My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[dogbone]

I'm on the road trailering back to Colorado. I'll do a full write up of the weekend at VIR later. It was hottttttttt out there.

For now, I just wanted to put up the video of my fast lap which was a 1:58.1. (It was 93ºF during my fast lap.)

Here it is:

[turbo_joe]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I'm on the road trailering back to Colorado. I'll do a full write up of the weekend at VIR later. It was hottttttttt out there.

For now, I just wanted to put up the video of my fast lap which was a 1:58.1. (It was 93ºF during my fast lap.)

Here it is:

Damn that is moving. Great job

[OG Shark]

Epic trip Gabe - but I expect nothing less from Epic Score!

WGI, VIR, and most importantly dropping a child off for their first year at an Ivy League school - absolutely awesome!

Have a safe drive back!

[Richbot]

dang

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by turbo_joe

Damn that is moving. Great job

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Richbot

dang

haha not sure what that means!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by OG Shark

Epic trip Gabe - but I expect nothing less from Epic Score!

WGI, VIR, and most importantly dropping a child off for their first year at an Ivy League school - absolutely awesome!

Have a safe drive back!

Thanks. Yeah, this trip was really special. Taking my oldest child to college, seeing two new tracks, seeing family and friends in my hometown, making new friends along the way. I have so many good memories.

Originally, I was going to make it a three day drive home. Yesterday was the first day. But today, I decided to hammer the whole rest of the way home----1105 miles in 16 hours. Hats off to the Chevy Silverado diesel pickup truck. 4500+ flawless miles in two weeks. Amazing machine. Can tow the 10000lbs trailer at any speed on any grade for any length of time.



And I want to say thanks to SYT_Shadow and his brother for helping with many parts of the trip. They made the VIR part of the trip happen.

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: I don’t care what time I get to the hotel tonight. I’m driving another session! I’m not leaving!!

Arrived down at VIR on Thursday evening after having seen a number of family and friends in the Washington DC area. Got setup and was ready for Friday.

The way the PCA Potomac event was setup was 3 sessions per day. Some sessions were 25 minutes, others 30 minutes. For me, it didn't matter how long the sessions were because it was going to be hottttttttttt—almost 100ºF—-and my car overheats in less than 2 laps at full pace. After it overheats, you have to back off and then just experiment.

I was placed in the Black group which was one step down from Red---the hope being that after a few sessions, perhaps I could be moved up to Red.

I learned the track on the sim a year ago when I was supposed to visit VIR (before covid crushed everything). Since going to VIR was a last minute decision, I had not touched the VIR sim in a year. But I still remembered the layout, so I was feeling pretty good about knowing where I would be going.

Friday:
Session 1: First time on track. Yay driving sims! I knew where I was going! Was sitting in constant traffic for most of the session. Found a bit of open track late in the session with a hot engine. Ran 2:06.

Session 2: Kept working on learning the track. It was almost 100ºF on track. Ran 2:04.

Session 3: At some point during the day, without me knowing, SYT_Shadow vouched for me to the chief instructor saying I should be moved up to Red group. Usually, a check ride would involve having an instructor in your car, but I don't have a passenger seat. The instructor had a fast Corvette and said we would do some sort of lead/follow. They wanted to make sure that a new guy in Red was aware of the flow on track and wouldn’t hold up fast cars. All I will say is that it was the most intense check ride I’ve ever been on or heard of. The instructor invited several very fast cars to mess with me on track and it was full-on w-2-w race conditions with passes happening in all kinds of crazy places. It’s not every day that you’re duking it out with a GT3R (!!!), a 1000hp Camaro with full aero and slicks (!!!), a Corvette and two Cup Cars. Anyway, it all went fine and I was moved to Red. (No useful lap time was to be had during this experience.)

Saturday:
Session 1: Put on the good tires and......the session got black flagged for awhile due to an incident. Then went back out during the session, found some open track and ran a 1:59.08.

Session 2: Throw away due to the heat and traffic. Just practiced.

Session 3: At 100ºF, was surprised to run a really good lap with scrubs and in traffic. My comfort level was going up. The lap was a 2:02, but I was hung up from the beginning of the Esses through the Oak Tree. If you sub in a good run through the Esses, the rest of the lap was a 1:59.3 pace. I was very happy about that given the fact I was on scrubs and it was super hot. It gave me hope for Sunday’s first session when I put the good tires back on and would have hopefully sub-80ºF air temps. Then like an idiot, on the next lap, I was looking behind me in the mirrors too much and braked too late for turn 1 (120 feet late) and panic-braked and....twisted my ankle again. And flew into the grass outside of T1. My ankle was so sore Saturday evening……was so annoyed with myself. Took a bunch of Advil and ankle felt good enough to drive on Sunday AM. I’m still limping around on it today though.

