My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[roastbeef]

yea thats the thing about axles, not super complicated, but if there is a snap ring buried/hidden in grease it might be next to impossible to figure it out on the side of the road.

there was a porsche gt4 that went off at autoclub a few years ago and the driver said it felt like the car started accelerating once it hit the grass. it probably did feel like that, the grip from the slide was less once the car got on a surface with a lot less traction.

i presume you're home now? have you assessed the car?

[dogbone]

I made it home!! Trailer was perfect the rest of the way.

Of course, I needed to have one more obstacle to getting home. When I was 120 miles out, my wife called and said our daughter who has been feeling crappy for the last couple days tested positive for Covid today with a home test. We debated whether I should come home or sleep in a hotel for a few days. I decided to try just quarantining myself in the basement. I hope it works. I’m supposed to fly to a wedding in 12 days. And then fly to a family vacation in 16 days. Anyway, first task is to make sure my daughter is ok.

I have not looked at the car. And I won’t look under the hood until I take it to Honest Assembly to have them check it out. First of all, I am not qualified to make real judgments on the condition of the car. And second, it’s just damn depressing to look at. I fought hard to get home. I’m going to just enjoy sitting on my couch…..even if I have relegated myself to my basement.

[///Mobbin]

dogbone congrats on making it home safe and I hope your daughter recovers quickly! These are the important things, time and money will fix the car.

[dogbone]

(PCR testing results came in today and my daughter is positive for covid. She's feeling ok, but it's a bummer that she has to stay home right as high school is about to finish. My wife's PCR was negative.)

I'm taking the car to Honest Assembly on Wednesday. It won't get assessed right away, but at least they'll have it.

I'm also planning on taking the Zebulon splitter to Zebulon's shop for repair on Wednesday. I sent them a bunch of pictures and they said it could be repaired for a reasonable fee.

So, that's the first step of trying to understand what I'm up against with the car.

My trailer is also needing some help. On this trip, I had other issues with it that I haven't gotten around to talking about yet. I mentioned before that VIR needed to move my trailer and I FedExed my keys to them. When I first arrived at the trailer after flying in on Thursday, I noticed the hitch lock security pin was bent....hmm ok. Then, when I went to use the electric tongue jack, the motor activated, but the foot would not extend. I had to get a floor jack and raise the nose of the trailer a bit and start messing around with the tongue jack. After some fiddling around, I got it to extend and raise the nose enough to get the ball under it. But then, it wouldn't lower enough to get the foot high enough that I could get the wood from under the jack foot. So, more messing around was required and I finally was able to move the trailer into the paddock. But getting the trailer disconnected required a bunch of fiddling around again. Basically, my electric tongue jack needs to be replaced. I ordered a new one. But the timing of the failure sure is ironic with the track having to move my trailer, not to mention, why was the hitch pin bent? And then my trailer wheel falls off three hours after leaving VIR. Also, we will probably have to replace the spindle for the one wheel. I've heard the spindle might be bolt on. I hope it is. If it's welded on, then the whole axle may have to be replaced. The trailer shop indicated they might take responsibility for that given that they did the work. And I think a stud on one of the other wheels got stripped as the tech was putting the wheels back on the trailer after adjusting the castle nuts.....not sure what the solution is going to be for that.

Anyway, lots of things to deal with at the moment.

[Kelse92]

Dude, so sorry you're dealing with all of this. Between the car, trailer, and your daughter with Covid that's a LOT snowballed all at once. Definitely take it easy on yourself and one step at a time. Everybody's here for ya.

I will say, although its hard to say without seeing images, I'm optimistic if it was just a direct front-end collision like your posts read and not from the side or directly to either front corner of the car, the chances of being repairable are much higher. Especially if it sounds like the splitter is repairable that's a good start for sure. Keeping an eye out for follow how you rebound from this, which I'm sure you will

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Kelse92

Dude, so sorry you're dealing with all of this. Between the car, trailer, and your daughter with Covid that's a LOT snowballed all at once. Definitely take it easy on yourself and one step at a time. Everybody's here for ya.

