My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[admranger]

Originally Posted by e36clubracer

Yeah I haven't talked to Ralph in ages but I am fairly certain his motor is basically stock. I know Tony is running a detuned S54 but VJ is running some kind of trick engine him and Mino cooked up. All three of those guys are fast but VJ has done some pro racing in the past so he may have a slight edge.

If Dogbone takes his chassis / suspension setup to the next level like he is starting to do I honestly think low 1:40s is possible. Maybe even more who knows?

Dogbone, do you have any other chassis or aero work planned over the winter? Maybe a Zebulon rear wing or underbody work?

Is Tristan still driving? He's quick as well.

For the record, I passed Ralph in his old E36 M3 club race car in turn 9 of big Willow. Only time I think I ever passed him outside of the paddock. He was running Yoke R-compounds (ages ago) and they were going off. Both cars wiggling through turn 9 was fun...

dogbone Maybe you could have our local swiss cheese expert work on your car for additional weight loss?

[rhyary]

Originally Posted by rhyary

Watching Gabe,
It looks to me his car does not have enough damping and rebound is too fast.

When he goes thru the bus stop, and the bumps his car is moving too much up and down.

I wonder what Gabe will say

Looks like I was right!

[OG Shark]

dogbone you better bring that car back to Texas in March!

Originally Posted by admranger

Ralph is still naturally aspirated though in the E90M3 BM car, right? He's properly quick (as are TC and VJ).

Originally Posted by e36clubracer

Yeah I haven't talked to Ralph in ages but I am fairly certain his motor is basically stock. I know Tony is running a detuned S54 but VJ is running some kind of trick engine him and Mino cooked up. All three of those guys are fast but VJ has done some pro racing in the past so he may have a slight edge.

If Dogbone takes his chassis / suspension setup to the next level like he is starting to do I honestly think low 1:40s is possible. Maybe even more who knows?

Dogbone, do you have any other chassis or aero work planned over the winter? Maybe a Zebulon rear wing or underbody work?

The E90 Ralph drives was naturally aspirated at COTA this Oct. Not sure if anything else has been done to the motor but definitely wasn't FI. Had a lot of fun racing against him, fast & solid racer.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by tsk94

What spring rates did you end up going with? And interesting that they came with a tender spring in the rear coilover setup.

Right now, we're trying front 850lbs (~15k), and 13k (728lbs) rear.

I asked Casey about the helper spring. There's a specific reason for it. They usually run 6" springs in the rear along with a helper spring so that it's easier to adjust the height of the car. The perch usually sits somewhere around the 7"-ish mark. If you used a 7" spring, then you'd be getting into a spring pre-load situation if you moved the perch into contact with the spring. And it would be much harder to rotate the spring perch. So, by putting the helper makes it easier to adjust height.

[tsk94]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Right now, we're trying front 850lbs (~15k), and 13k (728lbs) rear.

I asked Casey about the helper spring. There's a specific reason for it. They usually run 6" springs in the rear along with a helper spring so that it's easier to adjust the height of the car. The perch usually sits somewhere around the 7"-ish mark. If you used a 7" spring, then you'd be getting into a spring pre-load situation if you moved the perch into contact with the spring. And it would be much harder to rotate the spring perch. So, by putting the helper makes it easier to adjust height.

Interesting, going to be a big change from even the 1000lb/in (divorced) rear you were using - hopefully you like it. I'll be using a very similar setup next season, 800F 742R.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by DRLane

Those looks awesome Gabe. You were the lone fast driver making me feel ok about my JRZs.

Originally Posted by b4hand

Damn, lost another JRZ brother to the dark side. Hope these work well and you can get under 2:20 at cota

Don't despair JRZ dudes. The JRZs I had are great if you don't go full stupid on the car like I did. Enjoy them!

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by tsk94

Yes, Jakob is a good example. Took him over a year or so I believe to get his MCS 3-ways to be faster then the CS.

Ah, okay. You said tender at first so I got a bit confused. If they can be compressed by hand they are a helper. A tender is a usually a bit of a higher rate (100+ lb/in) and that's what it looks like Gabe has on his rears - curious to know the actual rate and why they went that route vs just a longer main spring in the back.

I was removing my CS suspension today and snapped a pic

[roastbeef]

are you just gong to put the jrz's on your colorado m3?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

are you just gong to put the jrz's on your colorado m3?

My CO M3 already has JRZ on it. I think someone may already be interested in the set. They're attending the Chuckwalla event. They have an E90 and they were saying the car needs suspension. haha I was like, "you see that box in the back of that pickup truck? The suspension in there did 1:48 at Buttonwillow last weekend!" hahahaha

[dogbone]

Had a really enjoyable day today at Chuckwalla.

The MCS 3-way suspension is fantastic. I'm really enjoying the feel. Very drivable. Encourages you to be at the limit. We have fairly stiff springs up front but it's very compliant. Not harsh at all. Braking is great. Turn-in is really great. I think I have to turn the steering wheel less. I can put the power down. Can get on curbs. I was adding wing to try to keep the rear down more in higher speed curves.

Set a new personal best by quite a lot. Old PB: 1:53.29. New PB 1:50.82. The tires were scrubs and it was 82ºF. They repaved Chuckwalla, so many people are setting faster times. But it's not just the repave. The suspension was really nice to drive.

hehe watching the video, it looks a bit hectic. I haven't been to Chuckwalla in over a year. My driving was not super clean. I over slowed on this lap on the turns after the back straight. Blah. Anyway, I was trying to be "on it".

Tomorrow we go the the opposite direction. I have put on new front tires for that. We'll see. If I can get my act together, I think I could drop into the 49s going CCW. Probably not the first session, but maybe session 2.

