E46 M3 fast road - track car

[PBMWsam]

Still on the Uniroyals as winters and wets, should be swapping back to NS2-R's soon as miss the apex's

25916034696_4bf4c33d68_o by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

Really want the ACS rep splitter in carbon now so that will probably be the next buy



Chopped few pieces of metal out the doors



Brought a sheet of 0.5mm carbon from old F1 team to blank few areas, and also notice the single window switches as ......







Chopped the whole parcel shelf out thus loosing the rear pop out window motors, loosing a little weight but gaining a lot of room so should be able to carry a set of wheels now.

Tucked the tail light loom behind the panel





Just need to tidy up my harness stick other seat in then done,



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Tidy up my rear top mount covers as the Nitron R1 coilovers are not water tight. My first effort done the job but looked a bit crap!

Before



After



Lastly finally back on the apex's,, well till get another wet track day.

[PBMWsam]

Few little parts got chucked on Sunday afternoon

Hack Engineering oil vanos line, this un-like any other aftermarket oil line has a lifetime warranty and isn't recommended to be changed every year.



The the Hard Motorsport retractable tow hooks, these push away to almost nothing and are a real nice piece of kit







Then gave it a wash and met up with a few mates for a shake down, just to make sure its all good for Snetterton on Wednesday

[PBMWsam]

TheRocket said:

Not sure how I missed this but hats off, without doubt one of the nicest E46 M3's I've seen, assuming you mean Snetterton this Wednesday see you there

Thankyou

Yes Snett this Wednesday 27th

[PBMWsam]

em177 said:

Just had a read of the thread from start to finish. Great read. Making the my wallet tremble after the recent arrival of my standard E46 M3!

Is there anything you'd class as a 'must do' mod for the someone fresh to these cars?

Put all your money into brakes, coilovers and tyres. Basics of making a quick car.

LanceRS said:

Still looking good. How much weight do you recon you've managed to shed now ?

200kg lighter than stock now

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Just got my EC-7 back from going gloss black as never liked the satin, also a fresh set of slicks from Malc






Last time out on circuit was getting a little blinded by the low sun, even though I've a 1 foot sun strip it still doesn't help with the the side windows of course.

Didn't want to smoke the visor so thought I'd give amber film a bash, extended the sun strip too.



Next time out on track is Goodwood an have some tasty upgrades lined up before hand


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Binning off the factory weighty exhaust system had been on my to-do-list for a lone time now.

Headed to www.waltonmotorsport.com and they made it happen.










Noticeable quicker, around 15 to 20kg lighter and should still be within Bedford's drive by of 87.5 db... no lift

[PBMWsam]

LanceRS said:

That exhaust is going to confuse the hell out of people not on here

Going to be asked so much if its a real M3 haha.

ManOpener said:

Shame the spare wheel well is in the way, a central twin exhaust in the style of the 997 GT3 would really suit that.

I've seen one before with a central twin exit... not a fan.

Robins said:

Looks incredible. Really love what you've done to this and imagine its a proper weapon on track!

It does alright

bigalx said:

Can you share when you will be at Goodwood - I'd love to pop down and see this in action...

Goodwood is Saturday 11th June, it's with a show called Players Classic. Mostly a fancy wheeled air ride show but has cheap full day track day and loads to look at on lunch.

[PBMWsam]

KernowSid said:

Any updates? Great work so far.

Loads of updates. Here's few of the major ones

Done few laps around Goodwood back in June with the new exhaust, felt really good and didn't get flagged for noise.

Managed a 127.1 but was really slow in braking zones as front pads had gone down to the metal, annoyingly I hadn't noticed before the day to address it.

Untitled by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

Untitled by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

Sold my Apex and upgraded to Grants 18x10 with Nangank AR-1



Went to Hack Engineering for valve clearance







While I was at Hack Engineering I made a big decision and compleatly changed up the braking system on my car.