Sunday: My original plan for Sunday was to drive the first session of the day with the coolest air—hopefully get a good lap in—and then start heading back to Colorado. I planned for the 1600 mile trip back to CO to be a three day drive. So, the plan called for me to drive 540 miles on day 1 to the Louisville, KY area. I had booked a hotel there.

Session 1: It was 79ºF for the session at 9AM. My strategy to find open track on Saturday had been to wait in the paddock for everyone to grid and go on track, wait a few moments to build a gap and then go out. It seemed to work, so I decided to try that again. Everyone went to grid, but then after a few minutes, they all came back into the paddock. SYT_Shadow, who had been in the grid, drove over to where I was waiting and said that they were told a large impact had occurred on track and that it would be a 15-20 minute delay. As soon as he left to go back to his paddock spot, the loud speaker announces that they cleared the accident much faster than expected, and that they were going to send us out in 5 minutes——so come back to grid. Well, most people didn’t hear that because they were still heading back into the paddock. As soon as that announcement happened, I knew it was going to be difficult to find open track because people would be trickling onto the track the whole session. And that’s what ended up happening. I caught someone at the end of the back straight on my hot lap…….ruined a mid-1:57…..was so bummed.

I didn’t want to leave with that as my last session. So, I made the decision to stay for the 12PM session. And I was trying to come up with some strategy where I could get a clean lap on my first hot lap.

Session 2: I changed my strategy for this session. I decided to go out first instead of last. It was now 91ºF. I was first in the grid, SYT_Shadow and his brother were 2nd and 3rd, and———the GT3R was 4th. Hmmmm I was concerned about the GT3R—that he would want to pass me on my hot lap. I wanted to talk to the brothers and tell them to let the GT3R pass as soon as possible on the warm up lap and even talk to the GT3R guy to tell him that we would point him by quickly, but I was hesitant to get out of the car because they check all your safety equipment before they let you in pit lane, so I didn’t want to unstrap and get in trouble. So, I stayed in my car.

We go out on track and by the back straight the GT3R is wanting to pass everyone, so we all let him by before the back straight is done. I’m thinking we’re in good shape. That GT3R is a rocket ship—a $550,000 pure bred race car. I had been watching it all weekend. It was fast. I figured once we let him pass, his tail lights would disappear into the distance rather quickly. What happened next was perhaps the most frustrating thing that has ever happened to me on a race track. He passes me, and then for whatever reason, I’m able to keep up with him—and it’s not because I’m some super fast super awesome guy. I have no business keeping up with that car. I’m like, uhhhh what is happening? I start my hot lap and I’m braking early for every turn because he’s sitting in front of me (and not giving a point-by)……I kept up with him for almost the whole lap. He was basically parked on my front bumper the whole lap. I’m like, WHAT IS HAPPENING!!!!!????? The lap was a 1:59.11——.03 slower than the lap on Saturday. Oh man……I was so angry. Why was the rocket ship of a race car parked on my front bumper?? I found out the answer———turns out the owner wasn’t driving it. He let his friend drive the car…….argh. So——why was he so aggressive on the out lap?? Ah—don’t get me started…..Anyway, the guest driver of the GT3R was a guy named John. I had chatted with John earlier in the event. John’s normal car is a 997 Cup Car. He and his wife both have Cup Cars and are VIR experts. They’ve been tracking for decades. (Info for later)

So, now I’m like, there’s no fricking way I’m leaving. I don’t give a crap when I get to Louisville. Heck, I’ll sleep at the track for one more night if I need to. I’m not leaving. I don’t have any plans to return to this track anytime soon, so I gotta give it my best shot to get an open lap. Everyone I talked to said, “there’s really no way to get a clean lap now because the next session combines the Red and Black groups. It’s gonna be a 60 car traffic-fest. “ I said, I don’t care. I’m not leaving. I gotta try to get an open lap. I can’t just walk away like this when there’s more track time. Plus, I had watched a ton of people leave due to the heat, so I was hoping it would be less cars.

