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 GarageTuning 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!
My Dec 7th blog post here was all about our E36 M3 Project #Hellrotten moving from SCCA Time Attack Max5 to Max4 class, with a BMW S65 8400 rpm 4.0L V8 + DCT transmission. I had entered the car for UTCC and been dragged into a battle amongst other automotive journalists and bloggers, which fired me up!
On December 10th we had the E36 on the lift, coolant drained, splitter removed and were about to yank the perfectly good S50 engine to get started on the swap. We had just done a compression check and videos of it running, to help sell the S50 3.0L inline 6, the 5-speed transmission, the long tube header + custom exhaust, Link ECU and engine harness, plus the S50 specific fuel system upgrades. I had a bad feeling and I bolted up from my desk, ran out into the shop, and stopped this work! I explain this in detail in this post in the Hellrotten forum thread. Long story short, we will keep the E36 as-is and move this S65 swap to an E46 chassis.
There was a very recent rules change in SCCA that allowed caged cars to use Lexan behind the driver, and we had this unfinished and ignored E46 coupe chassis that fit the bill – it was fully caged, sitting on new MCS triples, wide wheels, EPAS steering column swap, and an E46 M3 rear diff and subframe. It has been untouched since 2022. This car also had a good race seat, carbon hood and trunk, and lots more. We also had another E46 coupe with a full Flossmann GTR widebody kit, carbon doors and carbon roof. The car had Lexan rear quarter and back windows, and was thus not legal for SCCA Max until this change in late November. I talked to the crew here and suggested: “Why don’t we just S65 + DCT swap the caged E46, then steal all the carbon and widebody panels from the other coupe, and make a GTR tribute?!” They all agreed. That gets explained in great detail in this new E46 GTR forum build thread.
One of the goals for this E46 M3 GTR build is also to finally replicate the low weight, 400+ whp output, and big tires from our “E36 Alpha car”, shown above. I started building this LS swap E36 in my home garage in 2000 and due to business reasons we had to sell it in 2009 – when it made 488 whp with 315mm Hoosiers and weighed 2550 lbs with a cage and two racing seats. I have not had a race car this light with more than 400 whp in the 16 years since, and I miss it mightily! The Alpha car was so fun to drive, so light, so effortlessly fast. Which means this E46 has big shoes to fill…
In under 3 weeks in December we have made tremendous strides on this build, with the S65 engine + DCT both mounted into the E46 chassis, the bodywork from the Flossmann car moved over, the carbon roof swapped, and much more. We had an instant reaction to my daily Facebook posts of the progress on this build and we’re now considering a production run of the engine + DCT mounts and possibly the long tube headers we will have to make.
An initial weight check was very promising (see above or in this forum post), and with a bunch of known weights of parts added in we can extrapolate a sub-2500 pound finished chassis weight. The Max4 class we are building for has a 3000 pound minimum weight with driver, so we’ll need “a bit of ballast”, and for UTCC we can and will remove the ballast needed for SCCA’s Max4 class. In the UTCC “writer’s shootout” against two 3600 pound F8X BMW M cars and Tom’s gutted Nissan 350Z LS swap, we’ll possibly be the lightest car by as much as 1000 pounds (at least compared to the F80 BMWs). The S65 engine might be down 200 hp to the twin turbo Bimmers, so we will need very trick in the book!
Thanks for reading along and encouraging this madness! – Terry @ Vorshlag
Ever started out a Track Race Car build on a dare? Maybe it was from a bench racing session with a buddy, over a few beers. Maybe your existing car just doesn’t “fit the formula” that your favorite racing groups has for class rules. Maybe you think you can find a loophole to exploit, or just want to build a car to the minimum weight, maximize power, and run the bleeding edge limit on aero, tires, and suspension – but within a budget.
Sometimes you are so busy bench racing that a buddy finds you a free chassis for the car you have been dreaming up. That’s what happened here with our buddy Paul or Pontini Racing – he had been talking about an RX8 build for SCCA Max5 or Max4 Time Attack for so long that you found him a car, to see if he’d actually do it. And he did!
In this forum post we explore the ideas, the class rules in question, and even the three “Levels of Safety” that SCCA prescribes for their Time Attack series. We dive into two potential classes and 7 potential drivetrain swaps on this 2004 RX8 – and none of them involve the dreaded rotary (a seriously cool idea on paper, that never seems to work out as well on track).
If you have ever day dreamed about building the ultimate car for a given class – even one with rather mild limits – this forum build thread might be worth a read. And you can comment with your suggestions in the forum! Follow the instructions on how to sign up on the vorshlag forum and join in the discussions! We’ve had this forum up for 25 years and it is chock full of tech. Thanks for reading!
