Das Race: My '97 M3/4/5

[.RJ]

You need all of NoVA MM to come shout & heckle at you while getting out of the car.

[JustinG]

Quick Tip:
Do not throw your steering wheel up onto the dash. Cost the dude in the white 911 a windshield last season. I know in a real situation it doesn't matter, but would suck to do it during practice.

Also, if you can remember, take a hand and push your HANS up against your helmet when exiting. Numerous folks got tied up when exiting cause their HANS got caught up on the seat head restraints.

[Jake]

Quick Tip:
Do not throw your steering wheel up onto the dash. Cost the dude in the white 911 a windshield last season. I know in a real situation it doesn't matter, but would suck to do it during practice.

Also, if you can remember, take a hand and push your HANS up against your helmet when exiting. Numerous folks got tied up when exiting cause their HANS got caught up on the seat head restraints.

Used both of these tips last night when practicing while Jay timed me. Managed to get out the door (with eyesight) in 6 seconds, out the window in 9, and out the door with my visor taped up in 7.2.

Ordered two sets of tires this morning. Going with a set of Hankook RS3's on closeout as my street/summer/rain tire, and a set of BFG R1 as my race setup. I still have the old R1's that DJ gave me as backup, but they are so old I suspect there won't be much grip to be had.

I went with the R1 instead of the R1S because I was told they last a lot longer, at the expense of ultimate extreme grip. I'm a cheapass so that sounded like a good plan for the time being.

[Jake]

Tires are all mounted! Shameless plug (and thank you) to Gary and Raj at Martin Motorsports for being my tire guys.



Joey came over on Saturday and we got most of the "button it up" tasks accomplished:

• Oil change
  
• Transmission fluid change (Redline D4 ATF)
  
• Differential fluid change (Redline 75W-90)
  
• ASC resistor soldered in place - keeps the ABS working with ASC removal
  
• New corner light to replace the cracked one
  
• New windshield wipers(!!) - first time ever putting a set on the car after dealing with smeary awfulness the last 3.5 years.

I still haven't installed the M50 manifold. My dyno day is on Friday so I need to figure that out like... tonight.

Also, big big props to Scott for mentioning the garden sprayer in Ryan's Miata thread. I picked up a generic "HDX" brand from Home Depot for $9 and it worked wonders for the transmission and diff fluids.

[Jake]

I decided to ignore the M50 manifold and just see how the stock S52 intake manifold could perform. Took today off of work, still got up far too early, and loaded up the trailer to see a FlimFlam about some speed.

Back in 2015, I had the car at Mach V for some pulls (required for TT classing). It made 206 whp and 212 wtq at the time, with a fully stock exhaust. I've since done a "headers-back" exhaust so... midpipe and catback, now with no cats of course.

Dyno today? 220.5 whp and 231.6 wtq. Pretty amazed and the motor is certainly healthy. The power curve still sucks (it falls off at 5,500 rpm and pulls back up a bit shortly thereafter) which I believe to be a dying VANOS. Definitely need to fix that.

My plan is to fix the VANOS and get 'er over to Mach V before the March event, so I can get some pulls with the restrictor plates. My dumb ass left them at home when I went to Richmond today, so I effectively got a baseline and that's it. Oops.

[youtube]JXfoHWbxUd0[/youtube]

[Jake]

I'm dropping the car off with Deren at Mach V tomorrow evening so he can put the finishing touches on prep work. Work is fairly busy right now so I'm having a hard time getting another whole day off so soon after the last one. I'll install the restrictor plate tonight and take the car over after work tomorrow.

He will be doing...

• Another set of dyno pulls, this time restricted
  
• Alignment
  
• Basic weigh-in - no corner-balance but a baseline weight
  
• 2017 annual tech inspection

[Jake]

Deren worked his magic and all is (mostly) well now.

I ran dyno pulls with both the 52mm and 55mm restrictor plates and ended up at roughly 214 hp (55mm) and 206 hp (52mm) compared to 227 hp unrestricted. Those numbers are all peak, not average. Average tends to be a few HP less (5-6) and my data indicates that as well. I need to run all the numbers through the GTS calculator to see the weight numbers it spits out.

The car weighed 3200 lbs on the nose with half a tank of fuel, the front windows in place, and the 71 lbs of ballast in the trunk from last season's TT minimums. I suspect I can easily get 150-200 lbs out of it but going lower than that may be difficult.

He also aligned the car:

Front
Caster: 6*
Camber: -3.2*
Toe: -0.03" (per side)

Rear
Camber: -2*
Toe: 0.05" (per side)

I was fighting an understeer issue, and the car had less front caster/more front camber. So, we reversed the two which should help with initial turn-in.

The dyno graphs all show the same icky power drop that I faced a few years ago. I'm guessing it's the never-rebuilt-at-155k-miles VANOS so I will have to get that fixed. Hopefully can take care of it before March. If not, I'll shift at 6k and call it good until I can rip it apart.

Seems like I'm in a pretty decent place for the time being.

[ScottyB]

sounds healthy! glad you could confirm that VANOS tomfoolery via dyno which will keep you from having to throw too much $$ at chasing missing horsies. interesting about the understeer problem, caster should give you more "dynamic" camber under heavy steering angles too, so maybe that can help as well? has it always understeered or just been more prevalent as you have no progressed to driving harder as a driver?

