My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[fanatic1]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Had a practice day for SuperLap Battle at COTA today. Not much to report. I didn't want to run good tires, so it was simply a day of getting my head back in the track and experimenting with some wing angles.

I think my head is generally back in the game now. As far as wing, I took two degrees out of the wing and didn't like it. Put one degree back in and thought it was ok. The thought is that I'm understeering a bit much in 2, 6, and the Carousel. And maybe less wing would improve top speed. But if you don't like the feel of something, ya just don't like it. I think this will be ok.

The cold weather is going to be a factor in the AM. I'm all for cold weather to make the supercharger pull strong, but 31ºF is just too damn cold to get heat into the tires--especially in one lap. I talked to the organizers today asking, if the first session is in the 30s, can we have two warm up laps? They didn't immediately shoot the idea down, so we'll see.

Guess what's out in full force?! You guessed it-----the orange sausage berms! And they are NO JOKE! These things have pointy tops!---not the roundy topped ones that you might be ok hitting occasionally especially with the unweighted side of the car. There are some you just DO...NOT...WANT....TO....HIT. Your car will come away injured. After analyzing where they are and my 2:16 video, I think the main area of concern will be Turns 4 and 5. And while I didn't necessarily run roughshod through that last week, I do believe I will have to be a bit more tidy now.

For anyone that is interested, the event will be livestreamed. Here's the link:

SuperLap Livestream

This marks the first time I've been able to do a practice day with Global Time Attack. I've signed up for several, but had technical issues that pulled me away. It was very social in the paddock and garages. I really enjoyed seeing so many familiar faces.

The car continues to run fine, so I am hopeful that the event will go well from a technical standpoint. I've decided to start on the DH that have 3 sessions on them. They are still very fast, and I want to start on a seasoned set. Another new DH set is mounted. We'll see if they come into play on Saturday.

Previously, I mentioned a pro driver that I met at COTA last weekend. His name is Adam Tobolowsky. Well, this week, he reached out on IG and offered to look at more data and video. He's given me a lot of great stuff to think about. Now, I just need to go out and do it. Super easy, right? RIGHT?! Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks because it was very nice of him.

Thanks for the livestream link and good luck this weekend!

[redpriest]

Good luck tomorrow! Am ecstatic that troubles are behind you now.

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Yeah.....frustrating. Thought that was it.....I forgot to thank Adrian g. for his story about his battery. It was definitely in the back of my head while the problems were going on.

Glad you like the vids!

Yeah I went for the max size and capacity Anti gravity battery given that I have a refrigerator in the car, wanted to make sure I had plenty of juice. Still worry about this a bit though.

[SYT_Shadow]

Good luck today Gabe!!!

[Ximian]

2:17.839 in session 1, fastest limited time was 2:17.048.

[b4hand]

Originally Posted by Ximian

2:17.839 in session 1, fastest limited time was 2:17.048.

Gabe runs unlimited

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by b4hand

Gabe runs unlimited

haha Gabe’s just happy that the car is running!!

Made a mistake on the 2:17.8. If I clean up some stuff, 16 is possible. Gotta keep it clean! And try to get it done on hot lap 1, not hot lap 5.

[Ximian]

"You can put the groceries in the back"

[dogbone]

Been a fun day. No tech issues. Feras is crushing it today. Amazing.

I’m not gonna run the last session for lap time. I’m gonna put stickers on and scrub them in for one lap. And then see if there’s more tomorrow.

[DRLane]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Been a fun day. No tech issues. Feras is crushing it today. Amazing.

I'm not gonna run the last session for lap time. I'm gonna put stickers on and scrub them in for one lap. And then see if there's more tomorrow.

Nice job Gabe! Amir is flying as well.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Been a fun day. No tech issues. Feras is crushing it today. Amazing.

I’m not gonna run the last session for lap time. I’m gonna put stickers on and scrub them in for one lap. And then see if there’s more tomorrow.

Glad the car is working properly. Good luck tomorrow!!

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: I've been at this long enough to know when to walk away---Sunday was that day.

Wow. Another SuperLap Battle in the books. I have so many emotions swirling in my head about the weekend. It was super social---saw so many people I knew. It was frustrating because I struggled to put down a proper lap. Sunday was downright weird----could not find pace in the car. Had some incredible Terry Black beef rib BBQ---yowza. Was so happy that the car ran without issue. Ultimately, I'm glad I attended SuperLap Battle this year, but I feel like I did my best driving the weekend before at Edge Addicts. Why? Not really sure. I believe the weather conditions, beyond simply temperatures had something to do with it.

Thursday: Flew back to Austin. Got loaded into the garage that evening. All good.