I will say, although its hard to say without seeing images, I'm optimistic if it was just a direct front-end collision like your posts read and not from the side or directly to either front corner of the car, the chances of being repairable are much higher. Especially if it sounds like the splitter is repairable that's a good start for sure. Keeping an eye out for follow how you rebound from this, which I'm sure you will

Appreciate it. Yeah, it's kinda crazy how life can throw all sorts of weird things at you at the same time. On Thursday, I flew out of Colorado full of excitement looking forward to a challenging and fun weekend. It was exciting that I could just fly in and my rig was already at the track. That's the closest I can get to arrive and drive! I was home by Sunday night with a covid sick daughter, a broken car, a broken trailer, the IRS was being stubborn about something, and I just found out today someone has been uploading fake albums to Spotify and impersonating my music company......hehe that's quite a turnaround in a short period of time. Whatever-----you just gotta deal with it.

I have considered whether or not I would post pix of the damaged car. For the time being, I won't. I'm not trying to be sneaky or anything. I'm not trying to hide what happened. I just don't feel like putting out pix of the damaged car right now. My opinion at the moment is, if the car is fixable in a reasonable manner, then I will start posting about the repair process and pix will follow. If for some reason, the damage is something I'm not going to repair, then I have no interest in posting pix.

[omgzirra_exe]

love you Gabe, hope all is well with your daughter and the unfortunate scenarios you have ran into.

ill cook you lunch next time you're out at BW!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by omgzirra_exe

love you Gabe, hope all is well with your daughter and the unfortunate scenarios you have ran into.

ill cook you lunch next time you're out at BW!

Thanks. Yeah, she's definitely feeling better today. Interestingly, someone from the county called today to ask questions about her positive PCR test. Apparently, they have been talking to several people from her high school. My wife got the call, so I don't know everything they asked, but I thought it was interesting that they followed up so quickly. We just got the results this AM.

Ooh what's cookin' for lunch?

Speaking of cooking, you know what I'm looking forward to? On Monday, I'll be smoking a brisket. My college daughter is coming home on Saturday and we'll be having a small BBQ to celebrate her return. Learning to use the smoker has been a very fun journey over the last year.

[roastbeef]

sometimes, we just get shit on. you're going to be fine, and your car is going to be better after the rebuild.
reminds me of this.

[omgzirra_exe]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Thanks. Yeah, she's definitely feeling better today. Interestingly, someone from the county called today to ask questions about her positive PCR test. Apparently, they have been talking to several people from her high school. My wife got the call, so I don't know everything they asked, but I thought it was interesting that they followed up so quickly. We just got the results this AM.

Ooh what's cookin' for lunch?

Speaking of cooking, you know what I'm looking forward to? On Monday, I'll be smoking a brisket. My college daughter is coming home on Saturday and we'll be having a small BBQ to celebrate her return. Learning to use the smoker has been a very fun journey over the last year.

smoker is one thing I need to buy but my apartment says other wise... so electric pellet would be it for me.

not sure I generally do Korean-style marinated short ribs and other things as it's quick and easy to eat.

for the day you return back to BW I will make time to attend

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by omgzirra_exe

smoker is one thing I need to buy but my apartment says other wise... so electric pellet would be it for me.

not sure I generally do Korean-style marinated short ribs and other things as it's quick and easy to eat.

for the day you return back to BW I will make time to attend

I love Korean BBQ! Sounds awesome!

[dogbone]

Been pretty busy today with E90 logistics.

-I downloaded the AIM data from the incident. Figured the information could be useful for Honest Assembly as they look at the car. According to the AIM, I was going about 38mph when I hit the tire wall. I had gotten up to 103mph as I approached Turn 3. I watched the video for the first time when I was at Honest Assembly. I was on a wide line. I turned in quite late. Car completely understeered and went into the grass. I hit the tire wall with the right corner first, probably close to a 45 degree angle. I thought I had hit more direct, but the video was able to clarify it.

-Took the damaged splitter up to Zebulon's shop for repair. Their shop is 75 miles from my house, but I'm just glad I don't have to ship it. Ryan took a close look at it and is confident he can fix it. It won't be new and flawless looking, but he said it will be totally flat and strong and good to go once he's done with it. I'm ok with battle scars on it.

