E46 M3 - The entire build from stock to Nurburgring.
Discussion
So I lurk on here all the time and never really post much, so I thought I'd put up a history of my M3 from fairly standard car to where it is now. The car isn't built as a race car, it's very specifically for myself to enjoy on circuits as a track day vehicle, it's been built to be safe, reliable, and not be toooo awful on that horrible drive to the Nurburgring where the car spends the vast majority of it's traveling life. Now of course, everyone has a different way of modifying M3's for the track - my only interest was making the chassis as good as possible, rather than going down the power route, and then learning how to actually drive it properly.
(Pesky bonnet catch just flicked open here, more on that much later.
)
A little cliched back story. In 2003 I visited the Nurburgring for the first time on a road trip to Switzerland, and blah blah blah I got addicted etc. I guess this is how it starts for most people. After 10 years of cocking about in all sorts of tat from Minis, MGB's, then MX-5's, a dirty Nissan Silvia, that sort of thing. After the Nissan proved somewhat unreliable it was time to get into something a little more rounded and reliable, after all the prices were starting to drop and look attractive.
So in February 2011 I had been looking for the right car for a month or so and when a car that I knew had been looked after and fitted with a couple of choice parts I snapped it up.
The very first thing to to was do a track day, or four.
Body-roll was manageable, brakes worked, it was all in all a decent car. I had no plans to modify it any further.
Went to the Germany to give it a test and it was brilliant.
Did more and more trackdays...
But then the tinkering bug started to set in. I changed the alignment to a far more agressive track biased setup, and lowered the car a bit more, and did the corner weights.
After a Bedford track day I tweaked the settings a little more again to get the balance of the car right.
It was time for a mega service and I went over the car with a fine tooth comb. I had a minor oil weep from the oil cooler which I replaced with a new one, and just generally went round finding bolts that needed nuts and holes that needed bolts all together.
And then and went and did around 85 laps in it over the course of a weeks trip to the Nordschleife.
And then it all started falling downhill. When I bought the car from Daniel, the car was fitted with KW v3's with it's normal soggy progressive springs which are around 84N/mm all round which whilst sort of comfortable never really offered the proper on track performance the dampers can offer. Fortunately, the car came also with KW spherical bearing top mounts (the car had non TuV Simpson motorsport rubber top mounts) and club sport front springs which are a linear 120N/mm spring.
However after a trip to Tom Schirmers in Kelberg and a decent chat (I say chat, more of a friendly one way lesson) I left with a set of proper springs - 160N/mm linears all round and some 20N/mm helpers. Basically nearly twice the spring rate as it had on before. Will it leave the car bone shatteringly stiff? Apparently not. I had to take Tom's word for it.
So three weeks after coming home from the 'Ring and umming and erring about ruining the perfectly acceptable ride on the car, I took advantage of a Monday bank holiday and Bon's free time.
The front springs are long conical jobbies, and we always knew they were too sloppy as the car was bottoming out in the foxhole at circa. 150mph through the compression, and leaving ever deeper grooves in the tyres. Raising the car wouldn't have necessarily solved this either apparently.
Wheel arch liner Nut damage to the tyre from the compression:
We fitted all the new springs and helpers and adjusters, and re-used a few parts from the original kit that we needed...
Set a basic geometry to get started with...
And then started dialling in a Schirmer alignment as best we could with the alignment gear we had (which unfortunately didn't quite work on a car that was now this low), so it needs a bit of tweaking at another alignment centre.
Once we did that, we started looking around at the corner weights. The car had a full tank of fuel, and with all that onboard and me not sat in the car we had a wet weight of 1580kg on the money:
So we began fiddling, and we found 15kg's straight away in the battery, which we swapped for a gorgeous Braile long life motorsport battery - 15kg's!!
Which took the car down to 1565kg.
Some more fiddling later we set up the corner weights properly based on the car with a driver and a front passenger, as my car almost never had an empty passenger seat on track these days.
So finally with two regular humans on board, we managed to tweak and nudge everything so that it was spot on 50:50. Final weight with passengers on board was 1724kg. We reckon straight away there is 50-55kg's to lose just in the front seats, and maybe 20-30kg's in the wheels alone, so those really are next on the project list. Slippery slope? Yes.
So how did it ride? The answer is extremely well - Tom was adamant that BMW's want stiffer springs as long as the dampers can keep up which the KW's can do no problem. The low speed 10-20mph ride is a little bumpy as you'd expect from any car running this sort of setup, but as soon as you hit 30mph and carry on to whatever speed you like the car is stable, quiet, rides perfectly (PERFECTLY) and I am nothing short of really really impressed.
(Pesky bonnet catch just flicked open here, more on that much later.
)A little cliched back story. In 2003 I visited the Nurburgring for the first time on a road trip to Switzerland, and blah blah blah I got addicted etc. I guess this is how it starts for most people. After 10 years of cocking about in all sorts of tat from Minis, MGB's, then MX-5's, a dirty Nissan Silvia, that sort of thing. After the Nissan proved somewhat unreliable it was time to get into something a little more rounded and reliable, after all the prices were starting to drop and look attractive.
So in February 2011 I had been looking for the right car for a month or so and when a car that I knew had been looked after and fitted with a couple of choice parts I snapped it up.
The very first thing to to was do a track day, or four.
Body-roll was manageable, brakes worked, it was all in all a decent car. I had no plans to modify it any further.
Went to the Germany to give it a test and it was brilliant.
Did more and more trackdays...
But then the tinkering bug started to set in. I changed the alignment to a far more agressive track biased setup, and lowered the car a bit more, and did the corner weights.
After a Bedford track day I tweaked the settings a little more again to get the balance of the car right.
It was time for a mega service and I went over the car with a fine tooth comb. I had a minor oil weep from the oil cooler which I replaced with a new one, and just generally went round finding bolts that needed nuts and holes that needed bolts all together.
And then and went and did around 85 laps in it over the course of a weeks trip to the Nordschleife.
And then it all started falling downhill. When I bought the car from Daniel, the car was fitted with KW v3's with it's normal soggy progressive springs which are around 84N/mm all round which whilst sort of comfortable never really offered the proper on track performance the dampers can offer. Fortunately, the car came also with KW spherical bearing top mounts (the car had non TuV Simpson motorsport rubber top mounts) and club sport front springs which are a linear 120N/mm spring.
However after a trip to Tom Schirmers in Kelberg and a decent chat (I say chat, more of a friendly one way lesson) I left with a set of proper springs - 160N/mm linears all round and some 20N/mm helpers. Basically nearly twice the spring rate as it had on before. Will it leave the car bone shatteringly stiff? Apparently not. I had to take Tom's word for it.
So three weeks after coming home from the 'Ring and umming and erring about ruining the perfectly acceptable ride on the car, I took advantage of a Monday bank holiday and Bon's free time.
The front springs are long conical jobbies, and we always knew they were too sloppy as the car was bottoming out in the foxhole at circa. 150mph through the compression, and leaving ever deeper grooves in the tyres. Raising the car wouldn't have necessarily solved this either apparently.
Wheel arch liner Nut damage to the tyre from the compression:
We fitted all the new springs and helpers and adjusters, and re-used a few parts from the original kit that we needed...
