My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by derbo

That sounds cool you will be adjusting a bunch! Is there anything specific on a base starting point on the suspension changes?

Yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing what he cooks up. No—no base line or locked in starting point. I’m letting him run with it. He said he would decide spring rates once he was into it and had a chance to see all the particulars of the car. We’ll see!

[OG Shark]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Thanks! I hear some heavy hitter cars will be at Buttonwillow. Like last year, I’m showing up with no expectations to SuperLap. Just want to put down some good laps. If some 1000hp 4-wheel drive monster is flying around, I’m good with that.

hehe my helmet is in CA!

Oh come on - you might have half the power & half the drive wheels - but you can make up for that with a willingness to experiment and a can-do attitude!

Ugh but no helmet on the plane, good luck with that

[dogbone]

Let's files this one under: Challenging weekend---lots of problems, but ended with good results. And----I cannot believe one of the solutions to a long long standing problem.

This weekend at Buttonwillow was pretty dynamic. Chasing down some show-stopping problems. It was supposed to be a testing and tuning and shakedown weekend, and boy, it was definitely that.

Let's start with the work that was done to the car:
-the Core4 motorsports hubs are on now. Very nice stuff.
-head gaskets replaced. Were leaking a lot of oil. (I asked how it looked inside the engine. He said great. Looked super clean in there.)
-Brake caliper rebuild on all 4 corners. Brake fluid flush.
-new engine mounts. Put more stock ones in there.
-trans fluid replaced
-new steel hood latch pins installed after the aluminum ones broke
-a few bolts were missing on the bottom of the car. All were replaced.
-the engine bay was super messy with various fluids that have leaked over time. It was all cleaned up.
-new air filter
-suspension setup.

Friday: This first day was supposed to be about feeling the car out after the new suspension setup. The car now has 800/1000 springs on it. And everything else was changed----caster, ride height, different alignment, rake, nitrogen, damper settings. Everything changed. I was quite amped up to see what this felt like. Well, as it turns out, this was the last thing on our minds. The car was having all kinds of problems. The brakes weren't working properly. The car was shifting all by itself several times per lap. For instance, I'd be going down the front straight in 4th gear, and it would just dump itself into 6th gear without me touching the paddles.

After my off at COTA, I noticed the car was making a super loud buzzing sound when I started it. I had never heard that sound like that before. It was the brake booster vacuum pump. But why was it so loud? Tony starts hunting and quickly finds that there's a huge gash in the vacuum line. Now we know why the brakes feel like crap. At first, we tried to just tape over it as a temporary fix, and it helped a little but still felt bad. So, Tony runs to the race shop at Buttonwillow and was able to get a piece of hose in the correct diameter and fully patched it. Now, the brakes were back to normal.

Next problem---the car shifting by itself........we decided that maybe the transmission fluid swap could be a culprit. Maybe there wasn't enough in there? Slon has that extra step of jamming more fluid in there by jacking up the car. So, Tony puts more fluid in there. The car is still auto-shifting. Tony takes it out on track. He experienced it. Steve from EAS was at the track and was discussing the topic with us. Everyone who reads this thread knows that I've suffered double-upshifts, and that the Slon pan helped with that. This was another level. Everyone was scratching their heads.

I tried using my Bavarian Technic cable to clear all the fault codes from all the modules. It takes like 10 minutes. Didn't really help.

During the day, I met a few new people. One of them had an E90 M3. He works for Sparco. Great guy. (Why am I mentioning this? Read on!)

The day ended and we were no closer to solving the shifting issue. Tony was only scheduled to be there one day, so he left to back home to San Diego.


Saturday: I had rented an RV and slept at the track. Wake up eager to keep driving. Oops. It's raining. Hard. Argh. My car is a fair weather car. Doesn't have working wipers. It doesn't go out in the rain. To add to the fun, the rental RV starting leaking during the rain.......I was sitting in the RV and water started pouring in from the AC vent.....So, the morning was shot. By 1PM, it was dry enough to run. Take the car out, run it. It continues shifting all by itself, and was double up-shifting. It was a nightmare......undriveable.