[Jake]

sounds healthy! glad you could confirm that VANOS tomfoolery via dyno which will keep you from having to throw too much $$ at chasing missing horsies. interesting about the understeer problem, caster should give you more "dynamic" camber under heavy steering angles too, so maybe that can help as well? has it always understeered or just been more prevalent as you have no progressed to driving harder as a driver?

It's been a little plow-y for a while, and I think become more prevalent as I've progressed. Definitely has had the tendency for the last season or so.

He claimed the factory spec for caster on these cars is about 7* so it's still "off" a bit. I can get more by installing different control arm "lollipop" bushings. The car currently has bushings with a centered hole, but the 1995's used a bushing with an offset hole. That'll help but require another alignment.

Honestly, the horsies aren't exactly missing with the bad VANOS, they're just a bit lazy for 500 rpm or so Power is right where it should be, but the powerband sucks a little.

[Jake]

After running across the scales at Mach V, I needed to pull some weight out.I spent Saturday helping my friend Jay rebuild the entire front end of his E46 325i (only hit my finger with a sledge once!) so Sunday morning was devoted to weight loss.

Things I pulled:

• Steel ballast plates that I had installed in the trunk (~57 lbs)
  
• Front windows (22 lbs - car was weighed with them mounted)
  
• Various plastics left scattered throughout the trunk
  
• Sound system harness that runs from dash to trunk/parcel shelf
  
• Radio antenna wiring that runs from the back glass to the dash
  
• Door sill plastics
  
• Dynamat that had been stuck to the parcel shelf several owners ago, when the car had "a system, yo"

I'm estimating I pulled about 95-100 lbs out of the car, and the total I'd like to remove is around 150. Everything that I don't know the weight of was saved and put in a box, so I can weigh it at my apartment's gym (because I am cheap and don't own a scale).

I still need to pull the rear window regulators and the window tracks on all four doors. Regulators are about 5.5 lbs each, so plucking the rears will save another 11 lbs. The car also still has all of the factory sound deadening "tar," so I need to get some dry ice or a heat gun and get cracking. That could be another easy 20-30 lbs based on what the internet claims.

With the regulators removed, I plan on securing the rear window glass with some simple S-hooks made out of aluminum stock.

[Jeff]

I've got a plasma cutter if you want to start cutting metal out!

[Jake]

I've got a plasma cutter if you want to start cutting metal out!

That sounds far more sophisticated than the angle grinder I was going to use! I may end up cutting away some of the insides of the doors, but not sure yet.

[.RJ]

Next winter get really crazy with pulling stuff out, and then ballast in the floor/trunk to get back up to weight

[ScottyB]

i know nothing of weight loss, so how do you guys secure your ballast so that if you hit something, it doesn't come loose and turn the inside of your car into a meat blender?

[JustinG]

i know nothing of weight loss, so how do you guys secure your ballast so that if you hit something, it doesn't come loose and turn the inside of your car into a meat blender?

Zipties.

DJ had a bolt sheer off on one of his ballast plates....def something you dont wanna F around with.

[Jake]

I was using giant bolts with yuge fender washers. It also helped that my ballast was all in the trunk, and the trunk is fully blocked off from the passenger compartment due to the lack of folding rear seat option.

[SlimKlim]

i know nothing of weight loss, so how do you guys secure your ballast so that if you hit something, it doesn't come loose and turn the inside of your car into a meat blender?

Fantastic imagery. :lol:

[D_Eclipse9916]

i know nothing of weight loss, so how do you guys secure your ballast so that if you hit something, it doesn't come loose and turn the inside of your car into a meat blender?

Zipties.

DJ had a bolt sheer off on one of his ballast plates....def something you dont wanna F around with.

Actually it was the previous owner of my car used regular nuts and bolts....

With the vibration of race cars the nut "vibrated" itself loose. It was my first event with the car and just picked it up. This was before I realized how big of a POS this thing was.

Always always always use large washers (I tend to like to make big backing plates that act as ballast themselves) and I like to use Nyloc nuts to reduce the chance of vibration loosening them up.

Really succked to have a 25lber smack my cage under braking, then hit the ABS wires severing them instantly and me thinking a wheel fell off under braking :lol:

[Jake]

Brandon came by yesterday evening to get help installing some b00sty bits on his 335xiGTWTFBBQ. I figured I couldn't help get stuff done on his car and not do anything to mine first, so Joey came over around 10:30 and we got more #GTSprep accomplished.

I bought a strip of aluminum stock, and Joey made some "S" brackets to hold my front windows up in transport. Easier and tighter than the 2x4s I had been experimenting with.

While he was working on those, I busted out the heat gun and ripped up all of the sound deadening tar. It actually came up really easily and left no residue to deal with. Everyone online says this job is miserable, and other than contorting myself around the cage, it wasn't bad. Heat gun + plastic scraper was the magic potion. I'm surprised by how heavy my "discard box" of tar is.



Joey also took some measurements and made an aluminum panel to replace my center console with. It really cleaned up the wiring and got another pound or so out of the car. I still need to paint and install it, so for now I just have a photo of Joey measuring thrice and cutting once:



Thanks for all the help

He left and Brandon came over for help installing a bigger intercooler and different charge pipe. Definitely a learning experience for the both of us. He's got plenty of photos to share (get yer own build thread, kid) but the highlight was the dead bird falling out of the bumper and almost nailing me in the face as we removed the stock intercooler :thumbup:

[SlimKlim]

"Here we see the Joey in it's natural habitat, dremel in hand"