Set a basic geometry to get started with...
And then started dialling in a Schirmer alignment as best we could with the alignment gear we had (which unfortunately didn't quite work on a car that was now this low), so it needs a bit of tweaking at another alignment centre.
Once we did that, we started looking around at the corner weights. The car had a full tank of fuel, and with all that onboard and me not sat in the car we had a wet weight of 1580kg on the money:
So we began fiddling, and we found 15kg's straight away in the battery, which we swapped for a gorgeous Braile long life motorsport battery - 15kg's!!
Which took the car down to 1565kg.
Some more fiddling later we set up the corner weights properly based on the car with a driver and a front passenger, as my car almost never had an empty passenger seat on track these days.
So finally with two regular humans on board, we managed to tweak and nudge everything so that it was spot on 50:50. Final weight with passengers on board was 1724kg. We reckon straight away there is 50-55kg's to lose just in the front seats, and maybe 20-30kg's in the wheels alone, so those really are next on the project list. Slippery slope? Yes.
So how did it ride? The answer is extremely well - Tom was adamant that BMW's want stiffer springs as long as the dampers can keep up which the KW's can do no problem. The low speed 10-20mph ride is a little bumpy as you'd expect from any car running this sort of setup, but as soon as you hit 30mph and carry on to whatever speed you like the car is stable, quiet, rides perfectly (PERFECTLY) and I am nothing short of really really impressed.
Edited by alclark on Thursday 28th November 20:21
Edited by alclark on Thursday 28th November 20:21
And so this was the format I drove the car in for quite a while.
Including some mega fun wet days...
And I promise I do actually drive it fast sometimes too instead of sideways.
And then what I never intended to happen inevitably happened.
And then I bought some wheels and fitted the car with a set of Khumop V70A's.
And did another trackday.
The car is so poised it flew past the slower cars in the way...
The car is gutted to 'club sport' spec, so everything in front of the seats is stock including carpets. I brimmed the tank and it was time to get a weigh in.
The car started it's life at 1610kg with a full tank of fuel... and now... it's 1465kg. Huge weight loss, and there is still a lot more to come out if I want to. The scales show the weight with the heavier road battery in, and daft as it sounds, the owners handbook weighs 1.7kg which was in the glovebox.
So in it's plainest and un-finished form, it's looking bare...
And the boot. The Braille battery will be located to the centre of the car in the wheel well where it should fit perfectly without a lot of work.
So with 144kg lost, and more to come, things are looking good. Already feels much much faster, although in the wet you can't put your foot down anymore without it spinning up - the corner weights were not favourable...
Then, just shy of my 1000th lap, I went out last weekend to the 'Ring for work, and decided to take out the M3. The car is ready for a roll cage, but as the weather looked good for a whole Saturday afternoon of lapping I decided to take it out, so I threw the dashboard back in and off I went.
Sunday evening, it was raining so I thought I'll go out and have a play as I had two laps left on my ticket, and it was business as usual right up to Breidscheide where I unfortunately had my first crash.
However fortunately, this was a light glance and could have been a lot of worse. Damage initially appeared to be simply cosmetic.
So what happened? Pretty simple really, I was cocking about drifting. I went into BS and found it surprisingly grippy, so I tried to tweak the back end out, it held, tried again where the tarmac changes and it started sailing nicely, then suddenly hit a completely dry patch about the size of a parking space with the rear tyres which turned the car on the spot, and before I could do enough flapping at the wheel to correct it we were travelling at 90 degrees to the track. A bit more flapping prevented a much bigger crash, but I still glanced the barrier with the nearside of the front end.
As you can see - literally a brush. The barrier had barely any damage, but still £430 for the privilege. Thank fully, the marshall was a decent guy, and even he struggled to find any damage, but he did. Swine. :lol:
So the amazing Tim lent me his ex-AA van to tow the car back up the hill.
So whilst it's not ideal, it's not actually that bad. The headlight, wing, bonnet bore the brunt of it, but the chassis is straight - the suspension is still straight - and it's only a bit of metal and plastic.
A pesky viscous fan blade burst the rad, so I had to make a quick trip to Schirmer where he relieved me of euros in exchange for a second hand radiator, and after two and a half hours the new radiator was back in, I bodged the headlight back together and set off home.
So I bought some stuff including CSL front bumper and bootlid to get rid of the some lift that the M3 gets at 130mph+ from Ray at CA Automotive:
The front bumper went on.
And then the wings did.
And then I ordered a Carbonetics LSD after seeing how good the one in Phil's V10 car felt and put the power down (if you want one, speak to Driftworks!)
And then the carbon roof arrived from Geoff Steel
And then my T45 Custom Cages roll cage arrived to be installed.
Beautifully cut I must say. Even comes with full instructions.
So I spent the afternoon at DynoTorque next door with Blair getting the car ready for cages and stuff. I say we - I actually mean Blair spent most of the day telling to 'Get out the way Al, I'll do that', but I like to think I made a bloody good cup of tea for everyone and I unbolted the HECK out of some stuff too.
Rear windows out (rear glass and windscreeen is coming out as the roofs being cut off)
Blair with his spaz face. We also took all the carpet out for now.
One of five boxes of stuff. Will be selling all the A/V equipment. Dibs if you want.
Tom Schirmer made a good point about E46 lower wishbones randomly exploding, and as a precaution he changes his every 100 laps. As this car has done at least 100 laps in my hands and god knows how many in Daniels ownership, plus 120k miles on the orginal parts, it seems crazy not to get a set.
Hmmm.
Proving that it really does all 'add up', this is just the speaker wiring.
And that alone is 3.8kg... without the amps, speakers, av, headunit...
16.2kg in door cards alone!?!
All ready for caging now. Hopefully Craig can get started soon.
Including some mega fun wet days...
And I promise I do actually drive it fast sometimes too instead of sideways.
And then what I never intended to happen inevitably happened.
And then I bought some wheels and fitted the car with a set of Khumop V70A's.
And did another trackday.
The car is so poised it flew past the slower cars in the way...
The car is gutted to 'club sport' spec, so everything in front of the seats is stock including carpets. I brimmed the tank and it was time to get a weigh in.
The car started it's life at 1610kg with a full tank of fuel... and now... it's 1465kg. Huge weight loss, and there is still a lot more to come out if I want to. The scales show the weight with the heavier road battery in, and daft as it sounds, the owners handbook weighs 1.7kg which was in the glovebox.
So in it's plainest and un-finished form, it's looking bare...
And the boot. The Braille battery will be located to the centre of the car in the wheel well where it should fit perfectly without a lot of work.
So with 144kg lost, and more to come, things are looking good. Already feels much much faster, although in the wet you can't put your foot down anymore without it spinning up - the corner weights were not favourable...
Then, just shy of my 1000th lap, I went out last weekend to the 'Ring for work, and decided to take out the M3. The car is ready for a roll cage, but as the weather looked good for a whole Saturday afternoon of lapping I decided to take it out, so I threw the dashboard back in and off I went.
Sunday evening, it was raining so I thought I'll go out and have a play as I had two laps left on my ticket, and it was business as usual right up to Breidscheide where I unfortunately had my first crash.
