Vorshlag Blog

We have been working on our BMW S65 V8 swapped BMW E46 M3 GTR, using a $100 E46 coupe chassis we caged and left in storage back in 2019. Loads of carbon fiber and composite bodywork have come together to make a lightweight Time Attack car we are building around SCCA Max4 class – or maybe Max2! That is one of the many discussions in the latest build thread update.

In this update we cover all of the bodywork being fitted, including Flossmann front fenders, skirts, nose, and rear bumper cover; rear Fitment Lab over fenders; a carbon roof; and some changes to the carbon hood. This is all being built around an 18×12″ wheel and 315mm tire for 200TW competition.

The Forum Update covers loads of tasks tackled under the hood including a unique front fed cold air intake, radiator fans and dual oil coolers, lots of ducting, plumbing and much more. Interested in tube bumpers and tie-down hooks? We cover that. Want to know more about crankcase venting and catch cans? That is in here. Too many details to list – but you might see something in this update that inspires your race car build? That’s our goal!

After rounding up some parts for an AP Brake front system we put that on pause to instead purchase and install this 355 x 32mm Brembo brake system instead. This move enlarged the brakes and saved a lot of time making custom mounts and hoses. And time is not on our side, as the Oct 22nd SCCA Time Attack Nationals is fast upon us!

The fuel system is fully finished on our car now, with a stock E46 tank modified to have two lift pumps feeding a Radium remote surge tank. In the Forum Update we show the “what, where and how”. Above you might notices some shiny red upper control arms, which we got from France and solve some clearance issues. Up front a poly LCA bushing is replace with spherical, too. The Mk60e5 ABS from an E92 M3 is also added and the braking system replumbed. We create a low cost carbon filter for fuel tank venting, too! The E46 M3’s 2-piece driveshaft was also fitted to the E92 M3’s factory Getrag DCT 7 speed transmission with a custom guibo adapter we machined.

There is a lot of tasks completed inside the cabin including a fire suppression system + hand held bottle, NOCO 5 pound battery is mounted, and a lightweight cool suit cooler bracket is built in place of a passenger seat. Speaking of seat mounting, we build a new E46 Vorshlag “seat bracket base” which is going into production soon. We also cover the 12 wire cable that is wired to the steering wheel – which controls the flappy paddle shifters and several buttons.

The rear Lexan window is modified for our “flying C-pillar” swan necked wing mounts to pass thru, which works out well for our high mounted AJ Hartman carbon wing. As you will see at the bottom of the 5-part Forum Thread Update the Vorshlag team is very close to “fire fire”, where we load up systems with fluids, load up a modified tune to the E92 M3’s DME, and fire up the 4.0L V8 for the first time. Stay tuned for more, and thanks for reading!

We finally paused long enough to finish a full Project Forum Update on our 1988 Fox Mustang we call #TheOcho. In the latest 4-part update we cover work from January through August 2026 on this car which includes dyno tuning, street driving, and a track test!

Before that track test we tackled a number of upgrades to the car for safety, including a 4-point roll bar, we designed and installed new Vorshlag seat brake bases, added some fixed back racing seats, front and rear tow straps, new MOMO steering wheel and QR hub, aluminum rear firewall, a Lifeline 4 liter fir suppression system, and 6-point belts. We also did some chassis stiffening with full length, weld-in SubFrame Connectors. Did we upgrade the brakes? No.

The dyno testing showed 497 whp from our “mild little 383 LS” that HPR built, which was more than we expected. That power level in a car that is around 2800 pounds was pretty frightening on track, especially with 4 cylinder brakes and Centric street pads! *Don’t do this at home – we’re professionals*

Somehow we managed to keep this death missile on the pavement for 2 hot laps, with data logs showing more forward acceleration that braking forces, which we haven’t seen before in 25 years of data logging laps. This is the wrong order of upgrades, clearly, but we had a reason. A dumb reason, but a reason.

During that 6 month span since the last Forum Thread Update we also developed a new Vorshlag camber plate, rear upper shock mount, and installed all of this on Shaun’s flared LS3 powered Fox Mustang. He has been running this on track and autocross since then, and we cannot wait to see this ’89 hatchback Mustang running against our ’88 Notchback in local CAM-T autocross action!

The end of the post talks about our Phase 2 suspension plans, which will start with a tubular crossmember and long tube headers, due sometime next month. Brembo brakes, new MCS dampers, and even an ABS upgrade should cure our “lack of braking” woes. It is all in a huge update with 100s of pics and videos inside the Forum Build Thread. Check it out on a PC with a large screen, as each image can be clicked for larger, higher rez versions. The in-car video from Track Test #2 is crazy, with tire spin in 4th gear! Enjoy.

