Tracked my M3 for the 1St time today.

[Gearhead999s]

I did my 1st trackday today with the M3 at the Mosport driver development track and I had a ball!This car is a marked improvement over my previous E46 M3 on track.The track is very technical and in the M3 is taken in 2 & 3 gear only with a lots of transitions and is used primarly as a training track for Bridgestone F2000 school.
The car was set up with a brand new set of Toyo R888 in 255/35 18 & 265/35 18 and the M-drive was set with DSC off and the EDC to the firmest setting & steering the sport setting.I tried using the middle setting for the shocks and I noticed that the car did not feel very well tied down compared to the firmest setting.
On track the balance is vey good with just being a little pushy on turn in,going to slight oversteer on balanced throttle to big power slides if you are quite agressive on the go peddle in both 2 & 3 gears.The brakes worked very well and I was much more aggresive with them as the day went on and only a bit more pedal travel & lots of pad dust and no vibration on the drive home and that is with stock pads.The oil temp stayed at 125C on a 32c day and that engine is great on track with no issues and transmission is seamless also and is almost intuitive the way it shifts.
The only thing that concerned me is the diff starts to make a lot of noises when it gets hot as the racket from them keeps getting louder as it gets hotter.It is making the same sound as my old Mustang diff did when it was ready to go south.Once its cooled off the sound is gone and after 10 or so laps it starts up again.
Overall I am very impressed with this car.I think BMW got it almost right 1 st time out! The last session I was playing a new C6 Z06 on Hoosiers that could not get away from me and the times that I was turning were at the top of the street driven cars and not far off the GT cars that were there.I cannot wait till the next one!

[ybbiz34]

Nice write-up. Thanks.

[icemang17]

very nice.....did you mount the R888's on the stock rims?

[lucid]

What type of transmission do you have? If you have DCT, can you comment on its performance? Thanks.

[Gearhead999s]

Originally Posted by icemang17

very nice.....did you mount the R888's on the stock rims?

No they were mounted on 18's as I have the optional 19's for street use.There is not a very good selection of 19 inch track tires available as of yet.It looks like I went through about 50% of them in about 1 1/2 hours of track time so I sure hope the wear rates goes down with more heatcycling.A very easy tire to drive on with very progressive breakaway and tons of feedback.

[Ronin13]

Great info. I was wondering if a little more tire up front would help offset some of the lack of stock front camber. Glad to hear the 255/265 setup worked well.

[Gearhead999s]

Originally Posted by lucid

What type of transmission do you have? If you have DCT, can you comment on its performance? Thanks.

Oh no another transmission thread

Its a 6 speed!

[Gearhead999s]

Originally Posted by Ronin13

Great info. I was wondering if a little more tire up front would help offset some of the lack of stock front camber. Glad to hear the 255/265 setup worked well.

I was thinking of running a 265's on a 9.5 rim up front,but I now think that might put the balance too much towards oversteer in steady state cornering from what I felt today.The 255/265 setup also has a overall height stagger like the stock setup has,but is about 1" lower in height which also helps the gearing out.The car does need more camber,but as this is my street car that will not happen as I do enjoy how well the car works in the real world.Toyo recommends 3-5 degrees negative camber for this tire!

[DJ9]

Very nice write up...with the exception of the diff sounds, I had a very similar experience at the track as well....great out of the box vehicle isn't it! Thanks for the feedback.

[lucid]

Originally Posted by Gearhead999s

Oh no another transmission thread

Its a 6 speed!

it's cool. i'm actually considering dct for my next car in about 3 years. just want to see it play itself out before comitting/converting.

are you considering removing the cdv?

[Davinhci]

great!

[Gearhead999s]

Originally Posted by lucid

are you considering removing the cdv?

No as I do not find any issues with the clutch at all.The one thing that that does anoy me the hill holding control as I certantly start a manual car on a hill without any issues.

[lucid]

Originally Posted by Gearhead999s

No as I do not find any issues with the clutch at all.The one thing that that does anoy me the hill holding control as I certantly start a manual car on a hill without any issues.

