E30 M52-swapped Trackday Car
Discussion
So, lockdown rules are slowly being loosened, which means I've been able to get to my lockup and access the car over the past couple of weeks. So I've taken the opportunity to spend a bit of time doing a few odd jobs.
First was my routine post-trackday checks. Torque test key nuts and bolts on suspension and brakes. Look for things falling off. Run the engine, listen for noises, run a diagnostic and so on. Delightfully, this once more revealed very little wrong. Except that one of the rear ant-roll bar drop links had 'walked' off the end of the bar. On E30s, Z3s and E36 Compacts, these drop links are a push-on design and this is apparently a common issue.
No problem - I have a set of H&R bars in the garage (a bolt-through design), so I decided to finally fit the rear bar. Haunted by torrid memories of trying to thread the previous bar through the suspension, exhaust and over the differential, I wasn't looking forward to this job - but I'd obviously retained some of that experience and getting the old bar out and the new bar in and set up on the softest setting wasn't hard at all.
The wiring in the passenger footwell was something else I wanted to address. I'd relocated the fusebox and re-wired a lot of the car during the refresh but I'd kind of just left everything hanging there once I had it working. It looked untidy and I was concerned about a passenger catching something with their feet. I ended up making a brace out of ABS plastic that bolted across the bulkhead to some of the factory studs and this gave me a nice solid mounting to which I could secure the cabling. With a bit of unplugging, re-routing and re-plugging I ended up getting it all pretty solid, immovable, neat looking and out of harm's way.
The car also got a much needed wash!
So, Donington on 4th July next. And maybe the 15th too. We'll see how it goes. I can't wait to get back to Oulton though - my 'local'. That might have to wait until August or beyond however looking at the bookings...
First was my routine post-trackday checks. Torque test key nuts and bolts on suspension and brakes. Look for things falling off. Run the engine, listen for noises, run a diagnostic and so on. Delightfully, this once more revealed very little wrong. Except that one of the rear ant-roll bar drop links had 'walked' off the end of the bar. On E30s, Z3s and E36 Compacts, these drop links are a push-on design and this is apparently a common issue.
No problem - I have a set of H&R bars in the garage (a bolt-through design), so I decided to finally fit the rear bar. Haunted by torrid memories of trying to thread the previous bar through the suspension, exhaust and over the differential, I wasn't looking forward to this job - but I'd obviously retained some of that experience and getting the old bar out and the new bar in and set up on the softest setting wasn't hard at all.
The wiring in the passenger footwell was something else I wanted to address. I'd relocated the fusebox and re-wired a lot of the car during the refresh but I'd kind of just left everything hanging there once I had it working. It looked untidy and I was concerned about a passenger catching something with their feet. I ended up making a brace out of ABS plastic that bolted across the bulkhead to some of the factory studs and this gave me a nice solid mounting to which I could secure the cabling. With a bit of unplugging, re-routing and re-plugging I ended up getting it all pretty solid, immovable, neat looking and out of harm's way.
The car also got a much needed wash!
So, Donington on 4th July next. And maybe the 15th too. We'll see how it goes. I can't wait to get back to Oulton though - my 'local'. That might have to wait until August or beyond however looking at the bookings...
Edited by motorhole on Friday 19th June 21:05
So the lockdown track time drought has finally ended. Got to Donington as planned on the 4th of July.
The weather was forecast to be changeable there and for the drive to/from Warrington, it was downright awful in places. So I elected to stick with the treads for the day. But as it turns out, apart from it throwing it down when I left at 6.30am, I could probably have gotten away with the R888rs. Ah well...
Turned out to be a good day nevertheless. Was great to meet some new faces, including the infamous W00sher and his Pinderwagon
I did have to call it early as my nearside front was barely legal for the way home - these tyres have done 6 or 7 trackdays now, so that's fair enough. Couple of learning points though...
1) Traffic. Every time I go to Donington, I struggle to string together more than 1 clean lap at any point. I'm always moving over for quicker cars or having to make my way past slower ones. I don't seem to have the same issue at other tracks, is it just a Donington thing? Anyway, by the afternoon most of the paddock had cleared out. So next time do less laps early and more laps later!
2) Oil starvation seems to be occurring under hard braking. Only under braking and not under cornering. And again, not really been an issue anywhere else. I think the downhill approaches to Redgate and Goddards exacerbate it. Biggest drop I saw was down to about 13 psi. So next time out, I'll be dropping in half a litre over with a view to getting a sump baffle in there over winter - along with the Achilles Motorsport oil pump nut/sprocket upgrade.
3) Not to stay out so long I run my tank down to nearly empty. Self explanatory that one really, but I'm not always paying attention to my fuel gauge on track.
4) Gearbox has started spitting a bit of oil out the breather when it's hot. I understand this is fairly common on the ZF 5-speed, but something to keep an eye on nevertheless.
