A Trip to PRI for the Racing Drivers Within

[Richard@M-World]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

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

[Richard@M-World]

AST and Moton area. AST will continue to focus on street and clubsport level kits, while Moton will be a premium product for high-end racing.



















AiM Sport.



New GT steering wheel with integrated display, functional buttons and paddle shifters.





MXL dash and data logging memory card.

[Richard@M-World]

KW Competition 3-way for E30 M3.







New 3-way Clubsport kits for the E46 and E92 M3. These are advanced systems built using high-end racing internals for maximum performance for the track day enthusiasts. I also learned that M3 is one of Klaus's (KW's head of R&D) favorite cars, so he gave the kits some extra love





High speed and low speed compression knobs.





Rebound knob.



Nick Heidfeld's F1 OMP racing suit.







HTE racing seats and application specific single piece seat adapter.

[Richard@M-World]

Finally, some HRE racing wheels



Fall line/HRE racing wheel for the M3.



Weight optimized center bore.



Ribbed bead seat to prevent tire rotation.

[Powerbeast]

NICE!!! I like those grey and red brembos.

[Its_lobelt]

Very nice thanks for sharing.

[Singletrack]

Amazing pics - thanks a ton for posting. I never get to see this stuff really...

I love this statement and picture! - "titanium piston inserts with gun drilled holes" : )

[veightkiller]

Im drooling with all those parts

[Mike van D]

Great display, appreciate you sharing!

[Malakas]

Great post.

Any idea when the new KW Clubsports will be available?

[03BeastCharmer]

Originally Posted by SchnellM3

Is it my computer that's not loading the pictures?

Not showing up for me either with FireFox.

[MK599]

Any idea where I can find carbon shift paddles similar to the one seen on the GT steering wheel?
And where can I buy the MXL dash, and is it a straight PnP to our stock cars?

[1MOREMOD]

very nice looks like a kid in a candy store scenario.

[Richard@M-World]

Originally Posted by Malakas

Great post.

Any idea when the new KW Clubsports will be available?

Early 2012.

Originally Posted by 03BeastCharmer

Not showing up for me either with FireFox.

Let me look into it and see what I can do.

Originally Posted by MK599

Any idea where I can find carbon shift paddles similar to the one seen on the GT steering wheel?
And where can I buy the MXL dash, and is it a straight PnP to our stock cars?

CF paddles currently only come with the steering wheel.

If you already have an AiM data logger, it is PnP. If you do not have a logger, you can simply add a ECU bridge which will download info from the ECU directly. PnP as well.

[M3Racing88]

I can't see either

[w00tw00t]

Blown Away!! Thanks Richard!!

ps - IE 9 works fine!

[w00tw00t]

It would be so much fun watching one of these machines out on the track! ..

[STALKER]

Great thread, thanks for sharing Richard.

Did you find what you were looking for?

[Richard@M-World]

Originally Posted by Emory335

Can't see; using Firefox as well.

I changed the coding and hopefully it should work now

Originally Posted by STALKER

Great thread, thanks for sharing Richard.

Did you find what you were looking for?

Yes sir, it was a very enlightening experience. Will bring more new products to the community soon.

[thorny]

Thank you for posting this! My wish list has just expanded to a whole new level...

[STALKER]

Originally Posted by Richard@M-World

I changed the coding and hopefully it should work now



Yes sir, it was a very enlightening experience. Will bring more new products to the community soon.

Looking forward to it.

[Gearhead999s]

These HRE's with the bead groves will solve my problem with my tires rotating on the rims while on track