bipp - 2013 M3 ZCP

[bipp]

Intro

Hey all!

I'm excited to be making my own thread here after well over a decade of lurking and looking at others' build threads since before my teens. The E9x M3 has always been one of my dream cars, and I was finally able to get my own a few months after college graduation. It's been nearly a year on a dot since then, and it's still a great feeling every time I get the chance to go for a drive.

Moving forward, there are a few goals I have with this car:
- learn how to track and drive well, and modify the car as I grow with it
- keep the car streetable, since there's no other car I'd prefer taking roadtrips with

It seems like there's definitely a few other people with those ideals as well as a great wealth of knowledge about tracking / track builds, and I've loved looking at them for inspiration for where I want to take my car.

Specs

2013 E92 M3
DCT
Competition Package
Silverstone on Extended Black
CF Roof

Mods

• AP Racing CP9668 kit in ENP
• DS1.11 pads up front, DS2500 in the rear
• OGSM spec Nitron R1, 700/800 F / R divorced
• Hotchkis sway bars
• Fall Line end links
• CMP roll center and bump steer correction shims
• CMP monoball rear lower camber arm bush
• CMP subframe raising bushes
• BBS RI-A in 18x10.5 ET22

[derbo]

Welcome!

[Sthbaysam]

[Helmsman]

Welcome onboard!

[bipp]

It's been a long time since I made this thread. Lots of stuff has happened - starting my tracking journey, talking more with people in the E9X community, buying loads of stuff I can't rationally justify but hey, makes me happy, right? It's always fun to talk over DM about other peoples' visions for their cars, and pick up a bit of influence along the way.

Tracking

I started out my year with a track event over at Thunderhill East with Hooked on Driving. Had an amazing time - went back shortly after a month later for another day. I'm obsessed - I went from spending my time watching videos on E9X exhausts and people's street builds to watching time trial videos, figuring out how I'm going to go faster, what I need to go faster, wondering if I have a future in real racing of some sort... and of course, trying to figure out where I'm taking my career to be able to afford "motorsport" before I have to think about real responsibilities. More likely than not, this build thread will become more akin to a track journal that I hope to update over future years.

In the same vein, this exposed me to a wealth of information on these forums. Dogbone's thread, threads on how clutch-type differentials work, general pestering of M3SQRD and OG Shark about car suspension setups... it's a rabbit hole I've enjoyed pursuing. I just hope to balance all of this theory with real-life track time so I can apply it. The E9X track discord (and people I've met at the track) has been brilliant as well, and I've really been grateful for the friends I've made there - more on this later. It's a real community I'm glad to be part of, and funnily enough, I've even met "coworkers" at the company I work at through this as well. It feels strange to say that this rabbit hole has given an odd sense of purpose of future planning, but hey - I'm just along for the ride.



Car Changes

I'm sure that if you ask anyone at the track what a novice needs to get faster, they'll say "stock car, seat time". Yet, consumerism really bugs us all - surely no one is immune from the desire to buy the newest and shiniest things, right?

Months of accumulating parts resulted in:

• AP Racing CP9668 kit in ENP, from OG Shark
• DS1.11 pads up front
• Hotchkis sway bars (apparently out of stock in places with delayed production, but was able to source them from Bimmerworld)
• CMP roll center and bump steer correction shims
• CMP monoball rear lower camber arm bush
• CMP subframe raising bushes
• BBS RI-A in 18x10.5 ET22 (which fit without a hitch on the Nitrons)
• Continental ECF, 275/35/18
• Euro MDM

I had the chance to take these out onto the track, and everything felt perfect. At -2.8 and 34 PSI hot, I was getting perfect tire contact (as far as sidewall rollover, etc). I began to understand what people meant when they said the ECF liked a bit of slip angle, and the square setup really did increase playfulness of the car. By the second session, I was getting the hang of it a bit - turn 8 on Thunderhill East felt a bit scary with that much rotation at speed, but entering turn 9 and turn 10 felt like a revelation. Maybe there's still more to figure out how to dial in the car with the adjustable sways, but I should also spend more time with the setup as is to figure out what exactly I'm looking for. Session 2 today was probably my favorite session so far, and I'm excited to move up to intermediate.