Went for standard rear disc with EBC yellow stuff pads, Braided brake line & brass slider insert. An for the front a new AP racing BBK all from Hack :thumbsup:







Went to Snetterton on the 26th Aug, couldn't of had better weather



XSP_0962 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

XSP_0563 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

XSP_0395 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

XSP_0111 by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

Managed a 2:09 which just got into my target of a sun 2:10 but I know I've room for improvement as still a little messy an slow in places.

YouTube video of a lap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGBfILntryM

[PBMWsam]

Ah thank you very much. Well it's still currently here and hoping for a run up the hill.

[PBMWsam]

LanceRS said:

Did you manage to get a run ?

Sadly no, I knows there's a jump if you take it flat as well.

My friend who's stand I was on went up again in his drift car and completely smoke screened out the hill.

[PBMWsam]

LanceRS said:

Oh well, something for next year?

Defiantly! Least now I know I've actually got to sign up as a reserve driver.

[PBMWsam]

sleepera6 said:

Sam


Love the car, it looks fking sexy. I feel like it's missing something though. Spoiler?

Thankyou. Already have the CSL duck lip boot lid, like to keep it a little low key so doesn't scream for attention. Although it could do with areo id really not like to go down that route on a road car.

[PBMWsam]

Cheers

Went to Bedford autodrome yesterday, sadly play time ended by 11am as my cars now too loud and in no way was I going to go around the circuit lifting.

Will be getting another box put in the system

Here's a short clip of another m3 that liked to push the limits

https://youtu.be/GKXJ_MgWzd4

[PBMWsam]

LanceRS said:

Did you get to speak to him, he's another local lad, lives up in Lacey Green. How did the cars compare on track before your telling off?

Yeah did speak to Paul, we were garaged next to each other. Defiantly go back to bedford when hes there again. Had the car mesured up for another box in the system to quiet it down.

[PBMWsam]

Just taken delivery of a new Recaro SPG from Hack Engineering . Should have gone with an SPG from day one, much more suited to my build and ring friendly



My Pro racer seat has sold and the pole position will be going this weekend too so I'll defiantly be replacing that with another SPG. Also going to some new ally side mounts so see how they fit.

On the hunt for some front carpet in black as want to make driving this a little more live able.

[PBMWsam]

Not updated this in a while so here's a bulk upload

Switched back on to OEM squares with Uniroyal rainsports



Re fitted front carpet just to make it a little nicer to drive & changed to wingless seats and ally side mounts.

Guessing the weight loss from the seats and mounts it will cancel out adding the carpet back in.

Have my brand SPG as driver and a borrowed old school SPA carbon kevlar as passenger



Booked on Silverstone GP on 20th Nov, never done full GP before so should be interesting.

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Went along to the Piston heads Sunday service at Silverstone, didn't book any track session but brought my helmet along as planned to sign on if weather was good.

Started the session with just under half a tank of fuel, thought that was going to be enough for the G's on road tyres but started surging at only the end of lap 7 around the National circuit.

Short video featuring a 500 BHP supercharged M3

https://youtu.be/mTXD3-NTv2o

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Thanks guys, didn't get any pictures of it out on track so here's a pit garage one



Ordered another m3 fuel pump to hopefully solve my surging problem.

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Flash back to last months extremely disserpointing day at Silverstone GP







Was my first time running in full wet on Uniroyals to which I just didn't get on with, understeer and oversteer all over the place

https://youtu.be/oLpL4amZqjY

Half spin in this video @ 3:50 after MikeH flew past me on BTCC full wets

https://youtu.be/Qj8iilcI8xE

So after this I brought a set of Team Dynamics of Billy and a set of used BTCC wets off Malc and ended up with this



Again I got the writing mounted on the inside for a stealth look

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Had a much better day around SS GP being on the right tyres for the wet conditions. RMA run a dam good track day too.

Changing wheels back to drive home and it looked like I'd been driving on a beach. Rear EBC yellow pads hadn't stood very well at all were as the RS29 in the front still have loads of life left.

https://youtu.be/WpCLBSDBrPk

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That will learn me, I've had the front reinforcement sitting in the garage for ages.

