Dj's 1999 M3 Project

[D_Eclipse9916]

Just realized that I never updated this with a few missing events. Since this is really good for me to keep track of. Also, I forgot to post about my nationals experience!!!

NASA Nationals 2011 Update:

This event takes place at Mid-Ohio from September 8th-11th. The car changed very little from the Summit August Event, with little changes such as an oil change/fuel filter and new Bimmerworld Premium Studs. I had had a problem during Hyperfest with Wheel Studs. I broke 1 off one side, so I swapped in a new hub (cause stud was stuck in hub) off Mike D'Amicos car and had her ready for the next morning. I brake a stud off the other side for Sunday, incredibly frustrating to say the least. I guessed it was just 1.5 year old studs. So I replaced all of the studs with new bimmerworld...turns out that was not the problem. More on that later.

For nationals, I was lucky enough to recruit the help of Mike D'Amico. First of all, he is an extremely good friend, Second, an extremely good wrencher. He has pretty much been there for everything I have done to my car, and I trust him 100% to work on my car. For Nationals.. I brought EVERYTHING!
2 sets of 245 R6s
One set of 245 A6s
One set of 245 Hoosier Rains
One set of Dunlop Direzzas
One set of RS3s
And every spare part in the world, along with all the tools imagineable.

The truck and race car were filled to the brim!

As we woke up for the first day, it was raining. Bummer! Headed to the track, and it was no better. My first session turned almost dangerous as I could barely see out my windshield how hard it was raining. With no prior knowledge of Mid-Ohio, I was not happy to be trying to learn a track in the rain. Wht a bad way to start nationals!

1st Session: 2:31.5, Current Place: 3rd.

As we neared the second (only 2 sessions a day, aside from saturday that would have 3), the rain clouds started to whisk away, but the track was soaking. So I determined that with the bad weather, Thursday would just have to be viewed as a practice day. Adjusted the wing for a bit more downforce and went for a practice session
Picture Break:





After the session, I was required to go to the weigh-in. I would call this home after the Nationals weekend, getting sent there 7 seperate times by the officials.




The next morning...pouring rain! Argh! Not getting much luck here. But during the TT meeting in the morning, the sun popped up. A drying track is better than a wet track. So I proceded throw on my R6s. Reason being is I thought I would have plenty more chances to try with my A6s that have more grip. Not many pictures of the morning session.
The grip was much better now, but still a little wet. However, I was able to finally get some time in on the track that I could actually see! This is where I tell people, Autocross is a HUGE advantage to road racing as well. When you have ever-changing track conditions, an autocrosser, used to having to learn new tracks/layouts quick will still be fast in these times. I set down a 1:38.5. Only .4 seconds off the previous track record. Not bad for a drying track. So off course, sent to impound......to weigh for the 3rd time already, in as many sessions.

Unfortunately the day would be on and off with rain all day. Weather was miserable to prepare in; but I was determined to get in my track time. Went out again on a drying track. Much more grip this time! Good! Wait...whoops...Hit some curbing pretty hard and come in off the track with a rubbing splitter. I had been using a dibond splitter I had gotten off Eric wong with little support. I should not have expected it to last.
I was greeted with great news! The last session of the day Friday I was able to pull off a 1:37.752. This put us in a great mood! Despite a destroyed splitter I had bested the record by almost a half a second! Obviously...impound...again! No surprise there. This time I would be both weighed, and the car fully gone through. Techs were on their hands and knees, under the hood, looking around. I would pass! yes!

After the great news, and the sun was "slightly" shining, we thought, why not? Lets create a splitter now? Only half the event over (I thought I had clinched the whole event but I always try for more).

In pure MM fashion, you have to get creative! Off to Home Depot. A quick look around and I found what I was looking for... The start of my "High tech pressurized organic composite splitter" according to Rex .
First we had to grind off some bolt heads that had literally been shaven off in the incident...


Scott Blair helping me out with his allen keys...



Then, out came the measurements... We decided if 2 inches was good, 4.5 was even better







And more power tool work, cutting to fit, and then drilling for reinforcement holes.




Great success!!!!




Thats all for update 1. Update of Saturday/Sunday coming shortly...