It has been almost 8 months since we introduced this drivetrain swapped RX8 project, which came from a lot of bench racing within the SCCA Time Attack Max category rules, looking for a ringer. Paul eventually bought a rolling chassis 2004 RX8, then a month later doubled down and bought another! In the first entry into the Project Build Thread we talked about four potential engines, and since then he has picked one…

In the latest update to the RX8 Build Thread we discuss why Paul chose this 2025 model year 2.3L Ford Ecoboost four cylinder engine. And to go with it a direct bolt-on ZF 8HP 8-speed automatic. More details are in the latest post. Thanks for reading!

If you have been following along since late 2025 when we revived this build by swapping in an S65 BMW V8 and 7 speed DCT into a widebody E46, you might be interested in the latest Forum Build Thread update. We tackle many subjects, including the 18×12″ wheels you see on all four corners.

In this latest updated we cover a lot of ground and discuss E46 M3 vs non-M spindles, brake cooling, Big Brake Kit options, and lots of S65 specific engine updates – from a crankcase ventilation kit we built, to injectors and fuel rails, Mporium valve covers, and more. An AeroCatch hood pin install, “wig-wag” headlights, plus lots of wiring and bracket building are also covered.

We also show details of an ABS swap, custom fan install, a wild rear wing fabrication, carbon fiber repair, and even prepping and painting the engine bay without ending up waiting in #PaintJail. Lots of practical tasks that can be done in any home shop, so if you want to follow along and get inspired to work on your race car, just start here. Remember that every image can be clicked for a larger resolution version or a video. Thanks for reading!

Figured we’d put the latest updates to 3 of our shop projects on video, which you can see if you click on the link below.

video: https://youtu.be/70tNBtjUOwo

In the video above we cover the latest work on the J37 V6 swapped FRS and the S65 V8 swapped BMW E46. The FRS got a ton of upgrades after its first event to address issues we found in competition.

This car’s first track event was a SCCA National Tour Time Attack event with Terry and Amy competing in the car over 2 days. The car worked remarkably well for a car with major items that had zero testing, and after a few small adjustments to dampers, wing angle, and tire pressures it scored a podium and beat the previous year’s Max4 class track record. But the brakes were sub-optimal and we had a lot of sloppy rubber bushings – which have both since been addressed.

This video also covers updates to our S65 V8 + DCT swapped BMW E46 “GTR” and our LS swapped Fox Mustang we call TheOcho.

We have thinned out how many cars are inside and decluttered much of the shop (much more to do!) to allow us to focus on only 4-5 cars at a time. Look for more updates soon. Thanks for checking out the video and reading our blog.

We have another major blog post and Forum Build Thread update for our J37 Honda V6 powered 2013 FRS, which we call Agent 86. This only a week after a big update on the build. In this installment we pick back up where we left off before – finishing the engine swap and getting the V6 fired up and running.

In addition to a lot of plumbing, wiring, trouble shooting, tuning and more engine related updates covered in this triple forum post we also added a 4-point roll bar from Walker Pro Motorsport. That makes this SCCA Max4 prepped car legal for “Level 2 Safety”, which allows us to remove the back seat and some other interior bits. It also gives us a great place to hand harnesses from.

More safety upgrades covered in this update include a full Lifeline fire suppression system, and we explain why and where we have nozzles, fire pulls, and more. In the same shipment we also received a new Lifeline 6-point harness, which we installed for the driver. There was a Lifeline tow strap added to the rear as well.

After a bit of struggle the engine was finally running on all 6 cylinders, and we took a brief test drive. The car was then transported to a chassis dyno and Mike from Sakura Garage Tuning remote tuned the car with help from George at Link ECU. Making 302 whp in our first outing was a nice goal, and we also found that the VTEC switching wasn’t functional and we ran out of injector flow at 6500 rpm. More things to tweak there should unleash more power soon.

That temporary 6500 rpm redline and “only” 302 whp was enough to drop 4 seconds off this car’s previous best, which was also on 315mm tires and with coilovers. This was done in one shake-down session, where some little teething pains were discovered that kept us from pushing harder. We brought the car back to the shop where new injectors awaited and began working on the aero. You can read more of this 3-part Forum update starting here. Thanks for reading!

In our November 2nd 2025 Forum Build Thread update for Agent 86 – our 2013 FRS we bought in 2016 – we talked about a V6 swap using a Honda 3.7L SOHC V6 used almost exclusively in FWD platforms. SCCA Time Attack class rules + the low weight of this vs the VQ, 2GR, and other DOHC V6s pushed us to the Honda 3.7L V6. We picked a late RX8 6-speed transmission and decided to see if we could make this all work.

The latest Forum Build Thread update from April 14, 2026 shows how we got from the concept and early stages to this running, driving, and now dyno tuned setup. The forum post covers work through about mid-March, but even still it is a massive 5 part update covering a LOT of tasks in detail.

This Forum Update covers engine mounts, transmission crossmember, driveshaft, exhaust, cooling re-route work, radiator hoses and remote reservoir, NOCO NLP30 battery install, fuel tank work, plumbing for fuel and oil systems, adding an oil cooler and remote filter, and much more.