I get on the phone with Steve. Basically, I'm asking him, who would I even take the car to so I that I can try to get a fix going??? It's such a mysterious problem, I couldn't even figure out who to take it to. The engine felt good. The transmission felt good. It was just having shifting problems. After a bit of online searching, Steve says, "maybe it's your paddle shifters". My first reaction was----how is it the shifters if I'm not touching them?? The car is shifting by itself. He pulled up a thread of a guy who had similar problems on the street. Replacing the shifting modules solved his issues. Could it really be that simple? I said, ok, how do I get those parts? The new parts were in PA......would take days to get. Then Steve, said, "you know that Sparco guy you met yesterday? I swapped out his DCT steering wheel awhile ago. I wonder what he did with it." I asked him to look into it. 15 minutes later, I get a text from Steve----the Sparco guy has the steering wheel in-hand. You can have it. The only catch is that he lives 180 miles from the track. I was desperate. I still had one more day to drive on track and I was determined to be able to test it on Sunday. I figured I would just jump in the pickup and drive and go get it.

Before doing that, I called Casey from Racewerkz. I know he had fiddled with the airbag and removed the airbag charge. I wanted to make sure there weren't any surprises to get in there. He said no surprises. But then he had an idea. He said, "if you think it's the shifters, disconnect them from the car by unplugging the connecter in the steering wheel and just shift with the center console shifter." That would give me some clue as to whether the new steering wheel would help and whether I should bother with 7 hours of driving to and from Costa Mesa.

I really liked this idea. But I had no clue how to remove the airbag/horn from the steering wheel. Steve and Casey were sending me pics and links, but I just wasn't getting it. I was putting a screw driver in a hole trying to get to a spring clip, but nothing was happening.......then I thought, hey, I'm at a PCA event. There must be a ton of techs here. So, I asked around and there was a BMW tech at the event. I asked him to remove the airbag. He came over to the car........and.......he couldn't get the airbag piece off the steering wheel.......after 10 minutes of trying, he said, "sorry, I can't get it off."..............Now I was dumbfounded and desperate.....

So, I said f**k this steering wheel bullshit. I'm taking the whole trailer rig with the car 180 miles to Costa Mesa to pick up the steering wheel. And I'm going to meet Steve somewhere and have him replace the steering wheel. I was determined to do this because I still had one more driving day. And without trying SOMETHING, Sunday would be a total waste. Clearly the car wasn't going to magically improve. And Global Time Attack is next weekend. I gotta do SOMETHING.

I called around and everyone took pity on me and agreed to the plan. So, I packed everything up and left the track at 2:30 PM. Drove 180 miles to Costa Mesa. Picked up the steering wheel from the Sparco guy. Drove to meet Steve. Both Steve and I were curious----if a BMW tech couldn't get the airbag cover off, was something up with it? I mean, hasn't BMW replaced like 10000000000000000 airbags with the Takata recall??

He jumps in the car and has the airbag cover off the car in less than 15 seconds......wtf.........the BMW tech wasn't putting the screwdriver in the right hole.....It turns out, the proper holes to release the airbag cover are HIDDEN.......I was-----I don't know what I was.....angry, happy, even more dumbfounded? Yes.

Steve replaced the steering wheel for me. I wasted no time getting back on the road. Returned to Buttonwillow by 11PM---400 miles later.....with a new steering wheel/shifters.

Sunday: Woke up in the rental RV and the propane had run out, so the heater wasn't working and it was cold out, so it was freezing in the RV.......yup, this weekend is going smooth. The RV owner said I needed to open the second tank. But the gauges on both tanks showed Empty. Later, the owner realized he didn't replace one of the tanks with a fresh tank.....the fresh one was still in his garage.....yup, sounds like par for the course for this weekend.

