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Yeah I mean if I were to do this whole race car thing over again I probably woulda picked an e36/e46 m3 or an s2000. After owning an e36, e46, and now e90 m3, I realized that my driving style is favorable to BMW chassis, they are very predictable, balanced, and confidence inspiring cars to drive, even stock. Not only that, but a stock engine that is class compliant is really, really nice. Yeah, my miata can make 400whp if I put in e85 and turned it up, but I don't really care, the trans wont last long at that power level. At this point in my life, I just wanna go racing.
Don't forget easily fitting a race seat...
Originally Posted by icantlearn
Unfortunately, my right rear lower upright bolt had lost the nut and backed out due to the chassis vibrations from the DP brace.
This is actually pretty common, DP brace or not. I've had it happen a few times. Since you have an NB, buy an M12x1.25 castle nut (you can even get them at the FLAPS in a pinch), torque it to spec, and drill a hole where the castle slots lines up. Toss a cotter pin in there and it will stay.
Last edited by afm; 04-05-2021 at 01:17 PM.
Reason: Fix quote
I came by your trailer a few times to say hey, but kept missing you I guess. I ended up giving you a big ol' thumbs up when I saw you driving back from the gas pumps.
I think I remember waving back at you.
Originally Posted by afm
Don't forget easily fitting a race seat...
This is actually pretty common, DP brace or not. I've had it happen a few times. Since you have an NB, buy an M12x1.25 castle nut (you can even get them at the FLAPS in a pinch), torque it to spec, and drill a hole where the castle slots lines up. Toss a cotter pin in there and it will stay.
Fitting in the car and not dealing with engine issues are huuuge benefits of moving to another chassis.
And that is good to know. Ill pick up a few. Thanks Albert!
Nice pictures of the race!!! I stopped by your pit; I was the one with the dreads that was supporting the True Form Evo. Good job out there for your first wheel to wheel!
To be honest I had so many people come up and say hi/talk to me about the car that its hard to keep track haha. I vaguely recall seeing you. Thanks for swinging by!
Before the event, I re-designed the front end of the car to combat the cooling issues I was running into at COTA. The clear answer was to make ducting. First things first, I cut out the 1x1 bar I welded in eariler to make room for the ducting. Then I needed to make mounts for the panels on the side. So I did.
I sealed the intercooler and radiator off separately to prevent turbulence behind the core. Then I made the curved top pane and forward side panels, finished by the panel on the bottom. l I also stepped up to a 19 row Setrab oil cooler and moved it off to the side instead of in front of the rad so it would be in clean air. I also mounted a new finned power steering cooler behind the rad.
Due to all the new ducting and my new oil cooler location, I cut the bottom half of the bumper off to make room. This meant I needed some more structure in the front of the car, so I made a bash bar that doubled as my splitter mounts. This will help protect the front end in the event of light contact or bump drafting while also doubling as my splitter mounts. Speaking of splitter mounts, I re-designed them due to the oil cooler location. I am SUPER happy with these. I used 1x1 aluminum tube bolted to the splitter and the top is using ball detent quick release pins. I can take the front bumper/air dam and splitter off in under a minute. Came in handy at the track as well as loading/unloading the car in the trailer. You will notice I have the 1x1 tube tacked inside a section of 1.25 x 1.25 tubing right off the main plates on the bash bar. The idea is that these welds will break in the event of a big impact and allow the bar to crush without tweaking the frame.
I made a new air dam to fit the ducting, not 100% happy with it, it’s a bit short, so I’ll make another one before next event.I also went up in rear spring rate from 500 up to 600lb/in and cleaned up the shocks while I was in there (don’t want them leaking). I wanted to get rid of the understeer I was seeing and these helped for sure. Much happier with the balance of the car at speed.
I added quik latches to the hood expecting the factory hood latch to get in the way, but it fit just fine. So they might be for sale once I transfer the vents to a new hood. That about sums it up. Now on to the next round of changes...brakes. But that will likely be posted here in a few months. It will take a while to finalize.
On to NCM. I arrived at the track Friday night at 1am due to finding/fixing an oil leak between the vvt line and the block (bad crush washer). There was a test day on Friday, but it was very expensive and I wouldn't have made it to the event regardless. So that meant i'd be going into Race 1 with a wet practice session and quali. My car in the wet is an absolute death trap, you may as well be driving on ice and this was a very unforgiving track. I usually would stay off the track but I was in desperate need of some laps as I had never been to this track before. Quail rolled around and I didn't set a very quick lap. This was my first time on the track while it was dryish so I was still figuring out how much grip there was while also trying not to die. I was p26 out of 42 cars.
Race 1, I just wanted to get settled in to the w2w environment. ie. don't hit anyone....and don't get hit. I left the AR1 on, and just wanted to get some laps in. So here is that, its kinda boring to be honest, so you might want skip it if you don't wanna watch all of them.
Race 2 was Sunday morning. So I bolted up the hoosiers, and picked up a good amount of pace. I believe I started p24. I drove much better this race, with fresh Hoosiers bolted up I was able to use the brakes a lot more and work my way up through the field. At this point, I’m starting to be more aggressive and getting more comfortable driving so close to other cars. The Porsche boxter hit me twice on the last lap after I passed him. He slightly bent the right rear and scratched up the front right. Keep in mind....these wheels were BRAND NEW before this race. I ended up p18.