However fortunately, this was a light glance and could have been a lot of worse. Damage initially appeared to be simply cosmetic.
So what happened? Pretty simple really, I was cocking about drifting. I went into BS and found it surprisingly grippy, so I tried to tweak the back end out, it held, tried again where the tarmac changes and it started sailing nicely, then suddenly hit a completely dry patch about the size of a parking space with the rear tyres which turned the car on the spot, and before I could do enough flapping at the wheel to correct it we were travelling at 90 degrees to the track. A bit more flapping prevented a much bigger crash, but I still glanced the barrier with the nearside of the front end.
As you can see - literally a brush. The barrier had barely any damage, but still £430 for the privilege. Thank fully, the marshall was a decent guy, and even he struggled to find any damage, but he did. Swine. :lol:
So the amazing Tim lent me his ex-AA van to tow the car back up the hill.
So whilst it's not ideal, it's not actually that bad. The headlight, wing, bonnet bore the brunt of it, but the chassis is straight - the suspension is still straight - and it's only a bit of metal and plastic.
A pesky viscous fan blade burst the rad, so I had to make a quick trip to Schirmer where he relieved me of euros in exchange for a second hand radiator, and after two and a half hours the new radiator was back in, I bodged the headlight back together and set off home.
So I bought some stuff including CSL front bumper and bootlid to get rid of the some lift that the M3 gets at 130mph+ from Ray at CA Automotive:
The front bumper went on.
And then the wings did.
And then I ordered a Carbonetics LSD after seeing how good the one in Phil's V10 car felt and put the power down (if you want one, speak to Driftworks!)
And then the carbon roof arrived from Geoff Steel
And then my T45 Custom Cages roll cage arrived to be installed.
Beautifully cut I must say. Even comes with full instructions.
So I spent the afternoon at DynoTorque next door with Blair getting the car ready for cages and stuff. I say we - I actually mean Blair spent most of the day telling to 'Get out the way Al, I'll do that', but I like to think I made a bloody good cup of tea for everyone and I unbolted the HECK out of some stuff too.
Rear windows out (rear glass and windscreeen is coming out as the roofs being cut off)
Blair with his spaz face. We also took all the carpet out for now.
One of five boxes of stuff. Will be selling all the A/V equipment. Dibs if you want.
Tom Schirmer made a good point about E46 lower wishbones randomly exploding, and as a precaution he changes his every 100 laps. As this car has done at least 100 laps in my hands and god knows how many in Daniels ownership, plus 120k miles on the orginal parts, it seems crazy not to get a set.
Hmmm.
Proving that it really does all 'add up', this is just the speaker wiring.
And that alone is 3.8kg... without the amps, speakers, av, headunit...
16.2kg in door cards alone!?!
All ready for caging now. Hopefully Craig can get started soon.
It was a crisp autumn morning etc etc...
Arrived at DynoTorque to see what was up. Waiting for the window guy to arrive, who never did, so I had to find someone else who could do it.
The front and rear screens were pulled out:
And then Craig and Adam cut the roof off.
Tadaa!
So I got all mucky and stripped out the sound deadening material. The OEM stuff slipped off fine with a heat gun but the later additions added by BMW when the boot floor was replaced was cracked and generally to balls, so that had to be chipped off. That sucked. But, it was ready....
Next began the unenviable task of lining up the cage so that it fits perfectly. Very very tricky.
With the roof off, the cage can be welded properly through 360 degrees without the need to cut the floor out. Much nicer.
Good progress. Huge hole in the boot of the car, ready to tie the subframe and differential properly into the cage.
BMW replaced the boot floor on this car under warranty. In the 'fix', they're supposed to use a proper special 'concrete' to support the subframe mounts etc, but what appears to happen is BMW GMBH send out the 'How to fix it' in bad German English, and then they don't get it quite right. This expanding foam was found in the wrong place. I need to get the guys to explain it really to me, but yea, they didn't weld it back up properly, and did a fairly shoddy job. If you've had it done, get it checked. This car was done at a reputable dealer too.
The hole in the floor is nearly gone - the first bits of the reinforcment is in for the rear of the subframe and the same will be done for the front too.
You can see where it's mounted to in this picture, the remaining gaps will be plated.
Craig said the cage was apparently MM perfect, he says by luck rather than good judgement but I think he's being modest. The quality of the steel is also excellent, really nice to weld.
Back from paint. Arctic silver, thanks very much.
I left a bit bare. Looks cool in the flesh, should work when the bumpers back on to fill in the details.
Today the Carbonetics carbon LSD goes in, 3.9 ring gear (so shorter gearing), lightweight single piece flywheel, new OEM clutch, new front lower wishbones and new rear polybushes.
light flywheel fitted, new clutch, new arms, etc all fitted. Also...
The bumper isn't actually fitted properly yet, but yea, it's coming together.
You can see where this is going.
Arrived at DynoTorque to see what was up. Waiting for the window guy to arrive, who never did, so I had to find someone else who could do it.
The front and rear screens were pulled out:
And then Craig and Adam cut the roof off.
Tadaa!
So I got all mucky and stripped out the sound deadening material. The OEM stuff slipped off fine with a heat gun but the later additions added by BMW when the boot floor was replaced was cracked and generally to balls, so that had to be chipped off. That sucked. But, it was ready....
Next began the unenviable task of lining up the cage so that it fits perfectly. Very very tricky.
With the roof off, the cage can be welded properly through 360 degrees without the need to cut the floor out. Much nicer.
Good progress. Huge hole in the boot of the car, ready to tie the subframe and differential properly into the cage.
BMW replaced the boot floor on this car under warranty. In the 'fix', they're supposed to use a proper special 'concrete' to support the subframe mounts etc, but what appears to happen is BMW GMBH send out the 'How to fix it' in bad German English, and then they don't get it quite right. This expanding foam was found in the wrong place. I need to get the guys to explain it really to me, but yea, they didn't weld it back up properly, and did a fairly shoddy job. If you've had it done, get it checked. This car was done at a reputable dealer too.
The hole in the floor is nearly gone - the first bits of the reinforcment is in for the rear of the subframe and the same will be done for the front too.
You can see where it's mounted to in this picture, the remaining gaps will be plated.
Craig said the cage was apparently MM perfect, he says by luck rather than good judgement but I think he's being modest. The quality of the steel is also excellent, really nice to weld.
Back from paint. Arctic silver, thanks very much.
I left a bit bare. Looks cool in the flesh, should work when the bumpers back on to fill in the details.
Today the Carbonetics carbon LSD goes in, 3.9 ring gear (so shorter gearing), lightweight single piece flywheel, new OEM clutch, new front lower wishbones and new rear polybushes.
light flywheel fitted, new clutch, new arms, etc all fitted. Also...
The bumper isn't actually fitted properly yet, but yea, it's coming together.
You can see where this is going.
Blair sent me some updates from the UK. They even made the decent OEM door cards fit. YES.
Back from the US! Had a chance to see the car. It's so close I can smell the 100 Octane.
Differential is being shimmed up at the moment, maybe a day or so, but whilst that's out being done they've done a bloody marvellous job on the car!