Kerplunk

So, more time with the car would've been great, but that got cut short with a DCT malfunction. The car got the gear icon warning towards the end of session 2, I took my last lap as a cooldown and headed into the paddock. The car never moved again after that - it would instantly snap back into neutral if I tried to move it out. Guess that's it for the weekend, but maybe I'll be back in November after sorting all of this out. Real pity, too, as I was really looking forward to spending a whole weekend out on track instead of just a single day.

With that said, I can't thank the people that've helped me enough. From my instructor who helped me hunt down a 10mm wrench to try and reset the battery, the HoD host/guy in charge that managed to find an ISTA reader off a guy with a M2 CSR, the passerby that helped keep me company as I sat around trying to figure out what to do, and of course the guys at Vt Motorworks who stayed on the phone with me a fair bit trying to troubleshoot remotely. I've had the vast majority of the work done to my car there, and I can't appreciate or recommend them enough if anyone is looking for a shop in the Bay Area.

And of course, everyone in the E9X track discord - derbo , omgzirra_exe , RugbyBro , Ximian . This was probably my most stressful experience with the car yet, being stranded pretty far from home with a dead car and a $1900 quote to tow back. Being able to rationalize the issue, and find faith that it might be an electrical issue - or rather, anything resolvable - does a lot to take the threat of a DCT replacement repair bill off the mind. It's still there... but at least I have a reasonable prayer that it won't be.

At least the car looks pretty, sitting motionless (still in the paddock until I can extract it tomorrow).

[M3SQRD]

bipp

Your build is coming along nicely. You’re not alone when it comes to figuring out how to fund this crazy hubby of ours but it’s worth it. I wouldn’t change anything We also all think about W2W racing and I was partly through a build when I was rear ended in my s2000 coming home from work (we finished random vibration testing of one axis of a space vehicle early so we got to go home early during rush hour traffic for once). I was stopped at a traffic light at a four-way intersection and the next thing I remember is being pushed into the middle of the intersection. This ended my W2W aspirations due to pre-existing spine issues.

Sorry to hear about your DCT issue and the tow cost home. I had a SMG (before people start hating on the SMG, this was an SMG with a lightweight flywheel, Kevlar clutch and CSL software that shifts just as fast and hard as my e92 M3s and F82 DCTs) issue coming home from VIR in 2007. Sat on the side of rte 28 a few mile south of Lynchburg, VA with my brother-in-law (and high school best friend) for eight hours before his coworker picked us up with his flat bed. Your DCT issue will be addressed and you’ll be back out on track again before you know it! I’d strongly recommend the Slon deep aluminum DCT pan with lowered pickup tube and the do88 DCT cooler. Slon pan holds 1 L more + the additional ~3/4 L of fluid you get from a GTS fill tube + the additional ~0.65 L of fluid the do88 cooler holds. DCT temps won’t be a potential issue again!

[bipp]

Originally Posted by M3SQRD

bipp

Your build is coming along nicely. You’re not alone when it comes to figuring out how to fund this crazy hubby of ours but it’s worth it. I wouldn’t change anything We also all think about W2W racing and I was partly through a build when I was rear ended in my s2000 coming home from work (we finished random vibration testing of one axis of a space vehicle early so we got to go home early during rush hour traffic for once). I was stopped at a traffic light at a four-way intersection and the next thing I remember is being pushed into the middle of the intersection. This ended my W2W aspirations due to pre-existing spine issues.

Sorry to hear about your DCT issue and the tow cost home. I had a SMG (before people start hating on the SMG, this was an SMG with a lightweight flywheel, Kevlar clutch and CSL software that shifts just as fast and hard as my e92 M3s and F82 DCTs) issue coming home from VIR in 2007. Sat on the side of rte 28 a few mile south of Lynchburg, VA with my brother-in-law (and high school best friend) for eight hours before his coworker picked us up with his flat bed. Your DCT issue will be addressed and you’ll be back out on track again before you know it! I’d strongly recommend the Slon deep aluminum DCT pan with lowered pickup tube and the do88 DCT cooler. Slon pan holds 1 L more + the additional ~3/4 L of fluid you get from a GTS fill tube + the additional ~0.65 L of fluid the do88 cooler holds. DCT temps won’t be a potential issue again!

Thanks!

I'm really sorry to hear about the injury and collision leading to an end to your W2W pursuits. That's really a horrible way to spend an early end of day at work - unfortunate ending to the S2000 as well.