More later.

[tsk94]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Had a really enjoyable day today at Chuckwalla.

The MCS 3-way suspension is fantastic. I'm really enjoying the feel. Very drivable. Encourages you to be at the limit. We have fairly stiff springs up front but it's very compliant. Not harsh at all. Braking is great. Turn is really great. I think I have to turn the steering wheel less. I can put the power down. Can get on curbs. I was adding wing to try to keep the rear down more in higher speed curves.

Set a new personal best by quite a lot. Old PB: 1:53.29. New PB 1:50.82. The tires were scrubs and it was 82ºF. They repaved Chuckwalla, so many people are setting faster times. But it's not just the repave. The suspension was really nice to drive.

hehe watching the video, it looks a bit hectic. I haven't been to Chuckwalla in over a year. My driving was not super clean. I over slowed on this lap on the turns after the back straight. Blah. Anyway, I was trying to be "on it".

Tomorrow we go the the opposite direction. I have put on new front tires for that. We'll see. If I can get my act together, I think I could drop into the 49s going CCW. Probably not the first session, but maybe session 2.

More later.

Interesting you note the stiffer front springs, but how'd you feel the rears were? 728 in a coilover in the rear is equivalent to ~1450 in a divorced, that's almost 50% more rear spring then you were using at BW last weekend. I'm planning to go stiffer in the rear but not sure how stiff - how'd the big increase in rear spring rate feel?

[admranger]

This not just in: MCS doesn’t suck

[dogbone]

Another really enjoyable day at the track. Today was INCREDIBLY social---one of the most social track days I have ever attended. So many great people out there to hang out with. Was fun to put down some laps with fsmtnbiker, red priest (he's back baby!), Steve Lee, Charbel, Elie, Serhan, Andrew Lim, the list goes on and on. Today was my favorite day of the last three weeks. Glad I was able to end the trip with such a positive experience.

It took 4 sessions to do it, but I got into 1:49 territory going CCW. Three laps in 1:49. The Yokos just could not do it by themselves. I needed to put Pirelli scrubs in the front. On both days, I ran my fastest with Pirelli in the front and Yoko in the rear.

Really enjoyed the new suspension today. Made some minor tweaks and liked it.

I have two main take aways from running at Chuckwalla:

1. I've been overslowing for all the turns at Chuckwalla this weekend. dang muscle memory....
2. Pirelli DH scrubs are faster than NEW Yokohama Soft slicks......crazy....

I'm exhausted. I would love to write more, but I need to get to bed soon. I have a new plan. I am not flying home to CO tomorrow. I am driving the whole trailer rig back to CO tomorrow and I'm going to keep it there through Q1 2021. Then, most likely, I will drive it to COTA in March for SuperLap. This will allow me to get the front aero installed in CO where it's being produced. And this will allow me to practice with the car at High Plains. There are days in the Winter when it's great to hit the track. And this will allow me to avoid airplanes through Q1 2021.

Here's the video of the fast lap. (I'm rendering a longer vid with all the 1:49 laps (with an off lap in between):

[dogbone]

If you're bored, here's four continuous laps of Chuckwalla CCW that contain 3 laps at 1:49 and an off-lap:

This was the last session of the day. I had trouble finding open laps with a fresh engine and tires in previous sessions.

[roastbeef]

i've heard nothing but good things about MCS, and its going to be interesting to read your long term review of them. i wish you could run buttonwillow on them before you go!

did the jrz's have any degree of dampening adjustment? i don't recall you ever mentioning adjusting them. do you see yourself messing with the high/low speed bump much?

[berns]

Nice work at CVR Gabe! And welcome to the MCS club. My 2way remotes changed the e82 dramatically, and on the e92 I went with 1WNR’s to start, since I was curious how good MCS’s ‘entry level’ coilover could be. Sure enough, they’re amazing.

1:50 is moving! 8 seconds quicker than My NA e92 on street tires with no aero haha. Insane!

Stoked on all your progress and glad we got to catch up a couple weeks ago at Buttonwillow!

[rhyary]

>> It took 4 sessions to do it, but I got into 1:49 territory going CCW. Three laps in 1:49. The Yokos just could not do it by themselves. I needed to put Pirelli scrubs in the front. On both days, I ran my fastest with Pirelli in the front and Yoko in the rear.
—-

The mix tires idea is catching on.....

[DRLane]

Originally Posted by rhyary

>> It took 4 sessions to do it, but I got into 1:49 territory going CCW. Three laps in 1:49. The Yokos just could not do it by themselves. I needed to put Pirelli scrubs in the front. On both days, I ran my fastest with Pirelli in the front and Yoko in the rear.
—-

The mix tires idea is catching on.....

I told you Ramy, consulting company... Maybe Mixed Rubber MCS. 🙃

[slowdown_dan]

Muscles don't have memories.

[Bartledoo]

Originally Posted by rhyary

>> It took 4 sessions to do it, but I got into 1:49 territory going CCW. Three laps in 1:49. The Yokos just could not do it by themselves. I needed to put Pirelli scrubs in the front. On both days, I ran my fastest with Pirelli in the front and Yoko in the rear.
—-

The mix tires idea is catching on.....

Don't even start.

[redpriest]

Your car turns in so incredibly well, that was cool to watch, I almost feel like it catches you off guard how well it rotates

[admranger]

Gabe, have you thought about trying out the Garmin Catalyst (no affiliation)? I’d love to see what it’s capable of with a very fast car and driver. Folks on the F8x track forum claiming it has themed them take seconds off their lap time. One guy took over 2 seconds off his PB (2:12 to 2:10) and has the video posted. Very interesting.