There is a lot more tech in this forum post than you can ever hope to see in any youtube video, and we likely spent 30+ hours writing, editing, photographing this work so if you have the time, and a larger screen to view this on, you can start catching up here. Every photo is clickable for higher rez versions or videos. Thanks for reading!

We have been busy the last 8 weeks on our S65 BMW V8 + 7-speed DCT drivetrain swapped E46 coupe, and we have detailed all of the work done in the latest Forum Build Thread update. The current state of our E46 is shown above with carbon hood, roof, trunk and doors as well as composite front fenders – but we have a lot of work ahead of us still.

In the first part of the latest 5-part Forum Update we cover some reliability mods we tackled on the S65 V8, including this AAF oil pan baffle kit. This is one of the more challenging baffle kit installs we have ever done. We also replaced rod bearings and a few other wear items while we had the V8 out of the car. Then we tackled engine and transmission mounts.

We had an uninstalled carbon roof panel for an E46 so naturally we removed the steel roof from this car, as well as the sunroof delete panel. In the Forum Update we detail every pound added or removed from this race car, of course.

Another weight saving trick is shown with these carbon fiber doors, which needed some notching at the bottom to clear the extensive door bars from this car’s roll cage. We found some DTM style door mirrors from Poland and those were installed also, and we covered the modifications to the Flossmann widebody kit we are installing onto this car.

Trying to keep as many of the OEM functions of the BMW S65 + DCT we bought a lot of used OEM components from a 2008-13 BMW M3 – chassis harness, engine harness, and lots of sensors and control modules. We have an EPIC Motorsports tuned DME to control all of it, but we needed certain sensors and things so a lot of “parts cannon” firing happened in December and January.

We show the some of the E92 M3 chassis wiring harness work, as well as the controllers for the Toyota Prius EPAS electric steering assist we have for this E46. Out back we skipped the Flossmann fender flares and ordered up some from Fitment Lab, part of their new E46 coupe kit. The Forum Update goes over why we opted for these, and talks about a second flare we will need on top of these.

We know there is a lot of work left to get our multi-colored mess of an E46 to look and perform like the E46 GTR, but we’re knocking out the punch list and the end is in sight. Thanks for reading our blog post, and don’t forget to check out the Forum Update for more pictures, video, and tech!

There is confusion surrounding our two models of BMW E46 camber plates and we get asked about the differences all the time. We make one for the E46 “non-M” cars, like the 325, 328, 330 and Z4. We make one with different initial geometry for the E46 M3, but only for street and dual purpose cars. This forum post hopefully explains this in better detail.

The key differences is for a dedicated E46 M3 or Z4M race car, you should actually use the non-M camber plate versions. This one has more negative camber potential, but not enough positive camber travel for a pretty street car alignment. Still not clear? Read this to learn more. Thanks!

We haven’t posted in the 21st Century Fox’s forum build thread for three months, but we’ve been busy working on this 1988 Mustang – mostly tackling a V8 swap, along with a ton of other upgrades. We’re doing all of this work so we can get a more realistic “baseline track test” in this car before we tackle much needed suspension upgrades, which will include all new creations from Vorshlag. And it ended up being pretty dang light for a full interior street car at 2732 pounds!

In the latest round of work we tackled a whole new cooling system to connect the 6.3L built LS V8 engine to the rest of the chassis, including this massive How radiator shown above. This work includes custom radiator hoses, heater hoses, remote coolant reservoir, steam vents and more. This update also covers the intake manifold, throttle body, fuel rails, injects, and remove ignition coil mounting.

The V8 required a whole new exhaust system and we opted to build a dual 3″ stainless setup with classic Flowmaster series 40 mufflers. This connects to the (temporary) log manifolds and has provisions for twin Wideband O2 sensors, which will be sending data to the Link G4X fuel injection system.

After the exhaust was finished we could then tackle the new fuel line system. This forum update shows the dual 1/2″ aluminum hard lines and Fragola -8 AN flex lines running the length of the chassis and into the engine bay, where the regulator and fuel rails take over. The conversion to fully hydraulic clutch actuation is also covered.

The dash was out for a long period while the entire wiring system was upgrade, going from the NOCO 5 pound Lithium battery underhood to the stock fuse box, alternator, starter, and auxiliary fuse / relay system that came with the Link ECU. In the latest update we show the cleaned and weighed dash going back in as well as some lightweight carpet, shifter, seats and belts.

Last up is the EFI system wiring and base map tuning, which was tackled in-house with some help form Link ECU tech support. We got the engine fired up in late December 2025, verified data on the Link software, and even managed to get the factory dash and gauges to work. We did this with a duplicate set of sensors as well as a heavily modified speedometer cable assembly. You can read about all of this and more on our forum. Next time we post about the car will be after the next track test and we will hopefully, finally be offering some real suspension solutions for the Fox chassis!