Race Car V4.0 - Ground up

[D_Eclipse9916]

V4.0? Yes V4.0.  A Brief History. Warning: Not so brief!

V1.0 - Where it all started.  My GTS2 E36.  This car started as a street car bought in Harrisonburg (the one in foreground)
Fun Fact: I autocrossed this car the day after I bought it and blew out the power steering lines.  This was only the start!


I autocrossed it heavily and started tracking it just in HPDE for about a year.  Got my 1st Championship with Capital Driving Club as "Driver of the Year"  with lots of 1st place PAX finishes.  It was a fun street car, but some prodding from Jon Felton had me go Time Trialing in 2011.  



In 2011 I had a good year, winning lots of Regionals Time Trials and winning the 2011 NASA National Championship in TTC.  From there I caged the car and went racing.  Madison Motorsports has a lot of history with this car with a good prank on me using pink racer's tape of which I had no idea during the race.  I would be further pranked by being told I was DQed by NASA for it in my 1st ever win. Luckily it was a good joke and everyone had their laugh...and I got my first race win!



In 2012 I did very well and set multiple track records and lots of 1st place finishes.  I was excited for the NASA Championships, but ended up breaking on the first lap due to a failed part.  In 2013 the Championships were out West and I held off due to budget.  


I was having a lot fun and this car was solid as a rock. During a rain race I was solidly leading and decided to "have some fun" seeing how fast I could go around Summit in dorifto mode.  As you can imagine, it led to lots of fun, and then heartbreak.  I ended up getting too much angle in T10, hit the steering rack limiters and the wall.  


The not so fun


So for 2014 I went out there with a Raail Coating and did well.  2014 marked the end where I won the 2014 NASA Championship for GTS2 and promptly sold the car looking for a change.



Race Car V1.5 - Chump Car.  Fellow Madison Motorsporter Paul Galleron and I along with a GTS buddy of mine Donnie Weymer ran a Chump Car for about 4 events.  It was a lot of fun, but was exponentially more expensive than we expected to run.  Sold it off as I just had more fun running NASA.


Race Car 2.0 - Spec E46.  I wanted to try out a Spec Class and SE46 was seeing phenomenal growth.  This time I took an existing GTS2 car, bought it and transformed it into a SE46.   This car turned out be absolutely cursed.
1st Race Weekend - Blown headgasket in 1st race
2nd Race Weekend - Car was garbage and pushy.  Got REALLY lucky with a 2nd and a 1st.
3rd Race Weekend - Battery decided to eat itself ON GRID for the Saturday.  Was on Pole and had to sit while the field left. Sunday Race = 1st with an intermittent ABS
4th Race Weekend - 1st on Saturday, 1st on Sunday.  Interesting Story here, around the last corner on the last lap, my motor let go completely.  I thought I was done for with James Clay right behind me.  He misinterpreted my slowing down as a yellow flag or caution up ahead.  By the time he realized we were still green, he pulled around but not just before I coasted across the finish line for the win.





By this time I was PISSED about the car.  2 Motor failures in 4 weekends, 3 DNFs in 8 races, and the car was fighting me.  I admit I got frustrated and gave up and put the car up for sale. My heart wasn't in it anymore. I finished one more weekend with 2x 2nd Place finishes and then traded this car for V3.0

V3 and the start of V4 in the next update..

[rherold9]

[*insertusernamehere*]

I knew the e46 was troublesome but I didn't realize it was that much of a pain. Whew

Did you end up enjoying spec racing or not your speed?

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[Senor_Taylor]

Hurry up and post the next part. I want to read it.

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[JPolen01]

That's pretty wild that you were able to coast to a 1st place win due to a brain fart by Clay. I bet he was less than pleased about that.

[ScottyB]

i still remember how hard i was fighting a laughing fit when we were putting the pink dingus on your fender. one of the crowning achievements of the club IMO.

looking forward to the story, even though i know most of it. doin' us proud.

[D_Eclipse9916]

V3- Back to the roots.  I enjoyed my time in SE46 but at the end of the day, I enjoyed tinkering, disliked the spec tire, and the fields were just as big back in GTS.  So right before my new-wife and I left on our Honeymoon, I went and traded my SE46 for a GTS3 car.

This GTS3 car started life in 2001 with TCKline helping to build the car with Seth Neiman of the soon-to-be Flying Lizard team.  Included was all the World Challenge specs, SCCA/BMWCCA/NASA logbooks, and import paperwork (no VIN so no title).

 I didn't have much time to prepare for the October VIR event, as we took a long Honeymoon.  The car had been run by the previous owner recently so I assumed it was ready to go.