Despite all the above, the car was great again. I did feel quite restrained due to the tyres, you just can't lean on them like you can semi-slicks. It sometimes felt like an age before I could get on the power! The addition of the H&R rear bar does seem to have helped with inside front wheel lift though and the car feels nice and pointy on corner entry.
So back to Donington on 15th July. I'll be there with sf_manta in his E46 Touring this time.
The weather was forecast to be changeable there and for the drive to/from Warrington, it was downright awful in places. So I elected to stick with the treads for the day. But as it turns out, apart from it throwing it down when I left at 6.30am, I could probably have gotten away with the R888rs. Ah well...
Turned out to be a good day nevertheless. Was great to meet some new faces, including the infamous W00sher and his Pinderwagon
I did have to call it early as my nearside front was barely legal for the way home - these tyres have done 6 or 7 trackdays now, so that's fair enough. Couple of learning points though...
1) Traffic. Every time I go to Donington, I struggle to string together more than 1 clean lap at any point. I'm always moving over for quicker cars or having to make my way past slower ones. I don't seem to have the same issue at other tracks, is it just a Donington thing? Anyway, by the afternoon most of the paddock had cleared out. So next time do less laps early and more laps later!
2) Oil starvation seems to be occurring under hard braking. Only under braking and not under cornering. And again, not really been an issue anywhere else. I think the downhill approaches to Redgate and Goddards exacerbate it. Biggest drop I saw was down to about 13 psi. So next time out, I'll be dropping in half a litre over with a view to getting a sump baffle in there over winter - along with the Achilles Motorsport oil pump nut/sprocket upgrade.
3) Not to stay out so long I run my tank down to nearly empty. Self explanatory that one really, but I'm not always paying attention to my fuel gauge on track.
4) Gearbox has started spitting a bit of oil out the breather when it's hot. I understand this is fairly common on the ZF 5-speed, but something to keep an eye on nevertheless.
Despite all the above, the car was great again. I did feel quite restrained due to the tyres, you just can't lean on them like you can semi-slicks. It sometimes felt like an age before I could get on the power! The addition of the H&R rear bar does seem to have helped with inside front wheel lift though and the car feels nice and pointy on corner entry.
So back to Donington on 15th July. I'll be there with sf_manta in his E46 Touring this time.
shalmaneser said:
This looks ace on track. Can you log oil pressure in some way? I'd be a bit nervous about flogging the car hard if you think you might be having pressure drop. Baffled sump sounds a wise buy, maybe check the bearings while you're there?
Thanks!I have an SPA dual temp/pressure gauge that falls nicely within view of my GoPro! That's how I've spotted it. Biggest drop I've seen was to 13 psi; bearing in mind the gauge has a 0.1s refresh rate and displays the 0.4s average at any time. Oil pressure light comes on at 6 psi and that's never flickered. It is only happening under braking, so falling rpm & big longitudinal g - when the engine isn't under load. Thankfully never seen it caused by lateral g, when you're more likely to be on throttle.
Hopefully an overfill by half-litre will improve matters. Seems to be consensus in E36 circles with the M52 engine. Otherwise I'll need to brake less hard downhill until I get a baffle fitted
1602Mark said:
Looks great. I can't wait to get my 02 out on track.
Me too - to see the pics & videos. Love an '02! Beautiful little things. stevesingo said:
This can also be an issue on the S14 engine, where under braking the oil moves forward and up the timing case. The BMW Motorsport recommendation in the Grp A manual is to over fill be 0.5lt. You should be fine with that.
Thanks Steve! Once more, your input proves super helpful Another week, another day at Donington. This time with sf_manta and his modified E46 330i touring, having not seen him since he had it mapped some time ago.
Early promises of a good forecast turned out to hold false hope. The weather in the morning leaving Warrington was absolutely horrendous, so I am yet to get to Donington clad in R888r or similar! Alas, the trials and tribulations of driving your car to and from the track.
Weather at Donington was drizzly showers on and off. Aside from first thing in the morning, the track was dry most of the day with occasional moments of greasy dampness. To add to that, the fresh PS3s I had on were pretty slippery too until a few sessions in!
The morning proved busy. Lots of traffic and lots of red flags unfortunately meant not a lot of useful time on track. Things cleared up in the afternoon though and I managed to get some enjoyable sessions in.
Another excellent display of reliability from the old E30 though, taking the 3 hour round trip and the pounding on track in its stride. I did drop in a measured half-litre of oil above full when I got to the track to try and counter the oil surge. Whilst this improved matters, the pressure gauge did still alarm on occasion - investigation shows that pressure hasn't dropped below 20 psi at any point though - definitely an improvement and that seems to be where a lot of racers set their warning lights/alarms. So in the upcoming oil change I guess I'll get oil analysis done again to check for wear materials and await the baffled sump over winter. With over 10 trackdays and 4k miles on the new engine, it's probably not the worst time to do another analysis anyway!
