Track forum general chit chat.

[admranger]

Why can't we all just get along?

I personally like the variety and that the domestics are upping their game, even if they are making some poor choices. Eventually they'll either learn or their customers will find something else to play with.

It's not like BMW hasn't made a few mistakes in their day (<cough> rod bearings, E46 subframes and vanos, rod bearings again <cough>)

Rising performance lifts all makes as they battle each other to stay on top.

Besides, the more people that like track driving means we can eventually rid ourselves of a bunch of wasted real estate (golf courses) and turn them into racetracks! That's progress!

[Grip Addict]

Repost since no response...

Anyone else notice no one wears race gloves at dragstrips or roll race events?

I am the type of guy who gets sweaty palms and being in a helmet+gloves gets you in the mindset much like a suit for a job interview.

[dparm]

COTA After Dark...very interesting challenge. The video makes this look way brighter than it was. Between the corners, it was complete darkness.

Also, someone in my run group hit a skunk dead-center of the track by corner 15. That was a nice smell for the rest of the evening.

Have fun laughing at my early braking and times that are 3-4s off the pace, heh.

[Bartledoo]

Originally Posted by dparm

I'd half agree with this. I see a fair number of them at track days, though it's usually the same people -- and a lot of those 350s are trailered in.

I see a ton at the track. I just can't help but wonder if many of the owners would have more fun/satisfaction in a car with a bit less potential performance/cost but still great feel (like our car with decent suspension/tires), and getting closer to the car's potential.

Nothing against them though. Some of the regulars I'm friends with at the track are gt350 owners, and the cars are badass. Not my preference though, and I prefer to keep my track car budget reasonable (for my net worth haha).

[gmx]

Originally Posted by Grip Addict

Repost since no response...

Anyone else notice no one wears race gloves at dragstrips or roll race events?

I am the type of guy who gets sweaty palms and being in a helmet+gloves gets you in the mindset much like a suit for a job interview.

I got gloves after a track day in 100F ambient weather. Every 2nd lap of a 60second technical course (no big straights, just a kink - hold it flat if you got balls) I was wiping my hands on my pants. Just wear them. I get sweaty palms as well. Do you give a F about how people think of you or do you care about your palms/steering wheel condition?

[SQ13]

Originally Posted by dbyrd

COTA has developed a few large bumps that might initially catch you off-guard in the dark.

Between 9-10 at track out from 9.

Inside of turn 18 at the end of the carousel. I used to set up for this last apex, but now, I displace it. If you set it up correctly, you can still be setup well for 19.

I instruct for Edge Addicts, but unfortunately, I can't make it. Let us know how it goes!

I hadn’t been there since Jan 2018. I noticed the dip between 9 and 10 in a video recently, and it looked violent for the GT3. It actually wasn’t bad in my car. T18 bump still feels sketchy. The bump before T2 seems to have gotten worse.

Overall, it was fun. I broke my car during the third session, so I switched to my street car for last two sessions. The night session was fucking awesome.

Originally Posted by dparm

Come find me and say hello! I'll be in a blue Corvette with white and red stripes. Happy to provide some pointers on COTA in case you forgot, haha.

I'm not really too worried about lap times for this event. The first sessions will be brutally hot and then the night stuff will be a bit of an unknown. I just want some sweet glowing-rotor photos.

I saw your car, but didn’t get a chance to drop by bc of an issue with my car. You might remember me driving slow as hell in the silver E46 M3, #13. I was able to get my rotors to glow!

Originally Posted by M3 Number 86

I usually do that first session to make sure nothing is in position to break apart. Listen and feel for things. That's what I did at laguna. Felt like something was gonna break. Then next session it did break. Send it. Lol

My RR caliper bracket bolt worked its way loose during the third session. Didn’t hear anything until the checkered flag came out lol.











I’ll upload dusk and night vids later.

[MaximusB]

What’s the oil change interval for you guys who track the car?

I changed my oil in March and only put about 3000km on the car since. The 3000km also included two track days (14 - 20 minute sessions total). I have a road trip coming up, about 1300km round trip and 1 more track day in September. Should I do another oil change before the road trip or before the last track day?

I only drive my car on weekends and I store it over winter. So ideally I would like to wait till next spring to change oil.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by MaximusB

What’s the oil change interval for you guys who track the car?

I changed my oil in March and only put about 3000km on the car since. The 3000km also included two track days (14 - 20 minute sessions total). I have a road trip coming up, about 1300km round trip and 1 more track day in September. Should I do another oil change before the road trip or before the last track day?

