GTS3 E46 - Back to fun

[D_Eclipse9916]

In 2014, I made the choice to jump out of GTS for many reasons, but mainly was to see if I could keep up with the "spec guys". I wanted to see if I could still be good competition in a Spec Class with tougher drivers and builds. I did so, and after 3 Did Not Finish because of engine issues and a bad battery, I was able to accrue 4x 1st place finishes and 3x 2nd place finishes. The car never was right until the last couple races, but I honestly wasn't having fun. The Spec Group of Drivers have egos the size of Earth and I wasn't having as much fun.

I was reached out in the summer of 2015 by a guy with a GTS3 car and after deliberating after one more race weekend of the Spec car; decided to jump back to GTS.

The history of the car starts with TCKline in World Challenge. It is a body-in-white E46 325i built out using the original aluminum motor. They campaigned it 6 or 7 years (and has the original SCCA Pro Racing stickers still on the cage). Cage by McMahon, AP Pedal Setup, Triple Adjustable Motons, AP Air Jacks (bling!), blade-style sway bars front and rear, built 3.91, carbon fiber hood/trunk, lexan windows, electric power steering and plenty of Carbon Fiber bits in places. When the E46 got a face-lift, so did this E46 and was converted to the face-lift.

Details are hard-to-find but I do have original documentation and some cool spec sheets from the car in the trailer. Ill upload them when I get a chance.






After World Challenge, it was converted to GTS. A 40k mile old S54 was thrown in along with a remote oil filter housing setup, Epic Headers, standalone MK60 ABS, E46 M3 fenders/bumper, and flared rears. It does have an AIM MXL, and plenty of switches to make a man happy.






As you can see, the wiring is a mess, and the interior is very dirty. A refresh is planned this winter.

Before that, however, I decided to "try" out the car at October VIR. One 15 minute session for warmup and then qualifying/race. :lol: I kept my expectations low with a new car, and some old R7s.

Practice went alright, but yikes, this car would be a handful. The tires were a little worse off than I thought, and the balance of the car was all off. I made some major changes to the shocks and adjusted more wing in.



Qualifying came an hour later. Went out, having issues with the brakes just not slowing, and balance at mid-corner was just awful. 15 minutes flew by again. At VIR, this means 3-4 laps, not much time for set up. Ended up 3rd out of 13 drivers, which was a shock. Cannot complain! Again, I tempered my expectations with the car I had. With a total of 6-7 laps under my belt, I was still taking it easy trying to get a feel. Once again I made more shock adjustments and swapped out the front pads tto a more aggressive pad given the braking issues I had.



How'd the race go? Well not off to a good start. The pedals are offset ocmpared to the stock setup, and on the start of the race, I slammed down the brake pedal instead of the clutch pedal and dropped from 3rd to 6th entering the brake zone of Turn 1. Under braking I squeezed through and popped back into 5th place. Exiting Turn 1 I pushed Jim Khoury in 4th place to help get clear of the guy battling with me for 6th place. Entering turn 3 I stayed tight until braking then popped wide and passed Khoury on the outside and completed entering turn 4.

I was now in 4th right behind Steve Fiore. Tried to pass exiting the lower-esses as I had more exit speed but did not have enough speed (down on power, more later) to finish before the lower-esses. In a car I was more comfortable with I might have pushed it, but I let Fiore go and followed him through till Oak Tree where I got alongside and had better exit enough to get past him. Unfortunately down on power, he powered by on the straight and I had to make a very deep braking maneuver to get by him in the braking zone to top of rollercoaster.

Now in 3rd, I had to catch Vernon McClure and Eric Wong. They had made up some distance while I battled to get back by 5th, 4th and 3rd place. It took about 1.5 laps before I was able to catch them in some traffic up the uphill esses and using the exit speed got alongside Wonger from oak tree braking to exit. Again, down on power, Vernon and Eric got away but was able to make back up the differential in rollercoaster, and although they again got some speed down the front straight; they hit traffic into turn 1. I jumped in a hole and caught Vernon by surprise on the inside and completed the pass to be behind Eric Wong.

Now in 2nd place behind Eric Wong, I had to make something stick in the corners as I was down on power on the straights. On the next lap I was able to pass him using the outside of the uphill esses (oh my!). Unfortunately once we got to the back straight he passed back by. I just kept hounding him poking my bumper in holes seeing where I could get by. On the next lap into Oak Tree, Eric and I came up on traffic a little too quickly. Eric darted right under braking and went for a spin, and I was able to hold it on track and kept going.

1st race 1st win! And with the fastest lap of the race as well!

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/NASA_Mid_Atlantic_Region/2015%20-%20Official%20Results/October%202015%20-%20VIR%20OktoberFast/Sat%20Oct%2010%20Thunder%20Race%20(AI,%20AIX,%20CMC,%20GTS2-5,%20HC1,%20PT-D,%20SpecE46,%20ST2,%20SU">http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/NASA ... 0ST2,%20SU</a><!-- m -->).pdf

Unfortunately for the 2nd race, a ballast brick let loose into the back of my seat and cut an ABS wire. 50lbs of flying steel finally caught my nerve enough to pull in and save myself. :lol:

During the fun race Sunday I couldnt help myself and went for a ride into the dirt and bumped a tire wall. Damage is cosmetic but I shouldn't have tried "a couple more mph that I was able to do in my gts2 car" on old tires and a bad setup.
Already picked up replacement parts, and lots more upgrades over the off-season to get the car right.