So - no more track time booked in as yet. Probably going to book up the 30th September at Oulton and the BMWCC day there in November too. And perhaps see if I can get a cancellation in August. Fingers crossed...
On a side note - the R888rs probably only have another day left in them before they're no longer road legal, so they'll be up for replacement. Has anyone tried the new Yoko A052R ? Reviews suggest is at least as quick as the R888r and better at dispersing water - ergo hopefully better for driving to/from track on in anything other then a proper deluge. Feedback welcome.
In the meantime, more gratuitous photos and a bit of video from Wednesday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBMTyUA3oAU&t=...
Early promises of a good forecast turned out to hold false hope. The weather in the morning leaving Warrington was absolutely horrendous, so I am yet to get to Donington clad in R888r or similar! Alas, the trials and tribulations of driving your car to and from the track.
Weather at Donington was drizzly showers on and off. Aside from first thing in the morning, the track was dry most of the day with occasional moments of greasy dampness. To add to that, the fresh PS3s I had on were pretty slippery too until a few sessions in!
The morning proved busy. Lots of traffic and lots of red flags unfortunately meant not a lot of useful time on track. Things cleared up in the afternoon though and I managed to get some enjoyable sessions in.
Another excellent display of reliability from the old E30 though, taking the 3 hour round trip and the pounding on track in its stride. I did drop in a measured half-litre of oil above full when I got to the track to try and counter the oil surge. Whilst this improved matters, the pressure gauge did still alarm on occasion - investigation shows that pressure hasn't dropped below 20 psi at any point though - definitely an improvement and that seems to be where a lot of racers set their warning lights/alarms. So in the upcoming oil change I guess I'll get oil analysis done again to check for wear materials and await the baffled sump over winter. With over 10 trackdays and 4k miles on the new engine, it's probably not the worst time to do another analysis anyway!
So - no more track time booked in as yet. Probably going to book up the 30th September at Oulton and the BMWCC day there in November too. And perhaps see if I can get a cancellation in August. Fingers crossed...
On a side note - the R888rs probably only have another day left in them before they're no longer road legal, so they'll be up for replacement. Has anyone tried the new Yoko A052R ? Reviews suggest is at least as quick as the R888r and better at dispersing water - ergo hopefully better for driving to/from track on in anything other then a proper deluge. Feedback welcome.
In the meantime, more gratuitous photos and a bit of video from Wednesday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBMTyUA3oAU&t=...
Thanks folks! Haha - yes, although it can do the drama too were I brave enough. Once I find myself pushing hard enough to get it moving around, that's when I remember I need to drive it home. I have a lot to learn about driving it closer to the edge as I've no doubt at all it would be much faster if I was happy getting it to rotate into the corner and using the power to reduce the amount of lock I need to get around
So, having just parked up the E30 following the BMW Car Club day at Oulton Park on 11th Dec, that's another year. Regarding the last post about being unable to manage the drama...er yeah! There's one near miss for the books: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmG5MN6s2pU&fe...
5 trackdays, driving there and back for every one of them, faultless performance from the car throughout. Can't argue with that. Given the way E30 values are going, I've ummed and ahhed a bit this year about what I might want to replace it with when it's perhaps worth £12k in my back pocket (18 months or so?). But the truth is, after that last day at Oulton Park, I think I'm going to keep it. I had a lot of fun in it and the performance to running cost ratio is so good, I don't think anything other than a Caterham'esque thing would be more efficient in that respect.
So in that vein, I have a few bits to go on over winter. A refreshed set of E36 M3 Evo control arms with the solid E30 balljoints, a reinforced front subframe and an oil pump with an uprated shaft & safety-wired nut kit. The subframe should allow me to run a stuffer front ARB without fear of ripping the tabs that the ARB bush housings bolt to. If I get time, I might also replace all the flexible fuel lines as these are a little long in the tooth now. Then a fresh alignment and back on track in 2021!
Oh. And a wash. It really needs a wash.
5 trackdays, driving there and back for every one of them, faultless performance from the car throughout. Can't argue with that. Given the way E30 values are going, I've ummed and ahhed a bit this year about what I might want to replace it with when it's perhaps worth £12k in my back pocket (18 months or so?). But the truth is, after that last day at Oulton Park, I think I'm going to keep it. I had a lot of fun in it and the performance to running cost ratio is so good, I don't think anything other than a Caterham'esque thing would be more efficient in that respect.
So in that vein, I have a few bits to go on over winter. A refreshed set of E36 M3 Evo control arms with the solid E30 balljoints, a reinforced front subframe and an oil pump with an uprated shaft & safety-wired nut kit. The subframe should allow me to run a stuffer front ARB without fear of ripping the tabs that the ARB bush housings bolt to. If I get time, I might also replace all the flexible fuel lines as these are a little long in the tooth now. Then a fresh alignment and back on track in 2021!
Oh. And a wash. It really needs a wash.
So, winter maintenance and upgrades are well underway. And in the meantime, the car's had its annual bath!