I only drive my car on weekends and I store it over winter. So ideally I would like to wait till next spring to change oil.

You won't really know until you get some Blackstone analyses under your belt. They can track by "hours" instead of miles, if you prefer.

I'd pull a sample after a few track days (pull it from the filter housing) and see what they say. Frankly, I think the oil in the car can stay in there longer. Just change it after the road trip or whatever -- highway miles are not hard on a car.

[Ximian]

Originally Posted by dogbone

You want protocol BMW_PT6.

Setting up a page like you describe takes just a few minutes. I suggest you dig in and learn how to do it. That way you can easily change the page configs as you continue using the device. No one else's pre-setup pages are going to be exactly what you want.

You'll also want to setup the side LEDs to do what you want.

AIM has a number of videos on YouTube that describe some setup stuff.

Thanks for the info and rhyary

I got the it hooked up easily with the PnP harness, but the instructions for the fuse tap to to provide power to the Solo are minimal. It probably more simple than it looks, but it's the first time I've done anything regarding the fuses so I don't have much to work with.

As for the info, I have a page for CC05 - DCT TMP and CC34 - FUEL (%). Nothing shows up for DCT TMP but the car was cold. Is it supposed to show anything?

Also, Fuel % shows up for 5 seconds and disappears for 5 seconds. That's kind of odd. Both are at 10 hertz sampling frequency so I'll try to decrease it to 1 hertz to see if it helps.

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by MaximusB

What’s the oil change interval for you guys who track the car?

I changed my oil in March and only put about 3000km on the car since. The 3000km also included two track days (14 - 20 minute sessions total). I have a road trip coming up, about 1300km round trip and 1 more track day in September. Should I do another oil change before the road trip or before the last track day?

I only drive my car on weekends and I store it over winter. So ideally I would like to wait till next spring to change oil.

depends on what makes you feel good. you can do the blackstone reports to gauge oil life based on sheerability (i forget the scientific term for it) for how long you used it and how many track days were included in that mileage.
lots of people stick to the "every three track days" thing. there may have been some blackstone backing to that, but it may have been long forgotten or lost in translation.
another general consensus no matter what oil weight you're using, is the bmw recommended interval is too long. so maybe a healthy rule of thumb if you're tracking or daily driving the car and tracking it, is 5,000 miles or every third trackday- whichever comes first.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

depends on what makes you feel good. you can do the blackstone reports to gauge oil life based on sheerability (i forget the scientific term for it) for how long you used it and how many track days were included in that mileage.
lots of people stick to the "every three track days" thing. there may have been some blackstone backing to that, but it may have been long forgotten or lost in translation.
another general consensus no matter what oil weight you're using, is the bmw recommended interval is too long. so maybe a healthy rule of thumb if you're tracking or daily driving the car and tracking it, is 5,000 miles or every third trackday- whichever comes first.

Shear resistance is the term you want, if I read your post correctly.

I think every 3 track days is excessive. There are a few things working in favor of not draining it so often:

1. Even the cheap 10w60s are pretty stout
2. The sump is huge and shearing/diluting all of it takes a while
3. BMW designed the car to be run hard
4. It's not a DI motor so fuel dilution isn't a problem

I don't even remember my interval, but on a given OCI I usually had 5 or more track days and never saw anything out of the ordinary. YMMV because every motor is different.

[roastbeef]

Right. There might even be some blackstone reports stating oil sheer is still good after three track days, but it's hard to make sense of all the data, because people track in different environments and conditions- meaning 105° days or 50° days. Internal temps have some variability. I might be wasting, but what I came up with makes me feel good. I'm not any kind of expert and I have fun doing maintenance. Keeps me feeling like a man.

[SQ13]

Sunset and night sessions

[dparm]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

Right. There might even be some blackstone reports stating oil sheer is still good after three track days, but it's hard to make sense of all the data, because people track in different environments and conditions- meaning 105° days or 50° days. Internal temps have some variability. I might be wasting, but what I came up with makes me feel good. I'm not any kind of expert and I have fun doing maintenance. Keeps me feeling like a man.

Ambient temp is less of an issue than people make it out to be. The car isn't air cooled, it's water cooled. Again, run a few track days in your typical climate and send a sample for analysis. Warmer climates might see a little bit more viscosity loss.

Originally Posted by SQ13

Sunset and night sessions

Nice vids! You don't use as much of the exit curbing as I do. I'm way up on the green stuff most of the time. Channeling my inner F1 driver, I guess.

