ok, all this autocross talk is getting me off my rally groove :D
back to work! Got a delivery of parts today, courtesy of TurboJake. Who, I might add, is by far the best shipper, packer, and seller on the entire planet. Great parts prices, shipped super-fast, packing was professional, and I got pics of every step of the process. I highly recommend getting parts from Jake if he has what you're looking for!
The parts in question: Everything I need for trunk battery relocate. I already had the OEM 325i cable (oddly, from a Nissan buddy who couldn't use it for his battery relocation on his i30).
anyhow, first to the trunk. The 318 still has all the tabs and mount spots for the 325i tray, so it slid in perfect. Needed to drill one hole in the floor to mount. After install I wasn't terribly happy with how much flex there is in the tray. I have a feeling that it would crack or break during alot of rallycross. So I decided to find something to use as a center support for some additional strength. After digging around the garage, found a Jeep extended bumpstop (for rear leaf springs) that for some reason I never used on the old XJ. Put a screw through the top to hold it in, and there we go.
tray in, and my Red Top fits perfectly. I will need to fab up some hold-downs, since the OEM bracket wasn't included (and probably wouldn't work anyhow). Eventually will move to a lighter race battery, but that's not in the budget right now.
On to the front.....The distro block is an easy install, since there are dimples for drilling the holes in the firewall to put it in the stock position. Getting the cable through the firewall was another story. It comes in from the side, and BMW was nice enough to put a thin metal punch-out piece there, so a couple whacks with a chisel punched it out. Unfortunately, this is where I had previously fiberglassed over, so I had to cut some of that out as well. And the reason I had fiberglased over the area is that there was some rust-through and a leak.
Anyhow, after much cursing and using various flathead screwdrivers to pry and cajole, finally got the OEM firewall grommet/seal in place. Because of the old rust, there's a hole on one side of it, so I'll have to take care of that in the near future.
Everything hooked up, just need to move the ground cable to the trunk and figure out a hold-down and good to go. I think moving the weight to the trunk will be beneficial on this car, since it's pretty damn light back there and I'll want as much weight as possible for traction, and perhaps reduce some understeer. We'll see.