My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by e92BMW///M3

Ice driving event seems like it could be a lot of fun, very interesting comparing driving technique between high and low grip scenarios. Might have to check out those Audi club events in upstate NY.

Highly recommended.

[leo95se]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Highly recommended.

Agreed. Audi neq does some great winter events. And with pretty good instructors.

[dogbone]

For anyone interested, they've posted the schedule for the 2019 Bimmer Challenge, along with the updated 2019 rules. The rules list out all the criteria for determining the Class of your car. They've changed a number of things this year. Now, it's best 9-out-of-10 series. And they've changed the points classification system.

You can find all the info on the Bimmer Challenge Facebook page: Bimmer Challenge Facebook page

[ThunderMoose]

Originally Posted by dogbone

For anyone interested, they've posted the schedule for the 2019 Bimmer Challenge, along with the updated 2019 rules. The rules list out all the criteria for determining the Class of your car. They've changed a number of things this year. Now, it's best 9-out-of-10 series. And they've changed the points classification system.

You can find all the info on the Bimmer Challenge Facebook page: Bimmer Challenge Facebook page

Ever think about NASA TT?

[M3 Number 86]

I love how redpriest just lost his P1 finish on the final turn literally. 0.6 sec drop off at sunset

Alex "Vettel" Goodrich!

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by M3 Number 86

I love how redpriest just lost his P1 finish on the final turn literally. 0.6 sec drop off at sunset

Alex "Vettel" Goodrich!

Originally Posted by M3 Number 86

I love how redpriest just lost his P1 finish on the final turn literally. 0.6 sec drop off at sunset

Alex "Vettel" Goodrich!

Vettel at least has 4 championship wins. I have 3 2nd place finishes, lol

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by redpriest

Vettel at least has 4 championship wins. I have 3 2nd place finishes, lol

Lolol

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by ThunderMoose

Ever think about NASA TT?

I've been looking into it since a bunch of people have been telling me I should do it. If I've done the math correctly, I believe my car can get into TT1. I just wanna stay out of TTU. There's a guy in SoCal with a Ginetta G57 that shows up in TTU and is 12-20 seconds faster than everyone else at every track......He consistently does 1:38's at Buttonwillow.....it's just silly for an M3 to be in TTU against a G57....

I was going through dyno readings calculating average horsepower across the points in the RPM band. Using the average hp calc, I should be fine to get into TT1.

I was looking online at the NASA TT results for SoCal tracks over the last few seasons. My lap times seem fine for being competitive in TT1.

So, I'm thinking about it. Trying to sort out my 2019 track calendar now. Not sure what I'll do just yet.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by redpriest

Vettel at least has 4 championship wins. I have 3 2nd place finishes, lol

Your story is awesome man! Your competitor's car goes down right before the series finale with overall First place at stake. You give him the keys to your car and you guys duke it out! And you're within 0.005 sec of each other! That's the stuff of legends!

[ThunderMoose]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I've been looking into it since a bunch of people have been telling me I should do it. If I've done the math correctly, I believe my car can get into TT1. I just wanna stay out of TTU. There's a guy in SoCal with a Ginetta G57 that shows up in TTU and is 12-20 seconds faster than everyone else at every track......He consistently does 1:38's at Buttonwillow.....it's just silly for an M3 to be in TTU against a G57....

I was going through dyno readings calculating average horsepower across the points in the RPM band. Using the average hp calc, I should be fine to get into TT1.

I was looking online at the NASA TT results for SoCal tracks over the last few seasons. My lap times seem fine for being competitive in TT1.

So, I'm thinking about it. Trying to sort out my 2019 track calendar now. Not sure what I'll do just yet.

If you have good competition in the region, I highly recommend it. You should be able to get into TT1. You get fewer points to average hp with a supercharger as they assume you will detune and flatten it out.

You seem to have a pretty good thing going with Bimmerchallenge.

What I like about TT is that I can travel to a lot of different tracks and compete with other NASA TT'ers. I have been able to drive in 7 states and will add 1-2 more this year.

[dogbone]

The car is going in for a fairly substantial round of general maintenance tomorrow. I'm flying to LA and heading straight to EAS to give them the car. (Since EAS installed the supercharger, I have them handle tasks that involve removing parts of it.)

So, what's on the list? Most of it is unexciting, but there is one noteworthy item that I'm very curious about.

