Alex L

You got this picture in HD res bud? Would love to use it as my desktop.

jumph4x

I'm humbled. I sent you a PM.
Car was quite filthy, now I feel silly for not washing it first.

jumph4x

Can you tell me more? Would love to see your setup.

StarvingArtist

I took a picture of the jig with my ipad. I'll show it to you if you explain how to get it on here. I haven't had a lot of success posting pictures. It's about time I learned.

eFifty5AMG

Is this just for toe? Or caster/camber/toe?

StarvingArtist

Just toe. I use a level for camber, and a long straight edge to make sure everything is equal to the car. I've got no way to measure caster. I just pick an angle according to how much centering I want and match up the other side with the adjusters. Takes a while because you can't measure and adjust at the same time, but it's faster than driving into town to have it done.
In my first two years of ownership I went through five sets of tires at $1200-1400 a set. I kept replacing suspension parts and paying for alignments and I was still chewing the inside edges off. Turns out the only thing the shop could adjust was toe. Crash bols were maxed out because it's lowered a bit. Finally I took matters into my own hands and bought k-mac bushings for the thrust arms, slotted the subframe mounting points for the control arms, and figured out how to align it. Now I get about 30k out of the rear tires, and just get sick of the fronts.

StarvingArtist

I was out cutting stone this afternoon and the irony finally caught up with me. Talking about tire wear in a tread about a drift car!

tw2

Those are some fantastic pictures! Unfortunately your photography is so good we can see the dirt you were talking about.

jumph4x

Guys, girls, I'm quite excited for the next project, I think you will like it as well.

Just completed a 1100 mile shakedown, a roundtrip to Vegas and back, car did great.
Aren't all North American W211's electronically limited to 155mph or am I tripping?

Strigoi

I believe the EC tune gets rid of the limiter.

jumph4x

You're totally right, I forgot all about that.

jumph4x

eFifty5AMG

Looking killer! Does the car have any noticeable difference in handling characteristics or the way it tracks with the new width? A quick polish will knock that residue left from the old badges..unless you dig it of course.

jumph4x

Not really. But, for someone aesthetically inclined: whatever these cars could fit in the rear plus 2" on rim width. Imagine the look of that! 300+ tire anyone?

Got other plans One step at a time, trust you me I'm not sitting here with arms folded.

jumph4x

Shot by Doogle Studios

jumph4x

Finally had the ***** to try and link the Summer Jam layout and... it worked!

External POV:

Cabin POV:

mondo

nice.... is that last turn the same one where you went off road previously?

jumph4x

Yup.

mondo

at first i thought you'd overcooked it as your angle of attack was pretty high. love the way you just kept your boot into it and just drove out of it.

East Coast Euro

Awesome build! Can't wait to hear what you think of our billet/poly engine and transmission mounts

w204_racing

jumph4x

Thank you! Angle of attack was good but I want more.
I was studying the Wisefab angle kit installed on an S14 today at Works motorsports and comparing to the suspension design of the W211, thinking about what it would take to pull this off.

Not committed to doing it or not doing it, exploratory stage. Would up the excitement factor of this build a couple of notches

Thank you kindly, I'm sure they are fantastic. Anticipating delivery!

I do not work on other people's cars, but I accept this as a compliment!

jumph4x

Took the car to Works Motorsports today, they were celebrating their 15 years in business with a free-dyno-and-raffle day.

What an excellent bunch of people, they had already helped me out once when I failed pre-drift tech for front tires being too bald in a pinch and I'm yet again humbled by that crew.
They had developed and launched to market the first ever BRZ/FRS CARB-legal turbo kit. Offering both stage 1 and stage 2. That's just plain cool, making it possible to legally upgrade one of the best affordable sport chassis of our time.

Anyways, the Benz surprised everyone at the event. My car has perfect or near-perfect compression in all cylinders.
I understand these hub dynos read relatively high to Mustang and Dynojets (as general folklore would suggest), but having seen a cared-for BMWCCA E46 328i register 175 hub horsepower (and a couple of other cars), I am relatively confident in these readings.
What follows is a testament to both the Mercedes Benz engineering and quality as well as an excellent off-the-shelf product from Eurocharged (I'm running their 83mm clutched pulley with a tune):

The car delivered ~490 ft-lbs of torque at 2000-3500 RPM after losses on a Dynapack hub dyno and the motor has 125K miles on it. Let that sink in for a bit. Adjusted for drivetrain losses of 20% that yields up to 620 peak ft-lbs at the crank.
Horsepower peaked and stayed at 424, adjusted for crank would give us 530HP. I did not need or want more power out of this build, but it was nice to be able to mechanically verify the drivetrain status.

jumph4x

jumph4x

Showed the girl some much needed love yesterday.

Upgraded the radiator to a Nissens part number, replaced all coolant hoses, replaced overflow tank, replaced service and supercharger belts, all new pulleys and idlers+tensioners.
Some new ATF fluid, took the bumper off and put on clear side markers.

In the process I cut up the BaumTools universal dipstick. At 105mm graduation is a good place to do it, so that it now descends all the way into the oilpan and doesn't stick out, sealing the vacuum at the top.
Before I cut it up, the 8.5L cold reading was around 145mm on that tool.
After cutting I just ran the car, warmed up and made a couple measurements, finally putting my own mark on the dipstick for a full-fill, so I can do quick trackside checks.

Another good pro-tip is when filling ATF and checking the level, the iCarsoft MBII tool is quite helpful because it's possible to read out transmission temperature via CanBus, so the 80C measurement can be quite precise.
That and the *you have to drive the car around for 20 minutes to warm it up!* bit of folklore is simple not true. Warmed the ATF up on jackstands by engaging all solenoids in about that much time without having to drive.

Today is a CNC milling day! I'm making new steering wheel plugs and also designed some external bumper mounts that I plan to secure using M5 stainless rivet-nuts instead of the factory sandwich slides that are hard to take off and put on.
Also, found a failed bushing on my front left LCA. Replacements in the mail.