The big question of the day-----would the new shifters solve my problems? Go out first session-------the car drives PERFECTLY!!!!!!! PURRRRRFECTLYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! Every shift was crisp. No auto-shifts, no double shifts. It felt like a new car. The whole day, every shift was right on the money. I haven't had a day without a bad shift in years. Holy cow. It was the paddle shifters......

Now, with everything running properly. I ran sub-1:50 on scrubs. It was nice and cool, but the wind was howling on Sunday. I still decided to put on new tires and see what they were like with the suspension setup. Ran a 1:48.3. The wind was definitely a big negative. I'm quite sure there's more time to be had without the crazy wind. Plus, I was very rusty at Buttonwillow since this was my first visit there this year. (The 1:48 lap was the fastest lap of the weekend at the PCA event.)

With the 4 sessions on Sunday, I tried to settle down and wrap my head around the new suspension setup. Here are some thoughts on the new suspension setup:

-Overall: I like it. But it's not a love affair yet. It's stiffer. It's different. Very drivable. The car is not twitchy or nervous. But it has more edge to it. It's going to take some time to sort out how to get the most out of it.
-Braking: The 800 lbs front springs along with the caster change seems to make for a better braking platform. On the new Yoko slicks, braking was ROCK SOLID. Really impressed.
-1000lb rear springs. I was actually glad that it was only a small change upward in rear rate. This still felt familiar while accelerating.
-Riverside: my speeds on Riverside are down a bit, but I'm wondering how much was the wind, and how much is me not getting it right, and how much was with the new setup. I think I need to re-work my approach to Riverside. My absence from the track for a year did not help.
-Turn in feels good. Alignment has toe out in front versus toe in before.
-I'm getting tossed around more. My head is hitting the halo sides more often.
-I can still get on berms, but I feel it more.
-The car isn't bottoming out liked it used to on things like Off Ramp. I'm glad because I would like to avoid destroying the new splitter when it arrives.

I'm going to drive it like this for awhile and see. Can I get to 1:46 with the carbon doors and this setup? Unknown. I truly believe the pavement at Buttonwillow is slowing down.....and the amount of dirt that people drag onto that track is unreal. It seems event organizers don't care if people go off again and again......it makes the track much less pleasant to drive. Everyone seems to complain about the dirty track. Plus we had dried mud on there yesterday from all the Saturday rain.

In the end, the car is driving really well. The RV people offered me a free day on the rental next weekend because of my problems. And I met many nice people throughout the weekend.

So, now my vision is set towards the GTA event at Buttonwillow. As I said before, the competition looks stiff. In fact, I may have the lowest spec car in the Unlimited group. hehe we'll see!

[DRLane]

Woof. Sounds like an ordeal! But glad to hear it's all sorted. Probably par for the course after having the car sit trailered in Texas for > half the year.

Really surprised by the tech's inability to remove the airbag. There are a million tutorials for popping the airbag off.

Good luck next weekend Gabe! Very excited to hear the net results of the suspension changes and the alignment specs if willing to share

[Kelse92]

Wow! That's incredible that the paddle shifters themselves were the culprit. Glad you got it all sorted out though! I am going to keep that in mind for my car if I ever experience the same.
And good luck next weekend! Sometimes, and you've seen before, just being solidly reliable can win events and your car sounds very well sorted now.

[//steve\\]

something something.....6MT.....cough cough.

Actually I know the DCT is the better paired transmission for this car but technology/electronics strike again. And I know that stuff can be such a pain to troubleshoot. I'm glad it all worked out in the end.

The steering wheel can be a pain. I've had mine off 2-3 times. Usually one side pops free in 5 seconds and the other side takes me 5 minutes.


I like reading your updates. Any video of your fast lap?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by DRLane

Woof. Sounds like an ordeal! But glad to hear it's all sorted. Probably par for the course after having the car sit trailered in Texas for > half the year.

Really surprised by the tech's inability to remove the airbag. There are a million tutorials for popping the airbag off.