Fortunately, my dad is making the drive up today with a Uhaul and a flatbed trailer. It will definitely be a struggle to get the car into the flatbed since it cannot move on its own power. Hopefully, the fix will be on the simpler side once we get it back into civilization.

As for resolution, I've considered a few things:
- DCT fluid flush and overfill
- DCT fluid flush, overfill, with Fall Line pan (for a bit more ground clearance than Slon)
- DCT fluid flush, overfill, with Fall Line pan and do88 DCT cooler

I was frankly intending on doing the last one next year, along with other cooling necessities. It was a hotter day yesterday in the high 80s, so any events for the remainder of the year should hopefully be less plagued by heat issues. Not exactly excited to drop another $2500 chasing reliability, but the third option may be inevitable.

There is also the alternative that someone suggested that it is an electrical / battery issue, and someone ran into the same exact issue on an E9X that was resolved with swapping the battery. I've similarly read things about ground straps, and a few more battery-related phenomenon. If it turns out to be this, then I wonder if it's still necessary to go all the way as far as DCT cooling right away.

I am trying to retrace when it happened and looking back at it, the most noticeable changes were that I was braking a lot harder / later and carrying higher cornering speeds. I wonder if it is the lack of baffling that caused a pressure issue - in this case, I wonder if it might be more beneficial to just get a deeper pan rather than be concerned with cooling right away. My oil temps stabilized around the third tick and didn't push much higher, as a frame of reference.

Maybe the car will start itself and drive fine today (long shot prayer) once I get back to the track with my dad. If so, I'll feel like an absolute idiot for making him drive all the way out here, but at least I'll be able to get myself around town for the foreseeable future...

[M3SQRD]

bipp

Thanks! I had to give up doing the chain gang for the Washington Commanders including the down and distance marker (1st, 2nd,…marker), 10 yard chain markers, the clip the refs use to measure for a 1st down and keeping track of all penalties thrown, down and distance of all plays and where field goal attempts were made from in case of a penalty. I did the clip and kept track of penalties and down-distance on every play. Best job because I got to move around and watch from different angles and mess with players and coaches Best seat in the house!

Glad your dad is able to help out with getting your car home.

Yes, I hope your DCT issue will be easy to address. With these cars, I wouldn’t be surprised if the DCT functions properly after a little rest. The DCTs are robust except for potentially high temps on track. Slon DCT pan + do88 DCT cooler has eliminated my DCT issues which I’d even experience on the street. Now the shifts are always sharp and fast on the street and track!

Does the Fall Line DCT pan have an extended pickup tube that places it farther down into the DCT fluid to prevent starvation in high G corners? I’ve never had an issue with my Slon pan and you can reuse the stock cover.

[spammysammich]

Fall Line pan does not extend the pickup. It does not hold as much extra and is slightly shorter than the Slon pan. It can just fit under the plastic cover without modification to give you an idea of how much lower it sits.

[M3SQRD]

Originally Posted by spammysammich

Fall Line pan does not extend the pickup. It does not hold as much extra and is slightly shorter than the Slon pan. It can just fit under the plastic cover without modification to give you an idea of how much lower it sits.

With new PowerFlex engine mounts, the plastic cover easily fit over my Slon pan.

[bipp]

So, after replacing the DCT, adding the BimmerWorld DCT banjo to shove a bit more fluid in there... I curbed a wheel and damaged the sidewall of my Continental ECF. Unable to get another one during Thanksgiving week with one day's notice, I found a local shop that stocked Nankang CRS v2's. I wasn't eager to jump up to Super 200s so quickly, but they were all I could find and I figured I'd salvage the track weekend. Thanks to Elite Performance in Burlingame for the help - great people over there, and seems to be a favorite of the SpeedSF folks.

After that, I headed to Laguna Seca for the first time with SpeedSF. I originally planned on sticking with Thunderhill East until I gained more confidence and familiarity with the car, especially without making further changes, but timing lined up for Laguna. I worked with Joe McGuigan for coaching after seeing him mentioned by slcook54, and learned a lot over the course of the two days. While Laguna seems "simple" in videos or the track map, nothing really prepares you for the sheer amount of elevation changes and blind crests - and even the simple corners are hard. Turn 1 -> 2 is an experience heading steeply downhill into a hairpin, and getting it "right" heading out of Turn 9 is immensely satisfying. It was great meeting up with RugbyBro afterwards for dinner and to talk cars / suspension / track lessons as well!

