Das Race: My '97 M3/4/5

[D_Eclipse9916]

Got all the old stuff off in less than an hour. I remember it taking far longer with Joey and perhaps one other helper when we installed all of this in 2013.

Bimmerworld order is currently out for delivery!

Don’t scratch up my stuff!!! :p


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[Jake]

Don’t scratch up my stuff!!! :p


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Those shocks have since been placed on a down pillow and wrapped up in some silk sheets until I get them back to you

[rherold9]

and wrapped up in some silk sheets until I get them back to you

[emoji848]

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[ViPER1313]

Cotton or GTFO.

[Jake]

Woo, got the new setup installed!



I have no idea what the ride height will be like - the car is still in the air until I get fatter front spacers. 10mm is not enough given how the MCS shock body is shaped, so I need to order some 15's. I suspect it'll be all goofy until I get the car to Deren for his magic.

Fun fact, I thought I had blown my left rear shock from the off-road excursion at VIR. Turns out all four of the old shocks are very easy to compress by hand. I've been racing on springs for at least a few events if not many more.

Given that new find, I am even more excited to have this setup all dialed in for March!

[Senor_Taylor]

Wow, those are hot.

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[ScottyB]

lol can't wait to see you drop a second off your lap the first time out now that you've found out you've been pogo-ing around VIR on springs and bumpstops

[Jake]

lol can't wait to see you drop a second off your lap the first time out now that you've found out you've been pogo-ing around VIR on springs and bumpstops

I was already (very) happy with my consistent 2:11-2:12 laps at VIR. I am even more happy with them, given they were done consistently on itty-bitty bumpstops and somewhat soft springs. 

Time to see if I can get to the "2:10 or below in GTS2" club.

[Jake]

Car is with Deren now and he's working his setup magic (and doing some random work that I'm too lazy to tackle myself given he likes fun little projects). Had to order helper springs for the front, as the distance between the top of the main spring and the top hat is too great when you get the car in the air and it can come down funky when you let it down. Bimmerworld said "if you're just careful" you can go without helper springs, but Deren and I tend to subscribe to the same "do it right, make it bulletproof" mentality so the helper springs will allow better peace of mind.

Also ordered Race Ramps for the trailer. I'm done dealing with random bits of 2x4.

[rherold9]

Mmmmm MCSex.

You should be fine on track without helpers unless you are jumping huge curbs or doing something crazy.

I run really soft helpers on mine due to the street driving aspect and not being super low track-stance. It also really depends on how much droop travel, etc. you like.

[Jake]

Mmmmm MCSex.

You should be fine on track without helpers unless you are jumping huge curbs or doing something crazy.

I run really soft helpers on mine due to the street driving aspect and not being super low track-stance. It also really depends on how much droop travel, etc. you like.

That's the thing, Deren was uncomfortable with how much droop vs. length of spring when it was on the lift. Said it would be a pain to deal with jacking up in the paddock, etc so the helper springs should make it easier. Also, I tend to jump curbs a bit hard and I'd hate for a spring to get all cattywompus mid-jump.

[rherold9]

Doesn't hurt anything besides like a pound of weight to have all 4 of them I guess

I think you'd be perfectly fine if they were 6" springs though *dunno*

[Jake]

Doesn't hurt anything besides like a pound of weight to have all 4 of them I guess

I think you'd be perfectly fine if they were 6" springs though *dunno*

You may be right... I'm just deferring to the professional mechanic on this one 

[rherold9]

You may be right... I'm just deferring to the professional mechanic on this one 

So, me then? Yeah, I'd listen to me too.

[D_Eclipse9916]

What’s your main spring length? In order to get a larger tire I had to go to a shorter main spring. It may be why BW specs that shorter front spring.


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[Jake]

What’s your main spring length? In order to get a larger tire I had to go to a shorter main spring. It may be why BW specs that shorter front spring.


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Based on my BW invoice, the fronts are a 6" spring.

[Jake]

Alrighty! So, the car is back from Mach V and Uncle Deren has worked his magic on it. We did quite a bit - well, he did, I paid him for it with many sheckels - and the results are...

MCS suspension installed, using a 5" main spring and helper spring with [redacted] spring rate.
Aligned and corner-balanced.
M50 intake manifold installed, dyno runs performed with two smallest Bimmerworld restrictor plates.
Cool Shirt cooler installed in the trunk, wired up and switch installed.
Fixed wiring to engine fan so the switch works again.
Annual inspection for 2018.







