My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by slcook54

Any guesses what caused PS to fail?

My guess is the power steering pump went down again. It’s less than a year old……

[PrimeBMW]

Originally Posted by dogbone

My guess is the power steering pump went down again. It’s less than a year old……

Time to start building a spares package 😃

[Kelse92]

Originally Posted by PrimeBMW

Time to start building a spares package 😃

Spares don’t really cost money until the part you need to replace breaks right? They can always be resold #racermath

[rhyary]

Very sorry to hear about the PS issues.
Perhaps pushing the components with the DH type slicks is too much for the OEM components such as PS and wheel bearings.

Unfortunately, investing in spare parts might be inevitable. However, the challenge of finding a shop to install the components is still a difficulty.

It also bring about priority issue. Is the priority to go fast as possible for one lap, or finish 5 trackdays going a bit slower on less demanding tires.

Not an easy answer

[PrimeBMW]

Originally Posted by Kelse92

Spares don’t really cost money until the part you need to replace breaks right? They can always be resold #racermath

You can certainly believe that but reality is different when you have a highly strung car. My car eats parts for lunch. Driveline, axles and diff don't last many events at all. Starter, alternator and all suspension parts. I have the joy of buying a second/spare race engine this year 😜

[admranger]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I gotta tell ya—-having steering problems resurface so soon…….this one stings.

It has probably been covered before, but is an electric steering solution a possibility?

Originally Posted by dogbone

Makes me want to take up basket weaving instead.

Pickleball. That's where all the cool kids are. I am also playing.

[Kelse92]

Originally Posted by PrimeBMW

You can certainly believe that but reality is different when you have a highly strung car. My car eats parts for lunch. Driveline, axles and diff don't last many events at all. Starter, alternator and all suspension parts. I have the joy of buying a second/spare race engine this year 😜

All of this is why I have a Spec Miata lol

Originally Posted by admranger

It has probably been covered before, but is an electric steering solution a possibility?

If it is I’m honestly not sure it’s much better. The FRS has EPS and the control unit for it overheats often on track with aero and sticky tires and cuts out power steering mid-corner constantly. No fun at all.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by admranger

It has probably been covered before, but is an electric steering solution a possibility?

It is a possibility but I have not gone down that road yet. Maybe I'll look into it more soon.

[bigjae1976]

Originally Posted by dogbone

My guess is the power steering pump went down again. It’s less than a year old……

On my E46, I installed some shims on the pressure relief which lowers the system pressure. The E46 PS pump is a positive displacement vane pump so the shims lower system pressure. A PD pump has to have a pressure relief that relieves from the high-pressure discharge back into the suction side. The pressure relief controls system pressure and prevents stuff from blowing up. Most think fluid leaking from the reservoir is due to heat - actually due to excessive pressure.

There is a white disc in the bottom of the reservoir which is a baffle. Without it, PS fluid would shoot out of the PS cap. So you get high pressure PS fluid which foams and relieves out of the weephole in the cap.

Back to the pump. If the pump sucks air, it will still pump (PD design) which causes the pump to cavitate, heat up and eventually fail.

If you lower the system pressure then you decrease the likelihood of cavitating

The E9X M3 pump looks similar to the E46. Might be worth a try.

[slcook54]

Also wondering if a larger cooler would help, I think Gabe is already on the Do88, but it still seems kinda small?

[bigjae1976]

Originally Posted by slcook54

Also wondering if a larger cooler would help, I think Gabe is already on the Do88, but it still seems kinda small?

Cooling isn't the issue. A larger cooler may help to drop the system pressure.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by bigjae1976

On my E46, I installed some shims on the pressure relief which lowers the system pressure. The E46 PS pump is a positive displacement vane pump so the shims lower system pressure. A PD pump has to have a pressure relief that relieves from the high-pressure discharge back into the suction side. The pressure relief controls system pressure and prevents stuff from blowing up. Most think fluid leaking from the reservoir is due to heat - actually due to excessive pressure.