First up, some lockdown retail therapy got me a 12 tonne press in my garage. I set about replacing the ball joints in the low mileage E36 M3 Evo control arms I had sourced with the full metal Lemforder E30 ball joints. They also got a full strip, prime and fresh coat of silver alloy wheel paint which should hopefully be suitably hard wearing. Spare set of kingpins were stripped down and given similar treatment. And a spare subframe had the engine and ARB mounting points reinforced as well as - yep, full paint strip, prime and fresh coats. So that gives me this little lot to fit.
I took the oil pump out of my spare engine to rebuild with the Achilles Motorsport reinforced pump shaft/drilled bolt & safety wire kit. Upon examination, it looked like some debris had been through the pump at some point and had caught between the outer rotor and the housing. Both were scored. The inside of the housing was also corroded and discolored at one point, so either this had caused a hotspot in the pump or the car had sat for a long time and water in the oil had settled out in the bottom of the pump. Either way, this pump was beyond saving. So I sourced another which turned out to be in much better condition. It's an easy job when you have all the bits!
The other item I sourced was a spare sump. I intended to baffle the sump due to aforementioned oil surge issues under hard braking, but the aftermarket baffles for the E34 sump I'd seen only seem to deal with surge on right-hand bends. This is something I've not had an issue with at all. So, I set about designing my own. The idea was a simple fab of sheet aluminium that would rivet to the OEM baffle already in the sump, that would help prvent all the oil sloshing forward away from the pickup.
Of course, I started by making card dummy parts and test fitting them into the sump:
Then, the finished article:
Test fitting for clearance on the scrap block I have hidden under my bench for exactly these sorts of shennanigans:
And finally, rivetted in place on the fully cleaned up sump with viton anti-surge flaps fitted.
So, with the aftermarket baffles typically costing around £150 - £170 delivered, plus needing TIG welding into the sump, I'm pretty pleased with this little lot at about £27 all in. It's a little rough, having been knocked up in a shed with cordless hand tools but if it does the job, then I may get a run of kits made up with laser or water-jet cut parts. I also have all the bits required to knock something similar up for an E46 M54 application too. Likely to be more demand for that, we'll see.
Anyway, all that awaits now is to strip down the front end and rebuild with all these bits, a suspension alignment then time to get back on track. Whenever that may be...
First up, some lockdown retail therapy got me a 12 tonne press in my garage. I set about replacing the ball joints in the low mileage E36 M3 Evo control arms I had sourced with the full metal Lemforder E30 ball joints. They also got a full strip, prime and fresh coat of silver alloy wheel paint which should hopefully be suitably hard wearing. Spare set of kingpins were stripped down and given similar treatment. And a spare subframe had the engine and ARB mounting points reinforced as well as - yep, full paint strip, prime and fresh coats. So that gives me this little lot to fit.
I took the oil pump out of my spare engine to rebuild with the Achilles Motorsport reinforced pump shaft/drilled bolt & safety wire kit. Upon examination, it looked like some debris had been through the pump at some point and had caught between the outer rotor and the housing. Both were scored. The inside of the housing was also corroded and discolored at one point, so either this had caused a hotspot in the pump or the car had sat for a long time and water in the oil had settled out in the bottom of the pump. Either way, this pump was beyond saving. So I sourced another which turned out to be in much better condition. It's an easy job when you have all the bits!
The other item I sourced was a spare sump. I intended to baffle the sump due to aforementioned oil surge issues under hard braking, but the aftermarket baffles for the E34 sump I'd seen only seem to deal with surge on right-hand bends. This is something I've not had an issue with at all. So, I set about designing my own. The idea was a simple fab of sheet aluminium that would rivet to the OEM baffle already in the sump, that would help prvent all the oil sloshing forward away from the pickup.
Of course, I started by making card dummy parts and test fitting them into the sump:
Then, the finished article:
Test fitting for clearance on the scrap block I have hidden under my bench for exactly these sorts of shennanigans:
And finally, rivetted in place on the fully cleaned up sump with viton anti-surge flaps fitted.
So, with the aftermarket baffles typically costing around £150 - £170 delivered, plus needing TIG welding into the sump, I'm pretty pleased with this little lot at about £27 all in. It's a little rough, having been knocked up in a shed with cordless hand tools but if it does the job, then I may get a run of kits made up with laser or water-jet cut parts. I also have all the bits required to knock something similar up for an E46 M54 application too. Likely to be more demand for that, we'll see.
Anyway, all that awaits now is to strip down the front end and rebuild with all these bits, a suspension alignment then time to get back on track. Whenever that may be...
Edited by motorhole on Monday 1st February 12:58
Edited by motorhole on Monday 1st February 13:01
1602Mark said:
Nice work there. Such a nice car.
Thanks Mark!So have made some more progress of late. As is often the case, things didn't quite go to as smoothly as I would like so it all just took a little longer than planned!