With track pads already in and CRS's that would be heat cycled with street driving if I didn't make it back on track as soon as I could (and Laguna ever-present on my mind for the last week), I signed up for the HoD event for the Sunday after to get a bit more coaching and to put thoughts into practice. This time, I was able to run with a lot more consistency throughout the day, and get laps that generally had reinforced repetition. Probably didn't make full use of the CRS (and also didn't love how they felt), but felt that I improved a lot as a driver over these 3 HPDEs. My coach moved me up to the Intermediate / B group for future HoD events, so I'm excited for that - especially since at Thunderhill East, only B and above merge through the blend line for T1, so that's something new to try.

After this, I'm done for the year, and I'm glad I got to experience some great Laguna December weather (sunny mid 60s and low 70s). Besides the DCT, the car's been great, and I'm planning on staying with in its current state for the foreseeable future as I focus on learning - even if M3SQRD might suggest I get out of the 1-ways and into 3-ways as soon as I can :P

Other misc notes:
- Planning to head back to Laguna and ThunderHill as soon as I can, but not Sonoma until I'm more confident.
- I drive with a goal being to not trip the MDM / TC light (in Euro MDM), but there were a few "saves" that it prevented incidents during. By the third day, I don't recall seeing the light turn on, but I'm wary of it tripping silently. I still don't think I'm ready to go TC off, but will probably sign up for some sort of car control clinic in 2025 to help towards that - maybe FastSideways?
- I need datalogging. It's great seeing YouTube videos of people's driving with data overlays, but I can't actually revisit my driving. Not sure still if I want to fork over the money for the AIM Solo + Smartycam combo, but it feels like an eventuality.
- Casualities include my brake pad sensors, which think that my pads were gone 2000 miles ago now - but there's still a sliver of meat left on them. Rear DS2500s are pretty much done now after 2 days at THill and 3 at Laguna (and a lot of street driving), which seems like anomalously good wear and likely indicative that I can push harder. I have another set of DS2500s and a lot of DS1.11 left up front, but after this I'm considering trying the PFC 331/332 combo for the sake of trying something new.
- CRS is not a great learning tire (275/35/18 on 18x10.5). There's little on-center feel, little audible feedback until you're at the limit, and grip until they don't. They also felt a little inconsistent but that could be due to pressures or recovering from overdriving. This is in contrast to the ECF, which are very much less grippier, but had great on-center feel, solid feedback towards the limit, and seem to go well with slip angle. I still have 3 (probably very heat-cycled from street driving) ECFs in my closet, so I might pick up a fourth and run them for next year's events. CRS are immensely fast, but I'm not at a level where I'm making the most of them, and cost a lot even if I think I can get used to them eventually.
- My fender liners are toast. Especially my front right.

To conclude, though, I'm foremost grateful for all the people I've met through this hobby, and excited to meet more next year and maybe find people to head to events together with. This is a costly and faintly ridiculous hobby when I explain to people that it costs ~$1k a day to drive around in circles non-competitively, but I've never obsessed over something as much as this.

edit: It might be worth moving this thread to the Track forum at some point.

[M3SQRD]

bipp

I don’t recall pressuring you to upgrade to a 3-way setup unless I stated something that wasn’t clear. I believe I said you’ll outgrow a 1-way (or in the case of a Nitron R1 a 1-way that adjusts both rebound and compression in the same direction) damper more quickly as you accumulate more seat time and setup experience. Also, 1-way dampers compromise your setup more than a 2-way and 3-way. Different parts of a track may require more/less rebound damping but other parts may require less/more compression damping. Your setup is compromised because, for example, if you decreased compression damping to address the one part of the track, now you’ve compromised the other part of the track that required an increase in rebound damping. However, 1-ways are a great place to start because they are much simpler to setup than 2-way and 3-way (and 4-way) and won’t get you into any trouble when experimenting with setups. This experience then helps you with setting up multiple-way dampers as you work your way through 2,3 and 4-way dampers. I would only recommend getting started with a 2-way or 3-way is to make you cry once by only buying once Nitron allows you to upgrade a R1 to a R3 so the step up won’t be as painful as having to buy a completely new set of 2-ways or 3-ways.

