318iS race car - back on track

[rix313]

It's back on its wheels

It always makes me laugh the 'mental job list' versus what happens in reality. Grand plans of wiring looms and other madness have remained uncrossed off this winters job list. I have made head way with blanking the rear bulkhead off in prep for the fuel tank. I was at the end of my tether with it and it hasn't really turned out quite how I wanted it to. However after starting in in November I have no totally lost interest and am just thankful it is totally sealed now.



For ease of access I removed the rear window. So came to time to refit the window. Previously I used a long length of bailer string and popped it in that way. However this had since vanished so I had to improvise. I managed to get all 4 corners slotted in and the top and sides in too. This left the lower edge which I used a wide flexible scraper (not as agricultural as it sounds) to pop the rubber over the window. Job done. I then used my new favourite tool which I bought from eBay to fit the locking strip. I used a quick spray of brake cleaner to lubricate the tool as it went and it was wonderful.




4.45 LSD refitted and ready to rock.




Front springs also changed. Looks good with the ARB links too. Will be a much stuffer front end now.




Dropped one on the floor and jacked the other one up to investigate the crap hand brake saga




Everything is packed and ready and I have a pre-race track day booked for Easter Monday at Rockingham. It will be very interesting to see the how the things I have changed effect the car

Bank holiday Monday was the first run out of the year The weather in the morning was beyond grim. Howling wind and sleet. Thankfully the week previous I ordered a set of Uni Royal Rainsport 3 tyres for wet conditions. There was a lot of standing water and Rockingham is super duper slippery in the wet. They worked well but to my surprise the weather cleared quite quickly leaving more of a damp greasy track. I switched back to the Dunlop 03G semi slicks to save overheating the Uni Royals. It was a frustrating morning as there were too many cars IMO and they were either going soooo slooooooow in a long boring queue or spinning off and causing countless red flags.

After lunch it dried out and even the sun shone! Also it seemed a lot of people just gave up and went home so it was much quieter out on track. The car felt good with the stiffer spring set up and the brakes were feeling good too with the rears locking up less often than previously. We did a bit of playing about with 'set up', tweaking tyre pressures and bits. The roll bar felt good with the drop links as well. The other thing was the car felt much more lively with the 4.45 ratio LSD.

I feel much more confident about the race next weekend, just hope it stays dry!

No action shots sadly but a couple from the pit lane:

[rix313]

The 2016 race season is go (what I am able to do of it any way). Rockingham was the venue for the first round of the CTCRC Pre 93 Touring Car championship. Doing the track day there 2 weeks previous gave me a bit more confidence than I had previously with the Donington and Brands Hatch races. I was expecting it to be a wet weekend or ‘damp’ at best (being the optimist I am). In preparation I had bought and briefly tested a set of UniRoyal RainSport 3 tyres however luck appeared to be on our side for all the sessions; the sun shone and the track was dry!

Qualifying: Not knowing whether the track was damp or completely dry I opted for a ‘safe’ set up on the car. I set the tyre pressures slightly higher and softened off the dampers. I arrived at the assembly area a bit earlier than I had done at the other events so I was closer to the front of the queue. The first lap was spent getting temperature in the tyres and brakes. Standard long, hard weaving and trail braking down the straights was the order to begin with. Once I was happy to start having a go I put my headlights on and quickly started to find myself some space and get past the slower cars on track. I had two ‘attempts’. First was a 3-lap run in the middle of the 15 minute session. This was followed by a couple of cool down laps to allow the tyres to have a breather before going again and having another go at setting a time. This proved to be a good tactic as I set my fastest time on the very last lap of 1:41.069. This time put me P5 overall and P1 in class (2 seconds ahead of the next car in my class). As it turned out the session was dry so softening off the car did have an impact on the performance but seeing as I achieved the result I did I was happy.

After qualy I made a couple of changes to the car as the race was certain to be dry. I stiffened the dampers up and dropped the tyre pressures. I also noticed the front right tyre had taken a bit of a hammering. The long left hand bends and over pressures from qualy hadn’t been kind. Luckily I had some part worn spares so it was a quick trip to quick fit to have them swapped over before the race.

