My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[PrimeBMW]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I always charge an AIM Solo, GoPro batteries and a crappy netbook laptop before each track day. Charging one more device is not a problem. I have a wall charger that is able to accommodate all the devices at once. I take it to all track days. This thing has made it so easy. I just leave all the charging adapters hooked up to it and in one shot I can charge everything.

In this pic, you can see I'm charging the laptop, AIM, GoPro batteries, the AMB transponder, a portable USB battery charger and there's still an unused USB-A port, an unused USB-C port and two unused regular wall plugs. So, I could still attach 4 more devices to it like phones and whatever. (Found it on Amazon.)



I didn't have a super strong reason for going with a used non-subscription AMB unit. I'm just used to those rechargeable red ones. It's basically all I've ever used. And since it needs to bounce between two cars, I didn't see getting two hardwired setups. Also, I guess subscription things can get annoying sometimes. The irony is that the used one was $400 which is around the same price as a new one with 5-year subscription. hehe who knows if I'll be doing this in 5 years! My understanding is that it's not hard to sell the older red ones.

AMB's tech support was very nice. I couldn't register the device to my AMB account because the unit was registered to the original owner. I emailed them and the next day, they removed the unit from the original account and I was able to register it.

Anyway, if there's no magical place to attach it to the E9x M3 chassis, I guess I can just keep zip tying it on. roastbeef will be most displeased!

You have your (charging) system!! I have my race car maintained by AR Motorsports so I might not see the car for weeks on end. I have to keep it simple.
I think I zip tied the transponder somewhere behind the back bumper (E92 M3 in TT).

[derbo]

dogbone Did you end up going Core4 M14 pressed in studs all around?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by derbo

dogbone Did you end up going Core4 M14 pressed in studs all around?

I bought the Core 4 M14 press in hubs for all four corners. Because the car was out of reach for most of the year, they have not been installed yet. Hopefully in the next few weeks they will be installed.

[Bartledoo]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I bought the Core 4 M14 press in hubs for all four corners. Because the car was out of reach for most of the year, they have not been installed yet. Hopefully in the next few weeks they will be installed.

You're gonna love them. So thick wheels barely fit over them!...and your wheels won't fall off of course.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Bartledoo

You're gonna love them. So thick wheels barely fit over them!...and your wheels won't fall off of course.

haha definitely don’t want the wheels to fall off!! I’ve been running the 14mm threaded studs in the front for awhile now. I do love the comfort of seeing those beefy studs poking out from the wheels.

[e36clubracer]

Originally Posted by dogbone

haha definitely don’t want the wheels to fall off!! I’ve been running the 14mm threaded studs in the front for awhile now. I do love the comfort of seeing those beefy studs poking out from the wheels.

Dogbone, did you have to drill out your front rotor hats for the 14mm studs or did the AP Essex hats fit without modification?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by e36clubracer

Dogbone, did you have to drill out your front rotor hats for the 14mm studs or did the AP Essex hats fit without modification?

The AP Essex hat fit over the 14mm studs without issue.

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: Front aero!

TLDR version: Zebulon chassis-mounted front splitter is on order!! Yay!

The regular dogbone version:

At the NASA event a week ago at High Plains Raceway, I was able to meet fsmtnbiker (Chris) for the first time. I've met Melchior and DRLane before and they were out there too, so it was a very social weekend with a bunch of motorsport enthusiasts.

My current front aero has been on the car since 2015. This is far longer than I ever thought it would survive. 5 years of wear and tear and stress on the front aero has made it quite worn out and it's been on my list of things to address, but I just didn't know what to do about it. There haven't been very many well thought out options for front aero on our platform and I wasn't super excited about just attaching another APR splitter to the bumper.

At HPR, fsmtnbiker was running some interesting front aero from a company called Zebulon. I didn't really know much about Zebulon other than I've seen some cars in CO run their products. I know fsmtnbiker and Melchior are fans of Zebulon stuff, so I was curious to know more. And I was told the owner of Zebulon was coming to the track, so I was hoping I could ask him some questions.

As fsmtnbiker and I got into the discussion of the splitter, he just walked up to it and very nonchalantly stood on it. From the top, it just looks like a thin carbon splitter. I was like ahhhh! He steps up on it and it didn't even budge. Yup, chassis mounted. Plus, the splitter is not just a thin sheet of carbon. It's actually got some depth to it. Probably around an inch thick. Now I was super curious.

