The road-going racing car - Sam McKee's BMW E36 328i
Discussion
McSam said:
Heh, I think I knew before posting what you guys would suggest 
I think you're right, I only use it very rarely in road cars because of the efficiency impact so I expect it would see even less use on this. The only reason I hesitate is that it sometimes came in very handy on the V8 Vantage race cars, but then they were at their weight limit and it's rather less damaging to run air con when they have 420bhp.
I will certainly keep the heater and blower, for getting heat out of the coolant and for demisting it's invaluable - and as long as I'm driving the car to events, I'd rather like a heater for 6am starts in November! In my book, taking those out is one of the biggest errors made in lightweighting cars. I'm pretty sure my air con will be totally depressurised but will check before breaking any unions, nasty stuff to release into the atmosphere. I suppose if I have trouble keeping cool I could always run ducts from the rear windows - it'll get fixed polycarbonates there eventually!
As for the engine cooling fans, yep - I need to take the viscous one off when I finally get round to changing the thermostat (having it stuck open isn't the worst thing in the world for a track car, so I've left it thus far), and then it's not being refitted! Cheers for the tip on the lower temperature sensor.
Hamster, I should be around for Donington* on the 31st - probably won't be able to run my car but it's just down the road from me so I could certainly come along for a look
There are only three Ns in Donington, none of them consecutive! Pet hate of mine, being a local. No idea why it gets spelt wrongly so often.
We went to Download Festival again this year and at the end of Kiss's set the highest screens said "KISS LOVES YOU DONNINGTON"! I think you're right, I only use it very rarely in road cars because of the efficiency impact so I expect it would see even less use on this. The only reason I hesitate is that it sometimes came in very handy on the V8 Vantage race cars, but then they were at their weight limit and it's rather less damaging to run air con when they have 420bhp.I will certainly keep the heater and blower, for getting heat out of the coolant and for demisting it's invaluable - and as long as I'm driving the car to events, I'd rather like a heater for 6am starts in November! In my book, taking those out is one of the biggest errors made in lightweighting cars. I'm pretty sure my air con will be totally depressurised but will check before breaking any unions, nasty stuff to release into the atmosphere. I suppose if I have trouble keeping cool I could always run ducts from the rear windows - it'll get fixed polycarbonates there eventually!
As for the engine cooling fans, yep - I need to take the viscous one off when I finally get round to changing the thermostat (having it stuck open isn't the worst thing in the world for a track car, so I've left it thus far), and then it's not being refitted! Cheers for the tip on the lower temperature sensor.
Hamster, I should be around for Donington* on the 31st - probably won't be able to run my car but it's just down the road from me so I could certainly come along for a look
There are only three Ns in Donington, none of them consecutive! Pet hate of mine, being a local. No idea why it gets spelt wrongly so often.
Edited by McSam on Saturday 11th July 12:47
Really upset my OCD!
I will keep my air con. I don't fancy 'Ring trips without it! I did once manage to rupture and air con pipe while swapping the engine in an MR2 Roadster. I just had to stand well back and leave it for half an hour. Looked pretty cool, but it really wasn't!
Ouch, that would set me off too, maybe even warranting a Strongly Worded Email (TM)
hope the weather didn't get you down too much!
Fair enough. As I only use this car for track days and I think it's likely to stay in the UK, I should survive OK without the air con. It'll be a little while yet until I remove it, as I'm not starting to strip anything out until I have a good seat and harness arrangement figured out (and in budget!). Bit of a minefield trying to get a base that allows fore-aft adjustment into the decidedly daft E36 floorpan, and I lack a welder.
hope the weather didn't get you down too much!Fair enough. As I only use this car for track days and I think it's likely to stay in the UK, I should survive OK without the air con. It'll be a little while yet until I remove it, as I'm not starting to strip anything out until I have a good seat and harness arrangement figured out (and in budget!). Bit of a minefield trying to get a base that allows fore-aft adjustment into the decidedly daft E36 floorpan, and I lack a welder.
Ahead of Bedford on Monday, I've set a new personal best for ghetto bodges - I finally got tired of the odd-eye look the car had thanks to a missing front foglight, so I took the other one out and cut blanking plates from a couple of Tupperware lids, sprayed them with some Audi Blau Perleffekt that I had left over from my A4, and voila...
The messy void which doesn't even help cooling (being blocked by the arch liner on the outside, and the brake cooling duct on the inside, so it doesn't go into the wheel well or the engine bay):
Tupperware lid installed:
Not bad, really. The car hasn't moved since they were installed, so whether they make it to and then survive Bedford remains to be seen, but they look alright. If they don't stay put, I'll cave and order some proper blanks and spray them to match.