Howdy folks! Terry from Vorshlag here. Just wanted to make a quick post about some big changes to our shop’s race car lineup that are in store for 2026, and the reasons for all of this.
We had a great year testing new products and Amy had fun competing in SCCA Time Attack in our 1995 M3 Project #Hellrotten, where we transformed this ratty barn find into a pretty solid track weapon. It started out not-running in 2024, and we repaired rat eaten wires, got the S50 fired up, added this Fitment Labs widebody, 18×11″ wheels, 315mm Yokohama A052 tires, Nine Lives Racing wing, and a custom Vorshlag splitter and other aero treatments. The MCS remote reservoir doubles (RR2) plus the entire catalog of Vorshlag suspension bits – along with the original S50 3.0L inline 6 controlled by Link ECU, and a custom exhaust / header – allowed Amy to take the Texas region championship in Max5 class for the 2025 season with 6 wins and 2 second places.
We didn’t make it to the 2025 Time Attack National Championships at PITT Race this year, for a variety of reasons. My S550 Mustang was still having teething pains, but also : this M3 was 500 pounds overweight for Max5 class, which is a real determent to any entry’s competitiveness. It does have what is considered a solid 3.0L engine for this class (the largest displacement allowed), but even cranking out 246 whp, it was not enough to make up for a 500 pound penalty. As we considered how to rectify this for the 2026 season, two things happened that changed the course of this car’s future – as well as my bank account.
First up – Amy decided to go back to her 2013 FRS for the 2026 season, which we were already swapping to Honda J37 V6 power. This lighter car also sports 315mm tires, MCS RR2 coilovers, and with 300-350 whp it should be a bit spicy in Max4 class with full aero and Link ECU power. That leaves the M3 without a driver…
And then SCCA dropped a nuclear b0mb on us – after it was announced that PITT Race was being sold to for AI garbage uses, the 2026 SCCA Time Attack Nationals (and Grassroots Motorsports’ Ultimate Track Car Challenge) was moved to Eagles Canyon Raceway, which is right in our back yard. We have driven at ECR since it opened in 2008, I have made 1000+ laps and set dozens of class track records here, and that “home court advantage” was a HUGE motivator to do something radical with the M3 to make it more competitive for 2026. I started hitting eBay looking at a really bad idea…
Within 2 days I went out half cocked and bought the cheapest 4.0L 32 valve BMW “S65” V8 on eBay, then looked into what it would take to swap this plus the 7 speed DCT (dual clutch sequential) into an E36. Yes, it is foolish “to buy first and research later”, but if any shop is capable of V8 swapping a BMW with something new, maybe it is Vorshlag? We have swapped and sold kits to swap hundreds of GM LS V8s into the E36 chassis, plus 8 other chassis, going back 25 years, How hard could it be?
Luckily the folks at EPIC Motorsports heard about this idea and they DO have the knowledge to make the E92 M3’s V8 engine and DCT transmission to work as a stand-alone for a swap, but for the mechanical integration to the E36 chassis, we’re on our own. But I’ve got a great crew here, and we’re up for the challenge. Make headers, engine mounts, crossmember, driveshaft and more? That’s all in our wheelhouse.
So many folks were SHOCKED when they heard we were actually swapping a BMW V8 into a BMW, and a few shops have already reached out to help make it happen. BimmerWorld gave us their S65 dip stick kit (this engine only has a sensor to detect oil level), then the folks at Emporium are working with us to get proper S65 valve covers + VANOS bits, then AAF got us their wet sump baffle kit. We still have a lot of spending ahead, but I’m not afraid to fire the Money Gun to get this solved!
We have been learning quickly about the S65’s known issues, and this oil pan baffle was a pretty sizable chore to install. We’re already getting this used engine cleaned up and reliable, and even swapped in aftermarket rod bearings – a known issue on this 8400 rpm engine. We’ll get it sealed up next week and start the actual swap by pulling the 3.0L S50 engine, header, exhaust, Link ECU, cold air, 5-speed transmission and RTD shifter – all to be sold as a package, to help pay for (a small part) of this crazy S65 swap.
Of course we signed up for the GRM “UTCC” event – which has been held on the same weekend / track as SCCA Time Attack Nationals for years. In fact we were the 6th car to enter and be accepted. To make the car more competitive for Nationals and UTCC, we’ve been firing the money gun and have lightweight Konig Hypergram 18×12″ wheels coming (to replace the heavy 18×11’s), new MOMO Daytona EVO (halo style) composite seats, and many more items to make the car lighter, faster, easier to drive – or some combination of those three things.