There is a white disc in the bottom of the reservoir which is a baffle. Without it, PS fluid would shoot out of the PS cap. So you get high pressure PS fluid which foams and relieves out of the weephole in the cap.

Back to the pump. If the pump sucks air, it will still pump (PD design) which causes the pump to cavitate, heat up and eventually fail.

If you lower the system pressure then you decrease the likelihood of cavitating

The E9X M3 pump looks similar to the E46. Might be worth a try.

Really appreciate the heads up!

[dogbone]

Abandoning the PCA event on Friday due to power steering issues was very frustrating, but the event was jammed full of cars and they were randomly releasing cars onto the track in front of cars that were on hot laps, so I believe I would have had to fight quite hard to find an open lap. Would I really have been willing to burn good tires while fighting for a lap? ummmm would have been tricky. My decision to fly home immediately was the right one. I was able to catch the last night of my college daughter's spring break which was nice. And I smoked some pork ribs for my parents. So, I made good use of being home early.

Check out these ribs! Really love the end result of pork ribs after a 6 hour cook. I've been experimenting with spicing.


We have purchased a new power steering pump that will arrive tomorrow. And there is an HPDE-style track day on Thursday at Road Atlanta. I've been told I can sign up. There is some chance of-----wait for it------rain on Thursday. Whatever---just trying to see if I can put in a couple laps. Hopefully, everything will work and I can go to VIR next weekend. The weather looks quite good for that event.

I have been analyzing my data and video from Road Atlanta. My driving wasn't bad for the time I had on the track. But there's room for improvement. I can brake later for turns 1,6, 10 which are the kinds of things I would work on given more time. I'm never crazy about that kind of stuff when I first show up to a track. I can carry more speed through a number of sections. I believe on a nice cool day, a 1:27 is possible in my car. My current virtual best based on 5 sectors is a 1:28.2. Of course, doing a 27 is another matter. And I'm not sure when that would be. If the car works, I would consider GTA at RA in early May.

Now that I've had a few days to collect my thoughts, here's some of my notes on Road Atlanta:
-I liked the track and am glad I visited. It presents some unique challenges. Turns 1 and 12 are mind jobs. Both can carry quite a bit of speed, but both have weird looks. Turn 1 challenges you on how late you're willing to brake while having to deal with a high speed uphill corner. I was making the Pirellis squeal mid-turn of Turn 1 which I assume means I was getting close to the limit there. (A race coach approached me in the paddock. He had been trackside while I was out there. He came over because he wanted to tell me that he was happy to see how I was going around Turn 1 because he said I was using my aero. That was very nice of him.) I believe I need to brake a bit later there and carry the front straight speed a bit longer. Anyway, Turn 1 is about how little you can brake and still make that uphill turn. Sometimes, I found myself having to hedge my bets and tap the brake once more as I was in the turn. I just wasn't sure where the limits were yet. And going off there looked like it would be unpleasant. Plus, the first time I drove it, it was wet on the outside of the turn, which gets in your head.

Turn 12 challenges you on how much you can stay in the gas while heading down that hill and turning to the right. David Murry was commenting that I needed to try to get off the gas earlier and less, to not have the weight shifting from back-to-front/front-to-back as much.

-Turn 3 berm hop. Was definitely putting two wheels quite a bit in the air. Decided I didn't need to go too deep onto the berm because it gets taller and kicks you higher which wasn't too pleasant. (kinda like the top of Cotton Corners at Buttonwillow.)

-The hilly Esses were not as dramatic as I thought they would be. I'm sure I could push harder through there, which would make it a bit more hairy, but I wasn't having any issues.

-The exit of Esses T5 - I didn't experiment too much there going up on the runoff/outside berm. Since it had been wet, I was really hesitant, and even when it dried, I just didn't take the time to get comfortable on the berm. David Murry warned me that if you take it a certain way where you hit that hole at the end of the berm, the car can porpoise on you. He said many cars while porpoising will snap and they go into the wall. I had done it that way once and felt exactly what he was talking about. It's one of the only times I can ever recall my car porpoising. I never even heard the word until this season of Formula 1.