Here's my sunset session and the one before it:

[rhyary]

Originally Posted by Ximian

Thanks for the info and rhyary

I got the it hooked up easily with the PnP harness, but the instructions for the fuse tap to to provide power to the Solo are minimal. It probably more simple than it looks, but it's the first time I've done anything regarding the fuses so I don't have much to work with.

As for the info, I have a page for CC05 - DCT TMP and CC34 - FUEL (%). Nothing shows up for DCT TMP but the car was cold. Is it supposed to show anything?

Also, Fuel % shows up for 5 seconds and disappears for 5 seconds. That's kind of odd. Both are at 10 hertz sampling frequency so I'll try to decrease it to 1 hertz to see if it helps.

DCT Temp is not available,

[M3MPH1S]

Originally Posted by MaximusB

What’s the oil change interval for you guys who track the car?

I changed my oil in March and only put about 3000km on the car since. The 3000km also included two track days (14 - 20 minute sessions total). I have a road trip coming up, about 1300km round trip and 1 more track day in September. Should I do another oil change before the road trip or before the last track day?

I only drive my car on weekends and I store it over winter. So ideally I would like to wait till next spring to change oil.

I just sent my oil to Blackstone about 2 weeks ago, so I should be receiving results soon and I will share them here (I paid for TBN as well), but I put 12 track days and 4k miles on the oil. I was originally intending on testing it after 9 or 10 track days, but pushed it a bit extra due to getting busy with life and forgetting to order an oil change kit.

Previously, when I was still dailying the car ~32k miles/year, I did one stint of 4 track days and 9k miles and the report came back very strong (TBN included), so I was interested to see results from pushing the oil further with almost no street driving now and more track driving.

I might be stupid/crazy for wanting to test the limits on my own car, but my curiosity overwhelms me. I'm also still on original rod bearings at 162.5k miles.

[roastbeef]

12 track days huh? How many top-offs? What brand and weight of oil? Those results will be interesting.

[M3MPH1S]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

1/2 way done. That last one on the passenger side sucks! 30k on these.

FYI - you can skip taking the plenum off next time unless it just makes you happy

Also - just using a long flathead screwdriver and wedging it under the BOTTOM (aka *NOT* the top circle with the hole through it) part of the ignition coil is the easiest/safest method I've found. I've tried the special tool people sell on the forum, coat hangers, ethernet cable, etc, etc) and just giving the coil a few twists back and forth to relieve some air pressure and then wedging it out with a flathead is the best way I've found. I just changed mine out again the other day and it took me about 45 minutes with no care given to moving quickly.

[M3MPH1S]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

12 track days huh? How many top-offs? What brand and weight of oil? Those results will be interesting.

BMW Twin Power 10w-60 (what I've always run)
And I topped off once

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by M3MPH1S

FYI - you can skip taking the plenum off next time unless it just makes you happy

Also - just using a long flathead screwdriver and wedging it under the BOTTOM (aka *NOT* the top circle with the hole through it) part of the ignition coil is the easiest/safest method I've found. I've tried the special tool people sell on the forum, coat hangers, ethernet cable, etc, etc) and just giving the coil a few twists back and forth to relieve some air pressure and then wedging it out with a flathead is the best way I've found. I just changed mine out again the other day and it took me about 45 minutes with no care given to moving quickly.

Switched plenums bruh.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by M3MPH1S

I just sent my oil to Blackstone about 2 weeks ago, so I should be receiving results soon and I will share them here (I paid for TBN as well), but I put 12 track days and 4k miles on the oil. I was originally intending on testing it after 9 or 10 track days, but pushed it a bit extra due to getting busy with life and forgetting to order an oil change kit.

Previously, when I was still dailying the car ~32k miles/year, I did one stint of 4 track days and 9k miles and the report came back very strong (TBN included), so I was interested to see results from pushing the oil further with almost no street driving now and more track driving.

I might be stupid/crazy for wanting to test the limits on my own car, but my curiosity overwhelms me. I'm also still on original rod bearings at 162.5k miles.

I think it'll be fine, assuming you don't have some pre-existing bearing issues. If you weren't topping it off, you might see a viscosity that's slightly out of spec.

[Ximian]

Originally Posted by M3MPH1S

I've tried the special tool people sell on the forum, coat hangers, ethernet cable, etc, etc) and just giving the coil a few twists back and forth to relieve some air pressure and then wedging it out with a flathead is the best way I've found.

With the Division M coil puller tool, I wrap a string around it, then wrap the other end around a screwdriver so I can pull it straight out. I can't get enough leverage to just use the coil tool alone for the further coils so this should be pretty safe as the tops of the coils likes popping off if pulled diagonally.