E46 M3 fast road - track car

[PBMWsam]

One last thing before the car goes off to JC weldfab tomorrow for its cage.

Brought a Braille battery from Track-tek, had wanted one of these for a while then my sister 1 series needed a new battery so gave her my Bosch S5007 and brought this.

Wanted to make my own light weight battery holder but with limited time and nothing to hand I just chopped up and hole sawed mine







I then used a Hockey puck to fill the void in height to the smaller battery





Plumbed in and already on the CTEK charger.

Easily over 10kg saved here, will help to off set weight of all the T45 tubing thats about to be added.

[PBMWsam]

Getting a few teaser photos from JCweldfab, cage is fully under way.





While the cars away I made use of some spare z3 plates. Only downside to having Nitron coilovers is its a two person job to just fit the rear dampers as its imposable to reach up in the wheel arch and in the boot to bolt them together.

[PBMWsam]

Finally a cage update:

Had a major rush on as picked the car up Saturday morning from JC-weldfab (2 hours away from me) dashboard less and had to get it all back together for a track day at Snetterton 300 the very next day, again over 2 hours away from me.

Was a tall order but I made it! But from rushing I fell victim of not measuring twice and cut once, ended up cutting way too much out the dash to miss A pillar bars and gusseting, will have to change that and do a better job over winter.

The cage itself is a T45 6 point with added rear subframe bracing, the rear section drops down onto the rear turrets giving me the support needed to run true full rear coilovers, and slicks Door bars I wanted to keep fairly low to be ring approved, and being 6'4 with long limbs it just makes life a little easier.

Only painted a few areas as need to strip the interior back down.








Today I gave the M3 another down grade, seeing as only really gets driven to and from a track now the luxury of Bi-xenons headlights are wasted on me. I managed to grab some decent halogen units for £20 as they needed new lens' so I planned to reusing my yellow tinted items and sticking some brand new lens' on the Bi-xenons as a good selling point.

I can now also loose the self levelling units on each wishbone, I pretty much brake them every time I work on the suspension so not a bad thing to bin off.

New lights in and treated it to its first wash in over 3 months

[PBMWsam]

Krikkit said:

That looks absolutely mega.

As an E46 noob can I ask what's so special about the purple-tagged steering rack?

The rack is quicker, so less movement on the steering wheel is needed. Didn't think much of it on the road but world of difference on track.

[PBMWsam]

Also Snetterton 300 went very well my first full day there and stayed dry too. Didn't have as much seat time as I'd hoped, very nearly fell asleep on the sighting laps so limited myself to what I could cope with.

Annoying my dash cam didn't work, gutted as had a few session chasing Grant with his tyres going off before mine, then last outing showing that others having more power isn't everything.

JAV_SN300_151115_Ratcliffe-3 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

JAV_SN300_151115_Ratcliffe-1 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

[PBMWsam]

Thanks.

I can still use it as and when, just not very plessent as only really likes being driven hot and hard.

[PBMWsam]

broster said:

Great car! well put together with a great selection of bits!

Thanks, over the moon with the cage too

__________________________________________________________________

Was never overly happy with the outcome look wise of my door cards and after seeing Broadmoor's from M3cutters and asking him nicely I used my set that I couldn't seam to sell and copied him.


As I'd already chopped off my tweets I also had to cover up those holes so used some left over micky mouse carbon.







Covers all the nasty bits and the top of the door cards are really light so no major added weight here.

Thanks again to Broadmoor for the idea.

[PBMWsam]

Digitalize said:

Looks really nice, almost how I imagine BMW would do it.

They kind of did with the m235 racing, but looks like fibreglass.

Edit* no there's are proper carbon.

Edited by PBMWsam on Thursday 26th November 13:54

[PBMWsam]

Few little updates:

Removed my lower flat splitter as was pulling my bumper off, then the full length CSL type just didn't look man enough so removed and sold that too.

Was after a ACS copy in carbon but didn't want to pay about £300, for now I've settled on a used fibreglass copy as bagged it for dirt cheap.

Gave it a blow over of satin black and chucked it on for the PistonHeads Sunday Service at Goodwood, will remove over winter and fill in the fixing holes for the ugly tie rods.





Have a plan for this little nugget fuel filter



Saved the best for last, another reason for going down to Goodwood was to pick up my shipment from Hack Engineering of another set of Apex racing rims, was a tight squeeze getting them in but made it in the end.



Tyres mounted



Went for Apex EC-7 to mix it up a little from my ARC-8 road wheels.

18x9.5 ET22

[PBMWsam]

Digitalize said:

God damn, full slicks!

Cannot wait to try them out.

LanceRS said:

I saw this in the car park yesterday, looks better with the new bumper add on. I thought that something looked different but couldn't figure out what.