Race 1: Sitting that close to the front of the grid with the remaining 15 cars behind me was a bit nerve racking for me. I had some confidence based on my qualifying performance however this was racing, a totally different ball game. Previous races had not proved fruitful off the line. 1st to 4th gear, too much wheel spin so I was conscious I needed to nail this. Annoyingly it’s the one thing you can only really practice ‘on the night’. Sensible revs, eye on the lights, ease the throttle and away. It went well but going into the banking I left a lot of room and backed out the throttle for a slip second. This allowed every one else behind to get an easy run on me. Within a few corners I had lost quite a few places, oops that’s not the game now is it? For a couple of laps I had a good tussle with a Honda CRX (last years Pre 93 champion). I learnt a good amount in the few laps with him about defending and just working out where I was quicker to make an attack. After him was a Peugeot 206 from the Pre 03 Championship who were sharing the grid with us. It didn’t take me long to get past him to my surprise and once I was, I had clear track ahead. There was another Peugeot 206 in sight but he was a little way off. I pushed for the remaining 5 laps; if I catch him happy days if not then I’ll see if I can improve my lap time. The flag fell and after a lonely second half of the race I hadn’t caught up the car in front and finished P8. I had however improved on my qualy time with a 1:40.391 so I was happy with that.



Another dry day but our race wasn’t until 14:20 so there was a lot of time to kill in the morning. I had a little tinker with the car. I added camber to the front right corner to help with the wear and grip through the race and noted down the cold pressures to refer back to later. As it was the last race and I was starting a bit further back I decided to make some changes again. I went a little bit stiffer on the dampers again and dropped the front right height a little as well. I had also been calculating the fuel usage in qualifying and race one and I decided to reduce the fuel amount by 5L and put 15L in for the final race. A little bit of a gamble but I had not been suffering with any fuel surge and it is roughly 3.5kg saving in weight.

Race 2: So on the grid again, P8, this time on the outside I was a bit more relaxed about the whole affair. I made another good start, power down not too much wheel spin, off we go again! As with previously I ended up losing quite a bit of ground to other people. I kept leaving the door open and being very courteous (again not really the aim if the game). Off the start one of the other E30’s came past me and I settle in behind him. His car was in the same class as me and had an M20B25 engine. We had a mega few laps, very close but I had my work cut out finding a way around him as he just had so much more torque than me out of the corners. On top of that I had the Honda CRX behind me wanting a piece of the action so I had a lot to think about with defending but trying to attach too. The other E30 and me pulled away from the CRX and began our own battle. I worked out where I needed to make the overtake happen and went for it coming off the banking. I had one attempt but didn’t have enough exit speed, which I needed to combat his torque. The next attempt I went much deeper into the corner and was able to then carry extra speed to the second half of the hairpin and get myself in front of him. Result! I pulled away from him a bit quicker than I anticipated. He didn’t seem to have the cornering speed and as the infield is quite twisty this was where I had an advantage. Just in front was one of the red Peugeot 206’s again so I set my sights on him. Within a couple of laps I had caught him and on the final lap I over took him. I ended up P9 at the end as a quicker invitation car started last and came past me fairly early on. It was a great race though, the little tweaks had made a difference. It was great to finally have a race with another E30 too.



Sum up: When I saw Rockingham was the first race I wasn’t filled with joy. “Great, that place”, I thought. It’s not the most desirable place in the world to spend time. However having now driven there the track is great fun and what with the weather behaving itself it was a great weekend. I learnt a lot more about the car with the set up, tyres, fuel etc that was great too. I felt much more relaxed about the whole weekend which meant I could focus on these things a little more than I had done previously. The little winter updates with the stiffer springs, damper mods and ARB links all felt like they did what they were supposed to. The car felt more positive in the corners and under braking. Now I have completed 6 races (3 weekends with 2 races per weekend), I can remove my novice cross and apply to upgrade my license to a national A. This would allow me to race at European circuits such as Spa if racing with a UK MSA organized event. Full race results can be seen here: http://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=BARC/ ... 421pnt.pdf

Some pictures:














I will upload my onboard videos from both races soon

[Motorhole]

Great write up mate! Sounds like you had a ball. Car looks nice and flat in the pictures

[rix313]

It was great fun. I think I will be making the trip to Brands Hatch in July I will try do some track days between now and then In the mean time there is a growing job list as always

I have uploaded the videos from both races in full HD and linked them in the 'race report post' above. They can also be found here:

Race one:

Race two:

[rix313]

So now I've driven it and it all feels good, must be time to change stuff!