I even went really mad in the summer heat and got the polish and wax out. Chips, scrapes and dodgy touch-ups aside, she actually scrubs up rather well.
The messy void which doesn't even help cooling (being blocked by the arch liner on the outside, and the brake cooling duct on the inside, so it doesn't go into the wheel well or the engine bay):
Tupperware lid installed:
Not bad, really. The car hasn't moved since they were installed, so whether they make it to and then survive Bedford remains to be seen, but they look alright. If they don't stay put, I'll cave and order some proper blanks and spray them to match.
I even went really mad in the summer heat and got the polish and wax out. Chips, scrapes and dodgy touch-ups aside, she actually scrubs up rather well.
Well, that was another very successful track day! The weather looked pretty threatening through the afternoon, but we only had one heavy shower at around half four, totally dry and no stoppages until then, great stuff.
The car felt superb. I was extremely impressed with the NS-2Rs, there is a huge amount of grip, much more than I was expecting - turns out they respond far better to a longer run on a "proper" circuit, as opposed to my brief tests at Curborough, and of course the surface is probably grippier at Bedford. Whatever the reason, it was mega, and I would recommend these tyres for anyone's track car. I was glad I had the harder 180 treadwear compound, as some TT drivers using the softer type reported the fronts overheating a bit.. but then that's a TT, might be fine on a properly balanced car. What can't be denied is their durability - they've rubbered up nicely, but the tread has worn not a jot. Excellent.
Nice to see another 328i out there, and well driven too:
And this is a big one to tick off the track day spotter's list! Sounded utterly magnificent.
I had three drivers for the first time, and that was probably too much, she never had more than 15-20 minutes' rest between sessions and I'd rather do longer runs with more breaks. We got a little over three hours out on track, 185 miles chalked up, and another track day virgin has caught the bug - my fiancée's little brother this time! Here's one of his laps from later on in the day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnsG2VsMNqo
Not half bad. Inter-family rivalries were settled by my fiancée beating the laptime my mum set last time out I can see this spiralling out of all control pretty soon.. I only had only solo run and only got one lap done before the rain came, but here's that lap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTnvietA1RQ
It's actually a couple of seconds slower than last time out, but this lap is technically far better, more controlled, neater and noticeably quicker in near every corner. The new chicane is now easily third rather than second
As for the car, no complaints all day which is always nice. We just managed the day on a tank of fuel, having filled up 20 miles before arriving and crawling out on fumes, always nice to avoid paying Palmer's prices or leaving the venue halfway through. Tyres as mentioned, no real wear at all, and the brakes felt good too - no fade at any point and the Redstuff front pads still aren't quite done yet. Mintex 1144 in the rear seemed good and much more durable at the high temperatures seen on the rear axle. Oh, and the Blue Peter foglight blanks survived too!
I was suffering a bit of a loss of power due to heat soak (you can measure half a second lost down the first part of the back straight alone, despite a much faster exit from the hairpin) - I'll need to rethink my intake design, I think I've got away with it up to now because of cooler ambient temperatures and longer breaks between sessions. If anyone has any E36-specific heatshields lying around, do get in touch, otherwise I'll try and knock something up.
The car felt superb. I was extremely impressed with the NS-2Rs, there is a huge amount of grip, much more than I was expecting - turns out they respond far better to a longer run on a "proper" circuit, as opposed to my brief tests at Curborough, and of course the surface is probably grippier at Bedford. Whatever the reason, it was mega, and I would recommend these tyres for anyone's track car. I was glad I had the harder 180 treadwear compound, as some TT drivers using the softer type reported the fronts overheating a bit.. but then that's a TT, might be fine on a properly balanced car
. What can't be denied is their durability - they've rubbered up nicely, but the tread has worn not a jot. Excellent.Nice to see another 328i out there, and well driven too:
And this is a big one to tick off the track day spotter's list! Sounded utterly magnificent.