-I need to carry more speed through T6. It cambers up for you, so there's good grip.

-The back straight is long-----really long....I had good grip in the braking zone for 10, but I never took the braking to the limit. I can definitely brake later than I was last week.

-10A/10B. My car had grip through those two. Never really found the threshold of grip for my setup, but there's plenty to work with.

-I never put a single wheel off track the entire trip. Heck, I only got the tail to step out a couple minor times. RA looks very punishing if you go off track. No thanks. Kept it tidy. Plus, I was on my absolute best behavior because I was trying to get approved for the test & tune day. Didn't want to look out of control.

-If it's sunny, forget doing a fast lap if you're on track at 8AM. Holy cow, the sun is like a laser going down the hill to T12. On Friday, I was doing the turn literally blind because the sun was so directly in my eyes and the turn was in the shade. Had to slow down.

-Because Road Atlanta is surrounded by trees, the shadows at various times of the day affect the visuals of the track. There was a line on the track I was using as a braking marker. Well, that was when it was cloudy. When it was sunny, I couldn't even see the line because the tree shadows changed everything. Sun, clouds, tree shadows, time of day.....as these things change, the visual aspects of driving RA change more than any other track I've driven. I would suggest finding markers that aren't weather/light dependent. (For some reason, some of the braking marker number signs were turned around last week so you couldn't see the numbers.....)

-The pavement is not in awesome shape, but it was fine.

-Ok we need to talk about the paddock, I mean paddocks.....Race Paddock, Support Paddock, upper, lower---and on opposite sides of the track!....ok ok, enough paddocks! What? Two pit entry and pit exit roads?....sigh.....PCA was using both pit lanes for the DE. And part of the support paddock is on a hill....haha never thought about a paddock situation this much! Had to move from the support paddock to the race paddock for the PCA DE.

-I was fascinated that the track admin was so strict about letting me sign up for the Test & Tune day. I've just never run into that anywhere else. I'm so glad that they did let me sign up though, because that's when I was able to run my best.

[aboutsize14]

Cant say enough how I love this build! Your willingness to share the good bad and the ugly is also very refreshing. Track days don't always go well. Doesn't matter what brand of car people run. This car can pull some serious g's in the corners ! Keep kicking ass !

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by aboutsize14

Cant say enough how I love this build! Your willingness to share the good bad and the ugly is also very refreshing. Track days don't always go well. Doesn't matter what brand of car people run. This car can pull some serious g's in the corners ! Keep kicking ass !

Thanks! Going on the journey of the build and this thread have been quite fun. I've met so many nice people because of the thread. While the last year has been difficult due to all the problems, I've decided it's best to report what's going on. If someone else can gain some perspective from my ramblings, then it's worth it.

I will be sitting down tonight and writing about the latest shenanigans.

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Please go!!!!

So many emotions. I'm just on an emotional roller coaster these days with this car.

I left Atlanta last Friday with my tail between my legs. The power steering went out and it didn’t come back—even after cooling down for two hours. I told the shop, ACI Motorsport, to order a newly remanufactured power steering pump and new reservoir. The OEM reservoir has a filter in it. Even though the reservoir was brand new, I figured the filter might be trashed from the nasty looking fluid that pulled out of the car.