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Dismantled the car today to send my shocks off to Nitron for a full service







Roughy 5k road and track miles in all seasons has left them pretty grubby and as Nitron charge you extra if there dirty, so just spent the last 2 hour stripping them down the shock body's only and cleaning them up.

Will be personally dropping them at Nitron HQ tomorrow.

[PBMWsam]

Untitled by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

In lap was the only time needed to put my indicator on

Untitled by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

Untitled by Sam Ratcliffe, on Flickr

[PBMWsam]

e21Mark said:

Cars looking great as ever. Can't say I'm a fan of EBC and my experience was the same as yours. (with both yellow and red) I have stuck with Hawk or DS2500 since. I did the same as you re seats and carpet too. Minimal weight and worth it for the extra civility on the road.

Are you likely to be doing Brands Hatch anytime this year?

EBC have lasted no time at all and front RS29 still have loads of life left in and like the feel of them so ordered some for the rear too.

I've never done Brands but yes, I do want to get there this year at some point. Have you any days booked there yet ?

5harp3y said:

That last shot! OMFG

Looks awesome

What was the difference in switching to a square setup like?

Thanks, square set up works lot better for turn in.

[PBMWsam]

First delivery of solid 'bushes'



After looking at Steven build and chatting to a few others I decided to plunge into solid bushes. Seeing as I'm going to be getting it geo & corner weighted thought be best to finish on re-beefing up everything first.

Bit of tinkering yesterday

While swapping back to road wheels to drive home after Silverstone I noticed rather a lot of brake pad on the inside of the rear wheels



These were EBC yellow after 3 day (2 wet, 1 dry) shows how much better braking power you get changing to brass caliper slider inserts.

Front RS29 that have done same amount of days are fine.

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Also chopped up the front reinforcement plates to fit, I brought the ones with round holes instead of oval so they can be welded in the max camber position on the chassis, then just leave adjustment down to the top mount. Think it will be stronger that way too.



Fit dual fuel pumps & solid bush is next on the list.

Nitron's should be back from Spires tomorrow.

Rest of my solid bushes turn up





Attempted to plum in my second M3 pump into the passenger side.. Didn't fit



The end of the sender sits in this location hole in the tank, thus meaning theres not enough depth for a pump to fit in.



Not sure what the aftermarket kits are like but may be a reason why I couldn't find any info on dual pump for an e46.

While the sender was out stuffed another cube of baffle foam in and going to change my fuel filter and run a cleaner though then hope for the best.

Nitrons back from Spires, look good for 5 years old



Chucked them on last night so ride height and geo is miles out, doing my bushes the off for geo and corner weight.

[PBMWsam]

e21Mark said:

I know you cleaned them but that's still quite a transformation in the Nitrons. You'd certainly never think they were 5 years old!

The EBC I took out of the back of my M3 literally fell apart. I have to say I'm not a fan. I've only ever had them when they were already fitted in cars I have bought (the EBC that is) but even so, I've never seen it with Hawk, which have always performed well given they're not particularly expensive.

Are you going to the PBMW evening at Brands?

Brand new springs but the rest is old.

Thinking about Brands as still never done it before, if I can get a support vehicle alone I'll defiantly book.

stevesingo said:

EBC pads do wear significantly when used hard. Not really a track pad IME.

Sticking with RS29's all round for now, was thinking of upgrading to an AP 4 pot rear but it's really not needed.

[PBMWsam]

Back on the ground after what seemed like a very long month.

Next week its going into Absolute Customs for a little bit of welding and solid bushes fitting.

[PBMWsam]

longun said:

Amazing build thread.

Quick question if you don't mind. What tyre sizes are you running on the OEM square setup? I'm looking to get some 18" OEM wheels, go square but can't find the NS2R in the stock 255/40/18 size. Did you drop to a 255/35/18 or go up to a 265/35/18?

Also any issues with rubbing on the fronts with the square setup?

Ran a 265/35/18 all round. Need at least -3 camber up front to not rub.