Started with taking it to pieces. Aside from crawling around under a car when it was literally freezing outside with driving sleet, this bit went as smoothly as could be expected. It all came apart rather nicely.
Got the engine suspended by the strut bar on each side with a heavy duty strap and a failsafe backup clipped it to a garage rafter. Then set about removing the subframe and the sump. This is where things got a little tricky. Fitting/removing a sump to an engine that is upside down on a stand is one thing. Doing it under a car on axle stands with a couple of feet to manoeuvre and with a gearbox and all the ancillaries attached is something else entirely. After a struggle, I gave up and had to remove the PAS pump to make more room before I could wiggle the sump out of the way. Good news - the engine and sump were lovely and clean inside still, after 13 or 14 full trackdays and the road miles to go with them!
Second task that isn't as nice to do on the car is any kind of safety wiring. After removing the old oil pump and fitting the freshly rebuilt one with the Achilles Motorsport reinfiorced shaft and nut kit, safety wiring the nut in place with the giant M52 trigger wheel in the way wasn't easy. But got it done - and the bolt was torqued up with Loctite 648 retaining fluid on the threads too so fingers crossed, that bolt and sprocket are going nowhere without the help of a grinder or a torch. Still though, the nut I'd secured to the old pump and shaft with red loctite and staked threads doesn't seem to have budged so that's something.
If getting the old sump off was an exercise in frustration, getting the new one on with a baffle in the way and a gasket to line up was worse. And it got even more difficult when the dipstick tube wouldn't fit in the hole (yes sir!). After consulting some people in the know, it transpired that my OLD sump was in fact an E38 sump with a matching dipstick tube and my new sump was of E34 flavour; the former having a larger diameter dipstick tube as the bottom part is double-skinned for the CCV drain back to the sump. So one trip to BMW later, new E34 dipstick tube in hand, I was back on track.
Difference between dipstick tubes was noticeable!
I also noticed a couple of other things when taking the suspension apart that might have contributed to my 'slight' issue with understeer on the limit.
Firstly, one of the control arms had a replacement inner ball joint fitted. I know this as it was a Febi one rather than the factory Lemforder. Whoever had fitted it has also made a bit of a dogs dinner of it too. It wasn't fitted straight and there were no alignment marks on either the ball joint itself or the arm so no way of knowing in what orientation it had been pressed in. The other were the old design of Powerflex control arm bushes. I'd never noticed this before, but because the part of this bush that rotates is eccentric, inside a coencentric outer part, the axis of rotation of the control arm with suspension compression/extension isn't in the centre of the rear mounting pin of the control arm as it should be; it's in the centre of the bush housing. This means the rear mounting pin of the arm moves laterally with suspension compression - resulting in reducing caster with suspension compression and probably pissed up toe changes too. It does look like Powerflex have changed the design since, but needless to say I'm hoping the properly refreshed control arms and offset bushes with the rear mounting pin of the arm fixed in position will give more more front end bite.
Anyway, with the sump back on, reassembly became quite simple, save for one thing. The camp bolt on the lower steering UJ was very, very close to the exhaust manifold. So much so, it looks like it has been touching at times.
So I addressed this by removing the bolt, helicoiling one side of the UJ and fitting a button-head allen bolt in from the other side to improve clearance. Hopefully no more shaft/exhaust contact...
So the car is back on the ground with a fresh fill of oil and is running again. I still need to connect the front drop links and bleed the brakes, plus I have a set of adjustable rear drop links to fit along with some new braided brake hoses to replace the aging and rusting Black Diamond ones from about 10 years back. Then a track alignment and hopefully, good to go
So, in other project car news this month...
I've been an avid follower of PPC magazine since it's inception over 15 years ago. Last year, with businesses in lockdown and movements restricted, the editor put out the call for reader-penned articles to keep the magazine rolling. We all like to 'think' we can write about cars and I was more than happy to have a go at telling the story of the mongrel! So many thanks to the PPC team for being brave and putting my efforts into print in the March 2021 issue.
Of course, I urge people to pick up a copy if they see it.
I've been an avid follower of PPC magazine since it's inception over 15 years ago. Last year, with businesses in lockdown and movements restricted, the editor put out the call for reader-penned articles to keep the magazine rolling. We all like to 'think' we can write about cars and I was more than happy to have a go at telling the story of the mongrel! So many thanks to the PPC team for being brave and putting my efforts into print in the March 2021 issue.
Of course, I urge people to pick up a copy if they see it.
First track action of 2021 this week, Frank's Charity Trackday Club Day at Blyton Park.
The weather forecast was as unpredictable as ever and seeing as I had the ~ 250 mile round trip to make as well as the trackday, I left the R888rs in the garage.
Nevertheless, the tweaks made to the suspension over winter seemed to have paid off. The front end felt so much more planted and the car changed direction really well. What that meant though is that I just wished harder I'd been on proper trackday tyres for what was mostly a dry day - though the deluge on the way home reassured me that treads was the right decision. Safety first and all that!