I have a non-armrest poverty spec centre console coming which is nice, plus a new viscous clutch and fan assembly, plus some new Carbon Lorraine RC6E's to go in, and then Senor Dave Pookus will be fitting some shiny bits that make it bounce less.
Even with a new steering wheel I have cruise control still. Just not sure where to mount the switches.
So the diff is in, the car is back together, and aside from needing new tyres and a bonnet release pull under the hood, she is FINISHED. Until Spires put some Nitron R3's on in a couple of weeks. :wink:
So absolutely chuffed with it. I'll be taking some proper photos and washing it next week.
Taxed. Insured. Driven home.
Utterly delighted. The shell feels incredible, and all the drive train upgrades and weight loss really show, just on a basic trip back home to my garage. Have to bed the diff in, and I'll do a long trip to Spires Tuning to have the custom Nitron R3's put on, and then I'll whip the oil out and do a replace.
I left the bonnet up before I noticed after taking all these pictures. Dur... :-D
Back from the US! Had a chance to see the car. It's so close I can smell the 100 Octane.
Differential is being shimmed up at the moment, maybe a day or so, but whilst that's out being done they've done a bloody marvellous job on the car!
I have a non-armrest poverty spec centre console coming which is nice, plus a new viscous clutch and fan assembly, plus some new Carbon Lorraine RC6E's to go in, and then Senor Dave Pookus will be fitting some shiny bits that make it bounce less.
Even with a new steering wheel I have cruise control still. Just not sure where to mount the switches.
So the diff is in, the car is back together, and aside from needing new tyres and a bonnet release pull under the hood, she is FINISHED. Until Spires put some Nitron R3's on in a couple of weeks. :wink:
So absolutely chuffed with it. I'll be taking some proper photos and washing it next week.
Taxed. Insured. Driven home.
Utterly delighted. The shell feels incredible, and all the drive train upgrades and weight loss really show, just on a basic trip back home to my garage. Have to bed the diff in, and I'll do a long trip to Spires Tuning to have the custom Nitron R3's put on, and then I'll whip the oil out and do a replace.
I left the bonnet up before I noticed after taking all these pictures. Dur... :-D
In the balance of fairness here, Dave is a friend of mine who I met at the 'Ring, so I'm keen to support his company.
When I embarked on the project, one of the goals was to improve the chassis as much as possible, stiffer, lighter and more control. Around the same time, Spires got in touch to say they had started developing a custom specification for the Nitron R3 Three way adjustable kit. The 3 way is very very trick, the fine tuning possibilities fly way over my head, but set up properly this was too good an opportunity to miss. So I paid my money, and a week later I got a phone call to say it was ready for installation.
I headed down early on the saturday morning as I wanted to film the install too and get Dave to say a few words as to what he was about to do and about the business. It's nice to see a group of people so dedicated to the art of real suspension setup. The research they do and the attention to detail from the perfectly laser flat corner weighting to even adjusting and re-torquing all the bushes to suit new changes - the list goes on and on, and it's frankly very very impressive.
Previously, I had (and was very happy with) a customised set of KWv3's, with Schirmer special spec springs (160Nm all round). They were great out on the circuit, but struggled a little with braking as the tyre tended to skip a little over small bumps as it was so stiff. The R3's should cure this to a large extent, but that is always a compromise you make when you run a car this stiff. Stock springs are apparently around 34Nm, and this car is now running over 5 times stiffer.
Everything they did at Spires on the car was a carefully considered process, and the re-checking was exhaustive. "Just about isn't good enough, it needs to be exact", which is just the sort of thing you want to hear when you've handed over several thousand pounds for this kit. I didn't need to worry though, because even though this is a development kit the amount of graphs and maths and spreadsheets they used during the setup to our agreed spec was impressive.
Before even starting, everything on the car was measured, and then weighed. It came out at 1442KG with a full tank of fuel and the heavy battery. Amazingly, still heavier than a stock fully loaded CSL with the same fuel! Even taking into account the roll cage, that shows how much people under-estimate the amount BMW shaves off the CSL whilst keeping it full trimmed....
Neat placement, the reservoirs stay cool and dry, but are still really easy to adjust!
You can really really notice the stiffness of the shell now too!
So there you have it - Spires Tuning Spires Tuning on Facebook is one of the most complete, nice and frankly lovely places for suspension geeks. There is no point having any suspension that's not setup properly, and whilst fitting good quality suspension always improves things, these guys can make the most out of any system, all can be made to work well.
I hope that doesn't sound too sales like, honestly the whole day was just fascinating seeing it all done to that fastidious level. I know a few people on here now have been to Spires and had awesome service and setups, so all I can say to conclude is - Well done. Marvellous. Happy.
Footnote: The Nitrons are incredible. The car rides better before we've even tuned them properly, but a lot of the adjustments will be made at Donington and on the Nordschleife.
When I embarked on the project, one of the goals was to improve the chassis as much as possible, stiffer, lighter and more control. Around the same time, Spires got in touch to say they had started developing a custom specification for the Nitron R3 Three way adjustable kit. The 3 way is very very trick, the fine tuning possibilities fly way over my head, but set up properly this was too good an opportunity to miss. So I paid my money, and a week later I got a phone call to say it was ready for installation.
I headed down early on the saturday morning as I wanted to film the install too and get Dave to say a few words as to what he was about to do and about the business. It's nice to see a group of people so dedicated to the art of real suspension setup. The research they do and the attention to detail from the perfectly laser flat corner weighting to even adjusting and re-torquing all the bushes to suit new changes - the list goes on and on, and it's frankly very very impressive.
Previously, I had (and was very happy with) a customised set of KWv3's, with Schirmer special spec springs (160Nm all round). They were great out on the circuit, but struggled a little with braking as the tyre tended to skip a little over small bumps as it was so stiff. The R3's should cure this to a large extent, but that is always a compromise you make when you run a car this stiff. Stock springs are apparently around 34Nm, and this car is now running over 5 times stiffer.
Everything they did at Spires on the car was a carefully considered process, and the re-checking was exhaustive. "Just about isn't good enough, it needs to be exact", which is just the sort of thing you want to hear when you've handed over several thousand pounds for this kit. I didn't need to worry though, because even though this is a development kit the amount of graphs and maths and spreadsheets they used during the setup to our agreed spec was impressive.
Before even starting, everything on the car was measured, and then weighed. It came out at 1442KG with a full tank of fuel and the heavy battery. Amazingly, still heavier than a stock fully loaded CSL with the same fuel! Even taking into account the roll cage, that shows how much people under-estimate the amount BMW shaves off the CSL whilst keeping it full trimmed....
Neat placement, the reservoirs stay cool and dry, but are still really easy to adjust!
You can really really notice the stiffness of the shell now too!
So there you have it - Spires Tuning Spires Tuning on Facebook is one of the most complete, nice and frankly lovely places for suspension geeks. There is no point having any suspension that's not setup properly, and whilst fitting good quality suspension always improves things, these guys can make the most out of any system, all can be made to work well.