Session 3: 2:15PM. It’s now 94ºF. I keep the same strategy of gridding first. And I start watching the grid as it forms behind me. The car in 2nd was a non-aero street Porsche. Wasn’t worried about him. The car in 3rd spot in the grid is John, now back in his normal 997 Cup Car. Hmmmm ok. The GT3R showed up fairly late to the grid and was in the second line of cars in the pit lane. I wasn’t worried about him because he had to pass probably 25 cars before he would get to me. But I knew I would have to manage John’s Cup Car.

So, my strategy was to quickly build a modest gap between me and the street Porsche before the Cup Car could pass him on the out lap. That way, he wouldn’t be right on me as soon as he passed the street car. Then I could figure out how hard to drive on the rest of the warm up lap to keep him behind me. If the Cup Car was chilling out, I could drive slowly, but if he was coming for me, then……I would have to get on it harder sooner. (Guess which scenario happened? ) When air temps are so hot like this, I only get one shot at a hot lap. And the warm up lap is very important as far as the engine goes. You’re facing a bit of a juggling act of needing to maintain your space, but not over using the engine on the out lap. You don’t want to drive too slow and hold people up or worse have to point them by, but you don’t want to drive too fast and overheat your engine and lose performance on your hot lap.

For me, it’s always an interesting moment when you’re sitting in pit lane like this, knowing this is your last shot, and you have no idea if it’s going to work out or not. You sit there in the pit lane, waiting for the grid to come together and session to start, and you hope for the best, but you know that sometimes things just don’t work out.

So, we go out, and I put a gap between me and the 2nd car. The Cup Car passes the street car in the straight section between the Esses, and I look back and——he’s coming for me. The way he was closing the gap told me all I needed to know. (Someone had told me that the Cup Cars had been talking about the blue BMW……haha) So, I get to the Oak Tree turn and punch it at the beginning of the back straight to get going and see how quickly he comes up. I figured if I get to the end of the back straight with him behind me, I am not pointing him by. Half way down the back straight, I can see he’s coming, but he won’t get to me, so I shift to 7th gear and cruise the rest of the back straight to rest the engine. He gets within a few car lengths of me by the end of the back straight, but nothing that needed a point by, and then I jump on my car down the Roller Coaster, get on the front straight, and it’s on baby. My last concern is that I’m hoping they didn’t toss a late-comer onto the track in front of us on their warm up lap. I come down the front straight and glance across the first three turns and it’s open——nobody there! Yes! Open lap!

So, I drove as hard as I could and got a 1:58.1. Phew. It was hot though…..I would have loved to go for a second lap. The track was still clear, but I knew the engine could not take it. When I looked at the data, the engine was pulling SO MUCH harder in the 79ºF air in the first session….when you combine the first 4 sectors of the hot lap in the first session with the Roller Coaster-to-Finish Line segment of the last session, my virtual best is a 1:57.7.

The Cup Car was definitely on it. But I was able to keep him at bay and gain time on him. A friend was videotaping the lap near Turn 3 which also showed the front straight, and you could see that I increased the gap between us at the start of the lap by an additional 6-7 car lengths. I’d say I put about 100 feet between us during the lap. Here is a pic showing the Cup Car’s placement at the beginning and end of the lap in relation to my car. In this montage picture, the top is the gap at the beginning of the hot lap, and the bottom pic is the end of the lap.



So, I walked away happy that I had been able to get a clean lap in. But I definitely had to work hard for it.

It took me until just after midnight to get to the hotel near Louisville. Got up on Monday and decided to drive the rest of the way home. 1100 miles in 16 hours. Great trip, but I’m glad to be home.

Other thoughts:
-VIR has several “gotcha” features. What I mean is that there are several turns on the track where there isn’t an easily defined way to attack them. The three moments are Turns 3—the rounder to the left, the approach into the Oak Tree turn, and the quick left-right after the back straight. If you sit trackside and watch some of these spots, everyone approaches these things so differently. For me, getting those spots down will take more than nine driving sessions in the 100º heat where I could only drive a few laps per session. By comparison, Watkins Glen is much more straight forward. At WGI, the “gotcha” features were the Bus Stop and Turn 9, but I didn’t feel like I was having much issue with them.

-My top speed going at the top of the Esses on Sunday AM first session was 142mph. On my fast lap, it was only 136mph. The heat was very tough.

-I'd love to go back in cooler conditions. People are telling me the car can do 1:56 in cool air. That would be awesome.

