My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[redpriest]

They just don't have that CA dedication haha

[tsk94]

Originally Posted by DRLane

Sorry Gabe. I'm still waiting on brake upgrade before I can make it back out. I'm unwilling to buy another set of ST60 pads when the AP 9668 are so close...

Originally Posted by dogbone

brakes.....is that necessary? Just get out there!!

Pro tip (from a non-pro): if you brake less your lap times will be faster!

[dogbone]

After a couple weeks of no-gos, High Plains Raceway finally got enough signups to put on a winter track day yesterday. Unfortunately, of the last three weekends I've been waiting for them to put a day on, this was the worst weather of the three due to very high winds. My trailer was shaking all day long. The aluminum panels on the outside of the trailer were flexing and making thumping noises from the force of the wind. While hanging out inside the trailer, it felt like I was on a boat from all the rocking.....It was quite something.

But, do we let a little wind stop us? NO! Had a fun day and set a new personal best! Some turns were definitely funky with the wind though. I had a drifting moment on my fast lap. For me, this is the first time a fast lap had a drift in it. Usually drifting slows things down. I believe my drifting moment was largely due to the wind because during that moment, the angle of the wind would have it buffeting the passenger side of the car. Of course, on the YouTube video comments, the first comment was about the drift.......hehe big surprise.

Here's the fast lap:

My main take away from this lap is that I seem to be turning in more smoothly than I was when I first got the MCS suspension----I believe I'm sawing at the steering wheel less. I want to continue working on my smoothness because I feel like my driving has been not smooth recently.

I drove a fair amount of laps yesterday---almost 50, which is more than I usually run. The majority of the laps had me navigating some kind of traffic, which is ok. The E90 was more track-prepped than most there yesterday, so you gotta figure on encountering traffic. I was just struggling to get an open lap at the beginning of a session when the engine was fresh.

I was happy that for the first time, I started feeling familiar with the track. I have quite a bit more to learn, but I was finally feeling like I'm starting to "get" it. The fast lap came in the fourth session. I started the day with new Pirelli scrubs, and I just left them on all day in the same position. Usually, I rotate tires around the car during the day. But I just didn't feel like it yesterday. Decided to hide from the wind. In the 5th and last session of the day, I had a faster lap going for about half the track and then I blew a corner.

At this point, I know the car can drop into the 1:40s. The question is, how far?


Good news: My Zebulon splitter is done being fabricated! Connecting hardware should be in this week. The pix I have received look really nice.

Shiny!!


Zebulon is super busy and normally doesn't do installs, but I asked if they would do it and it looks like it will work out. I'm not helpless when it comes to doing things on the car, but this is a fabrication project that will take some knowledge that I'm worried I don't have. Of course, there are no installation instructions for custom race car parts. And this is one piece I would rather not screw up..... Perhaps I will try to document it to some extent for others if possible.


Bad news: I think my AIM is acting funky on my CAN bus again.....You may have noticed that my video had bare bones GPS-only data on it. That's because the car acted funny mid-session and I disconnected the cable while driving. As soon as I disconnected the cable, the car started acting normally again......I will be calling AIM on Monday....

I caught the funkiness on video----short hesitations that are easy to hear from the microphone while I'm holding steady on the gas pedal. At :11 is the first hesitation, then at :16 there are several hesitations and then at :28, after I pass the Corvette the next gear change is funky. Then at :32, you see the CAN bus data like RPMs go dead because I disconnected the cable. As soon as I disconnected the cable, the car was good again......I love having my CAN data, but not at the expense of the car's performance.....

So, the next steps for me are get the splitter on the car, then go out and keep driving at HPR to get ready for COTA Super Lap Battle in March. I've got my logistics all setup for me to drive to COTA and back to CO. I'll be hiding in AirBNBs again. Been working on setting up some more tech support at COTA this year.

Don't laugh too hard----I will be doing my very first oil change of my whole life soon! Honestly, the biggest thing I'm worried about is leaving my loud-ass car running for 20 minutes and pissing my neighbors off while the damn oil level sensor takes its sweet-old time to indicate the oil level.......

[b4hand]

Can't wait to see the car at COTA. 2:1x.xx I can feel it!!!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by b4hand

Can't wait to see the car at COTA. 2:1x.xx I can feel it!!!

haha yeah I'm hopeful. Only missed by 0.13 sec last year. This year, I will have soft compound tires instead of hard---A40 vs A80. I will have 300 sized tires in the rear instead of 280. I'll have new chassis-mounted front aero which is hopefully more effective than the 6 year-old beat up bumper mounted aero. I'll have 3-way MCS valved for what I'm doing instead of 2-way JRZ that were valved for a street car 9 years ago. I'll have an alignment that turns in more aggressively than my old setup that tended more to understeer. I've solved my shifting issue that was caused by the paddles which cost me over 0.5 sec on my fast lap last year.

Of course, we'll need decent weather. But the car has it in her. My virtual best last year based on 6 segments was a 2:18. So, even then, the car was in the territory, but I just wasn't consistent enough to put it together in one lap.

So----I'm hopeful!

Will be fun to hang out with you again this year!

[berns]

Your driving looks a lot smoother and you look like you've gained some confidence, too, Gabe!