I hope that doesn't sound too sales like, honestly the whole day was just fascinating seeing it all done to that fastidious level. I know a few people on here now have been to Spires and had awesome service and setups, so all I can say to conclude is - Well done. Marvellous. Happy.
Footnote: The Nitrons are incredible. The car rides better before we've even tuned them properly, but a lot of the adjustments will be made at Donington and on the Nordschleife.
So... it works. :-D
[YOUTUBE]c6iNV6-0ao8[/YOUTUBE]
Aside from a clio cup car on full slicks, and a daft TVR with 600bhp, nothing touched it. Absolutely delighted! Will write up a proper report eventually. The brakes aren't where they used to be, but I'm working on that, but everything else was sublime.
I'm going to be making a few more modifications before Spa and DN7 Nurburgring in a month, but the first shakedown was badass.
1856 miles later, I'm back after doing Spa Francorchamps with Circuit Days, and Nurburgring GP and the VLN Nordschleife circuit with Destination Nurburgring at DN7.
After the Donington shakedown I'd made a couple of tweaks and changes, namely swapping out my CL pads for Pagid RS29's (more on this later), diff oil change, and some minor damper adjustment from Spires to improve front end rebound. Otherwise, it was business as usual, an oil change, a bleed and a wash.
Arrived at the Pitlane lodge about 3 seconds from the Spa entrance, and enjoyed lots of Duval 8.5%'s. Good beer.
Woke up, and it started snowing. Brilliant.
However thankfully the weather held off just enough to let the snow melt, and the chemical salt to start clearing the track, and at 1pm we were out!
It was so slippy it was crazy! Even though the surface was bone dry the salt made it like driving on dust essentially. However, it was predictable and consistent so generally you could press on pretty well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Dsq9pR6o4
[video=youtube;T_Dsq9pR6o4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Dsq9pR6o4[/video]
After I got past the Ferrari, the marshals thought the 360 was trying to overtake me, and I was blue flagged... so I had to catch it all over again. Then at the very end of this video pulling out of the chicane, there was a sudden vibration from the differential of the car...
So I limped back to Nurburg that night and settled down at the Burgstube where a few of us had a go in the car and puzzled over what it could be. It wasn't a knock, it was a vibration - but the noise pointed to the differential or a centre bearing. However the LSD is brand new and the centre bearing was only changed last year by Schirmer (pretty much the only thing to ever fail on the car).
So the next morning I started looking at options - get a new differential from the UK shipped over and get my amazing friends who know far more about cars than I do to help swap it out, or avoid the trackday and limp to the UK, or strip it down and inspect it.
So we stripped the backbox off, looked round the car and tried to find things that we wrong, and everything we looked at (excluding some worn upper rear balljoints and a broken exhaust hanger) were all fine - no play, nothing. However under load we could make the entire car do the Harlem shake.
Dale very kindly let us use the Rent for Ring ramps, and Torsten and Raphael got me booked in and we took off everything that seemed likely, but everything was fine... we even played with the prop and it was fine.
So we parked the car back up and I began looking at more options - Andy, John Moffat, Spires and Schirmer all had different ideas, but they all pointed to the front of the differential, which is where I thought I could feel it from the first time it happened. I'd spoken to Craig Taylor at Dynotorque (who caged and done all the maintenance on the car) said check the rear prop CV, so that was our next plan of attack.
The next morning, it was the GP track day, so I wasn't too worried about missing it, but Craig Pollock and Rich very kindly offered to help out stripping it down again and checking it all out. So I headed down at 9:30am and by 11am we had the entire underside of the car apart. Still nothing. Until we decided to take the prop off.
The problem presented itself pretty quickly. :lol:
The culprit was a bone dry rear CV prop joint. All the bearings literally just fell out, and the runners were scored and burnt from heat and friction. Thankfully, this is a simple £150 replacement part, and Schirmer had a new one in stock so we packed it up with grease and fitted it. Problem solved!!
Headed straight out to the GP circuit where there was still three hours left, checked tyres and went for a rip!
Happy Super Fun Time.
So next morning on the Nordschleife, doing a lot of laps was basically the only thing that happened.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Y2_nkAKyo
[video=youtube;z5Y2_nkAKyo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Y2_nkAKyo[/video]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk1uC5ujex4
[video=youtube;Nk1uC5ujex4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk1uC5ujex4[/video]
It was then time to do some more fine tuning. As many may or may not know Spires (who custom specced my Nitron R3's) do chassis dynamics for a living, including major manufacturers. And one of the things we wanted to start looking at was aero - and one of the things they do to start gathering easily adjustable and cheap data before they wind tunnel and model stuff is fit cardboard wings and splitters. Just to prove a point, Dave fabricated a splitter to provide a bit of front downforce, masked the front wheels to redirect the air down the side of the car and fitted a small but incredibly effective rear spoiler to reduce lift even further. Amazingly, it worked a treat, not that I doubted him of course. :lol:
The major improvements where noticeable immediately, but I did lose 7mph on the Dottinger Hoe straight (but this was because it's a very crude high drag setup).
However it absolutely flew through the corners.
It was a simple two lap experiment, so it wasn't refined or anything like that, but it just proved the point immediately with an 8 second laptime improvement overall.
So all in all, an extremely successful trip with the usual fun.
I now have a list of improvement to refine the car further. Next up I'm going to look at wheel offsets, some rear strut bracing, and we will look at designing the splitters and wings properly.
Thanks for reading!
[YOUTUBE]c6iNV6-0ao8[/YOUTUBE]
Aside from a clio cup car on full slicks, and a daft TVR with 600bhp, nothing touched it. Absolutely delighted! Will write up a proper report eventually. The brakes aren't where they used to be, but I'm working on that, but everything else was sublime.
I'm going to be making a few more modifications before Spa and DN7 Nurburgring in a month, but the first shakedown was badass.
1856 miles later, I'm back after doing Spa Francorchamps with Circuit Days, and Nurburgring GP and the VLN Nordschleife circuit with Destination Nurburgring at DN7.
After the Donington shakedown I'd made a couple of tweaks and changes, namely swapping out my CL pads for Pagid RS29's (more on this later), diff oil change, and some minor damper adjustment from Spires to improve front end rebound. Otherwise, it was business as usual, an oil change, a bleed and a wash.
Arrived at the Pitlane lodge about 3 seconds from the Spa entrance, and enjoyed lots of Duval 8.5%'s. Good beer.
Woke up, and it started snowing. Brilliant.
However thankfully the weather held off just enough to let the snow melt, and the chemical salt to start clearing the track, and at 1pm we were out!
It was so slippy it was crazy! Even though the surface was bone dry the salt made it like driving on dust essentially. However, it was predictable and consistent so generally you could press on pretty well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Dsq9pR6o4
[video=youtube;T_Dsq9pR6o4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Dsq9pR6o4[/video]
After I got past the Ferrari, the marshals thought the 360 was trying to overtake me, and I was blue flagged... so I had to catch it all over again. Then at the very end of this video pulling out of the chicane, there was a sudden vibration from the differential of the car...
So I limped back to Nurburg that night and settled down at the Burgstube where a few of us had a go in the car and puzzled over what it could be. It wasn't a knock, it was a vibration - but the noise pointed to the differential or a centre bearing. However the LSD is brand new and the centre bearing was only changed last year by Schirmer (pretty much the only thing to ever fail on the car).