Friday: OG Shark invited me to a private event at COTA 8AM-12PM. Really enjoyed that. Only got one full clean lap, but it didn't matter---was just practicing corners and feeling out a reduction in wing angle. The one lap I got on scrubs was a 2:19.1. Was satisfied that my head was back in the track. Didn't drive much during the practice session because I had driven quite a bit in the private event. Just kept feeling things out. Made sure the transponder was working. All good.

Saturday - Day 1: Session 1, went out with the DH that had 3 sessions on them---the same ones that did the 2:16. Did 4 hot laps in a row---2:21, 2:19, 2:19, 2:19......hmmm not the result I had hoped for. Came in checked pressures and then did one more lap. Got a 2:17.8. This lap had a glaring mistake in it at T15. Lost 0.5 sec, meaning the rest of the lap was within half a second of my personal best. I was satisfied that I got my act together by the end of the session and was looking forward to more driving. And I was happy that I put down a 2:17 in an official competition. So, I had one in the bag.

I was never able to improve on it throughout the day. Did a 2:18.5 in the 2nd session. Did a 2:19 in the 3rd session. But I was satisfied that I was driving and working on the course and setting myself up to shoot for a good lap on Sunday in the first session with fresh tires. I went out in the 4th session to scrub the new tires in on one warm up lap and came in. In my experience, brand new Pirelli DH need two scrub in/warm up laps to get to max grip. So, I did one in the 4th session, and then would warm them up in the first session Sunday and have my two laps. So, all the pieces were in place to let it all hang out on Sunday in the first session----new tires that were scrubbed in, good weather, lots of practice laps...everything seemed in place.

Sunday - Day 2: Was really excited to get Day 2 going. Could not wait to go out and drive. Session comes around, the air is still cool---53ºF. Excellent. Go out on my first hot lap and------blow T11. Looking at the data, I braked 40 feet later than other laps and it was too much. I was trying to be aggressive, and it bit me. Again, I blew the cherry first lap of new DH. Ok, whatever. Just get over it and get back on it. What happened next was probably the weirdest track day of my life. I simply could not find pace in the car. My top speeds were lower. My minimum speeds were a bit off. I seemed tentative in T3 where I spun in 2020. The data is just baffling. I was on brand new tires and I was killing myself to get a 2:19.3. I had easily done a 2:19.1 on Friday on scrubs.....the weekend prior, I did a 2:17.5 on scrubs.....I was bewildered.

Decided to try again with the new tires in Session 2. Drove my ass off. Made no mistakes---2:19, 2:20. I got out of the car and said, wow, I'm glad I came last weekend because I just cannot get it done this weekend. My top speed on every straight was garbage. The car seemed to be performing normally but just was not putting out the speed. I have no idea what was going on but OG Shark said his speeds were off on Sunday too. I am now hearing the term "altitude density" which is interesting and may affect how the car performs under various weather situations. All I can tell you is that I was driving as hard as I could in session 2 and was getting garbage results.....

I took a few minutes to reflect on what to do next. With 2 driving sessions left, I decided that it was time to walk away from the event. I have seen what happens when people get frustrated and push harder. Things can go wrong. There was nothing I could do to change my place in the standings. And I had nothing left to prove to myself. Last weekend's results were beyond my expectations. This weekend didn't meet expectations. I can accept that. That's just how it goes sometimes. So, I pulled the plug and started packing, and decided to start heading home on Sunday so I could beat some snow that was on its way. I was thrilled that for the first time, I left COTA with a functioning car. We have some stuff to fix on it, but the car was solid. Was so much fun to drive.

Other notes:
-Twitch decided to promote SLB this year and it resulted in 300,000 people at least clicking on it on Saturday. That's not a typo! Wow.

-The Sunday Lunch Spectator Pit Walk was great. A TON of people out there.

-COTA now says from a spectator standpoint that SLB is one of the top 5 events of the year at the track........wut.

-I had OG Shark's crew doing support for me, and I am glad to report they were bored off their asses this year. The more bored they are, the better weekend I'm having. Literally nothing went wrong with the car this year once I put the stock battery in. It was so liberating to not be chasing down issues. But I was definitely glad they were there in case something went wrong.

-Given how Sunday went, I'm starting to think that the 2:16 was a bit of a unicorn lap---at least for me. I have a feeling I may never beat that time. Good weather/environmental conditions, new pavement, fresh fast tires, I was really in the flow of the track, had wide open track......lots of things went right.

-Sunday afternoon, someone spilled motor oil from T13 to pit lane. That's almost a mile of pavement with oil on the racing line. COTA charges for that clean up. Some people have guessed that might a $20,000 clean up bill. While I was packing up, they didn't seem to know who put the oil down. One of the organizers was searching pretty hard in the paddock trying to figure it out. I don't know if they figured out who did it. As a result of that spill and apparently another spill, the last two sessions were hosed because the track was shut down for so long. So, my decision to not drive those two sessions seemed to be a good decision given the situation on track.