Thanks, I prefer it too but still have my heart set of a carbon one.

JKING said:

Great looking car Sam, i follow you also on M3cutters and I have the same slicks (I take you got them from Malc as well?)

I did see you had commented on my Instagram page but I haven't replied. I found the slicks really good, lots of grip but I was running too high a pressure (was running 30psi all round but really should have dropped them to 25psi front/ 27psi rear when hot)

Yeah from Malc. Cool, I usually run less pressure on the rear to front.

[PBMWsam]

iacabu said:

https://youtu.be/VK5ADL57j7Y?t=2m33s

Thought it looked familiar and here you are on the first page on the forum

Ha good find! Shame he didn't catch my exit.


Wet this morning but got a few phone pictures



EC-7 makes my brakes look tiny!

[PBMWsam]

Current state... I hate painting

[PBMWsam]

Finally finished painting my cage, admittedly its not the best of jobs but I hate painting and my painter hates painting interiors/cages so this will have to do.







Brought another dash from Graham as I rushed and really messed my first one up, trimmed the new dash before I painted the cage so know just how to slot it back in when I get some free time.

Brought an FF NOS style button for my horn as old position was hard to use, have the coiled cable and sticking a plug on the end so can still be completely removed.



As the writing on my ex BTCC slicks had seen better days I decided to remove it, couldn't have my box fresh Apex EC-7's looking tatty



On the topic of tyres I have ordered some Uniroyal rainsport3's for my OEM 18" square setup. I'd heard nothing but good feed back in the wet from these, so thought I'd give them a go on my spare wheels and use them as my winters/wet track day tyres.

[PBMWsam]

Got the car pretty much back together and out for a test drive, very shortly after taking these photos whilst driving home the engine management light came on and started massively miss firing to the point of un drive able. Plugged it in to find loads of errors including Pedal valve so I'm hoping its just that. The plug in the car is no doubt full of paint dust and the pedal itself sent around a month in my cold loft.


Could also be stale fuel maybe? As its been in there since Snetterton in mid November


Anyway just the passenger seat, harnesses, center console and CAE blanking plates to refit then it all back together.

[PBMWsam]

Productive weekend on the car

My running issue turn out to be a failed coilpack, so I replaced the lot of them as they had never been changed.

Now that its all blue and back together I am over the moon with my custom built T45 cage from JC weldfab.



Tied on some silicone hoses on a few of the bars to stop scuffs








Second attempt on trimming the dashboard and side heater vents went a lot better




Mocked up a heel plate for the uneven floor



Coiled cable for the horn wheel button, has a plug on the end so wheel can still be completely removed



Pleaded how the front end is looking with ASC style front splitter (will be replaced for carbon in the year) and the halogen lamps



Tired the slicks on again too







Lastly I deleted the charcoal canister



Hopefully my Uniroyal Rainsport3 will be here this week so can get a bit more seat time in over the winter/colder months.

[PBMWsam]

Few pictures from Bedford GT

First time on full slicks, got on pretty well with them but feel could have got a little more out of them. Found some parts of Bedford had super levels of grip but then some corners were little slippy.

PR_160227_MSVT_BA_0548 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

PR_160227_MSVT_BA_1566 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

PR_160227_MSVT_BA_1676 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

[PBMWsam]

Richair said:

Love this, great build and that looks a lot of fun! Can't imagine much would keep up with that on a track day with slicks, well apart from silly lightweight stuff but even then...

I'm doing something similar with my 951 only I'll be going racing as well as the odd track day still, so it's good to see you've kept yours road legal too

Sometimes not even the silly lightweight stuff

Yeah at the end of it, it's still a road car.

[PBMWsam]

Done Rockingham on Mother days

Spent the morning on Uniroyal Rainsport 3's as the track was mostly wet and stone cold, got a little interesting to say the least when patches dried out. Can feel them move around a lot!







Then swapped to slicks for the afternoon



Also first day with the hans device, took a few sessions to get use to it



Had major fuel surge round turn 1 so really need to address that matter after it happening the week before at Bedford GT too.

[PBMWsam]

Thanks guys

e21Mark said:

Car is looking great. Am thinking more and more about going with an E46 M3 track car. Either that, or converting my 02?

Do it! The 46 is not all that on the straight but can nail so much everywhere else.

[PBMWsam]

Few more pictures from Bedford GT that my friend took


DSC_2655 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr


DSC_2674 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr


DSC_2695 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr


DSC_2733 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr


Wheels seams to collect so much rubber pickup putting them out of balance


DSC_2754 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr


Haven't any more track days planned till Goodwood in June, have a few things to up keep and address on the car, hopfully get a few karting sessions in between to keep at seat time.