-Took the car to Honest Assembly. We opened the hood annnnd----it doesn't look bad under there. Of course, all the front stuff will have to be replaced. The main thing causing question marks is that, while the engine starts, there's a clicking sound that no one could immediately identify. We immediately shut it off. So, while I remain optimistic, I do want to know what the clicking is. If I had to guess, I'd say the clicking sound sounds like it's coming from outside the engine versus from inside. We'll see.

-At the end of the day, I was trying to drop the trailer off back at the lot. But the electric tongue jack is now totally shot and I can't disconnect the trailer from the truck. So, I had to bring it home and they'll have to stay connected until the trailer shop can disconnect them. I don't feel like going through the acrobatics of raising the trailer with a floor jack. The new tongue jack is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so hopefully I can resolve this soon.

[roastbeef]

I almost forgot- I have an extra oem power steering cooler you can have if yours got tagged.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

I almost forgot- I have an extra oem power steering cooler you can have if yours got tagged.

Appreciate that. By next week, I'm hoping to have a list of stuff needing replacement. Of course, before that can happen, we need to get our 8-12" of snow first.....Actually, in my neighborhood, it's about the same probability that we'll get 12-18" as it is that we'll get 8-12"..... Glad I got all my car/trailer logistics done earlier this week!

[dogbone]

Visited the car at Honest Assembly yesterday. The teardown of the broken pieces is done. Basically the coolant radiator and everything behind it in the engine seems fine. Everything in front of it needs replacing along with the hood, bumper, passenger side fender. The driver side fender survived without damage. The oil cooler, supercharger cooler and power steering cooler aren't leaking, but they are bent, so they will all be replaced.

The clicking noise coming from the engine bay disappeared after the teardown, so the engine seems fine. Although----I may be having some coil pack issues.....don't know if I mentioned that before. At VIR, prior to my tire wall adventure, I was getting some hesitations on some random accelerations along with some popping from the exhaust. Some people who were trackside said they could hear the popping coming from the exhaust. They thought the car was running rich. So....coil pack issue? The spark plugs were just replaced before going to the East Coast.

The upper frame rail on the passenger side is bent slightly at the tip. They didn't seem concerned about fixing it.

The front passenger rim has some marks on it and the tire has several cuts in it. I'm going to replace the hub on that side. Will most likely retire that rim.

Started getting pricing and availability on all the parts. Seems like everything is available within a couple days. So I've given the green light to start acquiring the parts.

The rebuild on my original E90 engine is also happening at Honest Assembly Garage. It's quite far along now. They seem happy with how it's coming together. It actually feels a bit weird to be putting together such a nice fresh engine build and then sticking it in the street car. And ironically, the front of the E90 is torn down, so.....one would think this would not be a bad time to put the rebuilt engine in the track car.....but I just can't stomach tearing the track car completely apart if I don't have to. So, the plan is to still put the rebuilt engine in the street car and have it as a spare if needed.

Here's the current state of the rebuilt engine.

[Kelse92]

All things considered and how defeated you were following everything this is really great news.
Mostly cosmetic exterior parts, a few cooling parts, engine service while you're in there, and thankfully no major frame damage sounds like you'll be getting back on track in very little time if you want to be

[dogbone]

Ordered just about all the major parts to fix the car. Still a few things left to order, but the bulk of the parts are on their way.

The hood has been a challenging topic. Still haven’t 100% decided what to do, although a stock hood has been ordered because most other aftermarket options seem limited. We’ll see.

[slcook54]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Ordered just about all the major parts to fix the car. Still a few things left to order, but the bulk of the parts are on their way.

The hood has been a challenging topic. Still haven't 100% decided what to do, although a stock hood has been ordered because most other aftermarket options seem limited. We'll see.

I'd be curious if you decide to expand on your thought process regarding the hood. Right now I'm leaning toward hacking the stock hood with track spec vents, but if there's a better option, I'm interested.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by slcook54

I'd be curious if you decide to expand on your thought process regarding the hood. Right now I'm leaning toward hacking the stock hood with track spec vents, but if there's a better option, I'm interested.