-the one turn I just did not experiment with or push hard in AT ALL was the left hand turn (T10) at the end of the Esses. I was not in the mood to overcook that turn and fly down the hill. Definitely have more speed to gain there. But you gotta take time to safely build the speed in that spot.

-Turn 1 never seemed to have much grip. People complained that overall the grip was low at the track all weekend in the heat. I can’t comment about the rest of the track, but T1 for sure had very low grip.

-the facility overall is very nice. It has a unique feel. The room I stayed in was very pleasant. I highly recommend staying at the track. The Oak Tree Tavern restaurant was nice. They did a prime rib buffet Saturday night that was nice.

-SYT_Shadow and his brother introduced me to a big group they hang out with at these events. Everyone was very welcoming. I really appreciated being able to hang out with everyone. We had 10 people at dinner each night and the conversation was always lively.

-I just want to note that I go into detail about how sessions go and the challenges that come up to show people who are interested in trying this stuff that quite often it takes some effort to get open track for a fast lap. I know that frequently in my videos, there’s no other cars, so it looks like I’m at the place all by myself—and occasionally that is true. But most of the time, I am at a public track day strategizing how to find open track on my first hot lap. And sometimes it’s not easy. But it’s part of the game, so you do the best you can.

VIR was a last minute addition to the trip but it added so much and I am so glad I went. Being able to see family and friends in my hometown of Wash DC and visiting a second track was awesome.

[SYT_Shadow]

Really happy all this worked out, it was tight and it seemed like it was not going to work... but it did!

We were sure Gabe would drop under 2 minutes in both the Glen and VIR and sure enough he did. Even in highly suboptimal conditions (can anyone say CALIENTE?) and without prior experience at either track.

The VIR event’s fast group were all telling Gabe to give up on trying to set a fast lap, as it was over 100F and by the afternoon the pavement was very slick. They underestimated just how fast Gabe is, because 1:58 is not the limit of the car+driver as it sits now. It will go faster with more familiarity and especially lower temps.

There are a few very fast Cup cars in the group we ran with which my brother and I cannot take out with our cars in their current state. The drivers were excited to see how they'd measure up with Gabe, especially after their crazy check-out ride. As I told one of them later, "if you had this procedure for all red group drivers, everyone in this group would be properly fast".
Anyway, at the end of the day when Gabe put down his fast lap, the fastest guy took his Cup car out behind Gabe. In a turn of events that surprised no one, Gabe with his E90 M3 that we could build in our garage over two weekends took out a bonafide Porsche 997 Cup car driven by a very fast driver

Our opinion is your savage check out ride was the fastest people seeing who had the longest one in the paddock! Can't wait to have aero on our cars as well!

[b4hand]

Go figure the Porsche drivers want to pass everyone on the first lap. The last time I was at COTA with Jason (OG Shark), the Porsche drivers were literally racing out of the pit lane and were 100% at speed by turn 2. Nice to know that money doesn't buy brains because even an owner of a Cup Car acts the same.

Glad you were able to get some clean laps though!

[Kelse92]

Forget the fast laps…I want to see video footage of this crazy “check ride!”
Every group needs this method it sounds like, can’t handle it, you don’t belong in the session. Love it

[redpriest]

Fantastic write up - this is really making me want to do the "grand tour" of these east coast tracks!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

Really happy all this worked out, it was tight and it seemed like it was not going to work... but it did!

We were sure Gabe would drop under 2 minutes in both the Glen and VIR and sure enough he did. Even in highly suboptimal conditions (can anyone say CALIENTE?) and without prior experience at either track.

The VIR event’s fast group were all telling Gabe to give up on trying to set a fast lap, as it was over 100F and by the afternoon the pavement was very slick. They underestimated just how fast Gabe is, because 1:58 is not the limit of the car+driver as it sits now. It will go faster with more familiarity and especially lower temps.

There are a few very fast Cup cars in the group we ran with, which my brother and I cannot take out with our cars in their current state. The drivers were excited to see how they'd measure up with Gabe, especially after their crazy check-out ride. As I told one of them later, "if you had this procedure for all red group drivers, everyone in this group would be properly fast".
Anyway, at the end of the day when Gabe put down his fast lap, the fastest guy took his Cup car out behind Gabe. In a turn of events that surprised no one, Gabe with his E90 M3 that we could build in our garage over two weekends took out a bonafide Porsche 997 Cup car driven by a very fast driver

Our opinion is your savage check out ride was the fastest people seeing who had the longest one in the paddock! Can't wait to have aero on our cars as well!

