UPDATE FROM SEMA:
Here is what the E30 Baja 1000 Rally car currently looks like during its buildup at 2010 SEMA. Baswell and his team have only two weeks until the Baja 1000 rally race but it looks like they are making good progress. The E30 rally racer has now received a new roll cage and suspension from Bilstein, as well as a complete subframe. The majority of the car will be built right at SEMA. Photos from
Autoblog and
Jalopnik.
At least it looks like they are having fun with the project (as seen in this video)
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Via
Jalopnik
Quote:
Bill Caswell and his $500 Craigslist rally car [amazing original story HERE] have a new challenge: the Baja 1000. Caswell's heading to SEMA, welding together a Baja E30, then heading to Mexico. He took a break from construction to share his plans with Jalopnik.
Caswell made history and warped minds when he took a beat-up E30 he'd purchased off of Craigslist and, with a mixture of grit and luck, finished an amazing 3rd place in his class at the WRC Raly Mexico. He's attempting to shatter more expectations by racing the first BMW car or truck in the famed and torturous SCORE Baja 1000 rally.
And not just any BMW truck. He's racing a freaking E30 that was a parts donor to the rally car.
"The silver-and-black hood from the original rally car came from this car, it's kind of strange, my autocross car has the engine from it," said Caswell. "This was basically a parts car and after buying most of it he he basically gave me the chassis for free."
This is Caswell's biggest challenge to date because he's promised his sponsor, Miller Electric Manufacturing, he'll weld the main roll cage, front and rear cages, suspension, and other accessories to the car on site at SEMA. This means it has to be designed and partially pre-fabricated in his mom's garage before the car is picked up tomorrow for delivery.
And that's not the end of it.
"I've got ten days from the end of SEMA to make the start of the race, so I'm basically doing all the welding at SEMA and will do all the plumbing along the beach in San Diego," said Caswell. "So far we don't have a shop down there, so unless someone has a shop we're doing it on a public beach."
The first drawings of the car show just how intense this Baja E30's going to be. It'll be sitting on 33x10.5-inch tires with a rear track, hub-to-hub almost as wide as the car. The motor's a 3.0-liter inline-six out of a a 1995 M3 putting power through a differential and drive/halfshafts used on off-road buggies.
Rest of story at Jalopnik - http://jalopnik.com/5674807/500-crai...yline=true&s=i
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