GTS3 E46 - Back to fun

[ScottyB]

those wheels are lovely. looking forward to seeing this beast all together!

[Beej]

I bought a set of Apex ARC-8s, this time in 18x10 +25. The 9.5s will be relegated to rain tire status

I obviously approve! Silver?

Mine are 9.5" et35 with 275's, -3 degrees of camber in the front. Doing simple math...you're 10mm further out on offset, plus 0.25" of extra width on each side of the offset. I don't think I'd have room for more ~.75" or so of tire, and I'm guessing you're going even wider on Hoosiers? Fender work, I guess? What kind of camber usually works on track?

[*insertusernamehere*]

[D_Eclipse9916]

New wheels came in.... sessy sessy!


Can't wait to see these mounted up next year.

Learned a lot at the November VIR event. Somewhat out of the ordinary since it as an HPDE only event, but a great weekend to get a bit more comfortable with the car. I had a lot of fun instructing my friend Kristin and taking my time going out for sessions. It was a great way to play with shocks, tire pressure, sway bars, wing level, and brake bias to see how the car reacted to certain changes.

Unfortunately I also discovered issues....
AIM was not working at October VIR with NASA but I fixed it for this event and was only doing 128-130mph down the backstraight (that's the same speed my gts2 car was). I then took my friend Jim's GTS3 car out and confirmed my fears of being down on power.


I am 10-12mph slow on the backstraight. Going to run a leak-down test to make sure the motor is good. If it is, a simple retune by Randy will have me back ready to go. I wanted to retune anyway for a higher HP in GTS3, and MAX power for TT3.

I also had to get use to whatever differential is in this car. It has high lockup on accel and decel causing the car to buck. It probably was fine on low grip tires, but when I threw on some nicer scrubs for the audi event, it became a mess. Binding and popping on exit that was costing me serious time. Ordering a DiffsOnline Diff with all the goodies that were in my gts2 and SpecE46 car. Should solve that issue easily.



I am also awaiting a wew wing setup from Brooks Motorsport Composites. The trunk mount broke the carbon fiber trunk, luckily a friend was parting with his so I have a replacement CF trunk, but the wing will now be mounted to the chasssis.

Lastly, deciding on a paint/vinyl scheme. The car has had a rough life (road racing since 2001). Once I pulled off the orange vinyl, I realized why they vinyled. It would be stupid expensive to have everything fixed in paint, so I am thinking a simple vinyl scheme. I am thinking of something simple like below. White coverage, with the M stripes from corner to corner. Simply add sponsor decals and numbers and be done.

Also considering maybe a blue or red coverage. Gloss this time..

[D_Eclipse9916]

Car has been sitting around collecting dust while I finished up the LS1/M3 project and projects around the house.
Time for some act right:



Pulled the rest of the vinyl off and found vinyl...under the vinyl... This vinyl sucks, old and leaving residue even with the heat gun.



Since it was down on power I also did a leakdown test. All results were good (after dealing with a faulty fitting for my compressor). Motor is fairly clean, but has an oil filter housing gasket leak. Ordered the $5 gasket and won't take long to replace.



Moving on to the brakes, I did an inspection of the brakes and found a cracked rotor on the right side. As I was wiggling, I also noticed the suspension wiggling. Turns out a bolt was backing out of the subframe that holds the control arm to the car. I did a nut and bolt before the last event, so it was loosening up between then. I pulled that bolt out (and the corresponding one on the other side), cleaned up the threads, reinstalled with loctite and double nut.

I also replaced the rotor, unfortunately they are custom so costing me $135 a pop each rotor. As I was ordering those, I dreaded looking up pad prices for the front and rear race BBKs. Turns out it uses the same caliper as a lot of circle track and NASCAR teams so pads are dirt cheap (ebay search turned out LOTS of $50-$100 set of brand new pads for Performance Friction). The pads are usually $250-300 per axle for stock calipers, so this offsets the increase in rotor cost.



I also pulled the side windows, gutter "trim", and the dash. In doing so, found the Balance Bar Adjuster broken. Hence why I wasn't getting the desired changes when I was testing on track. Used Race Car problems..



The car is ready for bodywork now and I just need to find a good bodyshop to do it.

[Mike]

you had me at "double nut."

[Beej]

Looks great! You can really tell how much work was done to those rear fenders - they started out life as non-M, right?

I realize looking cool is just a close second to going fast, but...if the double vinyl is that much of a pain in the ass, I'd bet that silver OE side skirts wouldn't be too hard to find?

That's good news that the leakdown results were solid. Any other ideas on why it's down on power?

[D_Eclipse9916]

Looks great! You can really tell how much work was done to those rear fenders - they started out life as non-M, right?

I realize looking cool is just a close second to going fast, but...if the double vinyl is that much of a pain in the ass, I'd bet that silver OE side skirts wouldn't be too hard to find?

That's good news that the leakdown results were solid. Any other ideas on why it's down on power?

I guess ill ask around see if I can find any sideskirts since these are actually 325i ones anyway and damaged (because machine screws are a brilliant idea when your clips are breaking.