Yeah, I found that to be rather strange as well. I lived around/drove in SanFran for many years, and did not have the need for it then either, but I guess it doesn't do any harm so whatever I guess. Just kind of strange when you actually want to roll your call back, and need to wait for a couple of seconds but the car won't let you. I park on a slight hill, and just roll it out in the mornings rather than put it reverse, so that's 2 seconds of my life every day spent waiting for the car to play along with gravity.

[footie]

Originally Posted by Gearhead999s

The only thing that concerned me is the diff starts to make a lot of noises when it gets hot as the racket from them keeps getting louder as it gets hotter.It is making the same sound as my old Mustang diff did when it was ready to go south.Once its cooled off the sound is gone and after 10 or so laps it starts up again.

Had a similar problem with an Escort and it too ate diffs. Though this won't be a problem to me as I won't track my baby.

[Gearhead999s]

Originally Posted by footie

Had a similar problem with an Escort and it too ate diffs. Though this won't be a problem to me as I won't track my baby.

The car is going in on Tuesday for an Audio issue and I will get them to check that the proper LSD fluid was put in at the 2000 km service.We ran a Torsen diff in our E30 race car because of LSD heat issues that were so bad that it melted the speed sensor on the diff.Beleive me you do not need to smell burnt gear oil

[OverDrive]

Originally Posted by Gearhead999s

I did my 1st trackday today with the M3 at the Mosport driver development track and I had a ball!This car is a marked improvement over my previous E46 M3 on track.The track is very technical and in the M3 is taken in 2 & 3 gear only with a lots of transitions and is used primarly as a training track for Bridgestone F2000 school.
The car was set up with a brand new set of Toyo R888 in 255/35 18 & 265/35 18 and the M-drive was set with DSC off and the EDC to the firmest setting & steering the sport setting.I tried using the middle setting for the shocks and I noticed that the car did not feel very well tied down compared to the firmest setting.
On track the balance is vey good with just being a little pushy on turn in,going to slight oversteer on balanced throttle to big power slides if you are quite agressive on the go peddle in both 2 & 3 gears.The brakes worked very well and I was much more aggresive with them as the day went on and only a bit more pedal travel & lots of pad dust and no vibration on the drive home and that is with stock pads.The oil temp stayed at 125C on a 32c day and that engine is great on track with no issues and transmission is seamless also and is almost intuitive the way it shifts.
The only thing that concerned me is the diff starts to make a lot of noises when it gets hot as the racket from them keeps getting louder as it gets hotter.It is making the same sound as my old Mustang diff did when it was ready to go south.Once its cooled off the sound is gone and after 10 or so laps it starts up again.
Overall I am very impressed with this car.I think BMW got it almost right 1 st time out! The last session I was playing a new C6 Z06 on Hoosiers that could not get away from me and the times that I was turning were at the top of the street driven cars and not far off the GT cars that were there.I cannot wait till the next one!

Nice write up. Which track did you go to?
I'm going to shanonville on Saturday for their track day. Its gonna be fun.

[icemang17]

Dinan has wheelsets for HUGE $$$$ that are 9.5 front and 10.0 rear with 275-295 wide tires...that should improve handling quite a bit!!

[e46e92love]

Originally Posted by ybbiz34

Nice write-up. Thanks.

+1

[sayemthree]

nice!!!!!!

[e92leon]

Good summary

[Gearhead999s]

Originally Posted by OverDrive

Nice write up. Which track did you go to?
I'm going to shanonville on Saturday for their track day. Its gonna be fun.

We we using the perimiter track clockwise with the 2 loops between 8&10 and 11& 12 to slow the back straight for braking into 12.The track is a hoot with enough elevation changes to make it interesting.

http://www.race2000.com/about/mosport

What group are you doing Shannonville with?I am probally out for anymore car trackdays this month as we are moving on the 21st.

[OverDrive]

Originally Posted by Gearhead999s

We we using the perimiter track clockwise with the 2 loops between 8&10 and 11& 12 to slow the back straight for braking into 12.The track is a hoot with enough elevation changes to make it interesting.

http://www.race2000.com/about/mosport

What group are you doing Shannonville with?I am probally out for anymore car trackdays this month as we are moving on the 21st.

I'm going on the 14th with a few of my friends. My friend organized this so I'm not sure how the groups work. It should be fun and I'm looking forward to it.