Well after the disastrous Rockingham event where the head gasket blew on the car, and I was unable to start either of the races, the decision was made to change the engine (and not rebuild the existing one) for a 328 engine, this should give a good power increase, as std from the factory they output 190bhp, thats 50bhp more than the M44 engine that was in the car so it could compete in class D.
So what items need to be changed, the cheap way would be just to put in the new engine (6 cylinders) and leave all the other stuff the same, but with these engines you can convert the inlet manifolds to run the earlier type (releasing about 20hp) then with the lightened flywheel and some under drive pulleys the power should be up to about 215bhp.
Now I could keep the std braked that were on the 318is when it came from the factory, these are up to the job as they are the same that is fitted as standard to the 328, but I have gone for an upgrade and procured some E46 330 brakes for the front and some E46 325 brakes for the rear of the car, these should give a 68%/32% brake distribution, but the ABS still will not be working, mainly due to faulty sensors on the car.
Also with the car no longer having the 318 M44 engine in, and getting a 328 M52 engine, the rear drive differential can now be a limited slip, so with this in mind, I have procured a medium case diff, that has a LSD unit inside, with a view to seeing how that improves the cars ability to get the power down when coming out of tight corners.
All we have to do now is put the car back together in time for the next race in less than 2 weeks.