Sooo. Now that Deren took care of all of that, I have to wrap things up before we head to VIR in 2.5 short weeks, while starting a new job (today was my first day, yippee!). I got home tonight all motivated, and decided I would "touch up some rock chips" on the hood before applying new vinyl that Will cut me. Well, the first can of black spray paint I got was faulty and it came out all watery. That turned into "well fuck it, I could strip the hood and respray it, it'd look better anyway."

The hood is now Rustoleum black metallic, which I suspect will not match the Duplicolor black metallic front bumper, Jet Black left front fender, *whatever* black driver's door, and Cosmos Black rest-of-the-car. But I did do a pretty decent job with the rattlecans tonight.









Side note: stripping off layers of old spray paint is a nasty job. It's all goopy.

Up next - oil change and fresh transmission/diff/brake fluid. I have a set of BFG R1 that will be installed at VIR thanks to Phil's Tire Service, and Chris Davis is also selling me another set of Apex ARC-8's with some nearly-new Hoosier R7's. I bought two new front brake rotors to have as spares, but the brakes are all in serviceable shape for at least the March event. Will probably need pads after that.

Other miscellaneous things to spend money on before VIR - need to renew my racing license and am getting new trailer tires installed on Saturday. Should be squared away with everything and ready to go at that point!

[Senor_Taylor]

Looks great! How long until the full vinyl wrap?

[ScottyB]

noice! i'm excited to hear how you do with the MCS setup and a wee bit interested in how that vinyl comes out too, heh.

[Jake]

March Madness at VIR

We’ve referred to the first NASA Mid-Atlantic event of the season as “March Madness” for years, but this one really lived up to the name. Bralley came to my apartment on Thursday afternoon, left his BMW in my garage, and we hit the road around 2 PM with VIR set as the destination in the truck’s navigation system. For once, we hit absolutely no traffic on I-95 South, and made very good time to the track.



Phil and Kim of Phil’s Tire Service were able to get my new BFGoodrich tires mounted on Friday, so I took the M3 out for some test laps on the new suspension, then refueled and waited for the “fun race” at the end of the day. The SuperComp fun race involves a bunch of experienced racers from all classes mixing it up with the rookies for 40 minutes. It’s a bit hectic and a ton of fun. Everyone did well and I got comfortable with the new MCS dampers.



A large crowd of MM students showed up Friday afternoon, ready for a weekend of fun. We ended up having a quiet, responsible time discussing many topics as a group inside my trailer, as it got pretty cold out that night – down to the low 30s! Fun fact: a 20′ CargoPro trailer can fit roughly 16 people before feeling “a bit crowded.”



Saturday morning was cold but promised to be fun. I gridded up for practice and went out for some laps. Toward the end of the session, I was coming out of Oak Tree, got to the top of 4th gear and went for 5th. *grind* Okay, try again. As I let the clutch out, my brain registered “shit, that’s 3rd!” Alas, I was too late, and saw the tachometer needle wind itself past the 8,000 rpm indicated on the gauge and smack the “8 mpg” number on the fuel economy gauge below. Oooops. I finished the session and brought the car in, sounding fine at the time. Once it cooled down, however, something was off. It idled like a diesel engine and under load, would not accelerate very well. I pulled in after one green lap of qualifying and parked it.

Some conversation with various mechanic friends lead everyone to the same conclusion – I’ve got a few bent valves in the head. My S52 engine has nearly five years of track abuse on it (about 10k miles, I think), so it’s time to pull the head and have things looked at. 

We woke up Sunday to about 3.5″ of snow on the ground, along with a ton of fog as the sun rose. Everyone was invited to drive their street cars on track at reasonable speeds to help clear the snow and slush from the asphalt. I took a few students’ cars out with them riding shotgun for some fun, if slow laps. Thankfully, the fog lifted around 10:30 AM and we were able to have a fun day with sunny, 55° weather. I hopped in Taylor’s 2018 GTI to instruct him for a few sessions of HPDE 1 that afternoon, and we had a great time getting some hot laps in.





This was not the weekend I was looking to have, but I also figured the engine in my car would go ‘pop’ eventually. I am hoping a simple valve job is all it needs, but we’ll know for sure once Deren tears into things. Thankfully, I still had a blast with the NASA family per usual. I’m eager to be back in the driver’s seat and am hoping it’ll work out for our next event at Summit Point in April!