Ryan, the owner of Zebulon, arrived at the track and I was able to chat with him. What was this thing?? It turns out it's a "prototype for production". This was the first one out there and fsmtnbiker was actually helping Zebulon develop the logistics of how it would attach to the chassis. In the past, I have been told it's tough to chassis mount to a DCT car due to stuff on the underside, but here it was----a DCT car with a chassis mounted splitter. And Ryan started going into all the theories that were going into this piece. He's consulted and developed all kinds of aero stuff for IMSA and Formula cars, has done tons of CFD analysis and has been applying all that experience to this splitter.

As far as production, Ryan said that all Zebulon parts are made to order and can be configured however the buyer wants. Nothing is a generic off-the-shelf piece. This particular splitter unit had diffuser tunnels and end plates, which are options that some may or may not want. Also the width and length of the splitter can be decided based on a user's needs. (This particular splitter sits about 4-5" from the nose of the car which is a length that I like.) The side/end plates can also be configured in a number of ways. Or a person can decide not to get side plates which saves money. Also, Ryan was stressing that Zebulon makes race car parts, not car-show parts, so everything is done with functionality in mind, not beauty. Each piece is hand made in CO.

fsmtnbiker helped create some solutions for this splitter that are very cool:
-this splitter does not use a front lip to fill in the gap between the bumper and splitter. Instead, fsmtnbiker created an air dam that fills the gap. Very cool. This makes the setup lighter.
-while the splitter is chassis mounted, it does have upward movement capability of about 1.5" due to a clever mounting. This is very attractive to me for the potential longevity of the piece.
-the canards and spats you'll see in the pix below were created by fsmtnbiker. Ryan was saying he would do canards a bit differently if a customer wanted them.
-the splitter is installed in such a way that it only took about 5 minutes to remove it completely. We took it off and put it back on. Pretty straight forward. Given the thickness, I wondered if the splitter was heavy. It's not. It's actually very light. (It goes as far back as the oil pan skid plate bolts.)

fsmtnbiker was putting down some fantastic lap times that weekend. I asked him if I could get a ride. I'm happy to say the car was sticking to the ground quite nicely.

So, I committed to buying one. But it's gonna take awhile---probably 2-3 months to get one. Zebulon's production schedule is very busy right now.

Anyway, I'm excited that someone has made a splitter specifically for our car that has quite a bit of thought put into it. I'm assuming others are in the same boat as me as far as wanting good front aero, but not having many options. I believe now we have a good option. As far as price, of course, it's more than the APR composite sheet. But I think it's within reason for what it is.

My plan right now is to continue to run the APR wing for the time being. Zebulon has a wicked looking rear wing that has huuuuge side plates. I could see moving to that in time as well. Ryan was actually concerned that the splitter may be too powerful for the APR wing. I'll be curious to see how that goes.

And if you're curious about the name of the company-----Pike's Peak in Colorado is named after Zebulon Pike who was an explorer in the area.

fsmtnbiker provided me with a few pix of the splitter on his car. (You can see the wing in the last pic)

[Bartledoo]

Front aero looks very nice!

[SYT_Shadow]

Looks really sweet!!

[Kelse92]

Zebulon makes really quality stuff from what I've seen. Totally worth the wait for production. I've been eyeing it for awhile, maybe order eventually

[DRLane]

Nice write up Gabe! I'm also in the queue with Zebulon for both the front splitter and matching balanced wing. Super psyched for a winter project.

The splitter can incorporate massive diffusers for those with vented fenders and can be added anytime. I'm starting without...

The rear wing is also very impressive as are those 3D end plates. The uprights mount both on the trunk and down the backside.

Note it's all built for racing and thus while the carbon finish looks excellent these aren't show car pieces.

Sorry Chris, for all the pictures of your car

EDIT: just realized I got too excited and didn't read the post above. These details were already covered. Ha!

[JScheier]

I've got Chris's old Zebulon splitter on the GTS3 car. One of the items not addressed was brake cooling. We tied the 3" brake cooling hose into the front air dam using pieces off of Amazon. Worked very well for that same HPR event.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by DRLane

Nice write up Gabe! I'm also in the queue with Zebulon for both the front splitter and matching balanced wing. Super psyched for a winter project.