So the next morning I started looking at options - get a new differential from the UK shipped over and get my amazing friends who know far more about cars than I do to help swap it out, or avoid the trackday and limp to the UK, or strip it down and inspect it.
So we stripped the backbox off, looked round the car and tried to find things that we wrong, and everything we looked at (excluding some worn upper rear balljoints and a broken exhaust hanger) were all fine - no play, nothing. However under load we could make the entire car do the Harlem shake.
Dale very kindly let us use the Rent for Ring ramps, and Torsten and Raphael got me booked in and we took off everything that seemed likely, but everything was fine... we even played with the prop and it was fine.
So we parked the car back up and I began looking at more options - Andy, John Moffat, Spires and Schirmer all had different ideas, but they all pointed to the front of the differential, which is where I thought I could feel it from the first time it happened. I'd spoken to Craig Taylor at Dynotorque (who caged and done all the maintenance on the car) said check the rear prop CV, so that was our next plan of attack.
The next morning, it was the GP track day, so I wasn't too worried about missing it, but Craig Pollock and Rich very kindly offered to help out stripping it down again and checking it all out. So I headed down at 9:30am and by 11am we had the entire underside of the car apart. Still nothing. Until we decided to take the prop off.
The problem presented itself pretty quickly. :lol:
The culprit was a bone dry rear CV prop joint. All the bearings literally just fell out, and the runners were scored and burnt from heat and friction. Thankfully, this is a simple £150 replacement part, and Schirmer had a new one in stock so we packed it up with grease and fitted it. Problem solved!!
Headed straight out to the GP circuit where there was still three hours left, checked tyres and went for a rip!
Happy Super Fun Time.
So next morning on the Nordschleife, doing a lot of laps was basically the only thing that happened.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Y2_nkAKyo
[video=youtube;z5Y2_nkAKyo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Y2_nkAKyo[/video]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk1uC5ujex4
[video=youtube;Nk1uC5ujex4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk1uC5ujex4[/video]
It was then time to do some more fine tuning. As many may or may not know Spires (who custom specced my Nitron R3's) do chassis dynamics for a living, including major manufacturers. And one of the things we wanted to start looking at was aero - and one of the things they do to start gathering easily adjustable and cheap data before they wind tunnel and model stuff is fit cardboard wings and splitters. Just to prove a point, Dave fabricated a splitter to provide a bit of front downforce, masked the front wheels to redirect the air down the side of the car and fitted a small but incredibly effective rear spoiler to reduce lift even further. Amazingly, it worked a treat, not that I doubted him of course. :lol:
The major improvements where noticeable immediately, but I did lose 7mph on the Dottinger Hoe straight (but this was because it's a very crude high drag setup).
However it absolutely flew through the corners.
It was a simple two lap experiment, so it wasn't refined or anything like that, but it just proved the point immediately with an 8 second laptime improvement overall.
So all in all, an extremely successful trip with the usual fun.
I now have a list of improvement to refine the car further. Next up I'm going to look at wheel offsets, some rear strut bracing, and we will look at designing the splitters and wings properly.
Thanks for reading!
So the car got back from the 'Ring unscathed after putting up a pretty awesome few laps - it was a shame I couldn't run the Spires cardboard fibre aero longer to settle into it and see what it could do.
Having watched some videos back to back, the lap was around 7 seconds quicker - now that might be a result of a placebo of stability and me pushing into corners a little faster, practice with the car, clear traffic through some key sections, plus the fact that the car definitely became more stable and tractive. Whatever reason you pick, it's clear that it works, so down the line Spires will look at building this in permanently. I did however lose about 7MPH on the straight, and as my car was hitting the limiter before, this means there is quite significant drag, so this means we need to work on striking the balance of reducing the drag whilst still giving us some down force.
But first it was time to get the car booked back into Dynotorque and give the car a full nut and bolt check over and go over it with a fine tooth comb to see what damage has been done, if any. Turns out going quicker does break stuff.
The first job was to steam clean the whole underside of the car to remove all the salt - Spa literally coated the entire car in salt like I've never seen before, my brakes were at serious risk of seizing and I wanted to protect the Nitrons plus all the other components and the bodywork.
Once on the ramp - we found:
> Both upper rear ball joints (both OEM parts)
> Front Powerflex wishbone rear bush
> Hairline fractures on 3 of the wheels
> Slight blowing manifold gasket
> Engine mounts showing signs of wear (both from the videos and the visual inspection)
> Coolant light error (suspected sensor)
> Gearchange sloppy (since purchase)
So the Powerflex was completely mangled. Not sure when it exploded, but it must have been on the 'Ring as it was fine the day before. This is a good example of making sure you use the right product - Powerflex took the time to email me about this, given the use of the car and the environments it's pushed through I should really have chosen a more suitable item - as it happens this was a set on the shelf at my friends business so it was convenience and my lack of research that most likely led to this failure. That's what testing is all about.
As I had easy access to a set, I fitted some eccentric Schirmer motorsport bushes which appear to dramatically increase the caster angle. He maintains these bushes are essential to his setups. They're adjustable through 360' and then lock in but they're an interesting setup. Dave will be trying to work his mathematical magic to figure out the best position for them. They're a billet solid bush with a small carrier made of I guess what is another hard bush but is very close to a balljoint without the ball or joint...
Whilst pulling the manifolds out to investigate the possible cracked manifolds (Which turned out to just be a failed gasket), we noticed the engine mounts were looking cracked and tired. 127,000 miles on this car now and these are almost certainly original. So I picked up a set of Vibratechnic competition spec engine mounts which are guaranteed failsafe.
http://www.vibra-technics.co.uk/bmw/e46_inc_compac...
Blurb:
[QUOTE]Unlike the expensive BMW Group N parts which are just standard mounts in a harder rubber compound this engine mount is purpose designed for racing applications. Our mount is designed without compromise and combines a 6082 billet aluminium housing with a high shear modulus rubber insulator at its core. It is completely fail safe making it ideal for competition car applications and overcomes all the weaknesses of the OEM design. [/QUOTE]
When we started the car up and ran it up revs, the car is smooth and vibration free as you'd expect from a silky straight six. It is noticeable straight away though that the drive-train feels taught-er. We also replaced all the bushes in the gearbox and did an oil change to improve gearbox performance.
The engine and head looked completely leak free and clean. (Bolt removed from steering column for access).
The three cracked wheels were not massively un-expected - wheels are a consumable and even though I avoid potholes with the utmost dilligence, I know I'm a fairly aggressive driver on the track and on less dangerous circuits I like to run the odd kerb and rumble strip for a better exit. These wheels have probably done around 80 laps of the 'Ring, and four track days plus 3500 road miles.
The fractures were very very small, and whilst these can be welded back up perfectly, I will be selling them and looking for a new set of forged wheels to up the strength. Suggestions on a postcard.
I also moved the harnesses anchors to the harness bar, a job I should have done ages ago. (Slaps wrists).
Another thing the internet lied about was the fast deterioration of the carbon roof - I was told it would go yellow and opaque in a few weeks. Well, it hasn't. It's absolutely fine.