The parts arrived on Wednesday. I flew back to Atlanta on Wednesday. I was trying to get the car fixed in time so that I could go to the PCA event at VIR Fri-Sun. The shop worked on it until 10PM Wednesday evening. I was hoping to test the car on track Thursday, but it was looking like rain on Thursday. If the car was not fixed, I was thinking maybe I would just have to ditch and take the car back to CO and figure out what the next step would be, because I had no idea what that would be……

Thursday – it had only sprinkled a little bit in the early hours of Thursday and it was already dry by 8AM. I ran over to the track and talked to the DE organizer and asked if I could shake my car down. The track event was hosted by JZilla Track Days. The owner was super friendly and charged me $50 to shake down the car. I took the car out on track and it drove perfectly fine. I was super happy. And then, I came back into the pits and slow way down to take a left back into the paddock……….and the steering goes stiff……..I’m like NO WAY!

I ran back to ACI and they were searching around the car, looking at servotronic connecters, looking for any other wires…..anything. I also asked ACI to look at that grounding spot on the passenger side in the front of the engine bay. For the last 5 or 6 track days, I’ve been getting the brake booster plausibility limp mode when I first start the car. Ugh. So, ACI pulled that grounding spot off and sanded all the contacts.

I ran back over to the track and asked the organizer if I could buy one more session. They were very nice and said yes. I went to grid and the session had been black flagged…….we sat in the pit most of the session…..we went out I got one lap in and they checker flagged the session. Car was fine on track. I came into the pit. What was it going to feel like? I turn the wheel to enter the paddock, and it’s LESS stiff than the first time, but still a bit funky. Huh.

I was bummed that I had paid for a second session but only got 1 lap. I ran back to the organizer…..geez….I sound like a junky……Anyway, I ran back to the organizer and said, “I was only able to get one lap…..I just need laps to see if the car is ok. Can I please go out this session?” She was very nice and told me to go out in the current session. This run group was super mellow street cars. No fast laps possible, but I did get 6-7 laps in. Car drove fine on track. I come back into pit lane……oh boy here we go……what’s it going to be like? I turn the wheel to enter the paddock annnnnnnnnd the car was fine!! I was like uhhhhhh what is happening? It’s getting better with each session…….At that moment, I said, “that’s it, I’m packing up and heading to VIR right now.” And so I wrapped everything up as soon as possible and headed out on the 6 hour drive from RA to VIR.

So, I didn’t really know if the car was fixed, but this gave me hope. I arrived at VIR at 6PM and got all setup. And I gotta tell ya, I didn’t sleep very well because I was anxious to find out if my car was going to work at VIR.

Friday – Weather was pretty nice today---high in the mid-70s, which was way the heck nicer than the 100F temps we had last August. I start the car in the trailer---remember, every cold morning start over the last 5-6 days has started with a brake booster limp mode---and no limp mode! Did messing with he ground solve the limp mode? Sheesh.

PCA offered a 15 minute parade lap session at the beginning of the day. I decided to go out to see if the steering was behaving. It did fine on the two parade laps.

Man, I was pacing around waiting for the first session. If the car didn’t work, I was just gonna pack up and head back to CO. If it did work, then I would stay all weekend.

Session 1: the car ran perfectly. Come into the pit, and the steering is totally fine. Phew. Ran a 2:00.08 in the first session on scrubs. Was getting back into the groove of the track pretty quickly.

Really studied the data and video from my 1:58.1 last August and compared it to my fast lap of the first session. Today’s lap had glaring shortcomings in Turn 3 and top of the Esses through Oak Tree. So, I was trying to coach myself through those. Also, I put on better tires for session 2. I figured I would try better tires today because Saturday suddenly has some potential rain.

Session 2 Part 1: I had been trying the strategy of being the first car out in the session. Man, that strategy NEVER worked all day. They kept slamming cars that arrived late to the grid in front of us on our first hot lap. So frustrating. Also, VIR has some new policies about how to get cars out on track and I TOTALLY disagree with them. The guy that releases cars into the hot pit is at the top of the paddock, up where the bathrooms are at the top. And the people hanging out at pit exit only want to check Meatball flag stuff, not deal with being a grid boss. The grid boss isn’t the boss of anything up there at the top of the paddock a quarter mile away from pit exit……it’s messy. They’re going to have to come up with something better in my opinion. And now you have to do a U-turn to enter the paddock…..just some weird stuff. EDIT: I forgot to mention that when the grid boss releases you, you only go 100 feet before you run into another safety worker who is directing traffic on pit lane. She has to be there because we enter the top of pit lane right where cars are coming off track. So, cars just exiting and cars going out are forced to merge.