First on the agenda was to have a little measure before I start taking bits off. I got the car dropped on the scales to see where I was on the weight front. I pumped out the remaining fuel (6L for any one who's interested), which meant I only used 9L in the race. The car came in at 952.5KG which means the 3KG I guesstimated I removed over winter was about right. I also checked the tracking, as rather embarrassingly I have never done this. It proved interesting and answered a couple of questions. The front wheels were toeing out 7mm Oops, that explains why my tyre wear was quite high. So once I am ready to do a proper set up on the car I will be reining this back in to around 2mm toe out.



So after that it was onwards with doing bits. Back in November I bought a Braille Lithium battery. Dimensionally the G20 is the same as the Odyssey 25 gel battery I have been running up to now. This is handy as I can use the same bracket. I had to cut a couple of bits out as the terminals were a bit too close for comfort but other than that it was a simple swap. The weight saving on this is 5KG. I need get a special battery charger, as conventional chargers aren't suitable for lithium batteries.











Next up was to sort the springs out. Because the travel of the damper is greater than the length of the spring, the spring because unseated when the car is jacked up. As a result there are all sorts of bangs and twangs when the car is dropped back onto its wheels and the springs settle. I noticed it is damaging the top collars so I got on the phone to AST and ordered helper springs to stop this happening. The helpers themselves are 2N/mm so do not have any impact on the overall spring rate. The front gap is rather large so on the search for a solution. For the time being I have done the rears.





Finally gave the engine bay a looking over. A few little oil leaks and bits to note but all is in hand.

[milescook]

Bloody hell sub 2kg!!



My Odyssey is a few years old now and has been jump started quite a few times good excuse to get a lighter one

[Superleggera]

Im not sure where I am going wrong but my car is 1100kg wet with 1/4 tank fuel but car is stripped and poly carb windows etc... Car needs a diet but hard to know where to take weight out now (apart from doors which should see at 30kg saving).

[DanThe]

Maybe an inch of travel there before its on the bump stop?

[rix313]

I haven't measured the packer gap. Annoyingly you cannot do anything about it on the front dampers. To be fair it's not yet been on a patch so it's all a bit freestyle at the moment. I have bought some BG tracking bars though to set the toes before Brands Hatch next weekend.

Im not sure where I am going wrong but my car is 1100kg wet with 1/4 tank fuel but car is stripped and poly carb windows etc... Car needs a diet but hard to know where to take weight out now (apart from doors which should see at 30kg saving).

Feel free to drop me a PM. Everything I've done to the car is documented here so have a look and see if theres anything you can emulate. I've still got plenty of weight to lose on it though. I should be able to get down another 20kg or so.

[Motorhole]

Im not sure where I am going wrong but my car is 1100kg wet with 1/4 tank fuel but car is stripped and poly carb windows etc... Car needs a diet but hard to know where to take weight out now (apart from doors which should see at 30kg saving).

You do have a heavier engine with oil cooler, heavier transmission and bigger wheels/tyres and brakes though. There's quite a lot of weight there! But you have 200+ bhp more too

GRP M3 front wings seem to be available and are quite cheap. Rix has removed the inner skin from his doors iirc a few pages back.

[rix313]

A slightly belated update! The last weekend of July was the Brands Hatch round of the championship. I was unsure whether to attend as there were some other events on that weekend but I decided to go and actually make use of the car. As usual I had a close eye on the weather, as it was looking changeable. Racing in summer should be dry right?