-Oil Diverter Valve - The most interesting thing that we're doing is installing an oil diverter valve sold by Bimmerworld. What's that? I'm glad you asked! A regular street car controls how much/if any engine oil is sent into the oil cooler. When a car is cold-started, sometimes it completely closes the connection into the cooler to get the oil to warm up more quickly inside the engine. As the engine warms up, the car opens a valve and sends certain amounts of oil into the cooler to be cooled. But a race car runs so hot, you don't want the car unnecessarily keeping oil out of the cooler, and I guess this happens sometimes. The oil diverter valve basically allows a constant flow rate into the cooler regardless of the temp of the oil. Hopefully, whoever made the part did a bit of homework to find the optimal flow rate into the cooler---too much flow, and the oil doesn't stay in the cooler long enough to get cooled; too little, and the oil in the engine gets overly hot since not enough cooled oil is returning.

Most casual track people don't do this mod because it involves so much labor. It's a solid 4-5 hours because so many things need to be removed to get to the oil filter housing. In my particular case, my supercharger bracket also needs to be removed.....and no one wants to do that..... And it may not be ideal for street driving because the oil takes longer to warm up. So, while the part is only $80, the large amount of labor makes it unappealing, along with oil that may not be able to warm up quickly enough. But we're doing a bunch of things in the engine bay, so I'm hoping the labor is shared amongst other tasks. Let's put it this way, I've had this oil diverter in my hands for over a year and I've waited until it made sense to put it in. If I don't do it now, I will never do it!

So, the goal with this mod is to net some cooler oil temps. Every hardcore track guy I talk to that has this mod says it helped them (although all of them are on older platform M3’s). I'm very interested in the results. And of course, the AIM Solo 2 DL will be tracking the oil temps, and I have LOTS and LOTS of old AIM data to compare old temps. So----we'll see.

-Coolant Radiator - TJ, the lead tech from Trinity Autosport (forum member StripclubDJ), was parked in the paddock near me at the December Bimmer Challenge. At some point during the day, he was checking out my car. He was noting that coolant was leaking from the radiator from more than one spot. I had been seeing a few spots of dried coolant in the engine bay for awhile but hadn't dealt with it yet. He was pointing out the trouble spots. The car was due for all these other services, so I'm adding the radiator to the list. If I recall correctly, the radiator that is being replaced is not the original part from 2009. It's an OEM piece, but it was replaced in 2013 at about 20k miles and 40 track days because I was in a minor fender bender on the street, and the bodyshop decided to replace it.

Which radiator I’ll be putting in is not set yet……By winning all 7 Bimmer Challenge events last year, I should have 350 points (at $5 per point) with CSF which is a credit for $1750—more than enough for a free radiator. But I have not been able to get an answer about whether or not I can get one by my appointment, so I may be forced to install another OEM radiator because I have a hard-scheduled appointment, and this is the time to do this kind of work. Anyway, we’ll see how this plays out.

-Hoses - all the fluid hoses in the car are the original OEM parts. The car will be 10 years old in May, and it's seen upwards of 150 track days. I've never had any issues with the OEM hoses, but I think it's long past due to switch them out. I'm just going with OEM replacement parts here. Thought about do88 hoses......not doing it. do88 says to cut off the connectors from your OEM hoses and clamp them onto the do88 hoses…..ummm…..no thanks. I’m also putting in a new VF Engineering upper radiator hose. I reported on this thread a couple years ago that the upper radiator hose did fail on track at Willow Springs, so it's on my list of things to switch out every couple of years.

-Belts - replacing all drive belts including the supercharger belt from VF.

-Air filter - the car always seems happy with a new air filter. K&N part from VF.

-Replace blower fluid and also replace the blower unit's vent nut because the allen head of that copper/brass bolt (whatever it's made out of) is stripping.

-Investigate some kind of oil leak - there was a small amount of, what I believe to be, motor oil on the floor of my trailer when I pulled the car out in December. Not sure what that was about.

-Investigate small water leak from misting system. There's a slow drip coming from the misting system somewhere. This has happened before. Previously, it was the OEM windshield washer spray pump that developed a leak. So, we'll check it out.

So, there's a bunch of stuff to take care of. I don't mean to bore everyone to tears with boring maintenance. I just document these things so that others newer to tracking can see some of the stuff that can come up as an M3 sees track usage. There's no documentation out there that deals with maintenance intervals when tracking an E9x M3. And tearing a car apart after every drive event is not practical or needed for us guys that do motorsport on an amateur basis. So, I simply journal about things that come up. Hopefully, it's useful to someone.

