The afterbirth of Ilsa

[MrNvgtr]

I bought this car in June 2007 from a consignment dealer in PA who bought it at auction in NJ from the PO, Ferd Simoes. I know little about this car with the PO except that I found photos of him on the NJBMWCCA newsletter while autocrossing the car. The car came to me built solely for track fun. It had a full bolt-in cage, solid mounts, and a pretty sweet motor with twin Weber 40's. I was in Colorado at the time and never got around to getting it street legal and registered, so it just sat for about a year.

Fast forward to a year ago, lots of bad things happened in my life and I just wanted a fresh start and a car that I could enjoy on the streets. I also had no time to do anything myself, so I handed my car over to M20Curtis (Curtis) and told him what I wanted him to do: Rebuild the motor, increase displacement, EFI, ITB's, remove track safety equipment, replace solid mounts with urethane, and make it look sweet. Curtis took the challenge and put me at ease because it was in his hands.

The result is exactly what I asked for. The car is fun as hell. It sounds like it's got a freakin hemi under the hood now. I left out some of what was already installed. There was a lot of stuff, but here's a summary of the sexier components installed.

Motor/Driveline:

- TWM ITBs

- TWM Intake Manifold

- TWM TB Spacer

- TWM Airbox

- TWM Dual Fuel Rail

- TWM Air Horns

- S14 crank

- JE Pistons (machined by Eric Kerman)

- E12 Head

- Injectors (320 - 650cc)

- Bosche Fuel Injection Pump

- Haltech E6X EFI

- IE Radiator

- IE SS Intake/Exhaust Valves

- Schrick Valve Springs

- Schrick 304 Cam

- Aluminum Alternator Pully

- Used 320i 5-Speed

- Aardvark 5-Speed Conversion Kit

- New clutch (can't remember stats right now)

Brakes:

- Dual Tilton Custom Remote MC

- Volvo Disks/VW Calipers

Exhaust:

- Stahl Header

- Magnaflow exhaust and muffler

Suspension:

- Rear subframe mounts

- Rear subframe mount inserts

- TEP Rear Strut Tower Brace

Electrical:

- new EFI/engine wiring

- Deleted EPO switch

Interior:

- E21 cloth rear seat

- Rear seat belts

- E30 rear view mirror

- 5-speed shift pattern stickers

Exterior:

- E-code headlights

- Plug for EPO switch hole on c-pillar

- Door handle gaskets

- Door seals

- Fixed drivers door scrape

- Fixed rust on trunk edge where it meets rear window

- Freshly painted engine bay

Wheels/Tires:

- Superlite GTR 15" wheels

- Sumatomo tires

I'll post the dyno chart soon. They are healthy numbers, but nothing too crazy.

Here are some new photos.

I left some small projects to work on such as carpet, seats, malfunctioning tach, replace amp meter with voltmeter, temp gauge not working, etc.

[Colin]

Looks great. The wheel/tire combo looks so mean and meaty. Very nice.

[schwarz75]

I liked your 2002 when it was first posted here. Very nice that you can now drive it on the street. Keep us posted. Looks great!

[KB73]

Ohhh. Me likey.

[andre2002tii]

Nice car ,

I really like the nose job,

Good luck with your 02

[M20Curtis]

Thanks for the opportunity to let me help you create an awesome 2002! Car runs great and looks even greater. I'll let you know as soon as mine is back up and running so we can meet up out on the beach or somewhere for some more pictures!

[MrNvgtr]

That sounds good, though time's running out before my deployment in about a month. Thanks for the kind words guys.

[jgerock]

You have an excellent car! Congratulations.

[MrNvgtr]

Cross-posted from the main forum: http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewtopic/t,346080/

I've had a great looking green tweed carpet from Esty for over a year now and I'm finally ready to install it. I'm buying some dry ice pellets and just ordered some insulation materials from Rick at Raammat. I think I'll be able to prep the floor and situate a few dangling wires/control modules this weekend and be ready to install the insulation and carpet the following weekend. Yeah, things happen pretty slow around here due to the heat.

After that, the fun part which might have to wait for more funding - more period racey front seats and re-apholstered front and back. I'm thinking something along the lines of a blue/green plaid for the center of the seats; black everywhere else. New A/B/C pillar trim and headliner. I just bought a nice center console too.

Here's what I'm working with right now. Photos soon to follow after completing some tar stripping this weekend.

[SRC60]

Very nice. Any photos or additional information on the remote Tilton MC?

TIA, Steve.

[MrNvgtr]

I tried but couldn't get a good shot of it for you at this time. It's a CNC brake design (http://www.cncbrakes.com/mc.asp?grp=mc&subgrp=dcsb&series=717&subseries=) modified with a bracket by Mike B for remote mounting. I ended up not using the bracket, so then my bro M20Curtis connected it direct to the pedal box.

A little plug for Mike B. He's got a good thread on this at R3VLimited: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=78855&highlight=euro+brake+booster. Lee (Massive) on this forum also has a period correct solution to this design.

[ray_]

I can tell that's a great car!

Cheers,

Ray

[MrNvgtr]

It took a few weekends of time, but I finally got the carpet done. I cut a few corners like not installing the sound deadener in the doors or rear seat area. I also installed a center console. It's finally starting to look like a nice car.

I stripped the floors only of the tar junk with some dry ice pellets. They made the work easy. The only negative thing was the undercoating cracked a lot under the floor pans. I'll have to address that soon but later.

I'm trying to source a shift lever extension for my unknown and un-threaded 5-speed lever. It's 12mm in diameter and I need to figure out what thread pitch I need to tap because most of the better extensions and knobs have threads.

I also have a few extras in the footwell areas that I didn't want to remove such as the left foot rest, top pivot gas pedal, and Haltech computer, but overall I think it turned out great. Rather than glueing those side pieces in, I screwed in the leading edge and they are rigid enough to hold close to the side wall. I can pull the flap out if I need access to those areas.

I had to saw some of the right trunk board to accomodate the Bosche pump and filter. I haven't had a chance to remove the rear TEP brace, so for now the trunk matt sits on top. It actually doesn't look bad that way.

[kcdonahue]

Michael,

Ilsa is coming together nicely!

Looking forward to future updates.

KC

[MrNvgtr]

I appreciate the kind words KC.