

Yea the cage is strange, the Z3 cockpit is really tight. This setup uses the stock roll structure rather than going to the floor, and it’s the only way the builder could make a seat fit without having your knees in your chest. I’ve had a few back-and-forth conversations with Lemons tech but nothing definitive. And if the cage needs to be reworked, it can be done.

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#8

I contacted WRL and they didn’t like the cage setup, claiming it would need to go to the floor.

I think this makes my decision easier to not go forward with this project. Anyone at the Makerspace interested in taking it on? I think it would make a great swap into a plain ole E36.