Qualifying: Dark clouds were looming but the forecasts all said it should remain dry, so off we trot to the assembly area to queue up. I had a small ‘run plan’ for if it was dry to get some info on tyre pressures etc. but this was not to be. Whilst we were waiting the sky decided to drop it’s contents on us and it was very wet. Getting flashbacks to the same thing happening 12 months before wasn’t very comforting but we were all in the same boat this time (a boat would probably have been an advantage). A very delicate few laps followed, I think the under tray had come lose as I could hear something flapping so I decided to make a trip to the pit lane to have my helpers check it out. All was fine and back out I went. Then, about half way through a car became stuck in the gravel at Paddock Hill bend, which brought out the red flags. In we came to the pit lane until it was clear. I had a small near miss with a Saxo, which span in front of me and I took t the grass. In the end I qualified 18th out of the 34 car grid so middle of the road. After the session I felt a bit flat really as my plans had been some what scuppered but the car was in one piece at least.



After the session I did the usual checks over the car and decided to make use of a set of BG tracking bars I had bought before the weekend. Doing tracking on your own is not what I would call a stress free task and after some swearing I was very happy to receive some assistance from a friend of mine and fellow competitor in the other E30.


Race 1: Thankfully it had dried out and the sun was shining. The light procedure was very quick this time and off we went. I was quite happy with my start I didn’t get too much wheel spin and kept my foot in more than previous times. I did manage to do my customary thing of giving places away in the first couple of laps (obviously this isn’t the point). And it wasn’t long before the Laser Tools 325i came up behind me and came past (he had crashed in qualy so started at he back). At this point I thought to myself I have to keep on the back of him now he can’t get away. As usual he was much faster in a straight but he didn’t seem to have the commitment in the corners which (as with the other 325i at Rockingham) is where I was able to gain on him. I managed to actually get past him going into clearways but the start finish straight was up next and he came by. I kept the pressure on as best I could for the remaining laps until it all went tits up. Not having been in this position before I was trying to hard to keep up with him and made an error with a gear change as I got to the bottom of paddock hill bend. I grabbed 2nd from 3rd instead of 4th at 7000rpm. A quick buzz and that was that. I lost any power I did have and the car sounded awful. I managed to get back to the pit lane as it is such a short lap. As I came over the brow of the hill into the pit lane the engine died. I coasted down the pit lane, parked up, got out and absorbed what had happened. It’s bloody soul destroying. The thing I am thankful for is that it is a mechanical fault caused by me and not bodywork or chassis damage. There was a car in that race which had a huge impact with the barrier and is certainly totaled. I got a tow back to the awning and had a glance under the bonnet. I turned the engine over just to see if it would run but it has zero compression and spins over freely. Best case is its just mangled the vales. Worst case….. yeah we wont go into that.



Sum up: Although it is hard to look on the positive side when the engine in my car is broken and I paid entry fees, fuel, hotels etc for the privilege; lessons have been learnt. Now I am picking up the pace a bit more I’ll be collaring one of my motorsport buddies to come along and spanner for me so I can try and concentrate more on the driving and be more relaxed between sessions. The car felt good though and although there are more races, I will probably take the time to start the winter work and get the engine out and rebuilt. If I find the enthusiasm I may pull the engine from a spare car and do the last race at Silverstone but we shall see. Any who. Enjoy the videos and here’s some photos:

[LondonTom]

Good to meet you Rich and was a shame not to see you complete the weekend.

My buddy is back out at Silverstone on the 8th and 9th of October in his Escort - come and say hi if you're there.

[rix313]

Yes it was great to meet you too Tom. A shame it had to be in the pit lane following the incident

I am going to look at slinging my spare engine in for that weekend as it's on my door step so hopefully will see you there

[LondonTom]

Yes it was great to meet you too Tom. A shame it had to be in the pit lane following the incident

I am going to look at slinging my spare engine in for that weekend as it's on my door step so hopefully will see you there

That's the spirit - see you then.

[rix313]

Update coming soon!

[Steve]

Nearly fixed, the thread is ok to use, I've just got to rebuild the links.

[Steve]

All done

Great thread btw.