I later noticed from the videos that there were no oil pressure gauge warning flashes under hard braking (which you may have picked up from some of my earlier videos) so that suggests the DIY baffle was doing its job too. I took the opportunity to push the car hard for longer to see how everything reacted, but pressures and temperatures all remained stable and at safe levels. Oil temperature plateaued at around 103 c so some margin there still for a 5w40 synthetic. Will see how that goes on as we move into the warmer months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvg8gkZiSPY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGODbIzm2j0
1st June at Oulton and 12th September at Anglesey now added to the calendar but will hopefully get a few days in between those too. Anglesey will be new to me but also looking to try Donington GP & Bedford if I can!
The weather forecast was as unpredictable as ever and seeing as I had the ~ 250 mile round trip to make as well as the trackday, I left the R888rs in the garage.
Nevertheless, the tweaks made to the suspension over winter seemed to have paid off. The front end felt so much more planted and the car changed direction really well. What that meant though is that I just wished harder I'd been on proper trackday tyres for what was mostly a dry day - though the deluge on the way home reassured me that treads was the right decision. Safety first and all that!
I later noticed from the videos that there were no oil pressure gauge warning flashes under hard braking (which you may have picked up from some of my earlier videos) so that suggests the DIY baffle was doing its job too. I took the opportunity to push the car hard for longer to see how everything reacted, but pressures and temperatures all remained stable and at safe levels. Oil temperature plateaued at around 103 c so some margin there still for a 5w40 synthetic. Will see how that goes on as we move into the warmer months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvg8gkZiSPY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGODbIzm2j0
1st June at Oulton and 12th September at Anglesey now added to the calendar but will hopefully get a few days in between those too. Anglesey will be new to me but also looking to try Donington GP & Bedford if I can!
So 1st June at Oulton Park didn't quite go to plan!
Day started out great. W2R running a limited numbers trackday meant that there was LOADS of room on track to get the hammer down without worrying too much about traffic, despite some of the super quick exotica that was there. 3 sessions in, I'd already racked up over 50 miles.
Then a bit of understeer - thought tyres were going off - came in - horrible noise turning left.
Initially thought I'd cooked the PAS, it was a warm day after all. But something didn't feel right when trying to turn the wheel all the way to the left, even when stationary. Car seemed to jack up in an unusual manner. Then noticed front wheel didn't look quite right.
Further investigation fearing broken or bent bits revealed the culprit. Bloody poly control arm bushings! The nearside one had rotated in the housing, moving the mounting position of the rear control arm and cocking up the caster and camber.
Managed to drive the car home with just half a turn of steering lock available when turning left. Got the bits off the car.
As can be seen, the offending side has rotated around 120 degrees. Quite a lot given the limited articulation of the control arm in service! Must've been creeping around all morning before the wheel started to catch on the back of the arch
Now these need to be pressed out, pressed back in in the right position and for good measure, will be drilling and tapping the housings for a set screw as per this tutorial: https://blog.fcpeuro.com/how-to-install-revshift-o...
Hopefully this'll rectify the issue. Glad it's fairly minor but disappointing given how reliable the car has been to this point. 15th trackday since the new engine was dropped in and 1st early retirement. Especially given the magic combination of conditions and empty track on the day! Was relishing putting some big sessions in as things started to cool down late afternoon, but alas I was already at home, car in the air.
Hopefully normal service resumes on the 13th July when I'm back...
Day started out great. W2R running a limited numbers trackday meant that there was LOADS of room on track to get the hammer down without worrying too much about traffic, despite some of the super quick exotica that was there. 3 sessions in, I'd already racked up over 50 miles.
Then a bit of understeer - thought tyres were going off - came in - horrible noise turning left.
Initially thought I'd cooked the PAS, it was a warm day after all. But something didn't feel right when trying to turn the wheel all the way to the left, even when stationary. Car seemed to jack up in an unusual manner. Then noticed front wheel didn't look quite right.
Further investigation fearing broken or bent bits revealed the culprit. Bloody poly control arm bushings! The nearside one had rotated in the housing, moving the mounting position of the rear control arm and cocking up the caster and camber.
Managed to drive the car home with just half a turn of steering lock available when turning left. Got the bits off the car.
As can be seen, the offending side has rotated around 120 degrees. Quite a lot given the limited articulation of the control arm in service! Must've been creeping around all morning before the wheel started to catch on the back of the arch
Now these need to be pressed out, pressed back in in the right position and for good measure, will be drilling and tapping the housings for a set screw as per this tutorial: https://blog.fcpeuro.com/how-to-install-revshift-o...
Hopefully this'll rectify the issue. Glad it's fairly minor but disappointing given how reliable the car has been to this point. 15th trackday since the new engine was dropped in and 1st early retirement. Especially given the magic combination of conditions and empty track on the day! Was relishing putting some big sessions in as things started to cool down late afternoon, but alas I was already at home, car in the air.