Having the 997 Cup Car behind me on my fast lap was fun. It was one more kick in the pants to get going and to try to get it right so that I didn't have to point him by during the lap. Good times.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Kelse92

Forget the fast laps…I want to see video footage of this crazy “check ride!”
Every group needs this method it sounds like, can’t handle it, you don’t belong in the session. Love it

haha I'm not going to post video. But I'm willing to put up a few stills.

Something tells me that they don't do this with everyone. The normal way is the chief instructor sits in the passenger seat during a regular session and observes the driver to see how they handle the situations that come up during the session. In my case, the chief instructor said to me, we know that you know how to drive----we just want to make sure you're good in traffic. I spoke with all the drivers later and they all said the same thing----the weekend was hot, the lap times and data were frustrating.....this was the most fun they had all weekend! You know, I appreciated that they trusted me. Everyone had really nice cars.

Cup Car passing me going into T4:


Me passing the Camaro into T5:


2-wide with the Corvette in T4:


Camaro passing me in T1:


Me passing Camaro in Roller Coaster:


GT3R passing me on back straight. Not a dramatic moment, but I just wanted to post a picture of that car. What an amazing machine that is:

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by redpriest

Fantastic write up - this is really making me want to do the "grand tour" of these east coast tracks!

Thanks.

If you can get your car to the East Coast, I highly recommend it. These two tracks in particular were very fun to drive. They were VERY different from each other which was nice. And there are a lot of other notable and interesting tracks on the East Coast.

In my research last year, there are ways to leave trailers at tracks for extended periods of time. VIR in particular was friendly about that stuff. So, you can plan to leave a trailer at various places and fly back and forth (when there isn't a pandemic).

And interestingly, I found the pavement at both tracks to be very easy on the tires. Watkins Glen's surface is the best overall pavement surface I've seen anywhere in the country. I had a set of scrubs that lasted far longer than I have ever seen scrubs last and still put in good performance. And I was worried that SYT_Shadow's Hoosier R7 tires would not hold up to a bunch of track days, but they rotated them every two sessions, and they held up. In CA, I get 8 sessions out of Hoosiers and they're corded. I mean, you can trash a set of soft tires at Willow Springs in one session......I guess as pavement ages it's just super hard on tires. So, I was happy to see that the pavement at these 2 East Coast tracks was nice.

[kayha12]

Nice lap! Since VIR is such a long high mph track, nailing corner exits pay massive dividends and the time gets shaved super fast. I definitely see your car doing sub 1:55 with more seat time.

IIRC your car is "prepped" for NASA TT1? 1:55 would definitely make you competitive, I think the record is somewhere close to 1:52

Glad you've enjoyed it. It's definitely one of my favorite tracks

[Datka]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Having the 997 Cup Car behind me on my fast lap was fun. It was one more kick in the pants to get going and to try to get it right so that I didn't have to point him by during the lap. Good times.

Great job Gabe. It was a pleasure to meet you at the Glen.
When a well sorted fast car is driven by a great driver, usually results are great too.
Yeah, trying to get away from a fast car behind you or chasing a fast car results in a faster laps. At least in my case, my fastest lap times in the past came from those two scenarios.
Your fast time at the Glen was impressive in that heat, and even more so at VIR at almost 100F.
It was hot at WGI too, my car was off the pace by a few seconds, was so frustrated at the end of the day, didn't even stay for the second day and left

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by kayha12

Nice lap! Since VIR is such a long high mph track, nailing corner exits pay massive dividends and the time gets shaved super fast. I definitely see your car doing sub 1:55 with more seat time.

IIRC your car is "prepped" for NASA TT1? 1:55 would definitely make you competitive, I think the record is somewhere close to 1:52

Glad you've enjoyed it. It's definitely one of my favorite tracks

Thanks! Yes, much more to learn at both the Glen and VIR. But given the weather and amount of time I had on track, I walked away feeling like I did alright at both places. At VIR, on Sunday, I was on a 1:57 entering the Roller Coaster at the end and then ran into traffic. Give me a cooler day and some more time at VIR, and a 1:56 is easy, 1:55 seems doable.....and beyond that, I can't say. At the Glen, I was on two 1:57s and was impeded on both and still pulled out 1:58s, and it was pretty warm out. So, while I walked away with some satisfaction, of course I am dreaming of doing better. Heck, I've been going to Buttonwillow for almost 10 years, and I still dream about doing better lap times there!