[rix313]

Excellent thanks Steve. I had best sort myself out and get an update written!

[rix313]

Where to start! After the Brands Hatch over rev scenario the car did very little. I sourced a standard E36 M42 motor in December 2016 with the view to get it chucked in and get back out there. Sadly, other things happened in the mean time and it was December 2017 before I got around to sorting it out. All of the E36 gubbins were removed and replaced with E30 parts I had laying about and I did eventually get the engine dropped in and running over that Christmas period. I had a day booked at Silverstone for late January, but this as sadly cancelled so the car remained unused, but at least it was a runner again.

In early January the BMWCC GB announced they would be running a race series and I decided to sign up and enter my car into class 4 (for 4 cylinder engine cars). The first race was at Castle Combe on Easter Monday, so I set my sights on that and made sure the car was prepared.

Essentially the BMWCC Racing events ran on one day instead of the two day events I had previously done with the CTCRC. Benefit of this is it keeps the day busy and doesn’t drag out over two days which also helps keep accommodation costs down.

Castle Combe is where I first started working in motorsport and I went from there all the way to the world level sports car teams I work for today so I hold it close to my heart. When I first bought the E30 12 years ago, I always dreamt I would race it there and this would be that day. Bank holiday Monday, in the glorious Wiltshire country side, was a soggy to say the least day. We were the first session of the day and it was delayed by over an hour why they waited for the track to dry. In the end we had to do 3 laps behind the safety car to ‘qualify’. One random gremlin that cropped up was around 4500 RPM the revs would bounce around all over the place and the car would kangaroo. Over the three laps I decided I had nothing to lose by continuing and found a way to drive through it. By some miracle the one spare sensor I had, a TPS sensor, cured the issue. The grid was organised according to class. Being class 4, that meant I started at the back. Well I almost started…

… two over eager scrutineers were frantically looking underneath my car as I approached the grid and they promptly pulled me off the grid and back into the assembly area. All because there was a small piece of exhaust wrap hanging down that I their eyes ‘could get caught on something’. Well what a crock of horse shit. Not deterred I went o the awning where some competitors from another championship came to my aid and removed the DANGEROUS item. I then proceeded back to the pitlane and continued albeit a few minutes down. Now I pay testament to my UniRoyal Rainsport 3 tyres which made me look like some sort of wet weather ace when everyone else was out on standard track day tyres. These tyres it turns out aren’t on that series’ list of allowed tyres but I didn’t know that at the time, oops. They are something I am hoping the championship will allow next year as the performance, cost and safety that come with them make them a no brainer in my opinion. I was reasonably happy with my plucky class 4 car on good tyres giving the higher class cars some grief




As race two in the afternoon got closer the circuit was drying out and I made a last-minute call to swap into my R888R tyres and have a go. Thankfully it was the right choice and I enjoyed laps in the dry at my ‘home’ circuit racing against the Cup Class cars above.












Coming next... Silverstone...

[martauto]

You very lucky boy !!!

Great to see you on the track and keep up the good pics as well.

Mart.

[DanThe]

Great start out to the season that Rich, wet race looked like great fun

[rix313]

Great start out to the season that Rich, wet race looked like great fun

I was actually pleasantly surprised as I haven't enjoyed racing in the wet until then.


Silverstone:

Next on the calendar was Silverstone National circuit in May. It's only down the road from me so it was another 'home race'. My first time at Silverstone and as with racing at Combe, it was a bit of a dream of mine to drive out of the pitman at Silverstone after working there so much over the years.

I had a brand new set of R888R tyres fitted for this event and chose to take part in an extra 30 minute test session in the morning. With only 3 corners the national circuit didn't take long to learn.