Good luck next weekend Gabe! Very excited to hear the net results of the suspension changes and the alignment specs if willing to share

Not gonna lie. The first time I drove the car on Friday, it was a misery to drive between the messed up brakes and the shifting issues. I was thinking I was getting into a freshly serviced vehicle that would run smooth as butter. Instead, it was undriveable.

I honestly don’t know all the specs. We were dealing with so many problems, the setup was far back in my mind. I also told Tony, I didn’t really care what the specs were if I hated it. So I wanted to drive it first and if I liked it, then I would delve into the settings. I'll tell you he grinded (ground?) out the strut top hole to get the camber and caster he wanted! No messing around here!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Kelse92

Wow! That's incredible that the paddle shifters themselves were the culprit. Glad you got it all sorted out though! I am going to keep that in mind for my car if I ever experience the same.
And good luck next weekend! Sometimes, and you've seen before, just being solidly reliable can win events and your car sounds very well sorted now.

Yeah, I'm shouting this one from the rooftop so that hopefully anyone with weird shifting issues will hear it.

And I think Casey's suggestion of disconnecting the shifters to see if the problem stops was a good and cheap way to test it out. I wish I could have tried it.

[derbo]

Nice man!

What spring rates were you running prior to this?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by //steve\\

something something.....6MT.....cough cough.

Actually I know the DCT is the better paired transmission for this car but technology/electronics strike again. And I know that stuff can be such a pain to troubleshoot. I'm glad it all worked out in the end.

The steering wheel can be a pain. I've had mine off 2-3 times. Usually one side pops free in 5 seconds and the other side takes me 5 minutes.


I like reading your updates. Any video of your fast lap?

haha manual......is that something you read to learn how to use a product?

As usual----now that I've seen it taken off, of course I can do it. But I had no concept of the HIDDEN HOLES----no one told me they were hidden.....man, I was looking and looking....I'm like....I just don't see it......still wondering why the tech didn't get it though..... Whatever, I probably still would have driven to Costa Mesa because I was sleeping at the track and had nothing better to do. I just wish I didn't have to drag my trailer around.

I can make video of the fast lap. If it gives me PTSD, I'm blaming you!

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by derbo

Nice man!

What spring rates were you running prior to this?

The previous spring setup was 600/900. Now it's 800/1000.

The car--no fuel, no driver---weighs 3090lbs.

I have gone through several spring setups in the last 8 years:
-450/650---started really mellow in 2012 because I didn't want it harsh on the street.
-600/650---felt the nose was too floppy at 450 on track, so moved the front up.
-600/800---liked this one and ran it for quite a while.
-750/1000--(fail) This was the failed attempt to go stiffer.
-600/1000--worked ok
-600/900---I liked this one quite a bit.
-800/1000 (current)

For me 600/900 was fast, but the car leaned over quite a bit, and it dove under braking. So, the question is: in time, can I learn to be faster on a stiffer setup? We'll see.

[Bartledoo]

Props for making it through that debacle! Would having the wheel well liner that covers the brake components have saved you from the vacuum line gash?

[derbo]

Originally Posted by dogbone

haha manual......is that something you read to learn how to use a product?

As usual----now that I've seen it taken off, of course I can do it. But I had no concept of the HIDDEN HOLES----no one told me they were hidden.....man, I was looking and looking....I'm like....I just don't see it......still wondering why the tech didn't get it though..... Whatever, I probably still would have driven to Costa Mesa because I was sleeping at the track and had nothing better to do. I just wish I didn't have to drag my trailer around.

I can make video of the fast lap. If it gives me PTSD, I'm blaming you!

Probably cause the "tech" was a Lube tech and only did oil changes.

[//steve\\]

For a car that's highly optimized are the Strom uprights on your list?

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by //steve\\

Any video of your fast lap?