The experience gained by adjusting the R1s and more seat time will give you the confidence and understanding of how to properly adjust multiple-way dampers. I started with 1-ways on my ‘92 Civic and 2-ways on my ‘00 S2000.

[bipp]

Originally Posted by M3SQRD

bipp

I don’t recall pressuring you to upgrade to a 3-way setup unless I stated something that wasn’t clear. I believe I said you’ll outgrow a 1-way (or in the case of a Nitron R1 a 1-way that adjusts both rebound and compression in the same direction) damper more quickly as you accumulate more seat time and setup experience. Also, 1-way dampers compromise your setup more than a 2-way and 3-way. Different parts of a track may require more/less rebound damping but other parts may require less/more compression damping. Your setup is compromised because, for example, if you decreased compression damping to address the one part of the track, now you’ve compromised the other part of the track that required an increase in rebound damping. However, 1-ways are a great place to start because they are much simpler to setup than 2-way and 3-way (and 4-way) and won’t get you into any trouble when experimenting with setups. This experience then helps you with setting up multiple-way dampers as you work your way through 2,3 and 4-way dampers. I would only recommend getting started with a 2-way or 3-way is to make you cry once by only buying once Nitron allows you to upgrade a R1 to a R3 so the step up won’t be as painful as having to buy a completely new set of 2-ways or 3-ways.

The experience gained by adjusting the R1s and more seat time will give you the confidence and understanding of how to properly adjust multiple-way dampers. I started with 1-ways on my ‘92 Civic and 2-ways on my ‘00 S2000.

I was kidding :P

But yeah, I do fully understand your point on the limitations of the 1-ways. For now, I don't think it's the biggest concern for me personally, but down the line having that added flexibility will become useful to decouple rebound and compression a bit.

[omgzirra_exe]

1 ways are the best for those who don't fully comprehend their suspension and car yet, unless you really need to chase that .03 it can be a mix of many things at that point, so don't bother until you are really ready to sit down and have that talk.

cause the 3 ways aren't going to be the only thing that will need to be updated to fully utilize it.

plus 1 way = arrive and drive easily lol.

[bipp]

Originally Posted by omgzirra_exe

1 ways are the best for those who don't fully comprehend their suspension and car yet, unless you really need to chase that .03 it can be a mix of many things at that point, so don't bother until you are really ready to sit down and have that talk.

cause the 3 ways aren't going to be the only thing that will need to be updated to fully utilize it.

plus 1 way = arrive and drive easily lol.

I agree man, it's just a fight of gear acquisition syndrome vs knowing what's best for me. I think sanity will win and I'll stick with the R1s for the foreseeable future.

[omgzirra_exe]

Originally Posted by bipp

I agree man, it's just a fight of gear acquisition syndrome vs knowing what's best for me. I think sanity will win and I'll stick with the R1s for the foreseeable future.

that's me i have imposter syndrome with this car.

[bipp]

Originally Posted by omgzirra_exe

that's me i have imposter syndrome with this car.

Once you get the FL5 I'm expecting you to do nothing besides financial prudence and keeping it stock for daily use... right? Right??

[M3SQRD]

Originally Posted by bipp

Once you get the FL5 I'm expecting you to do nothing besides financial prudence and keeping it stock for daily use... right? Right??

We’ve all taken the blind jump into an abyss without a parachute. There’s always something more we “need” for the car(s)! However, there aren’t many hobbies like ours that pushes us to the extreme limit and produces such a high level of adrenaline. Unfortunately, it’s a constant battle to develop more driver skill with seat time and adding car mods made specifically to help make us faster. If it was only less expensive to get your first shoe through the door but it is what it is and you gotta pay to play…

[omgzirra_exe]

Originally Posted by bipp

Once you get the FL5 I'm expecting you to do nothing besides financial prudence and keeping it stock for daily use... right? Right??

bold of you to assume i don't already have parts for a car i don't have yet..

weird set of 5x120 18x9.5 +45 TE37 SL w/ 285/35/18 tires in my patio... totally for my M3..

also did you know they make intercoolers for the M3? so i bought one also..

same for tomei, didn't know they made M3 exhaust. shits dope.