There was a massive F**** up at the start of qualy. One competitor in the queue had a problem and the marshals in their wisdom held everyone. As a result we were then not able to use the assembly area exit which fires you out at the entrance to Brooklands. So we ended up missing a good 2 laps sat there then had to crawl through the paddock to the pitlane and through pit exit. So a 15minute session quickly became an 8 minute session for a few of us. A few laps to warm everything up and I tried to find a space which is hard with all the higher class cars blasting through. Eventually I found a gap and as it happened, my closest competitor in class 4, an E36 318iS. We had two good laps pushing each other and as a result we set our quickest times, my time, being 1/10th quicker

Race one there was some contact at the front and debris flying through the air but thankfully nothing major and we all pushed on. I once again found myself racing an E36 325i Cup car and had a good battle with him. I managed to overtake when a higher class car was lapping us both, he went around the outside and I used the distraction to do a bit of an mordacious manoeuvre down the inside and got past him. It felt good I must admit. Other than that not a great deal happened.

Race two was a 25minute race, 10 minutes longer than any race I'd done before. It was a hot day so it was going to be interesting. Calm before the storm, I went to warm the car up before the race and had no fuel pressure. SHIT. Trying to keep a calm head while being repeatedly summoned to the assembly area I worked through what it might be. Turns out there was a crap connection on the pump so I crimped it with some pliers, chucked my helmet on and headed to queue up. The race again was pretty uneventful although I did have fun. some one again had a mishap and I went the long way round which lost me time compared to Steve in his E36 318iS. Thankfully I didn't lose the position and managed to maintain a good gap to the end of the race.

Sadly my video footage was a bit crap so I never uploaded them but here's a couple of photos.







Brands Hatch:

Back again to the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in the summer. This is the only event I have competed in every year I've raced so I use it as my bench mark event.

The weather was good and the grid was good, the only thing was I was the only one in class 4 this time. This didn't bother me as I always found some one to have a tussle with on the track.

Qualy went well and I was further up the grid than I imagine, out-qualifying 325i E36 compacts and a Z3.

For race one, I if I do say so myself, made a mega start, which makes a change as before my starts have involved an incorrect gear change or something daft. I made some places and kept it tight. Again up the front there was a spinner and I chose the wrong way to go around them and lost a tonne of time and places, doh. Oh well it will give me something to do, I eventually caught up to the E36 325i Compact of Matt Page which I had battle at Silverstone. There was a bad bit of organisation which meant blue flags were left out for a car which was not lapping and I ended up giving way to him for nothing. Matt did the same but realised sooner and took the place back. This time he managed to keep it in front of me but we had a god battle and it gave me something to aim for in race two, beat him.




Race two

Again I was happy with my start and gave Matt some grief for most of the race. Eventually I got him with a lap to go with a move up the inside at paddock hill. I pointed it in and hoped for the best and made it stick. On the last lap I ended up tripping over the Z3 and running wide and what I didn't realise then was as I dropped off the kerb it cracked my sump. Thankfully I didn't drop any oil and the pressure remained good. I only realised when I packed in the paddock and saw the residue on the back of my car and the puddle slowly forming under the car. This however was not a worry and I was really happy with the days results




In summary for this event I really felt like I had made some sets forward, I was allowing the rear end of the car to step out more than I ever had managed before without panicking. I felt I was attacking the kerbs more (albeit at the expense of my sump) and I shaved 2 seconds off my previous best time. I noticed I was changing gear less and was carrying so much more speed than the previous visit. So overall eye happy,

[rix313]

And so time to spend some time sorting bits out on the car! Due to work I didn't do any more races so the car got parked in the new workshop and this week I have finally started work on it. Replacement sump and gasket were purchased on eBay and I fitted those with ease. I think in future I will be carrying a spare one seeing as they aren't expensive and it was fast to change.






And then I turned my attention to the front suspension. The standard helper springs were too short so every time the car was jacked up and the suspension drooped, the springs and top collar become unseated. Then when the car was dropped everything would have to settle and it showed with various marks on the top collar. So I bought some longer ones from a different manufacturer and they are a bit flimsier so I decided to mount them on top of the main spring. It makes no odds as it fully compresses anyway. A small mod required to the nylon spring spacer to allow it to fully compress and that was easy.

Sadly while it was all apart I noticed the right front damper was compressing but not returning back out again. So I stripped them both and will pull in some favours to have them serviced. It makes zero sense to not do this. I also have some nice roller bearing rings to sit under the spring to help reduce any stiction and help everything be more fluid.