I had three drivers for the first time, and that was probably too much, she never had more than 15-20 minutes' rest between sessions and I'd rather do longer runs with more breaks. We got a little over three hours out on track, 185 miles chalked up, and another track day virgin has caught the bug - my fiancée's little brother this time! Here's one of his laps from later on in the day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnsG2VsMNqo
Not half bad. Inter-family rivalries were settled by my fiancée beating the laptime my mum set last time out
I can see this spiralling out of all control pretty soon.. I only had only solo run and only got one lap done before the rain came, but here's that lap:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTnvietA1RQ
It's actually a couple of seconds slower than last time out, but this lap is technically far better, more controlled, neater and noticeably quicker in near every corner. The new chicane is now easily third rather than second
As for the car, no complaints all day which is always nice. We just managed the day on a tank of fuel, having filled up 20 miles before arriving and crawling out on fumes, always nice to avoid paying Palmer's prices or leaving the venue halfway through. Tyres as mentioned, no real wear at all, and the brakes felt good too - no fade at any point and the Redstuff front pads still aren't quite done yet. Mintex 1144 in the rear seemed good and much more durable at the high temperatures seen on the rear axle. Oh, and the Blue Peter foglight blanks survived too!
I was suffering a bit of a loss of power due to heat soak (you can measure half a second lost down the first part of the back straight alone, despite a much faster exit from the hairpin) - I'll need to rethink my intake design, I think I've got away with it up to now because of cooler ambient temperatures and longer breaks between sessions. If anyone has any E36-specific heatshields lying around, do get in touch, otherwise I'll try and knock something up.
Cheers! Yes, they are, I'm very impressed, especially as they don't seem to generate their grip at the cost of five-minute tread life. I call them NS-2Rs because too many people say NS-2, and I wouldn't go fitting those to a track car
Unsure of my next outing at the minute, as I shall be out of the country for almost all of August and then start a new job in early September, so the car might be resting for a couple of months but there'll still be plenty of season left!
Unsure of my next outing at the minute, as I shall be out of the country for almost all of August and then start a new job in early September, so the car might be resting for a couple of months but there'll still be plenty of season left!
September coming around again can only mean another sprint at Blyton Park, the Eastern layout once again - I really like this circuit, much more technical than the Outer one that's used on most track days, even if it does show up the shortcomings of my open diff a bit more.
I started the day on the NS-2Rs, and while the first session was OK I wasn't really that happy with the balance the harder I pushed, the car just felt understeery, and while I never got brake fade I did find a really quite terrible judder after a couple of hard laps.. It starts out as a steering wheel wobble under heavy braking, which I've felt before at Bedford, but becomes very severe judder at the front wheels and eventually even the rears too if you keep pushing, you can feel the whole car shuddering. I put this down to Blyton being much harder on brakes, and combined with the semi-slicks I thought I was getting them hot enough to show up pad deposits on the disc or even starting to warp them.
Putting my usual Kumho KU31 sprint tyres back on transformed the car for the better, it immediately felt more approachable and better balanced. I'd put most of this down to the lesser grip making it much easier to adjust the rear end with the throttle, but when you're driving at ten tenths these tyres seem to have a much wider and more progressive slip range than the Nankangs, which either grip or don't. I also refitted the original airbox as I wanted to see if heat soak really was a factor - she sounded nowhere near as good but did pull marginally more cleanly, so some work needed there if I want to return to the open intake.
Just before we finished the track day sessions for lunch and started the timed runs in the afternoon, I disabled the ABS and popped out to decide if I was going to be quicker with or without it. Turns out the answer is a bit quicker, it's a good system but too conservative in trailbraking, but that wasn't the real news - that brake judder completely disappeared. No matter how hard I pushed the car, I couldn't replicate it without the ABS on. The only explanation I can think of is that either the ABS pump or the calipers or "something" is stopping the car being able to modulate the brake pressure properly, causing uneven brake application when the system's really hot.. most odd. Anyone ever had anything like this before?
A couple of action shots from a fellow competitor:
Most of my timed runs were a bit scrappy, this is the fastest one, a 1'20.35 - marginally quicker than last year's 1'20.63. This time, though, I wasn't quite so lucky in my attempt to be last of the late brakers towards the timing beams at the end of the lap...
https://youtu.be/Iij3yLlKxJE
I started the day on the NS-2Rs, and while the first session was OK I wasn't really that happy with the balance the harder I pushed, the car just felt understeery, and while I never got brake fade I did find a really quite terrible judder after a couple of hard laps.. It starts out as a steering wheel wobble under heavy braking, which I've felt before at Bedford, but becomes very severe judder at the front wheels and eventually even the rears too if you keep pushing, you can feel the whole car shuddering. I put this down to Blyton being much harder on brakes, and combined with the semi-slicks I thought I was getting them hot enough to show up pad deposits on the disc or even starting to warp them.
