For those of us who take the M3 to the track, I think it would be fair to say that a part of us always wishes that the M3 could just be a little faster, a little lighter, and a little more like a race car.
Unfortunately, it's not as simple as putting racing parts on our street cars -- most of us don't rebuild our brake calipers every year, drive on roads without potholes, or have neighbors who can tolerate the unmuffled music from our S65 -- yet we all have a racing driver within us that wants to go fast.
With this in mind, I took a trip to the annual Performance Racing Industry trade show to talk to the experts who are involved in top level racing series all around the world. The goal: to find motorsport parts that will excel on the track and be civilized on the street.
There were two Grand Am GS class M3 races cars. Both are race-winning cars from the previous seasons. GS is a very much production-based class which means modifications are very limited. For example, GS M3's engine is pretty much stock with dry sump and race engine management, a fuel cell is added for the typical 2 hour 45 minute races, minor aero, 275 slicks all around, safety equipment, etc.
Brembo's booth mainly consisted of three levels of products - Street (GT kits), Club Race, and Professional Race. The GT kits feature cast aluminum monobloc calipers, while Pro Race calipers are machined from a single billet.
GT and Club Race kits use stainless steel piston inserts, and Pro Race uses titanium piston inserts with gun drilled holes for lightweight and heat rejection.
Ohlins' TTX line is probably one of the most unique dampers on the market. The piston itself is solid, and all damping is done using external valves piggybacked on the damper body. In other words, the damper internals (in the traditional sense) do not create any damping. Instead, the internals move fluid to the adjustment dials/valves which generate resistance to the moving damping fluid.
Porsche GT3 RS front strut featuring a massive 46 mm piston TTX 46
E92 M3 GT4 rear shock - TTX 36 inline
Damper model showing the internals of the valves
GoPro section