Well it was...somewhat. First race and I got my first GTS3 win with it!  Unfortunately for the 2nd race the previous owner did not use nylock or lock washers for the ballast bricks.  Under braking a ballast brick got loose, hit the back of my seat, and then fell down and cut an ABS wire.  I went for a spin and was unaware what broke and pulled her in. This was only the start..


For the 2016, I made a lot of changes in the offseason that I found broken during the winter:
Replaced Wing Mount Setup
Replaced Trunk from cracking of previous wing setup
Rear Differential
Bled brakes thoroughly (was having a soft pedal that would go to floor without lots of pumping).
Rewired the car
New wider wheels
Repaired bodywork and Painted the car

I would miss the first Road Atlanta event for NASA-MA but was able to make the 2nd event with the fresh look.

2016
April Summit - Tire goes down in Sat race, retire early. Sunday DQed for contact in right rear.  Ouch! Discovered a blown right rear shock hose.  Sent out entire shock set and discovered front LEFT was completely blown with a cracked shock piston.

Hyperfest VIR - Saturday 1st, Sunday in lead when window net failed. Yes you heard that right, window net mounting failed and fell.  Black Flag on my car for safety...  I was not getting better luck with this car.

Summit June - 1st place Sat/Sunday and new track record

Dominion July - More tweaks, still can't get the brakes to work.  Replaced both master cylinders, and revised front aero.  This helped and I achieved 1st on Saturday (and track record) and then more bad luck.  The alternator died during the pace lap.  I started hearing feedback on the radio and once I realized what was happening I shut down every system. Including my electric power steering.  It was 100+ ambient and made it 11 laps before the car would go no more.  I rolled into the sand and it immediately shot up in temps in the cockpit.  Got Heat Exhaustion and had to be pulled out by ambulance.

VIR August - New Alternator and setup worked awesome.  New track record, and wins Saturday and Sunday



2016 NASA Championships at Watkins Glen - First time at the track and and dynoed on test day .  Car made 22rwhp more than home dyno.  Since I was at max ballast, there was nothing I could do.  I begged/pleaded with fellow ST drivers to move to the other dyno since a couple of others were having issues.  No luck and I hoped it was just a one-off dyno. Ran 1st qualifying race, won and was promptly DQed for being a whopping 5hp over (added as much ballast as I could legally for that race).
I switched classes to GTS4 for the 2nd qualifying race and moved from 18th to 2nd place with the fastest lap of the race.  I also signed up for ST2 last minute Saturday to join the Championship Race
GTS4 Race was 1st - I was informed ON grid I was DQed from GTS4 the previous race because a pass under yellow. This was after I asked if I got DQed during the meeting...and they said no...  I would start from 18th and once again pushed through the field.  After a couple laps I worked up to 2nd place, and then double yellow.  Restart and 3rd got past me on the start (I was down on power for GTS4 since I didnt have a programmable ECU), got past 2nd but 1st had gotten away.  I worked over the next 3 laps and was on his tail, only for the race to be called 15 minutes early!  1st Place was really quick so I am not 100% sure I could have gotten him, but I would have liked to have had 15 minutes to find out!
ST2 race I started last but off the start a Corvette bounced off the walls and I worked my way through traffic to 1st.  Being over 300lbs heavy for ST2, I got massacred on the restart but barely held on to 1st and worked my way up to a 8 second gap.  ANOTHER double yellow was thrown and we would get a Green/white/checker.  That means a restart with one lap to go.  The gap had been erased from the double yellows, so the Corvette was on my tail.  He chose a poor move and tried to outbrake me...while he was in the grass.  Obviously this didn't end well and sent us both spinning allowing the class to go by. Ouch! Rough race weekend, but 2x 2nd places, and a track record my first time at Watkins with a fastest lap of 1:57.6

October VIR - With no time to retune the car, I signed up for GTS4 at VIR. A hurricane monsoon came through and my Lexan fogged up completely in Saturday race.  Pulled in after one lap.  Sunday turned it around for the win and new track record

Dominion VIR - Again GTS4, and signed up for TT2 for time trials.  Took all 4 wins and 2 new track records.

Offseason meant going Standalone AEM infinity to be able to pull down horsepower without having to set up a time with a tuner, and a CSL airbox for a bit more power to get near the power limit in GTS4.

March VIR - Switched back to ST3 after a dyno in the morning.  Won and new track record till dyno compliance after the race.  Shot up 11rwhp from the morning.  It was fun DQing myself as I am a NASA GTS/ST director and instructed ST3 to dyno and had to DQ myself..  This dyno was aggravating me and I gave up to run GTS4. I could not take enough weight out or make enough power for GTS4 so no more messing around with the dyno.  I was BEYOND frustrated, 2 separate ECUs and I was still having issues with the car being up and down on the dyno.  Won GTS4 on Sunday.