Race 3 went fairly well for me. However there was a big crash this race caused by the same lovely boxer that hit me. I was right behind the crash when it happened. So I got multiple visits from the race director to see what happened from my POV. From the cars following view, I nearly got collected as well.
Made it back to California. I drove straight to SakeBomb Garage to drop the car off for an alignment since after the contact at NCM, it was a bit off. I worked throughout the weekend to make a bigger splitter for the car since I had a track day on Monday, and wanted to see how/if that fixed my understeer.
I decided to just make a video documenting the process instead of typing it all out. So watch the video if you care. If you dont, here's the TL;DR version. Car absolutely rips with no ballast and a bigger front splitter.
Noice driving m8. I've subbed. Keep going with the videos! In years to come you'll be glad you have footage instead of just words and memories.
Constructive critiques;
1. Get yourself a lav mic (I use rode smartlav+) and route it into the passenger footwell. Epic audio and no annoying wind noise. Same deal for your walk arounds - furry windshield will cut out the unwanted wind noise.
2. Gimbal for your phone and figure out your camera angles in the car. Maybe consider gopro or similar.
Well, about a month ago I was driving a local backroad when a small rockslide occurred right in front of me (presumably from a deer). A decently sized rock penetrated my trans and decided to dump all of the trans fluid right in front of a new Porsche GT4 who was right behind me and almost crashed. The rock took a chunk out of my front bumper, front undertray, trans undertray, the trans pan, filter, and pickup tube.
Insurance said it was 24k in damage and denied coverage. lmfao. $500 in parts later and im driving the car home. I hate insurance.
At least it's a good looking broken car.
Anyyyways. A few people have commented on my steering rack looking slow relative to other cars, which is something I have noticed as well but wasn't really sure where to begin diagnosis. Well, i've had the car on a lift for the past few days doing some development work and noticed some stuff that's less than ideal.
I should also note that after discussing the slow steering issue with some people, we came to a consensus that the steering input is a result of understeer. So the car is still pushy. the big front splitter just made the push happen at higher speeds.
First off, my big *** 1.25" sway bar has been trying to mate with my ziduh. The 1.25 bar was giving me too much FRC so I traded @Arca_ex for his 54107 1.125 bar. This *should* help with understeer. Though im doubtful this will be the entirety of the solution.
The bigger issue is this. I shoudlnt be able to fit a zip tie between the cam and the subframe nub. So I need a new front subframe. I checked the rear as well and I think its bent. Cool. I get to drop both subframes.
The poly bushings on the FLCA on the driver side have commited a stop living. I really wanna put sphericals in the car but its a lot of $ and idk if I wanna do that yet or just put new bushings in this location and leave it alone. With the subframes coming out of the car, this is the best time to do sphericals if I am gonna do them. I just don't know what to do.
I also noticed that my delrin FUCA bushings haven't been sitting flush, almost as if the sleeves were too long. The long bolt nut has backed off a few times so ive had to get in there and tighten it up, but never really thought this was the cause, i'm not so sure anymore. I've been talking with Sean and he's gonna get me taken care of.
When I was taking everything apart I noticed that my hubs were slinging grease everywhere. Apparently im putting way too much heat into the brakes to the point that its liquefying the grease. So I will need to re-pack the bearings with something actually good.
I noticed that my driver side shock was missing its bump stop. So I got a new one from SPM along with their new tophat spacers to aleve some of the rubbing I was seeing.
I've still been having issues with my turbo hardware. Im gonna try another TSE mani and if that doesn't work with fresh hardware and a new downpipe brace, im welding the turbo to the manifold. Dead ***.
They said I needed a new exhaust, which was nearly 8k. A new trans, which was 10k, new bumper, and a whole bunch of other items, that pushed the total to 24k.
I laughed, took the car back, and had it back on the road in a few hours. What a joke.
They said I needed a new exhaust, which was nearly 8k. A new trans, which was 10k, new bumper, and a whole bunch of other items, that pushed the total to 24k.
I laughed, took the car back, and had it back on the road in a few hours. What a joke.
I meant the denial of coverage? Or did they just want to total it?
I've still been having issues with my turbo hardware. Im gonna try another TSE mani and if that doesn't work with fresh hardware and a new downpipe brace, im welding the turbo to the manifold. Dead ***.
I hate this car.
Yeah, I'm still having issues too. Debating whether to weld, complete the MT circle of life, switch to Rotrex (assuming that would be more reliable), or just divest of the platform entirely.
I meant the denial of coverage? Or did they just want to total it?
--Ian
its kind of a long story, but yes, they wanted to total it out.
Originally Posted by dleavitt
Yeah, I'm still having issues too. Debating whether to weld, complete the MT circle of life, switch to Rotrex (assuming that would be more reliable), or just divest of the platform entirely.
If welding doesnt work im likely going to sell/part out the car.
Originally Posted by Spaceman Spiff
Could go one more step towards slightly absurd with the bolted joint between manifold and turbo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
04-05-2021, 11:00 AM
1
my trans and decided to dump all of the trans fluid right in front of a new Porsche GT4 who was right behind me and almost crashed. The rock took a chunk out of my front bumper, front undertray, trans undertray, the trans pan, filter, and pickup tube. 