[Richbot]

A little slide like that in a slow corner that ends up pointing the nose where it needs to go isn't costing you much time. You'll need to do that, what, 6 times a lap at COTA lol. Car looks a little pushy-loose in low-medium speed? Maybe it's just the camera angle but it seems like you have a lot of lock into the wheel at the exit phase in that lap. Maybe the splitter will help some

[b4hand]

Any plans to get a KMP wheel?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by berns

Your driving looks a lot smoother and you look like you've gained some confidence, too, Gabe!

Yeah, it's been a process of re-learning to drive the car with the new suspension. That's why I've been chomping at the bit when the track has been cancelling days due to not enough sign ups. Seat time seat time seat time is what it takes!

Anyway, I'm enjoying the process of getting up to speed with the new setup. And I feel like there's still a good bit to learn. Isn't there always?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Richbot

A little slide like that in a slow corner that ends up pointing the nose where it needs to go isn't costing you much time. You'll need to do that, what, 6 times a lap at COTA lol. Car looks a little pushy-loose in low-medium speed? Maybe it's just the camera angle but it seems like you have a lot of lock into the wheel at the exit phase in that lap. Maybe the splitter will help some

Yeah, I don't think I was losing much there either. I'm just saying in general, slides are not best for fast lap times.

Can you explain what you mean in this case by pushy-loose? Are you saying that the car starts as understeer, but then gets loose?

Perhaps I need to open the wheel back up sooner.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by b4hand

Any plans to get a KMP wheel?

No, not right now. That's a fairly sizable project with the paddle shifters.

[slicer]

Originally Posted by dogbone

No, not right now. That's a fairly sizable project with the paddle shifters.

It's very easy sir. Plug and play. About 30 minutes to install.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by slicer

It's very easy sir. Plug and play. About 30 minutes to install.

Oh, I just meant that the commitment is more than just a wheel in a DCT car. Do you sell the solution? I haven't looked at this in awhile. What's the cost these days to do it? And does your solution (if you sell it) still retain the M button somehow?

[slicer]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Oh, I just meant that the commitment is more than just a wheel in a DCT car. Do you sell the solution? I haven't looked at this in awhile. What's the cost these days to do it? And does your solution (if you sell it) still retain the M button somehow?

Yes sir, I have one here. M-button, Horn, DCT Paddles, and Airbag delete module are all plug and play. It's a fantastic kit. They are $2k with quick release. Not just saying this, it is one of the most satisfying modifications. The paddle shift switches are magnetic just like Porsche uses on the cup cars. It's a very direct, click-click, mechanism.


Vander Urzua by slicerM, on Flickr
KMP by slicerM, on Flickr
KMP by slicerM, on Flickr
KMP by slicerM, on Flickr

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by slicer

Yes sir, I have one here. M-button, Horn, DCT Paddles, and Airbag delete module are all plug and play. It's a fantastic kit. They are $2k with quick release. Not just saying this, it is one of the most satisfying modifications. The paddle shift switches are magnetic just like Porsche uses on the cup cars. It's a very direct, click-click, mechanism.

It does look nice! I seem to recall someone at some point was trying to make a version without the coiled cable. Did that ever materialize?

[Richbot]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Yeah, I don't think I was losing much there either. I'm just saying in general, slides are not best for fast lap times.

Can you explain what you mean in this case by pushy-loose? Are you saying that the car starts as understeer, but then gets loose?

Perhaps I need to open the wheel back up sooner.

Pushy-loose to me means a car that is tight enough that you have to feed in too much steering lock to get it turned, punishing the outside front while masking the fact that the outside rear is pretty close to maxed out; then when you feed in throttle you almost immediately overload the outside rear...so the car can feel "snappy" on the limit even though it feels understeery steady-state. The stock setup on an E9xM has this quality, with an extra helping of slow diff that likes to go full-lock halfway through a corner (stock E46M is also one of the pushy-loose poster children)

Of course, the same effect can be caused by just overdriving the entry speed of corners and then you have to sit there and wait forever for your trackout to materialize in front of you before you can get back into the throttle all the way...but an easy way to test if it's car or driver is to just back off the entry speeds and like you said, open up the wheel earlier on the throttle and see if it enables better exit speeds. If you can give it up on entry to get better exit, it's probably you. If giving a bit up on entry just means you're slower out too, you were probably getting most of what the car was able to give with the understeer built into the setup, and might just need more frontend.

There's only so much "open up the wheel earlier" you can do before you're out of road if the car is just naturally understeering due to aero balance or whatever

[slicer]

Originally Posted by dogbone

It does look nice! I seem to recall someone at some point was trying to make a version without the coiled cable. Did that ever materialize?

It's an option but I wouldn't do it. It adds an unnecessary complication/potential failure point. The cord has zero downside other than aesthetics if you don't like the look. You don't need a visible cord if you skip the quick release.

Is there a reason you wouldn't want a cord?

[OG Shark]

Originally Posted by slicer

It's an option but I wouldn't do it. It adds an unnecessary complication/potential failure point. The cord has zero downside other than aesthetics if you don't like the look. You don't need a visible cord if you skip the quick release.

Is there a reason you wouldn't want a cord?

dogbone you do not even notice the cord. Like slicer said they are awesome kits - the paddles are a nice upgrade as well as the wheel. We did swap out for an open top wheel so I can see the Aim dash but now KMP offers one of those as well.

[SYT_Shadow]

Jeez you guys have all the cool toys!

[DRLane]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

Jeez you guys have all the cool toys!

🤣

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by DRLane

🤣

I may have a few cool things myself... but still!

[fanatic1]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

I may have a few cool things myself... but still!

A few?