So there we go, all is good, and all is happy. The car is tucked back up in my garage until I can get it back to Spires for more alignment changes, maybe some aero, and some new wheels.
the Rota's are leaking air now thanks to a trip down the country with my friend to pick up his lovely new 997.2 GT3. Gonna be fun keeping up with that.
However, the plan is to get her back into Spires ASAP for some more chassis updates, but I know they've been busy for a few weeks in Spain.
I did however take some photos with the BM's new garage partner...
The nice thing is the cars are so different to drive they genuinely don't fit into the same box. The M3 is now way too stiff for the road round town where as the 964 is pretty pliant, however the way the cars drive and achieve their speeds are chalk and cheese. Really interesting. I love them both but the M3 is still a massively superior track tool for outright speed, but the 911 is definitely more fun and challenging.
They both drift in the wet really well though.
Having watched some videos back to back, the lap was around 7 seconds quicker - now that might be a result of a placebo of stability and me pushing into corners a little faster, practice with the car, clear traffic through some key sections, plus the fact that the car definitely became more stable and tractive. Whatever reason you pick, it's clear that it works, so down the line Spires will look at building this in permanently. I did however lose about 7MPH on the straight, and as my car was hitting the limiter before, this means there is quite significant drag, so this means we need to work on striking the balance of reducing the drag whilst still giving us some down force.
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1664_zpseb380d96.jpg.html")
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1662_zps40c65af1.jpg.html")
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1661_zps664090a4.jpg.html")
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1660_zps6ba2e6e3.jpg.html")
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1659_zps731ea54e.jpg.html")
But first it was time to get the car booked back into Dynotorque and give the car a full nut and bolt check over and go over it with a fine tooth comb to see what damage has been done, if any. Turns out going quicker does break stuff.
The first job was to steam clean the whole underside of the car to remove all the salt - Spa literally coated the entire car in salt like I've never seen before, my brakes were at serious risk of seizing and I wanted to protect the Nitrons plus all the other components and the bodywork.
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1796_zps1900cc3b.jpg.html")
Once on the ramp - we found:
> Both upper rear ball joints (both OEM parts)
> Front Powerflex wishbone rear bush
> Hairline fractures on 3 of the wheels
> Slight blowing manifold gasket
> Engine mounts showing signs of wear (both from the videos and the visual inspection)
> Coolant light error (suspected sensor)
> Gearchange sloppy (since purchase)
So the Powerflex was completely mangled. Not sure when it exploded, but it must have been on the 'Ring as it was fine the day before. This is a good example of making sure you use the right product - Powerflex took the time to email me about this, given the use of the car and the environments it's pushed through I should really have chosen a more suitable item - as it happens this was a set on the shelf at my friends business so it was convenience and my lack of research that most likely led to this failure. That's what testing is all about.
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1735_zpsc5b89dd7.jpg.html")
As I had easy access to a set, I fitted some eccentric Schirmer motorsport bushes which appear to dramatically increase the caster angle. He maintains these bushes are essential to his setups. They're adjustable through 360' and then lock in but they're an interesting setup. Dave will be trying to work his mathematical magic to figure out the best position for them. They're a billet solid bush with a small carrier made of I guess what is another hard bush but is very close to a balljoint without the ball or joint...
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1814_zps6fa9abbc.jpg.html")
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1812_zpscb5948ff.jpg.html")
Whilst pulling the manifolds out to investigate the possible cracked manifolds (Which turned out to just be a failed gasket), we noticed the engine mounts were looking cracked and tired. 127,000 miles on this car now and these are almost certainly original. So I picked up a set of Vibratechnic competition spec engine mounts which are guaranteed failsafe.
http://www.vibra-technics.co.uk/bmw/e46_inc_compac...
Blurb:
[QUOTE]Unlike the expensive BMW Group N parts which are just standard mounts in a harder rubber compound this engine mount is purpose designed for racing applications. Our mount is designed without compromise and combines a 6082 billet aluminium housing with a high shear modulus rubber insulator at its core. It is completely fail safe making it ideal for competition car applications and overcomes all the weaknesses of the OEM design. [/QUOTE]
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1789_zps846ffbdc.jpg.html")
When we started the car up and ran it up revs, the car is smooth and vibration free as you'd expect from a silky straight six. It is noticeable straight away though that the drive-train feels taught-er. We also replaced all the bushes in the gearbox and did an oil change to improve gearbox performance.
The engine and head looked completely leak free and clean. (Bolt removed from steering column for access).
The three cracked wheels were not massively un-expected - wheels are a consumable and even though I avoid potholes with the utmost dilligence, I know I'm a fairly aggressive driver on the track and on less dangerous circuits I like to run the odd kerb and rumble strip for a better exit. These wheels have probably done around 80 laps of the 'Ring, and four track days plus 3500 road miles.
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1793_zps1bdf808d.jpg.html")
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1792_zps42b986d3.jpg.html")
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1791_zps8130415c.jpg.html")
The fractures were very very small, and whilst these can be welded back up perfectly, I will be selling them and looking for a new set of forged wheels to up the strength. Suggestions on a postcard.
I also moved the harnesses anchors to the harness bar, a job I should have done ages ago. (Slaps wrists).
Another thing the internet lied about was the fast deterioration of the carbon roof - I was told it would go yellow and opaque in a few weeks. Well, it hasn't. It's absolutely fine.
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1797_zps2fbfeaad.jpg.html")
So there we go, all is good, and all is happy. The car is tucked back up in my garage until I can get it back to Spires for more alignment changes, maybe some aero, and some new wheels.
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1627_zpsbf42df37.jpg.html")
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1624_zpse906866b.jpg.html")
![]("http://s449.photobucket.com/user/tdf_photobucket/media/IMG_1626_zps761ee645.jpg.html")
the Rota's are leaking air now thanks to a trip down the country with my friend to pick up his lovely new 997.2 GT3. Gonna be fun keeping up with that.
However, the plan is to get her back into Spires ASAP for some more chassis updates, but I know they've been busy for a few weeks in Spain.
I did however take some photos with the BM's new garage partner...
The nice thing is the cars are so different to drive they genuinely don't fit into the same box. The M3 is now way too stiff for the road round town where as the 964 is pretty pliant, however the way the cars drive and achieve their speeds are chalk and cheese. Really interesting. I love them both but the M3 is still a massively superior track tool for outright speed, but the 911 is definitely more fun and challenging.
They both drift in the wet really well though.
Edited by alclark on Friday 29th November 23:03
The new wheels - forged, same sizes, the 'original design'.
So er, yea. A little shinier than I'd normally go for, but they fit, they work, they're gorgeous.
Dropped the car off at Spires for a pre-DN9 check up. Going to investigate two slightly seized rear brakes (post-Spa/Salt Armageddon), might swap out the 2nd hand Schirmer radiator that got me home from the crash last year to a new one, and a weird fuel smell I can't source.
After repositioning the front wheels somewhat in the arch, Pooky decided that the front wheel position is pretty much perfect for air flow, and I can add that the front end feels a lot more alive now after the numbness that you get with 10j wide wheels. (Wheels are slightly turned right in this photo)
DN9 has come and gone, with generally all round good results.