Yup, I can get into NASA TT1. I think I'm generally competitive in TT1, but I cannot compete against a full aero Corvette that weighs 2800 lbs all-in. To me, the ultimate TT1 setup is a full aero Corvette with massive tires, weighs 2800 lbs with fuel and driver, and is tuned with the exact hp needed to max out 6:1. That combo can corner like a go-kart, and still has power on the straights. I'm dragging around 500 more pounds, which is just brutal in the corners. I cannot make up for that deficit with more power in the straights.

Anyway, yeah, I'm super happy I was able to add VIR to the trip.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Datka

Great job Gabe. It was a pleasure to meet you at the Glen.
When a well sorted fast car is driven by a great driver, usually results are great too.
Yeah, trying to get away from a fast car behind you or chasing a fast car results in a faster laps. At least in my case, my fastest lap times in the past came from those two scenarios.
Your fast time at the Glen was impressive in that heat, and even more so at VIR at almost 100F.
It was hot at WGI too, my car was off the pace by a few seconds, was so frustrated at the end of the day, didn't even stay for the second day and left

Thanks! It was fun hanging out with you at the Glen! I want more of that pizza......hahaha

I'm ok with a car chasing me. I have no problem tuning them out and just doing my thing. But when a car is in front of me, and I'm trying to do a full-on hot lap, I find it distracting. I end up watching what they do and not driving... My 996 Cup Car friend in CA is the opposite. When he's by himself, he's cautious. But when he's chasing someone, his ego kicks in and he finally starts driving.

The heat and humidity were brutal when the sun finally came out at the Glen. I literally had rivers of sweat running off me when I was done packing up my trailer. I grew up in Washington DC and dealt with that, but I moved away in 1998 and have not lived in a humid place since. You forget about humidity very quickly once you move away from it. Oh, and I got about 30 mosquito bites at the Glen and VIR. My legs are still itchy as hell! From a weather and bug standpoint, I have to admit, I am very happy to be back in the low humidity and bug-free Colorado.

[Redd]

@dogbone great driving! How many laps do you get at these super hot track days before the car needs cooling down? What's your current cooling package?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Redd

@dogbone great driving! How many laps do you get at these super hot track days before the car needs cooling down? What's your current cooling package?

Thanks! The number of laps depends on how fast you're going. At 1:58 pace at 95ºF at VIR and the Glen, you get one lap and about 2/3 of a second lap. You will not be able to finish the second lap at that pace at such high air temps. At 2:05 pace, I could run a whole 20 minute session---let's call it 9 laps.

In cool air, I can do two good full hot laps at max pace and then the car needs a break. But that's fine. The tires need a break too. EDIT: The car could keep going after two laps in cool air, but it won't be quite as fast as the first two laps. But again, it sorta doesn't matter because the tires don't really have three hot laps at max pace in them anyway.

The current cooling setup is CSF for main radiator, oil cooler and power steering cooler. Do88 for DCT cooler.

[inTgr8r]

Originally Posted by dogbone

It's not a battery issue exactly. The battery is generically fine. The problem is that the AIM Solo 2 DL turns on ANY TIME it sniffs any CAN activity----even when the engine is off. So, you could return from a session, turn the engine off, turn off the unit, and then a couple minutes later, the unit will sniff some CAN activity and then turn itself on while you are away from the car. The unit will stay on for long periods of time which blasts the battery. You return to the car to drive 1-2 hours later and the unit has been on for most of that time......the battery is mostly drained at that point.

There is a feature/setting option on the AIM labeled "Wake from ECU". You'd think if you choose Disabled, that the unit would not turn on by itself.......but it does.....Maybe I should try Enabled......would be ridiculous if it didn't turn on then.....

The solution for this is to add isolation relays driven from accessory power.
Add the relays to the CAN bus and 12v connections.

provides the same function as disconnecting the cable but automates it when you shut off the car.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by inTgr8r

The solution for this is to add isolation relays driven from accessory power.
Add the relays to the CAN bus and 12v connections.

provides the same function as disconnecting the cable but automates it when you shut off the car.

I seem to recall you mentioning this fix awhile back. It sounds cool, but I don't mess with electrical, so I definitely would not be taking this project on. And I haven't put it on the list for a shop to deal with. I'm so used to unplugging it, I don't really think about it anymore. And lately, I've been shutting the whole battery down between sessions because I've had some weird new problem where my non-brake-light tail lamps are lit 100% of the time regardless of whether the car is running or not......so I've just been fully turning the battery off between drive times.