The splitter can incorporate massive diffusers for those with vented fenders and can be added anytime. I'm starting without...

The rear wing is also very impressive as are those 3D end plates. The uprights mount both on the trunk and down the backside.

Note it's all built for racing and thus while the carbon finish looks excellent these aren't show car pieces.

Sorry Chris, for all the pictures of your car

EDIT: just realized I got too excited and didn't read the post above. These details were already covered. Ha!

haha all good! Glad you had a picture the wing from the rear of the car.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by JScheier

I've got Chris's old Zebulon splitter on the GTS3 car. One of the items not addressed was brake cooling. We tied the 3" brake cooling hose into the front air dam using pieces off of Amazon. Worked very well for that same HPR event.

You were at the NASA event? I met so many people that weekend. Did you come over to where Chris's/Hsun's/Mark's cars were parked? I don't think we met, did we?

Cool how you integrated the brake cooling into the air dam.

[JScheier]

Originally Posted by dogbone

You were at the NASA event? I met so many people that weekend. Did you come over to where Chris's/Hsun's/Mark's cars were parked? I don't think we met, did we?

Cool how you integrated the brake cooling into the air dam.

Yup. I was there driving the white E92 M3 with black carbon fiber doors, #18, in GTS3. I was over by Chris briefly on Saturday to visit. I believe DRLane saw me. There were a few people in that group I didn't recognize. Sorry for not introducing myself.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by JScheier

Yup. I was there driving the white E92 M3 with black carbon fiber doors, #18, in GTS3. I was over by Chris briefly on Saturday to visit. I believe DRLane saw me. There were a few people in that group I didn't recognize. Sorry for not introducing myself.

How did your races go? Did any of your races get cancelled by that insane wind that showed up on Sunday? Holy crap that was ridiculous. My eyes took 3 days to recover from all the crap that got in them. When I was switching my wheels and packing up in that wind storm, my body was getting hammered by rocks. Was crazy!

[dogbone]

I forgot one other interesting thing about the splitter. Zebulon says they can be repaired if damaged for about $150.

[JScheier]

Originally Posted by dogbone

How did your races go? Did any of your races get cancelled by that insane wind that showed up on Sunday?

First time racing this car. The owner qualified it in 8th for Saturday and I moved it up to third (briefly) before falling to 4th. Same lame starting position for Sunday and same finishing position. I missed 3rd by the length of the Zebulon splitter (.1 sec). I did set the fastest GTS3 race lap at 1:57.4.... not as fast as Chris, but faster than the other GTS cars

Holy crap that was ridiculous. My eyes took 3 days to recover from all the crap that got in them. When I was switching my wheels and packing up in that wind storm, my body was getting hammered by rocks. Was crazy!

The haboob caused our second race to be cancelled on Sunday. I've still got grit/dirt/sand coming out of my nose. Trailer interior and truck interior are covered in sand/dirt. GTS3 car was out in the storm (thinking it would blow through and we'd have race #2)... took about 2 hours to vacuum all the crap out of it. The tow home was awesome (not).

Welcome to Colorado weather

[JScheier]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I forgot one other interesting thing about the splitter. Zebulon says they can be repaired if damaged for about $150.

This is true. Ryan had to fix some damage to my E36 Zebulon splitter, and also had to add some clearance for the front sway bar.

Had it back in under a week, looking like new.

[b4hand]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I forgot one other interesting thing about the splitter. Zebulon says they can be repaired if damaged for about $150.

How much do they cost usually?

[JScheier]

Originally Posted by b4hand

How much do they cost usually?

Not sure what the E92 splitter cost, but my E36 splitter was $1200. The E92 splitter mounting is significantly easier than the E36. Both pieces are hand made and are quite lovely (until you actually start racing with them) and incredibly sturdy. You heard Chris stood on his... Chris weighs nothing . I stand on mine (E36) and I'm 200#... doesn't even budge.

Ryan at Zebulon builds a really high quality piece. If you are racing or trying to get that last bit of time out of your E9X, you owe it to yourself to talk with him about aero on your car.