Hopefully normal service resumes on the 13th July when I'm back...
1602Mark said:
Not seen that before. At least it's a relatively easy task to rectify I guess?
Car still looks great. I still miss my E30 most days.
Thanks Mark! I follow your 2002 with real interest too. I'd absolutely love to have a bash with a 2002 (as I would with many things) but not willing to let the E30 go to do it. That would, sadly, be a necessity. Car still looks great. I still miss my E30 most days.
Not wasted any time getting this resolved. After some more 'research' it seems I'm not the first victim to one-piece polybushes for the control arms. And as I've highlighted earlier, the 2-piece Powerflex design is flawed. So I may move to adjustable rose-jointed mounts instead in the near future. Nevertheless, bushes have been pressed out, housings drilled & tapped, pressed back in correctly and m8 8.8 grade set screws fitted. Car should be back on its wheels at the weekend.
Time for another long overdue update.
So I see my previous post was about fixing the lower control arm bushings rotating in the housings. That problem is gone. The next day out was at the BMW car club day at Anglesey in September. Did 140 miles there before calling it a day so I could drive home on tyres with tread that was now barely legal. Made a point of doing longer sessions too and ran for up to 40 minutes straight at times, with all temps staying stable and brakes still working perfectly.
Next day out was an RMA day at Donington at the end of October. What a difference overtaking on both sides makes! Made for a very smooth flowing track - for the whole thirty minutes or so I got from it.
Second session, at WOT in 4th on the pull up the hill from the old hairpin, there was a massive bang. I immediately feared the worst but quickly realised I still had brakes, steering and power. It was gears I didn't have and...yes...my knob had gone very floppy. Stuck in 4th, I got it back to the paddock and upon inspection, the shift linkage had been smashed apart. Seems one of the nuts holding on the gearbox cross-member had dropped off (missed that!) allowing the prop to swing around more than it should on and off power and it had clearly taken out the shift linkage. Simple failure - but a repair that needed the exhaust and prop to be dropped for access so this became the first recovery home I've had since starting out.
So winter repairs, fresh MOT and first day out of 2022 was at Oulton Park at the beginning of May. I booked on a road car only day, mainly as the date was convenient but it transpired that only 20 cars had booked on and one of them had gone home early after failing the noise test. Cue lots and lots of clear track and 170 fault free track miles covered. Video showed I was covering laps consistently at around 2:04 which has me wondering what the car has in it with a better driver, a shorter final drive (don't even use fifth, but it kinda wants it before island if I get a good exit out of cascades) and a jump from 195 to 215 wide rubber! For an old saloon car, it does alright.
Some footage of completely clear track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn_-WKNQMv4
However I am now considering the future. This car is great on track, but I am doing around 5 days a year and that's pretty much all it gets used for. Plus trackdays and fuel aren't getting any cheaper. So I'm wondering about getting into sim racing or picking up something for doing a reduced number of trackdays in, but is quite pleasant to drive on the road too - and that the missus will like. A Cayman or Z4 or something maybe. Thoughts welcome, of course. In the meantime, I'm still going to smashing this around tracks for the rest of this year at least though!
So I see my previous post was about fixing the lower control arm bushings rotating in the housings. That problem is gone. The next day out was at the BMW car club day at Anglesey in September. Did 140 miles there before calling it a day so I could drive home on tyres with tread that was now barely legal. Made a point of doing longer sessions too and ran for up to 40 minutes straight at times, with all temps staying stable and brakes still working perfectly.
Next day out was an RMA day at Donington at the end of October. What a difference overtaking on both sides makes! Made for a very smooth flowing track - for the whole thirty minutes or so I got from it.
Second session, at WOT in 4th on the pull up the hill from the old hairpin, there was a massive bang. I immediately feared the worst but quickly realised I still had brakes, steering and power. It was gears I didn't have and...yes...my knob had gone very floppy. Stuck in 4th, I got it back to the paddock and upon inspection, the shift linkage had been smashed apart. Seems one of the nuts holding on the gearbox cross-member had dropped off (missed that!) allowing the prop to swing around more than it should on and off power and it had clearly taken out the shift linkage. Simple failure - but a repair that needed the exhaust and prop to be dropped for access so this became the first recovery home I've had since starting out.
So winter repairs, fresh MOT and first day out of 2022 was at Oulton Park at the beginning of May. I booked on a road car only day, mainly as the date was convenient but it transpired that only 20 cars had booked on and one of them had gone home early after failing the noise test. Cue lots and lots of clear track and 170 fault free track miles covered. Video showed I was covering laps consistently at around 2:04 which has me wondering what the car has in it with a better driver, a shorter final drive (don't even use fifth, but it kinda wants it before island if I get a good exit out of cascades) and a jump from 195 to 215 wide rubber! For an old saloon car, it does alright.