BMW did a fine job with the hood on this car. Being aluminum, the stock hood is pretty darn light—around 22lbs. Most aftermarket options are not really much lighter. And some are finicky and don’t allow the hood shocks…..blah.

If you care about cost, buying the $360 hood vents and then either installing them yourself or having a shop do it is the most cost efficient option.

If you have an E92, you have more options for aftermarket hoods that have built in vents than me with the E90. But availability seems to be a problem these days. I have an email out to Motorsport24 to ask them about their hood.

The other bummer these days is that shipping costs are unfriendly. The bumper is $300 for shipping. A hood is almost $500 domestically. Who knows what horrors await you for international freight.

So, if you just want to get it done, get the Track Spec stuff, cut up the hood and be done with it. It’s a decent solution and it’s the most cost effective and probably the most immediate. If you have a bigger budget and can wait, and you like the carbon look, an aftermarket carbon hood can have built in vents which saves the cost of buying vents and potentially paying for the install, and it doesn’t need to be painted.

Hope that helps.

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by slcook54

I'd be curious if you decide to expand on your thought process regarding the hood. Right now I'm leaning toward hacking the stock hood with track spec vents, but if there's a better option, I'm interested.

carbon is expensive to do right. for hoods, it takes a beating from the sun as well as the heat cycles from the engine it sees.
painting is very expensive, as there are often pinholes that need to be filled in or it will look terrible. my doors were $2k to paint because of the labor involved in the proper prep work, and that was on a buddy deal.
shipping is nuts right now because of fuel prices. carbon hoods typically save about 12lbs. add about 3 more pounds of savings if you get rid of the oem latches and hardware and use aerocatches.

so factoring in hood cost, shipping, and paint, you're into it for probably close to $4k for 12lbs. if you buy something from overseas, you'll have to pay some duties and california has an import tax that is about equivalent to sales tax.
hard to justify when the trackspec vents have been proven to be effective for a couple hundred bucks.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

carbon is expensive to do right. for hoods, it takes a beating from the sun as well as the heat cycles from the engine it sees.
painting is very expensive, as there are often pinholes that need to be filled in or it will look terrible. my doors were $2k to paint because of the labor involved in the proper prep work, and that was on a buddy deal.
shipping is nuts right now because of fuel prices. carbon hoods typically save about 12lbs. add about 3 more pounds of savings if you get rid of the oem latches and hardware and use aerocatches.

so factoring in hood cost, shipping, and paint, you're into it for probably close to $4k for 12lbs. if you buy something from overseas, you'll have to pay some duties and california has an import tax that is about equivalent to sales tax.
hard to justify when the trackspec vents have been proven to be effective for a couple hundred bucks.

Nice insights.

Another thing I need to consider in my particular case is that my supercharger manifold is large. Some aftermarket hoods have a different shape than stock for the bulge area. I gotta make sure that whatever hood I go with will still accommodate the manifold.

[reidetailing]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

carbon is expensive to do right. for hoods, it takes a beating from the sun as well as the heat cycles from the engine it sees.
painting is very expensive, as there are often pinholes that need to be filled in or it will look terrible. my doors were $2k to paint because of the labor involved in the proper prep work, and that was on a buddy deal.
shipping is nuts right now because of fuel prices. carbon hoods typically save about 12lbs. add about 3 more pounds of savings if you get rid of the oem latches and hardware and use aerocatches.

so factoring in hood cost, shipping, and paint, you're into it for probably close to $4k for 12lbs. if you buy something from overseas, you'll have to pay some duties and california has an import tax that is about equivalent to sales tax.
hard to justify when the trackspec vents have been proven to be effective for a couple hundred bucks.

Mike is correct, my custom carbon hood which is on my YouTube channel was just over $7,000 CAD.

There wasn't much E90 designs that I felt were ideal or looked visually appeasing, hence why I went the custom route to create IMO the ideal E90 M3 track hood.
**These photos actually haven't been shared on my journal lol so you're getting first access to a couple of them.










I have a Youtube video on it (there are chapters so you can skip directly to the chapter showcasing the CF hood, its weight, etc):

I say go custom CF hood Gabe!