I go out first and it’s a mess. The best I can do is a 1:59.2. I had seen faster predictive times, but couldn’t make anything happen with traffic.

Session 2 Part 2: I come into the paddock, get some gas, let the car rest a few minutes. The sessions are 30 minutes. By the time I go back out, there’s 10 minutes left. I go back out and get one lap---1:57.3 (new PB). At the end of the lap, I was catching a Porsche-----oh man, I was begging that car to go faster! I caught him right before the finish line and didn’t get a point by in time, so I had to let off the gas. I looked at it quite hard in the data. I only lost 0.1 sec by letting off. Anyway, I was quite happy with that result in my second session. It seems that to find open track, I gotta be more creative.

Session 3 wasn’t notable.

Saturday is looking like a chance of rain in the AM. Sunday looks amazing.
I have new DH with me. May wait until Sunday to try them. We’ll see.

My emotions have been all over the map---from frustration to elation. I can barely keep up. But I am thrilled that I had no issues today. I feel like I need one of those work signs that says ### days since the car had a problem.

Here’s the fast lap video:

[admranger]

So, is it me or are the upshifts kinda slow? I would have expected a more abrupt change but maybe you have a sweet spot setting.

Regardless, that lap looked properly quick!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by admranger

So, is it me or are the upshifts kinda slow? I would have expected a more abrupt change but maybe you have a sweet spot setting.

Regardless, that lap looked properly quick!

You know, sometimes it’s a bit sluggish at random times. Can’t really pinpoint if it’s a VF tune thing or a transmission software tune thing. No idea.

I’ll have another video for you to analyze soon….

[admranger]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I’ll have another video for you to analyze soon….

I haven't even seen it and I already hate everything about it.

[dogbone]

Had a great day today at VIR. Car worked flawlessly all day. I cannot even begin to tell you how happy I am to say that.

Decided to put on fresh tires. It was cool first session. Walked away disappointed…..had traffic. Always bummed to be stuck in traffic with new tires.

Second session, it got warmer than I had hoped. It was 71°F. I decided to stick with the good tires. Glad I did. First hot lap - 1:56.9 (new PB). Second hot lap - 1:56.8 (new PB). Took an off lap and went for one more—-1:55.4. Was blown away with that result. Totally unexpected.

SYT_Shadow and his brother are at this event. I put in my passenger seat and gave them rides in the afternoon. That was fun. It’s been great hanging out with the brothers this weekend.

Not sure if I’ll go for it tomorrow. I do believe there’s a 54 in the car, but I don’t think it will happen this weekend.

Anyway, here’s the lap video:

[SYT_Shadow]

Hanging out with Gabe dogbone for the weekend was great. We seem to bring him good car-luck as the car wants to work well when its around us! lol

It's incredible to see what Mr Bone has achieved with a DIY track car, following no template other than his own intuition. The E90 is incredibly fast and Gabe is a fantastic driver. The PCA people know what's up and other than an actual 911R (GTD class IIRC) there is nothing out there that can touch it. It's hard to overstate how remarkable this is.
In the PCA paddock you see much newer, infinitely more expensive machinery and then you have this E90 which is a bit like a dinosaur. Already two generations old in the M world and never a really expensive car to begin with, a car frequently called a 'grocery getter' by others. It sits there watching how evolution is taking place and how newer, fancier, more expensive cars are built and tracked, but it would be a mistake to ever discount the E90, because it may be a dinosaur but it is a friggin T-REX!

adc and GasBurnlife(landapanda) were also there to complete the forum presence!

[//steve\\]

Sub2 at VIR is hauling!!!! Great laps.