Putting my usual Kumho KU31 sprint tyres back on transformed the car for the better, it immediately felt more approachable and better balanced. I'd put most of this down to the lesser grip making it much easier to adjust the rear end with the throttle, but when you're driving at ten tenths these tyres seem to have a much wider and more progressive slip range than the Nankangs, which either grip or don't. I also refitted the original airbox as I wanted to see if heat soak really was a factor - she sounded nowhere near as good but did pull marginally more cleanly, so some work needed there if I want to return to the open intake.
Just before we finished the track day sessions for lunch and started the timed runs in the afternoon, I disabled the ABS and popped out to decide if I was going to be quicker with or without it. Turns out the answer is a bit quicker, it's a good system but too conservative in trailbraking, but that wasn't the real news - that brake judder completely disappeared. No matter how hard I pushed the car, I couldn't replicate it without the ABS on. The only explanation I can think of is that either the ABS pump or the calipers or "something" is stopping the car being able to modulate the brake pressure properly, causing uneven brake application when the system's really hot.. most odd. Anyone ever had anything like this before?
A couple of action shots from a fellow competitor:
Most of my timed runs were a bit scrappy, this is the fastest one, a 1'20.35 - marginally quicker than last year's 1'20.63. This time, though, I wasn't quite so lucky in my attempt to be last of the late brakers towards the timing beams at the end of the lap...
https://youtu.be/Iij3yLlKxJE
My first port of call is the rake, at the minute the car is at least 20mm higher at the front than the back. Exact measurements somewhere in this thread. It's not far off the factory posture, but it sure doesn't help mid-speed cornering, so I'll get the front down to at least level and perhaps slightly lower. That should help a lot. From trackside photos I've seen, the camber looks about right at 2.5° front and 1.5° rear.
The open diff doesn't usually feel so bad in the car, but it's clearly costing a lot of laptime and adjustability. I'll get it sorted.
The open diff doesn't usually feel so bad in the car, but it's clearly costing a lot of laptime and adjustability. I'll get it sorted.
Well, setup changes might not be so urgent if the results of my latest work are anything to go by. Finally got around to tackling my front right wheel bearing, which had been making its presence felt in left-handers for a while but became really intolerable at Blyton, juddering like hell and clearly not controlling the wheel properly as I was experiencing more understeer in lefts than rights. Sod's law on a very anticlockwise circuit layout!
This is actually a surprisingly easy job, if you're wondering. You'll need a f
kmassive socket, specifically a 46mm, I got this one from eBay. Went for an impact one, anticipating the need to give the hub nut some gunning since it's torqued to 290Nm. Some people seem to get away without a hub puller, but I wouldn't risk getting into the job without one on hand. The front bearings come integral in a new hub, which is nice.
The procedure:
Rear inner race not shown, I'd already removed it and sure as hell wasn't refitting it to demonstrate!
Voila, shiny new hub on.
This is actually a surprisingly easy job, if you're wondering. You'll need a f
kmassive socket, specifically a 46mm, I got this one from eBay. Went for an impact one, anticipating the need to give the hub nut some gunning since it's torqued to 290Nm. Some people seem to get away without a hub puller, but I wouldn't risk getting into the job without one on hand. The front bearings come integral in a new hub, which is nice.The procedure:
- Get the front end up and on stands, strongly recommend lifting both sides for stability and so you can apply lock to get a better angle to undo the hub nut.
- Wheel off, natch, then the brakes including the disc. Even if you ordinarily just balance the caliper somewhere, do cable tie it this time as you'll be hammering on the upright.
- The hub nut is covered by a metal dust cap. Get a thin flathead screwdriver and a dead blow mallet, and work your way gently around the edge to prise it off. Don't go off the head and destroy it unless you've bought a new one - my new hub only came with a new nut, not a dust cap.
- The hub nut should have at least one tab punched into the cutouts in the spindle. This needs hammering back out of the way, or it won't turn, no matter how many scaffolding poles you use. Mine's already knocked back in the below image.
- Strongman time. Undo the hub nut, just a couple of turns. I had a crack with my two-foot bar to begin with, it didn't want to move, so I railed away at it with my impact gun for a few seconds. The gun didn't budge it, but I could then turn it with the bar just fine. It wasn't seized, thanks to the dust cap, just tight.
- Once you've got the nut cracked off, douse the hub/spindle area in Plusgas or similar penetrant fluid.
- Use a wheel hub / gear puller to start pulling the hub off the spindle, by the flange. Once you know it's moving, take the hub nut off entirely and the hub should just come off by hand.