Here's video of my fast lap of the weekend---a 1:48.3. It's not my best driving, but I'm figuring things out slowly. Plus, I'm just damn rusty. A couple thoughts come to mind watching it and comparing to my previous driving:

-In general, I was over slowing turns. This comes again from being rusty and not knowing the new setup yet. And remember, I have carbon doors on the car now. I should be able to brake later and go through corners even a bit faster now.
-I'm hedging on the gas in places where I used to be flat out. Again, I don't know where the limits of the car are with the new suspension setup. That's just my way---I build trust slowly in these things. I was getting to throwing the car around later on. I think this weekend at GTA will be good for taking the car further toward the grip limit.
-Because it had rained significantly the previous day, the mud was still quite nasty. You just don't want to go off track, which keeps you driving more conservatively.
-The dried mud on track was a bit of a nuisance. But it wasn't as bad as I've seen in the past. Luckily, PCA is pretty strict about that kind of thing. They were threatening people saying if the tow truck had to pull you out of the mud, they were charging the driver $100. hahaha

Oh, and I forgot one other minor bit of adventure to round out the craziness of the weekend....At these PCA events, they have a time trial in the afternoon on Sunday and then some open track at the end. I was looking forward to doing both the time trial and the open track so I could get more practice in---especially, since I drove for about 12 minutes on Saturday.

Before the time trial, they always have a lunch drivers meeting to get everyone on the same page. I arrived at the drivers meeting pretty relaxed. I was in a good mood because the car was finally working well. They start the meeting with, "Ok---so, we're gonna do the time trial, but we're gonna do it as fast as we can. And we're cancelling the open track at the end of the day." I'm like wuuut? Why? He continues, "So, yeah, we didn't get any rain here at the track today and that's nice and all.....buuuut......it's snowing on the Grapevine right now (!!!!), so I suggest you don't linger around here when your time trial run is over." AHHH! The Grapevine is the 4400ft mountain pass that we have to climb and then descend to get back to the LA area. The weather can get really gnarly up there in the winter. One thing I have no desire to do is pull a 10k lbs trailer in the snow. Man, I heard that and I ran back to my trailer and started shoving crap wherever to get packed up as fast as possible. I ran the time trial and was gone 20 minutes later. And it did snow on me up in the Grapevine area. Yup, this weekend was an adventure from start to finish.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Bartledoo

Props for making it through that debacle! Would having the wheel well liner that covers the brake components have saved you from the vacuum line gash?

I can't run wheel well liners. The tires are simply too fat and severely rub them. Wouldn't take long to go right through.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by derbo

Probably cause the "tech" was a Lube tech and only did oil changes.

I hated mentioning his part of the story because I don't enjoy putting people in a weird light. But that part of the story was important. Prior to finding him, I was told he was an excellent BMW tech. And he was very nice. Was happy to come to my trailer. He just missed on the execution. And, even if I could experiment with disconnecting the shifters, I probably would still have driven to get the steering wheel. I just could have avoided dragging the trailer up and over the Grapevine both directions. That climb is pretty steep and the truck is working hard to pull 10k lbs over it.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I hated mentioning his part of the story because I don't enjoy putting people in a weird light. But that part of the story was important. Prior to finding him, I was told he was an excellent BMW tech. And he was very nice. Was happy to come to my trailer. He just missed on the execution. And, even if I could experiment with disconnecting the shifters, I probably would still have driven to get the steering wheel. I just could have avoided dragging the trailer up and over the Grapevine both directions. That climb is pretty steep and the truck is working hard to pull 10k lbs over it.

It sucks that he didn't know. Maybe he wasn't a tech during the takata airbag recalls???

I'm glad you were able to sort this out! What a crazy ordeal.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by //steve\\

For a car that's highly optimized are the Strom uprights on your list?

I've known about the Strom uprights for years. I spoke to Brett several years ago when the first few test units were done. I could have bought them then. The idea of them is interesting. But the cost kept me away. It's not pocket change to try this.