[PDenbigh]

...I heard you like vinyl, so here's some vinyl under your vinyl so you can....

Super cool car regardless. Glad to hear leakdown was good. Lol at the balance bar cable fail. Keep up the progress!

[D_Eclipse9916]

Ordered up a new balance bar adjuster, going to get quotes on the bodywork this weekend and ordered some more pads for it.

Finally got this delivered but unsure I am going to use it. (Side exhaust) Its a 60lb penalty in class, but once I do this, I can flat bottom and diffuser the car. I figure I will wait till I get everything else done and see where I am. Also 8 gallons of Liquomoly and a case of brakleen for the season





List before March VIR
Outside Bodywork/Vinyl/Numbers
Epic Remote Tuning Session
Mount New Radio System
New Black Dash
Redo switches and electrical, a bit clumsy right now
New Splitter Standoffs
Get fuel tank level fixed
Mount new Chassis Wing
Mount SmartyCam
New door lever (hate the cable setup now)
New DiffsOnline Differential
Differential Pump Setup
Mount Ballast in different location
Alignment
Mount battery in new location


Trailer:
Bearings
A/C Service
Mount Tire Rack
Mount Nitrogen Bottle Rack


All in all nothing too crazy but its going to be down to the wire simply because of body work.

[Kaan]

DJ your lists always make me feel better... I either dont have much to do (not racing) or i'm a huge slacker... either way.

[.RJ]

Why is that exhaust such a big penalty?

[D_Eclipse9916]

DJ your lists always make me feel better... I either dont have much to do (not racing) or i'm a huge slacker... either way.

I have had the great idea of owning 3 race cars and building 2 of them in the same time frame you have been building an HPDE car. I have a skewed version of busy.


RJ, the hit is for side exhaust. Its stupid (they beleive you can get the car lower so better aero? We already take an aero penalty). So if I do decide to do it, I want to maximize all at once. My exhaust is fine for now and there is a LOT more things to do before then. I couldn't pass up the offer of free for a nicely built side exhaust.

[rherold9]

My list be like.

Change oil: maybe?
Look over Car: easy

Not looking forward to big boy racing at all in the maintenance category for the future



Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Kaan]

DJ your lists always make me feel better... I either dont have much to do (not racing) or i'm a huge slacker... either way.

I have had the great idea of owning 3 race cars and building 2 of them in the same time frame you have been building an HPDE car. I have a skewed version of busy.

:thumbup: your cars are always fast and well taken care of.... i cant say the same!

[D_Eclipse9916]

List before March VIR
Outside Bodywork/Vinyl/Numbers
Epic Remote Tuning Session
Mount New Radio System
New Black Dash
Redo switches and electrical, a bit clumsy right now
New Splitter Standoffs
Get fuel tank level fixed
Mount new Chassis Wing
Mount SmartyCam
New door lever (hate the cable setup now)
New DiffsOnline Differential
Differential Pump Setup
Mount Ballast in different location
Alignment
Mount battery in new location
.

Got some time last night to work on it. Also went to charlottesville and grabbed a black dash to replace the one currently in the car. It had holes for previous dash systems, antennas etc. Plus I hate gray dashes :lol:



Started prepping the car for a trip to the bodyshop last night and Chris (boobies) came by to help. Pulled off:
Front Windshield
Rear Windshield
Roof Channel Trim
Hood Vent
Headlights
Splitter hardware
M3 side vents
Sideskirts (being replaced with new ones)
Rear wing (new wing mounts should be here in next 2 weeks)

[*insertusernamehere*]

March VIR? You mean Road Atlanta? Or am I missing a date here...

[D_Eclipse9916]

March VIR? You mean Road Atlanta? Or am I missing a date here...

Road Atlanta, has been VIR for the past 10 years

[D_Eclipse9916]

SHIT, bodywork moves slow:

List before March VIR:
Outside Bodywork/Vinyl/Numbers
Epic Remote Tuning Session
Mount New Radio System
New Black Dash
Redo switches and electrical, a bit clumsy right now
New Splitter Standoffs
Get fuel tank level fixed
Mount new Chassis Wing
Mount SmartyCam
New door lever (hate the cable setup now)
New DiffsOnline Differential
Differential Pump Setup
Mount Ballast in different location
Alignment
Mount battery in new location

Quarter panel was fixed and this week the car was dropped off for the new paint job. I receive it back this Tuesday.


Diffsonline Differential came in, gotta install
Tuning Session setup February 24th
Chassis Wing Came in, gotta install!

And added a couple things to my list:
Front windshield fix, the previous owner did a lousy job and it produced a bubble, rivnutting it instead of rivetting to make it easy to pull for future work
Change Oil
Oil Filter Housing has a small leak, have gasket just need the car back
Install Coolsuit
Cap Brake Ducts
Test-Fit A7s on different offset wheels
Vinyl Roof Black
Fab trunnion mount for AP Bias Bar
Mount Diff Temp Sensor

[D_Eclipse9916]

After a FIASCO of everything, finally got the car from the body shop...Predictable color but yummm..



Got some time saturday to start assembling the body and got the differential put in. Still got plenty to do before going down Wednesday for tuning session.