Dan's track day to race car progression thread

[Mikey_Boy]

New anti-flappage device fitted



Next project = ram air

Hmmm - that's interesting - how bad was your flappage??

Great build so far!!!

[DanThe]

It was flapping about a lot Mike, thanks for the comments, closer to getting it mapped now, then it will be time for some suspension

[Jozi]

Thanks for the pics Dan Pm on the way with some questions.

What box alterations are you thinking of? Does your box sit up against the arch? Mines very close, bit to close maybe.

[DanThe]

Its pretty much sitting on the arch, just going to get it mounted properly and make a bit of an air collector at the front behind the headlamp

[leeparkes]

Dont know how ive not seen this thread Excellent read.

Ram air FTW.

[leeparkes]

How have you secured the E36 washer bottle here?



Im using an E36 bottle, iirc its 2.5l and fits nice and snug in the battery tray but i fancy something smaller, yours looks perfect.

[Mikey_Boy]

It was flapping about a lot Mike, thanks for the comments, closer to getting it mapped now, then it will be time for some suspension

^^^^ Thanks Dan - have a similar (pre flappage) set up on my S14 build... The bonnet isn;t painted yet so I may ask my local fibreglass guru for a bit of extra reinforcement...

Great stuff!

[DanThe]

TBH mate I would just put an extra fixing in the centre, will take much more weight IMO to get the GRP bonnet stiff enough.

Lee I just used some alloy angle fixed to the bottle with rivets and epoxy resin, if you have seen an E36 intensive wash bottle you will know its a funny push in bracket that holds it

[scott180gtb]

I had the pleasure of a passenger ride in this today. One word Weapon!

Its got me thinking again about a track slag.

[DanThe]

Hurry up and get that M20 chariot done innit

[brettski]

Looks great Dan!

[Demlotcrew]

Topic moved in here

[rix313]

Dan do you still have the photos of the cage install?

[DanThe]

F****ng photobucket!

[DanThe]

Fixed pics

[DanThe]

Had a bit of time to play lately so I made up a rear strut brace, in a two birds, one stone sort of way





I can still get three wheels in the boot too

[martinpallot]

Take it you've braced to the diff? Have you solid mounted the rest of it too?

[DanThe]

Yes its bolted through to the diff, the subframe is still on bushes but they are a hard poly, cant remember exactly what the numbers are

[martinpallot]

Be interested to see if you have any issues with the twist making things come loose - I had no end of problems with vibrations making everything at the back come loose. I've had to install schnoor washers and lockwire everything. Hopefully it's problem solved now!

[Neilios]

Any underside pictures Dan?

[DanThe]

Will get some later, just brushed some 2 pack over the seam sealer/primer

[DanThe]

Underside of the diff reinforcement



And a few other randoms-

ARB mount strengthening



Camber adjusting bolt putting the wheel as close to vertical as possible, approx 0.5 neg



Toe adjuster, blue subframe bush, spring seat delete etc

[Motorhole]

Tidy

[Demlotcrew]

Will the beam bushes have any give in them?

Nice shinny tank

[DanThe]

Yes, they are 90sh, tank has been blasted and powdercoated

[DanThe]

Bit of an update, after going out in Sam and demlot cars at Oulton I realised I was severely lacking in the brakes department, not wanting to spend AP Racing money I opted for some scrap yard callipers, these are Brembo 6 pot fronts and 4 pot rears which were fitted to several VAG/Porsche cars, shown here next to an E30 rear for scale



I had BG Developments make up the adaptors, disks and bells, as it was custom work it took bloody months

But they are now back and I finally got round to bolting half of them on the car today, very nice detail, they even laser etched my name on them








The front disks are 345mm, rears are 330mm, this now means my 15 inch wheels/tyres are useless so I bought some 17x8 Team Dynamics Pro-race 1.2's as they seem popular and are light





215 tyres on the front for now, need to space the wheels out at some point but this means the inner arches will need more work to clear bigger tyres, problems shown below with a 235 tyre

Touching



Touching



Touching





Nearly touching

[LondonTom]

Nice work on the brakes Dan - on my list to do over the winter.

[Mikey_Boy]

Dan - that's looking fecking fantastic mate! Love those brakes...

[DanThe]

So the E46 M3 ABS is now fitted and working, again, scrap yard to the rescue thanks to Andyboy and Paul V for the frag from their breakers

Some pics of the sensors fitted





Making the loom






Ive enlarged the MC ports to accommodate the pressure sensors directly in the master cylinder rather than mount them remotely like most seem to do



I even have a working ABS fault light no pics though as I'm waiting for some different LED's and resistors to come so I can experiment for the best light output for the clocks original warning light


And this is the nightmare that comes with second hand aluminium callipers, the brake nuts and bleed nipples on the rears were seized so much they ripped the threads out and one of the bleeders broke off, I managed to clean the threads enough with a tap and the broken bleeder came out quite well, made up some new steel balance tubes and they compressed in fine, no threads pulled when tightening but I've since bought some Timesert sleeves to repair them properly













Will hopefully result in better brake control

[Demlotcrew]

For anyone else looking at this and thinking of not using adaptors for the pressure sensors its probably a good idea to point out why this is not a solution.



1. Sensors are impossible to bleed, when installing new/dry sensors the correct installation procedure is to 'wet' them out and pre-fill the sensor with brake fluid using a syringe, this helps with the surface tension on the diaphragm and with the solution above you will have an air pocket which may never bleed out.

2. Pressure sensors are extremely sensitive, the way they are mounted above will cause them to fail, the 800+psi pressure pulses coming from the ABS pump are perfectly directed to the inlet of the sensor (through the curvature of the bore).

BMW solved this issue with later cars by offsetting the ports on the MC's to ensure the pressure 'stream' was not aimed at the sensor as it is above.

Not something scrap yard staff would be able point out.

Good effort though

[DanThe]

I did think about air in the sensors! Just cracked them open while a third foot pressed the pedal down.
I know they are a common failure but didn't realise they were mounted offset to prevent this, so thanks for the heads up, something to consider should I have to replace the sensors in the future, I was originally planning on fitting the M3 servo and master cylinder complete but there just isn't enough space at the moment, and I couldn't find another servo that would accept the M3 master cylinder.

[DanThe]

Well the brakes are epic, and the ABS is very welcome! Did the Car Club track day at Donington on Monday, pissed it down all day bar the last hour and it was the best wet day i've ever done, the ABS gives so much more confidence compared to before! The bias is set by the pump and felt perfect, never once felt unbalanced when slowing down even under ABS modulation, just slowed down in a straight line perfectly controllable

Some pics taken by the Car Clubs chief camera man Darren Teagles























This thing was a monster! Schnitzer M4 driven by Ben Barker, Porsche Super Cup driver, was going round like a train



I was that happy with how the car worked I got home and booked up for Oulton Park on the 20th next month, can't wait now!

[stevesingo]

Are you doing Oulton BMWCar cCLub day on the 6th Nov?

If it is anything like last year it will also be wet.

[rix313]

How did you find the Kumhos in the conditions?

[DanThe]

Kumhos were really good Rich, nowhere near as much back end out action as I was expecting, I have fitted softer springs to the rear too which have probably helped.

I will be at Oulton yes, I don't mind if it rains now TBH!