Hyperfest VIR - I would run the UTCC challenge on Friday and won Fastest BMW and Fastest Real Door Slammer. My time wasn't particularly quick compared to times I had run at VIR (1:57.3 in March) but it was scorching hot out.  


Saturday Qualifying would end this car's career.  A rear trailing arm broke loose, shot the car up and tumbled at 100mph.  Car was finished.


Then the stripping began...



I took a bunch of months off to save up, spend some time with my new son, and acquire my new donor car!


V4.0.....

[*insertusernamehere*]

Oh man. This is getting exciting! Win win win!

Four

Point

Oh

Let's

GO!

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[Jake]

Pretty wild to read through everything, even though I remembered the bigger points it was still a fun trip down memory lane.

Can't wait to see the blue car transformed. That photo you chose to reveal it makes me miss the 128i, too.

[Beej]

Even though I remember most of this stuff, it's still a great read and I'm looking forward to seeing how 4.0 goes!

This thread is a great example that there are just like, so many goddamn things that can go wrong when it comes to tracking a car competitively.  Just wow.

[.RJ]

[Senor_Taylor]

Pfft, get a load of this loser. Still has to drive his mom's car!

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[Jake]

Pfft, get a load of this loser. Still has to drive his mom's car!

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"Moooooom let me just borrow it for the weekend I won't even put that many miles on it!" 

[BLINGMW]

He misinterpreted my slowing down as a yellow flag or caution up ahead.  By the time he realized we were still green, he pulled around but not just before I coasted across the finish line for the win.

lol  

[Tyler.M]

Man, what a trip. Still miss the e36? The e46's seem like they gave you nothing but trouble.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Man, what a trip. Still miss the e36? The e46's seem like they gave you nothing but trouble.

I miss it that it was solid and built like a rock (for a race car).  

The goal of this new build was to build it myself and make it rock solid like my GTS2 car.  I plan on doing a lot more test days and HPDEs with it for the goals of actually testing it.  For the past 3 years, my only track time is a 15 minute qualifying saturday, 25 minute race saturday, 15 minute qualifying sunday, and 40 minute race sunday.  Mix in a 2-3 lap TT session and that the races RARELY ever are green flag the whole race meant I wasn't getting much time in the car.  Combined with not doing any autox and karting, I have felt very rusty and not on point.

Past 2 years I haven't made a single shock change, never measured hot tire pressures, made a sway bar change, or even looked at my own AIM data.  Considering that is 99% of my job when I work for Bodymotion, it's pretty sad that I didn't get to do it myself.  People even came by and downloaded MY data, but I haven't. 

The aim is to get a friend to crew for me for a couple test days during the season and spend that precious time getting faster and just enjoying driving vs just "get it done" race time.

[.RJ]

Man, what a trip. Still miss the e36? The e46's seem like they gave you nothing but trouble.

The aim is to get a friend to crew for me for a couple test days during the season and spend that precious time getting faster and just enjoying driving vs just "get it done" race time.

Give me a heads up on when those are, I may be interested in joining you.  Gets me back to the track to hang out a bit.

[D_Eclipse9916]

V4.0 Got off to a start with a full gut.

Lessons learned over multiple cars built and parting out of cars, I called a Windshield guy first thing. Front and rear windshields were removed cleanly without shards everywhere and would make the rest of the process easier.


Then proceded to remove the interior and roof (all 92 spot welds).


After sound deadening removal:


And then cleanup..


Dropped her off at MachV for the cage after pulling out the motor.


MachV prepping chassis and the start of the cage. The car is currently at MachV for a couple weeks getting done when there is time. I have a lot to prep in motor/suspension/driveline so this gives me a cleaner garage to work in. Lang Racing was able to source me a slightly damaged roof for a good price, so I dove in. While it is not cosmetically perfect, the fit was absolutely on point without any modifications. I would highly suggest them, even the alignment of the panels with the stock roof was dead on meaning no trimming. This isn't the typical case with most aftermarket body panels I find and was a relief!


In the meantime, Anze Suspension was able to turn around my damaged Motons and freshly rebuilt with shock plots for a fraction of the price of new units!

[SlimKlim]

Woo! Awesome to see that old girl that has been hanging around in the background all these years being torn down.

Is there no trans tunnel cutout because it was an SMG or am I not seeing it right?

[davej]

That first post was a terrific TLR version of your racing history. I remember many of those events from the unabridged versions, but thank you for doing that write up, it was a great refresher.

I'm exited to see you making your way back into the saddle, not that there was ever a question about it, but I can imagine how disheartening it may have been to experience the car loss. I'm sure you're itching to get back out there! Doing everything yourself from the ground up will hopefully prevent you from chasing other builds gremlins like you went through a bit before, and must provide some peace of mind when you're thrashing it around a hot track.