Lastly, I am glad I jumped back in. The car is way more fun, the people are better and I just enjoyed myself a lot more. And that's what it is all about!

[SlimKlim]

I sat in this and made racecar noises yesterday, the clutch pedal is heavier than you can imagine. Think 1967 GTO but 1/8th the pedal travel.

It's a sweet car though, very cool that it was a body-in-white from the factory. Looking forward to seeing her come back together.

[D_Eclipse9916]

F$%^ that clutch. As bad as a 997 cup car. No slip, you spin the wheels to get the car going in 1st.

[navin]

This will the 3rd (I think) race car DJ said he is going to "pretty up" over the winter... Gonna start taking bets to see if it will actually be done

[JPolen01]

Please tell us plebians wtf a "body-in-white from the factory" is.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Please tell us plebians wtf a "body-in-white from the factory" is.

Also, looking forward to watching GTS 3 races now! Knowing the people racing always gives cars going by every ~3 minutes some relevance :lol: :thumbup:

[SlimKlim]

"Body-in-White" is when the factory just sells a naked body with the intention of it being turned into a race car. DJ's doesn't have a VIN so he can never register it to drive on the street.

[D_Eclipse9916]

This will the 3rd (I think) race car DJ said he is going to "pretty up" over the winter... Gonna start taking bets to see if it will actually be done

Hey douche, I cleaned up the GTS2 car right before sale in the winter:


I also will have less projects as the LS1/M3 is "near" done and no plans on replacing it with another project.

[Jake]

I love reading these write-ups of how races go... because it sounds like I'm just listening to DJ talk and the same sense of excitement comes through in words. Cool car and I love how it's been a racecar from day one - lot of history behind it.

[ScottyB]

totally cool. awesome job on the maiden voyage DJ!

i think this may be the first "pure racecar" owned by an MMer? as far as i know nobody has owned a body-in-white car or something that came from the factory specifically to be put in competition.

[BLINGMW]

Excellent

[Senor_Taylor]

I was wondering when this would come around. You always post teasers on Facebook so people like me who aren't completely in "the know" are confused as hell as to why you're driving whatever you're driving this week.

[Beej]

Was waiting for this thread. Great read - sounds like the car has had a helluva life! Kinda funny to see a few random non-M bits on it.

Electric power steering is interesting - only reason I can imagine is one less pulley on the motor? How's it feel? And what's up with that shifter/what transmission is in there?

Glad to hear you're back in it and having fun!

Most importantly, what color is it gonna be?

[Goodspeed]

Most importantly, what color is it gonna be?

The current scheme is perfect, because orange

[D_Eclipse9916]

Most importantly, what color is it gonna be?

The current scheme is perfect, because orange

Current scheme is going away. Sorry!

Alpine White is the way to go

[WRXtranceformed]

That's pretty epic to up and buy someone else's car and then turn hot times in it, speaks volumes to your racing ability. Looking forward to seeing the progress on this thing and good to hear you found a racing group that is more fun.

[PDenbigh]

That's awesome DJ! Great work on both the car and the Day 1 adventure. That's going to be a fantastic machine for you!

[D_Eclipse9916]

That's awesome DJ! Great work on both the car and the Day 1 adventure. That's going to be a fantastic machine for you!

When are you going to give in and come racing with us! We need more flame-spitting merkurs, hell we need at least one

13 people in the last race...

[D_Eclipse9916]

While Rj's broken Audi was up on the lift, I took the time to do a small bit of cleaning and just looking over the car. I kept having to run inside for work, and ended up eating my afternoon as well. Still got some time to pull the orange vinyl off the hood, fender, one door and the trunk. I also realized the aftermarket taillights I bought from ebay don't even have close fitment. Strange, usually they fit, just dont light up 1/2 the time!

Once the wife and I got dinner, I went back out and mounted up the fender, pulled off the bumper and splitter to realign them after the bump, and test-fitted my NT03Ms. Previous owner was using 18x9.5 +35 Apex ARC-8s with massive 20mm spacers all the way around. The NT03M are 18x10 +22 offset and fit great out back with no spacer. Up front they BARELY touched the shock, but fit much better within the fender. Ordered some 5mm spacers and voila! They fit, with room to spare.




It is multi-colored hell, but a small alignment of the front toe and a new rear trunk (my new uprights didnt come in time) shall have me ready for VIR this weekend for testing.

[D_Eclipse9916]

There was also a group buy going on for Apex ARC-8 wheels so I bought a set of Apex ARC-8s, this time in 18x10 +25. The 9.5s will be relegated to rain tire status

Dat Concave Doe!