If everything goes according to plan and I get the car back Friday, I'm looking at shaking the car down at Buttonwillow with Speed Ventures Saturday and maybe Willow Springs with Speed District on Sunday too. Willow Springs has done some sort of resurfacing....wonder what that means.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by dogbone

-Oil Diverter Valve - The most interesting thing that we're doing is installing an oil diverter valve sold by Bimmerworld. What's that? I'm glad you asked! A regular street car controls how much/if any engine oil is sent into the oil cooler. When a car is cold-started, sometimes it completely closes the connection into the cooler to get the oil to warm up more quickly inside the engine. As the engine warms up, the car opens a valve and sends certain amounts of oil into the cooler to be cooled. But a race car runs so hot, you don't want the car unnecessarily keeping oil out of the cooler, and I guess this happens sometimes. The oil diverter valve basically allows a constant flow rate into the cooler regardless of the temp of the oil. Hopefully, whoever made the part did a bit of homework to find the optimal flow rate into the cooler---too much flow, and the oil doesn't stay in the cooler long enough to get cooled; too little, and the oil in the engine gets overly hot since not enough cooled oil is returning.

Interested in your feedback on this part. I recall older M3s needed this kind of piece but the newer ones did not. With the AIM you'll be able to provide scientific data

Originally Posted by dogbone

-Coolant Radiator - TJ, the lead tech from Trinity Autosport (forum member StripclubDJ), was parked in the paddock near me at the December Bimmer Challenge. At some point during the day, he was checking out my car. He was noting that coolant was leaking from the radiator from more than one spot. I had been seeing a few spots of dried coolant in the engine bay for awhile but hadn't dealt with it yet. He was pointing out the trouble spots. The car was due for all these other services, so I'm adding the radiator to the list. If I recall correctly, the radiator that is being replaced is not the original part from 2009. It's an OEM piece, but it was replaced in 2013 at about 20k miles and 40 track days because I was in a minor fender bender on the street, and the bodyshop decided to replace it.

No do88 love? That's what I went to

Originally Posted by dogbone

-Hoses - all the fluid hoses in the car are the original OEM parts. The car will be 10 years old in May, and it's seen upwards of 150 track days. I've never had any issues with the OEM hoses, but I think it's long past due to switch them out. I'm just going with OEM replacement parts here. Thought about do88 hoses......not doing it. do88 says to cut off the connectors from your OEM hoses and clamp them onto the do88 hoses…..ummm…..no thanks. I’m also putting in a new VF Engineering upper radiator hose. I reported on this thread a couple years ago that the upper radiator hose did fail on track at Willow Springs, so it's on my list of things to switch out every couple of years.

When I installed my kit and did the writeup that was my feedback to do88. Why the hell would I replace the oem tubes but keep the connecting portions? That is precisely where the issues would arise!!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

Interested in your feedback on this part. I recall older M3s needed this kind of piece but the newer ones did not. With the AIM you'll be able to provide scientific data

Yup, very curious if there's a benefit. There is ZEEE-RO data available to the public for this device on an E9x M3 as far as I can tell.

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

No do88 love? That's what I went to

The bottom line is that I supposedly have a credit with CSF due to my involvement with Bimmer Challenge that should get me a free radiator. Free is always nice. If I can't get that, then the stock radiator is about half the delivered cost of the do88. And because of the waiting game, I'm out of time. I can't wait for a unit from Sweden.

If I'm really digging into the do88 data, the data charts provided on the do88 website seem to show a fairly modest difference at higher temps compared to stock----around 7ºF better at 197ºF. My coolant temps are frequently above 220ºF. I wonder what the delta is at those higher temps. Does the gap narrow further? (By comparison, the do88 DCT cooler on my car cools about 25ºF better than the stock cooler because it's so much larger.) I understand that the connectors and welding might be very nice on the aftermarket units, but my stock radiator held up pretty darn well for a long time under some pretty harsh conditions.

Anyway, we'll see if CSF comes through. It's been pretty quiet from their end, so I'm starting to think a stock unit is going on. (A stock radiator would make for a more controlled experiment when it comes to reading temps with the new oil diverter.)

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

When I installed my kit and did the writeup that was my feedback to do88. Why the hell would I replace the oem tubes but keep the connecting portions? That is precisely where the issues would arise!!

Yeah----like I said.......ummm no thanks......haha!

[kyippee]

Wow I'm surprised you are still on the stock radiator. I've gone with CSF radiator, oil cooler, and PS cooler. Stock DCT cooler but with Slon bottom DCT pan.

I haven't noticed a significant difference in peak temperatures while pushing the car on track, but my pace is slower than you and I'm on stock power. (1.42.4x pace @ Laguna recently vs. your 1:32-1:34?)

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by kpewpew

Wow I'm surprised you are still on the stock radiator. I've gone with CSF radiator, oil cooler, and PS cooler. Stock DCT cooler but with Slon bottom DCT pan.

I haven't noticed a significant difference in peak temperatures while pushing the car on track, but my pace is slower than you and I'm on stock power. (1.42.4x pace @ Laguna recently vs. your 1:32-1:34?)