Some footage of completely clear track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn_-WKNQMv4
However I am now considering the future. This car is great on track, but I am doing around 5 days a year and that's pretty much all it gets used for. Plus trackdays and fuel aren't getting any cheaper. So I'm wondering about getting into sim racing or picking up something for doing a reduced number of trackdays in, but is quite pleasant to drive on the road too - and that the missus will like. A Cayman or Z4 or something maybe. Thoughts welcome, of course. In the meantime, I'm still going to smashing this around tracks for the rest of this year at least though!
So Oulton Park on 5th of May was pretty epic.
98 DB static means my car is all good for road car only days. Seems they aren't heavily subscribed with only 20 cars on the day. I had so much clear track all day, it was unbelievable. And the weather was great. The dream!
Couple of back to back laps. No data this time, been having issues with Racechrono:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn_-WKNQMv4&t=...
I did 170 track miles at this sort of pace over the course of the day and the car was perfect for all of them. Can't grumble at that! It did however drink rather a lot of fuel...
So I have another road car only day at Oulton Park on 30th June. But as per my previous post...yeah, this car has now been posted for sale on various outlets. That's it. I've committed, the end of an era is nigh...
98 DB static means my car is all good for road car only days. Seems they aren't heavily subscribed with only 20 cars on the day. I had so much clear track all day, it was unbelievable. And the weather was great. The dream!
Couple of back to back laps. No data this time, been having issues with Racechrono:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn_-WKNQMv4&t=...
I did 170 track miles at this sort of pace over the course of the day and the car was perfect for all of them. Can't grumble at that! It did however drink rather a lot of fuel...
So I have another road car only day at Oulton Park on 30th June. But as per my previous post...yeah, this car has now been posted for sale on various outlets. That's it. I've committed, the end of an era is nigh...
So my time with this car finishes with another faultless day at Oulton Park!
Took the father in law this time. He's being wanting to check out this car for years so taking him on an actual trackday in it seemed a fitting send off. He had a great day! Got the full experience too, with a dry day in the morning and managed to get a big sideways moment in the wet after lunch
No pics or videos this time, apart from a couple of flybys he took from the pit wall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPUhfGGFuOM
Edit: Pistonheads advert now live: https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/13585517
Took the father in law this time. He's being wanting to check out this car for years so taking him on an actual trackday in it seemed a fitting send off. He had a great day! Got the full experience too, with a dry day in the morning and managed to get a big sideways moment in the wet after lunch
No pics or videos this time, apart from a couple of flybys he took from the pit wall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPUhfGGFuOM
shalmaneser said:
Link?
I don't think I can post a for sale link on here without it being removed by mods? Feel free to pm me if you want details though! Or via Instagram, @ganglyboffinEdit: Pistonheads advert now live: https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/13585517
Alfred Pina said:
Great driving. The car looks like good fun! I have seen it for sale and I didn't realise there was a thread on here about it. I must admit, you've built a very compelling package. I'd love to own it, but I just don't get out on track enough.
Have you decided what you are going to buy next?
Thanks so much! I'm looking to get into a 987.1 Cayman S but looking for the 'right' one. They are great do drive as they come and with only light mods should be fantastic for the 2-3 trackdays I'm likely to do a year as well as being a nice thing for our (regular) trips to Scotland etc. Have you decided what you are going to buy next?
Edited by motorhole on Friday 1st July 15:25
Well, the end of an era comes.
Yesterday marked the end of my 13 years with this E30 as it was taken to a new home. Hopefully soon to be seen smashing round Castle Combe in the very near future!
It has been a great 13 years. In fact, I've spent about 15 years of my life with E30s so it does feel strange being without one once more. It was hard not to shed a tear when it drove away, but I very much reassured it was in the hands of someone else who would continue to use it as intended with the due care it deserves. I'm never going to forget it for sure.
The search for a suitable 987 continues.
Yesterday marked the end of my 13 years with this E30 as it was taken to a new home. Hopefully soon to be seen smashing round Castle Combe in the very near future!
It has been a great 13 years. In fact, I've spent about 15 years of my life with E30s so it does feel strange being without one once more. It was hard not to shed a tear when it drove away, but I very much reassured it was in the hands of someone else who would continue to use it as intended with the due care it deserves. I'm never going to forget it for sure.
The search for a suitable 987 continues.
So last week, I bought this.
It's a 2007 987.1 Cayman S in guards red, 72k miles. I've been looking for a little while; this was the 6th I'd looked at and the third I drove and it was a significantly better example than all of the others I'd looked at before.
So I guess this permanently closes the thread on my E30! And I've started a new one on the Cayman here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
It's a 2007 987.1 Cayman S in guards red, 72k miles. I've been looking for a little while; this was the 6th I'd looked at and the third I drove and it was a significantly better example than all of the others I'd looked at before.
So I guess this permanently closes the thread on my E30! And I've started a new one on the Cayman here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
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