-Terry Black BBQ - The Titan-7 guys brought a bunch of Terry Black BBQ to the track on Friday. The brisket was great---super tender. Very similar to Franklin---just a bit saltier. The pork ribs were great. But the STANDOUT was the beef ribs........wow! Incredible. I WANT MOAR! Now, I'm inspired to make some beef ribs.

-My family flew down to check out the event. Was fun to have them there. (They don't come to the track much.)

-I think I'm going to put together a montage of a few videos and photos of my car and the event. I don't have a PB lap video to make so I might as well make some montage thing. We'll see how it goes.

[roastbeef]

gabe, i mentioned in the chit chat thread that maybe we could find a free or next to free e90 trunk and you could borrow my aeromotions wing and see what it does for you. it would be interesting to see what it does for you at a track like buttonwillow where you have a ton of data. i think it would do the most at a track like cota with huge straights though.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

gabe, i mentioned in the chit chat thread that maybe we could find a free or next to free e90 trunk and you could borrow my aeromotions wing and see what it does for you. it would be interesting to see what it does for you at a track like buttonwillow where you have a ton of data. i think it would do the most at a track like cota with huge straights though.

Would be interesting to test it out. Thanks for the offer!

[SYT_Shadow]

That would be really interesting for sure! Aeromotions sounds like the best of both worlds

[admranger]

Originally Posted by dogbone

-I think I'm going to put together a montage of a few videos and photos of my car and the event. I don't have a PB lap video to make so I might as well make some montage thing. We'll see how it goes.

I know this guy that can do music for your montage. Seems he's really good at it and stuff...

Sounds like a good weekend. Great decision making on not chasing that lap time. The "just one more try" in car events and skiing is akin to "hold my beer" in life.

[b4hand]

Good seeing you again Gabe, this is like the 3rd time!

[omgzirra_exe]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Would be interesting to test it out. Thanks for the offer!

you can borrow my dry carbon trunk to use with mikes wing.

can easily set up some reinforcement plates. i ran a wing on the trunk already had no issues.

on that note. ill probably pay you a visit at buttonwillow at the next event.

[dogbone]

I've edited a short vibe piece from COTA Super Lap Battle. Just shows a few of the sights and sounds.

Enjoy!

[dogbone]

I've been receiving some cool images coming from the COTA SLB event. I'll be posting them here and on IG over the coming days as I continue to get them.

I'm starting with this one because it caught my eye. It's not a particularly great shot of my car----I'm buried way down at the left of the image. But I found it interesting because it shows the top contenders all lined up in front of me. I was proud to be 10th in the grid behind these guys (the top Corvette is not in the picture).

Looking at the results of all the cars in the competition, I put in the 11th quickest time out of 73 cars, and got 5th in Unlimited. For me to have moved into 4th, I would have had to go sub-2:15.....haha no one thinks my car could do that. So, I believe my end placement of 5th was the best I could have done.

Anyway, all this to say, my car may not be a traditional time attack machine, but I'm proud that it can be in the same picture as these other cars---even if it is buried at the far left edge of the picture.


Photo by: @snapssudio

One of the cars that really made me wonder what was under the hood was that white Porsche. He put down a 2:11....holy cow.

[roastbeef]

so whats next with the car gabe? i know you're just happy to have it running again, but do you have a "fantasy" list of work in mind?
i think the next logical step would be underbody aero.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

so whats next with the car gabe? i know you're just happy to have it running again, but do you have a "fantasy" list of work in mind?
i think the next logical step would be underbody aero.

I don't have any plans for new fun projects right now. Everything in front of me at the moment is maintenance issues and figuring out the battery situation. I don't want to keep a 56lbs battery in there. Unfortunately, the 20 AmpHour Anti-Gravity battery didn't work out. I want to try the VoltPhreaks battery that was a bit bigger than my original VPR-P6, but they just won't return my calls or emails. I need to press harder to figure out the battery situation.

So first, I need to get the car back into good shape with a light battery, and then I'm trying to setup a track trip in April. I'll talk more about that as plans get set.

Ok, twist my arm---fantasy list? Get a McLaren 720S. That car in stock trim with a great driver ran 2 seconds faster than my personal best at COTA on Supercar F3R tires......holy crap. What would it have done on full slicks? Anyway, a 720S is definitely not in the cards for me, but it can be on a fantasy list! (haha I know that's not what you meant. Making the car lighter and solving the overheating would be on the "normal" fantasy list.)