Coming soon. I hope.

Seeing the potential in this E36 as a truly excellent BMW track performer at a fraction of the cost of it’s ‘M’-badged brethren; Craig has overhauled the chassis of the BMW with a colossal shopping list of M3 Evolution and Powerflex replacements to the wishbones, diff, bushes and brakes, plus a set of Eibach Pro-Street S Coilovers; to get this thing going round corners as perfectly as possible.

Weight loss and a more purposeful interior have come in the form of stripped sound deadening, minimal and customised interior trim/carpets, a custom stripped down wiring loom,  full colour coded cage, buckets, and harnesses – all in a car used daily.

But it’s not all about having a stripped and battered track machine. Craig has an eye for creating something that can combine pure function with eye-pleasing form. A full respray in the original Hellrot Red and the well-considered colour coding (almost exclusively black or red throughout) means this car has plenty of show as well as… go.  Aesthetically it looks the business, but equally it goes round a corner better than most things you see on the road.

The car has already clocked up a massive number of European track miles on the likes of the Nurburgring and others, aswell as UK track days. Craig’s confidence in his own workmanship and a dedication to keeping the car as mechanically excellent as possible; has meant it’s proven to be an assured and reliable toy for putting a big grin on his face wherever it has been used in anger.

This only represents a tiny fragment of the story though.

For what is basically a step-by-step guide on how to turn an E36 into a serious track weapon, I can’t recommend highly enough reading his build thread from the VAG Cars forum (not to mention a hell of a lot more photos).

A Total BMW feature is also on the way, so keep your eyes peeled!

All pictures are by the owner, Craig.

If you’ve ever attended VW Festival, Sunday morning on the campsite is something to behold. I’m pretty sure there are shanty towns that look more appealing and have less disease in them. Think Day of the Dead, but with paler skin and more puke. A test of a true man, is using the VW Festival urinals without getting a tidal wave of splashback from the four-inch deep lake of pee that had built up overnight.

A DubNorthEast clubstand was the destination for my Mk2 and I decided this year to take it a little more seriously than last when I didn’t even bother washing the car before the show, nevermind giving it a little tickle with a cloth whilst I was there.

So tent packed, airbed in the bin, and teeth brushed I started the short drive over to the show area from the campsite, and promptly got stuck in a huge jam of cars with the other thousand morons who had the same bright idea to get in early.

Despite there being more stewards and security than you see at most football matches, Sunday featured an ‘interesting’ approach to running a big show, with the brightness of the hi-vis vest being in direct proportion to the lack of brain cells it’s wearer was blessed with. Which of course meant more than one showcar owning pre-madonna failed the sense of humour test magnificently in the post-show-bitch-fest-forum-fallout.

But after several million years waiting in the massive queue; for us mere plebs putting our cars on the Blue Square Premier division of car show displays, the clubstand, a quick flash of a big green circle was more than enough to basically park wherever we pleased on the show ground. In fact merely pretending to hold a big green circle, and smiling seemed to have the same effect.

Car parked, I spent at least four minutes rubbing it with quick detailer before getting bored and having my corn flakes and milk instead.

This year at VW Festival, there was a commendable attempt to make the show and shine more organised. Which basically failed badly, with huge empty spaces left vacant and cars turned away to park in the ordinary persons carpark and be denied precious attention.

And despite the obvious implication of something being called show and shine, several quite rusty and in some cases, pretty shit looking vehicles somehow made it through. Probably by throwing a stick for the security guards to run after whilst they snuck in.

Despite the show staff inadvertently ruining the weekend of several people who like to stick cotton wool buds in their heater vents, the show itself was pretty good even if the show and shine section was somewhat… patchy.

VW Festival has a very individual feel to it, with a pretty generous split between air and water-cooled stuff across the show. Personally if I’ve seen one beige splitscreen camper, I’ve seen them all, but there was loads of other cool stuff to drool over, although if I’m honest the range seemed narrower and less awesome than last year. The water-cooled selection of cars in particular was lacking in many true ‘wow’ factor cars, with mainly familiar VWs to see with one or two rare surprises.

Stand out favourites from the show included the battered brown Porsche 912E featured previously on the blog; a machine gun-toting Mad Max bug; an original 1949 black Beetle imported from Belgium; a beautiful, white, BBS body-kitted Mk1 Golf; Jon Boiii’s Mk3 VR; and the R32 Mk2 Golf race car from JBS.

The VW Festival tradition of allowing a graffiti team to do their best to ruin a selection of Volkswagens continued – 2005 called, and asked for its cars back guys. Honestly, who in their right mind volunteers for that ‘service’? People with too many stickers on their car, that’s who. Or the blind.

Sunshine and good mates meant the day flew past effortlessly, and before you knew the show winners were being announced. All twenty of them. Everyone’s a winner as they say. Almost literally…

Refer back to my earlier comments about the amazing traffic direction on site for a fairly good idea about how it went trying to go home. Suffice to say massive detours and hilariously bad direction ensured most people were able to extend their stay at VW Festival by a good hour against their will.

All said and done however, it was a great show with plenty of great cars and of course the trademark VW Festival feel good factor.

Next year there is talk of a full weekend of camping.

God help us.

Thanks to Jamie Lidster for some additional photographs used here.

Formerly sitting in a Nissan 200SX S13, the lump has been expertly slotted into the bay of this 1986 Ford Capri. The owner is estimating a pretty adequate 280BHP to be pushing those beefy backwheels around, with a T28 turbo, FMIC, a load of fab work and custom bits and bobs ensuring it sits just fine in the venerable Ford engine bay.

Bonded on and blended in fat arches give the car a fantastic stance, without it needing to be scraping the deck. A more perfect proportion of wheels and tyres could not be put on this car. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate a sympathetically restored and maintained OEM example as much as the next man. But the kind of thing that I really want, is something that brings out the mini-muscle car in it a little more aggressively. Case in point.

If you want to read the whole story, check out the build thread on Retro Rides.

While you’re there, check out the lovely merch they have for sale in their online shop.

Read his full build thread on Edition38 here.