When we were doing this new setup, I spoke to my tech and asked him if he thought we should do the uprights now. His thought was to wait on them. Basically saying that we're making a lot of changes already. This would be another big change. Doing it all at the same time would leave us wondering what really affected the car. His suggestion was, let's setup the car, see what I think about it. Then we can keep progressing it later if we want. Sounded ok to me.

Right now, I want to drive this setup some more. Then I want to get the new front splitter on there early next year. I may also want to revalve the dampers once the aero is on. When I bought these dampers in 2012, I was very very novice. And I had no idea the car would go to a place like this. I didn't want some stiff monster of a car on the street. JRZ said they would do something called "street/track valving". I have no idea what that means. But, there's no street left in this car, and if that valving is not correct for the car, I could see trying to change it. This will take some homework.

After all that, depending on how the car feels, then maybe the uprights could be another step. I'm never in a hurry about these kinds of things. And the covid situation has reduced my ability to be around the car, so it just slows the process down.

[//steve\\]

Originally Posted by dogbone

I've known about the Strom uprights for years. I spoke to Brett several years ago when the first few test units were done. I could have bought them then. The idea of them is interesting. But the cost kept me away. It's not pocket change to try this.

When we were doing this new setup, I spoke to my tech and asked him if he thought we should do the uprights now. His thought was to wait on them. Basically saying that we're making a lot of changes already. This would be another big change. Doing it all at the same time would leave us wondering what really affected the car. His suggestion was, let's setup the car, see what I think about it. Then we can keep progressing it later if we want. Sounded ok to me.

Right now, I want to drive this setup some more. Then I want to get the new front splitter on there early next year. I may also want to revalve the dampers once the aero is on. When I bought these dampers in 2012, I was very very novice. And I had no idea the car would go to a place like this. I didn't want some stiff monster of a car on the street. JRZ said they would do something called "street/track valving". I have no idea what that means. But, there's no street left in this car, and if that valving is not correct for the car, I could see trying to change it. This will take some homework.

After all that, depending on how the car feels, then maybe the uprights could be another step. I'm never in a hurry about these kinds of things. And the covid situation has reduced my ability to be around the car, so it just slows the process down.

Makes a lot of sense. Do you even run all the SPL arms up front to correct for roll center or are you all stock there with just a solid tension arm? And what about back. I took a quick look on page 1 where a lot of your parts are listed but didn't see anything beyond the tension arm.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by //steve\\

Makes a lot of sense. Do you even run all the SPL arms up front to correct for roll center or are you all stock there with just a solid tension arm? And what about back. I took a quick look on page 1 where a lot of your parts are listed but didn't see anything beyond the tension arm.

All front control arms are stock. I have some aftermarket bushings in the tension arms.

Most rear control arms are stock except the rear toe arms that are Rogue Engineering. I only bought the aftermarket toe arms because we couldn't achieve the toe we wanted after lowering the car so many times. The stock parts are extremely reliable. Most of them are still the originals. I love losing weight out of the car, but for all the stories I've heard of some aftermarket stuff having issues, I just don't want that. If there was some super compelling reason to switch, I would consider it, but right now, I am fine with what I have.

[dogbone]

As I keep turning the weekend over in my mind, I keep remembering other small details. I had totally forgotten about this little tidbit until now:

On Friday, after another frustrating session on track, I was cooling the car down by driving it around the paddock slowly. I was in a more remote section of the paddock and there was a guy with an F80 M3 pitted there. As I'm going by slowly, he waves me down. I stop. He asked, "Are you 7SpeedM?" (which is my YouTube channel). I said yes. He was very nice. He said he had watched my videos a lot to learn tracks and stuff. And then he said something funny. (English is not his native language.) He was remarking something about how he thought it was funny or interesting how my pinky fingers lift off the steering wheel sometimes when I'm in corners. And he sort of imitated it with his hand. hahahahahaha And he's right! I do that sometimes when cornering! I laughed pretty hard. I guess people are watching all kinds of stuff in my videos......

Anyway, it was good to have a laugh during a frustrating day---even if it was at my pinky's expense.