Yeah, your experience with an aftermarket coolant radiator not changing temps a lot is inline with all the stories I hear. Like I said, if the connectors and the welding are nicer on the aftermarket pieces, that can be an advantage when it comes to reliability which is good for a racecar, but the OEM piece is not garbage, and it's cost effective to replace.

(My PB at Laguna: 1:34.3)

[kyippee]

Completely agree. No regrets with the added reliability of an all-metal construction. FWIW, I got the CSF cooler parts @ ~$419 shipped during a m0db4ga1n5 sale. Can be a lot cheaper than the listed $599 at most places.

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Yeah, your experience with an aftermarket coolant radiator not changing temps a lot is inline with all the stories I hear. Like I said, if the connectors and the welding are nicer on the aftermarket pieces, that can be an advantage when it comes to reliability which is good for a racecar, but the OEM piece is not garbage, and it's cost effective to replace.

(My PB at Laguna: 1:34.3)

Dang dct really wrings out the revs

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by M3 Number 86

Dang dct really wrings out the revs

Yeah, the beauty of DCT is you can keep the car in optimal gears and RPMs at all times.

[72dan]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I've been looking into it since a bunch of people have been telling me I should do it. If I've done the math correctly, I believe my car can get into TT1. I just wanna stay out of TTU. There's a guy in SoCal with a Ginetta G57 that shows up in TTU and is 12-20 seconds faster than everyone else at every track......He consistently does 1:38's at Buttonwillow.....it's just silly for an M3 to be in TTU against a G57....

I was going through dyno readings calculating average horsepower across the points in the RPM band. Using the average hp calc, I should be fine to get into TT1.

I was looking online at the NASA TT results for SoCal tracks over the last few seasons. My lap times seem fine for being competitive in TT1.

So, I'm thinking about it. Trying to sort out my 2019 track calendar now. Not sure what I'll do just yet.

I drove in that race at Buttonwillow. It is a G57-P2 prototype and competitive with LMP2 cars like Ligier. He passed me on the outside on high speed sweeping corners with a huge speed differential. I was racing the EXR car, a Mitjet LV02 which runs EO class. There are many classes all out there at the same time just like an IMSA race where prototypes are running the same time as production cars. You have to keep in mind there are class rules and anything that doesn't fit in the class rules goes in unlimited which is what TTU is. Only another prototype or a formula car will compete with that G57-P2.
If you are going to run a production based car in unlimited class just accept you are out there to have fun. I considered buying a Ginetta G55 which is a popular GT4 car in the UK and Europe. 1100 KG tube frame purpose built race car with a 380 HP Ford 3.7 liter motor, they can't run in GT4 classes here because our USA GT4 is a production based class.
Porsche, BMW, Audi GT4 will be heavier and are street cars modified for GT4. They are starting to run the Ginetta G55 in Pirelli World Challenge but I am sure they are putting in weight ballast or other changes to slow them to the speed of the other GT4 cars.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by 72dan

I drove in that race at Buttonwillow. It is a G57-P2 prototype and competitive with LMP2 cars like Ligier. He passed me on the outside on high speed sweeping corners with a huge speed differential. I was racing the EXR car, a Mitjet LV02 which runs EO class. There are many classes all out there at the same time just like an IMSA race where prototypes are running the same time as production cars. You have to keep in mind there are class rules and anything that doesn't fit in the class rules goes in unlimited which is what TTU is. Only another prototype or a formula car will compete with that G57-P2.
If you are going to run a production based car in unlimited class just accept you are out there to have fun. I considered buying a Ginetta G55 which is a popular GT4 car in the UK and Europe. 1100 KG tube frame purpose built race car with a 380 HP Ford 3.7 liter motor, they can't run in GT4 classes here because our USA GT4 is a production based class.
Porsche, BMW, Audi GT4 will be heavier and are street cars modified for GT4. They are starting to run the Ginetta G55 in Pirelli World Challenge but I am sure they are putting in weight ballast or other changes to slow them to the speed of the other GT4 cars.

Ironically, I was at Buttonwillow today and needed to visit the race shop (7's Only Racing) at the track. Inside the shop, that very G57 was completely torn down. I don't know what they were doing to it, but it looked like major surgery.

[StripclubDJ]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Ironically, I was at Buttonwillow today and needed to visit the race shop (7's Only Racing) at the track. Inside the shop, that very G57 was completely torn down. I don't know what they were doing to it, but it looked like major surgery.

It caught fire

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by StripclubDJ

It caught fire

ah....well hopefully they can get back up and running again because that car puts down amazing times everywhere it goes.