One thing you can't test at home is high speed bonnet stabililty, or lack of, and at 150-160mph the bonnet continually decided to open, which was complete f**king pain in the arse to be honest as the first 5 laps I did in the cooler air involved a stop at Breidschied. The latch was tweaked and the pins adjusted but for some reason the bloody thing would not stay shut. Tom didn't have any so the only solution was to make some bonnet pins out of duct tape.
It looked ridiculous, but it was a solution to a daft problem. However it wasn't 100%, with the bonnet trying to creep about 155mph I decided to not nail a top speed run and kept it steady.
The other major problem was the air temps - it says it was 33 degrees in the car, so air temps must have been closer to 38-40 degrees, and as with everyone else the car was getting hot, and I don't want to damage the engine so spent the whole trip short shifting at 6500ish and with the heaters on full blast and the windows down.
This is a shame as the windows create massive drag, and my top speed down the back straight was nearly 10mph slower than DN7 in the post-snow super cool air where I could nail it properly.
Also on the list to to-do's is the fuel filler overflow pipe appears to have disconnected, so the fumes where a little present thanks mostly to the stripped out interior. This will be a tank down job, so I'll replace the prop bearing again too as that feels a little worn already. The engine also sounds like the valves need adjusting now too, but it's still super strong so not worried there.
However on what feels like quite a frustrating list of negatives which will certainly have affected lap times, there were some real positives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQz5RAUJh20
Getting round in 7:55 chasing the Porsche GT2 RS was a highlight, and showed some interesting changes to the cars handling from the last trip. Medium speed tight corners such as AF, Haztenbach, Kallenhard used to slightly wash the front a tiny bit, now it sort of settles in and seems to feel like it's working with the carbonetics LSD a lot better - just feels like it doesn't want to move off it's line no matter what you do, so that's great. This is down to a new Spires alignment for the front geometry changes we made with the Schirmer bushes. Steering feel is also improved from the slightly numb feeling from the square setup.
The car is way way faster than I can drive it, my personal fear of hitting barriers and my inability to use all the track is holding me back. I don't have any fear at Spa or any UK circuits, it's just a safety net I've trained into myself during years of TF and now it's come back to haunt me as I'm struggling to find speed that are not attributed to mechanical holdups or traffic excuses. So the next 'mod' (alongside possibly a rear wing) is to practice more and start to take more risks, that's the only way it will go faster with me driving. Overlaying my laps, they're all nearly identical in time, which is good for a 24 hour race, and s
t for a fast time.
Anyway, the car will go back to Dynotorque and Spires for the work, and unless I can find an excuse, will be put to sleep for the winter.
Post-Nürburgring car mega service / minor rebuild time at DynoTorque before deciding what to do with the faithful M3.
The prop bearing needs servicing again already, going to investigate what feels like a loose front ARB link, possibly new exhaust, and fix the filler neck overflow leak on the fuel tank plus I'll give the engine a full inspection 2 service as it's due in 1500 miles anyway.
SO that's it! That's where I am now, hope Pistonheads enjoys looking at the pictures and critiquing various elements of the car.
So er, yea. A little shinier than I'd normally go for, but they fit, they work, they're gorgeous.
Dropped the car off at Spires for a pre-DN9 check up. Going to investigate two slightly seized rear brakes (post-Spa/Salt Armageddon), might swap out the 2nd hand Schirmer radiator that got me home from the crash last year to a new one, and a weird fuel smell I can't source.
After repositioning the front wheels somewhat in the arch, Pooky decided that the front wheel position is pretty much perfect for air flow, and I can add that the front end feels a lot more alive now after the numbness that you get with 10j wide wheels. (Wheels are slightly turned right in this photo)
DN9 has come and gone, with generally all round good results.
One thing you can't test at home is high speed bonnet stabililty, or lack of, and at 150-160mph the bonnet continually decided to open, which was complete f**king pain in the arse to be honest as the first 5 laps I did in the cooler air involved a stop at Breidschied. The latch was tweaked and the pins adjusted but for some reason the bloody thing would not stay shut. Tom didn't have any so the only solution was to make some bonnet pins out of duct tape.
It looked ridiculous, but it was a solution to a daft problem. However it wasn't 100%, with the bonnet trying to creep about 155mph I decided to not nail a top speed run and kept it steady.
The other major problem was the air temps - it says it was 33 degrees in the car, so air temps must have been closer to 38-40 degrees, and as with everyone else the car was getting hot, and I don't want to damage the engine so spent the whole trip short shifting at 6500ish and with the heaters on full blast and the windows down.
This is a shame as the windows create massive drag, and my top speed down the back straight was nearly 10mph slower than DN7 in the post-snow super cool air where I could nail it properly.
Also on the list to to-do's is the fuel filler overflow pipe appears to have disconnected, so the fumes where a little present thanks mostly to the stripped out interior. This will be a tank down job, so I'll replace the prop bearing again too as that feels a little worn already. The engine also sounds like the valves need adjusting now too, but it's still super strong so not worried there.
However on what feels like quite a frustrating list of negatives which will certainly have affected lap times, there were some real positives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQz5RAUJh20
Getting round in 7:55 chasing the Porsche GT2 RS was a highlight, and showed some interesting changes to the cars handling from the last trip. Medium speed tight corners such as AF, Haztenbach, Kallenhard used to slightly wash the front a tiny bit, now it sort of settles in and seems to feel like it's working with the carbonetics LSD a lot better - just feels like it doesn't want to move off it's line no matter what you do, so that's great. This is down to a new Spires alignment for the front geometry changes we made with the Schirmer bushes. Steering feel is also improved from the slightly numb feeling from the square setup.
The car is way way faster than I can drive it, my personal fear of hitting barriers and my inability to use all the track is holding me back. I don't have any fear at Spa or any UK circuits, it's just a safety net I've trained into myself during years of TF and now it's come back to haunt me as I'm struggling to find speed that are not attributed to mechanical holdups or traffic excuses. So the next 'mod' (alongside possibly a rear wing) is to practice more and start to take more risks, that's the only way it will go faster with me driving. Overlaying my laps, they're all nearly identical in time, which is good for a 24 hour race, and s
t for a fast time.Anyway, the car will go back to Dynotorque and Spires for the work, and unless I can find an excuse, will be put to sleep for the winter.
Post-Nürburgring car mega service / minor rebuild time at DynoTorque before deciding what to do with the faithful M3.
The prop bearing needs servicing again already, going to investigate what feels like a loose front ARB link, possibly new exhaust, and fix the filler neck overflow leak on the fuel tank plus I'll give the engine a full inspection 2 service as it's due in 1500 miles anyway.
SO that's it! That's where I am now, hope Pistonheads enjoys looking at the pictures and critiquing various elements of the car.
em177 said:
Stunning E46 and fantastic write up. You got any onboard ring videos?
Thank you! I do have a few GT2 chase lap...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQz5RAUJh20
Ripping along in the snow...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd7-cV5Sq5Q
And some silly rain drifting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5B6qOxuOIE
so when is the supercharger kit being fitted!?
great post
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