As if an SCCA Time Attack Nationals and UTCC at ECR weren’t enough of a incentive, I got roped into a mini-challenge with 3 other driver’s who write for car magazines and blogs. The list so far includes a couple of two ton BMW F87s with lots of boost, as well as an LS swapped 350Z race car – the gauntlet was thrown, and I accepted the challenge! We all agreed upon a limit of only using 200 TW tires, but that’s it. Will a 414 hp E36 M3 with some aero and 315mm tires be enough to keep up with 3 other hot shoes?
Yes – I plan to beat these 3 guys so badly they are going to QUIT the sport! 😉 I don’t care what we have to do, we’re going to get this car down to the Max4 class minimum weight (and then some, so we can add ballast back for Max4 and take it OUT for this UTCC challenge!) It might be foolish, but this writer’s challenge fired me up – something my dreadful 2025 season had almost extinguished. This fire is LIT boys and girls, and I’m going to run as many events and laps at ECR that I can possibly shove into the next 10 months. Chase every pound, wring out every horsepower, and squeeze out every ounce of grip.
If you are keeping up, yes – the E36 M3 with the 4.0L V8 now moves up to Max4 class, with a 3000 pound minimum weight with driver (which will be easy to hit). Amy’s 2013 FRS with the 3.7L V6 has a 2700 pound min weight with driver, using a different formula also in Max4. So now we’re building two cars for the same class, husband vs wife, racing heads up all season?! This will be a fair fight, as the J37 could crack 330-350 whp with the right intake, exhaust and tuning. Same tires, same dampers, same aero, different weights – it could be a solid battle all season. She’s got a ton of wins and track records in her own right, plus several SCCA Solo National Championships, so this could be a very tricky season for me in the E36 M3.
Stay tuned to see how it all goes! – Terry Fair @ Vorshlag
After sitting in hibernation with an engine for a while, our 2013 Scion FRS (86) is back on the schedule and we’re installing a 300 hp engine. But it is unusual – as this is a 3.7L Honda SOHC V6, called the J-series. These engines are normally sitting sideways driving the front wheels of Honda cars, SUVs and minivans, but we’re turning it 90 degrees and driving the rear wheels in our 86. Read more starting in our Forum build thread here.
Is this an easy swap? In a word: NO. But we’re making it easier for others by machining a new bellhousing and crank adapter to work with a late RX-8 6-speed manual. Why not use a Toyota 2GR? Or a Nissan VK? Or “insert other engine here”. We explain all of this with technical reasons – competition class rules, abundant supplies / low costs, engine weights, and more – in this forum build thread.
We are known for LS V8 swaps, so this one is a little different for us. Instead of 600 hp it will be making 300 hp, which means we likely won’t break EVERYTHING in the 86. We’re going to keep the stock axles, limited slip, wheel bearings, and the rest. This will keep costs way down, and that thinking seems much more popular than the normal $50K LS swap and all the many upgrades we normally would have to do for reliability. We explain the costs and weights in the forum thread.
We started this swap just 6 weeks ago but have already made some major progress. We have 3D scanned, designed, machined and installed the bellhousing adapter and crank adapter shown above, we have the engine and transmission installed and have begin engine mount fabrication, and are deep into the Link ECU integration and wiring – Link is going to make this a plug-in ECU + harness install. The exhaust is super simple (monoport exhaust on each cylinder head), and we will supply all of these parts and more for others to be able to benefit from our engineering and testing.
Look for this car on track in early 2026 with Amy competing in SCCA Time Trial Max 4 with the widebody, 315mm tires, MCS RR2 remote doubles, and full aero. We loved this car with the big tires and suspension upgrades, and its only going to be more fun with another 50% more power than stock. Again, there is a huge write-up with pictures, video, and explanations on the Vorshlag Forum. Thanks for reading!
What on earth has he brought to the shop now? This 1966 Honda S600 coupe is one of Honda’s first sports cars, heck one of the motorcycle company’s first ever production cars. And we have one, and we’re going to do something cool and crazy with it – which you can read all about here.
This unusually smol car came from the factory with a super high revving (9500 rpm!) motorcycle based engine, but that is long gone in our car. So we’re going to do what many folks have done with this chassis – swap in a modern 1000-1200 cc sport bike engine! The 1200 cc inline 4 in the S600 roadster above gives you a glimpse at how small the engine bay is, and what we have to work with. We discuss two possible Honda motorcycle engines to use – including one with a DCT transmission! – in the forum build thread’s first post.
We also talk about the possible suspension upgrades we have in store, as our coupe is sitting on a temporary frame and Miata front and rear subframes, which we will likely incorporate in our final design but in a much narrower format. We’ve got some rust removal in store using a “LASER” later this week, and we will show more of this ugly duckling soon – and hopefully it becomes a beautiful swan when we’re done! You can read more starting here.