- Odds are the rear inner bearing race is still on the spindle. If spraying with Plusgas before moving the hub worked as well for you as it did for me, it'll come off by hand, even though mine was 18 years and 179k miles old. Some people have found it's stuck fast, in which case you either need to bend the dust shield back and try to get pullers on it, or get the Dremel out. Good luck avoiding that situation! One technique seems to be loosening the hub nut, then refitting the wheel and lowering the car onto it - apparently this can crack the inner race off the spindle a bit easier.
Rear inner race not shown, I'd already removed it and sure as hell wasn't refitting it to demonstrate!
- Now it's time for the new bearing. Obviously, it will be an extremely tight fit onto the spindle. Get it all perfectly lined up, place your 46mm socket in the middle, then hit that with a deadblow mallet to seat it on the spindle. It'll get stuck. If you're anything like me, you'll be knocking away at it for ages with your deadblow thinking "oh Christ it's a cheap crap bearing that's machined too tight and it won't go over", then you'll get a mini sledge out and it'll fly straight on so quick you nearly trap your fingers behind it. If in doubt, make sure it's straight, then get a bigger hammer!
Voila, shiny new hub on.
- Run the hub nut down the thread, then torque to 290Nm. Only when fully torqued, get a flat bar (screwdrivers don't work that well) and punch a tab into the spindle cutout. This ensures the hub nut is locked and can't loosen over time. You can hammer a tab out of any part of the nut, so don't worry about where it's going to settle when it's torqued.
- Dust cap back on, make sure you have a nice tight seal against the hub flange to keep the hub nut and bearings clean.
- Brakes back on, wheel on, drop car, torque up, go for a test drive, find a wonderful absence of bearing noise, discover instead an alarming graunching noise as you load up the front left in hard cornering, come home again, jack it up, feel vertical wheel movement, st yourself, and then notice that one of your coilover adjustment locking rings worked loose while the upright was being hammered. Then you're done.
Another successful day! Really enjoyed Bedford on Sunday 10th, brought along a housemate who's done a few track days in his DC2 Integra Type R, but never in anything rear-wheel-drive, so that was a new experience for both of us - me being driven over the limit in my own car, and him discovering that you can't solve big slides with power alone
We got 191 miles done on the circuit, which I'm very pleased with. The NS-2Rs remain excellent, and even more obviously so if you leave them on the front but replace the rear with nasty plastic Accelera Alphas.. I did this as an exercise to make the car a bit more rear-limited, which worked well in the dry, but perhaps a little too well in the wet! Gratuitous sideways action below.
https://youtu.be/3xo8ql7u4dg
The NS-2Rs have rubbered in really nicely now...
The car felt really good with the wheel bearing issue finally sorted, that was definitely the cause of the vibration in hard left cornering, so it was nice to have a stable platform at last. Still a shade understeery so I'm going to drop the front end a little. However, I was wrong in thinking the ABS was causing the brake judder, it returned with a vengeance as soon as we got the brakes hot.. you could drive around it, if you never used more than three-quarters of the pedal then they wouldn't get hot enough to do it, but still, it was extremely annoying. The front pads are wearing thin anyway, so new discs are going on with their replacements, and I hope that cures it.
Here's my quickest lap from the day: https://youtu.be/GpJxreKzy7U
Next up, Rockingham on November 8th - with the car's previous owner!
We got 191 miles done on the circuit, which I'm very pleased with. The NS-2Rs remain excellent, and even more obviously so if you leave them on the front but replace the rear with nasty plastic Accelera Alphas.. I did this as an exercise to make the car a bit more rear-limited, which worked well in the dry, but perhaps a little too well in the wet! Gratuitous sideways action below.
https://youtu.be/3xo8ql7u4dg
The NS-2Rs have rubbered in really nicely now...
The car felt really good with the wheel bearing issue finally sorted, that was definitely the cause of the vibration in hard left cornering, so it was nice to have a stable platform at last. Still a shade understeery so I'm going to drop the front end a little. However, I was wrong in thinking the ABS was causing the brake judder, it returned with a vengeance as soon as we got the brakes hot.. you could drive around it, if you never used more than three-quarters of the pedal then they wouldn't get hot enough to do it, but still, it was extremely annoying. The front pads are wearing thin anyway, so new discs are going on with their replacements, and I hope that cures it.
Here's my quickest lap from the day: https://youtu.be/GpJxreKzy7U
Next up, Rockingham on November 8th - with the car's previous owner!
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