The front dampers on this AST set up are really cool. They use an inverted front tube which makes them incredibly strong. The engineering in them from top to bottom is very smart, I hadn't really taken the time before now to appreciate it. So hopefully it won't be too long and I can have the dampers returned so I can rebuild everything and get the car back on its wheels.

[milescook]

Hey Rich! Long time not been here, car looks good!

[rix313]

Tomorrow is a 750MC start of season track day at Donginton on the GP layout. Weather looks reasonably promising. Bit of a curfuffle with the dampers after having them serviced. When they came back one of the adjusters wasn’t working but to be fair to AST the pull it out the bag and fixed it and returned it promptly. So I fitted the roller bearings to the platform and regressed the bearings from the top mounts as well.










The car is booked in for its pre-season power run too so be ineteresting to see what I’m actually working with.

[milescook]

Shiny! The ASTs look really good. Helper springs is something I need to look at one day. My Gaz golds are pretty old now too.

[rix313]

They are snazzy. The helper springs were really needed. The ones I had were too short the the top spring collar took a battering.

Today was good. Couple of 30 min sessions I split in half. Took the mrs out in the first one but she felt a little unwell so sat out the second one lol. To be fair it gave me a good chance to focus on learning the track a bit more and I feel I made some positive improvements.

Also did the official BMWCCR power run. Standard E36 engine, TTV flywheel, BBTB and a chip gave me 156BHP today. The power curve is really nice too! I am pretty happy with that. Minimum weight for the class is 1050kg and I’m pretty much on that. A tiny bit more BHP would make the balance perfect. However the E36 boys in my class will be much heavier and not have much of any more power so my car is Bob on for the class

[rix313]

So, two races down. Here is what I've been up to.

Donington

First race of the year, a lovely sunny East Monday at Donington Park. The site of my first ever race and we were back on the GP circuit so it would make for a good comparison to how I have progressed. Brands Hatch saw me knock 2 seconds off my previous quickest time so safe to say I have improved myself no end. My first ever Donington GP best time was 2:02.047. This time saw me do a 1:56.92. Still 2 seconds adrift of my freind Mike in his 325i but I have to factor in the power he had over me on the straights, something very apparent again this time with the 325 E35/E46's.

Sadly class 4 is rather under represented so I have to find my battles elsewhere with the cup cars. These are 325ti E46 compacts build to a very basic spec for costs purposes. If I find myself in the right place on track I tend to be able to have a good battle with the mid field boys in that class although they do make a mockery of me in the straights then I am pushing them around the corners. This does though get a bit tiring because ultimately without the speed to get next to them I can't make use of my corner speed.

I shan't go on too much about the races. I had some good battles with some of them until they used their legs to put a gap on me. Race two I had a novice in an M3 for company. Again this did not make for a thrilling race when he came powering past me in the straight only to brake super early and crawl around the corner where I would pass him.

A couple of nice photos:






Castle Combe

Combe this bank holiday Monday just gone was a funny one again really. When I unloaded the car after Donington it had dropped a coil pack between putting it on the trailer and getting home. So I fitted a new one but in the back of my mind wasn't sure if something else was up. Sure enough go out for qualy and the car is stuttering and coughing so badly under acceleration. If felt like really bad fuel surge. After one lap there was a red flag so as we had to go to the pits I dived into the paddock to throw some fuel in then go back out. I always pump out and measure my fuel back in so I was certain I had enough but thought I will try something. Still the same but I still managed a reasonable time considering.

Race one the issue was still there but I just found if I wrung its neck it wasn't as bad so I just kept pushing on. I've found my starts are infinitely better than they used to be but I almost drove into the back of the car in front as he was still stationary. From what I remember I was in a good gaggle of cup cars but as soon as the M1/2 cars came through and the barrage of blue flags came out it all went a bit squiffy and I had to duck out of one of the chicanes which lost me loads of time, after that I was just on my tod.

Race two I tried some bits in the huge wait between races. I was convinced I used to see higher than 2.6bar fuel pressure. I disconnected the vacuum on the FPR and it rose to 3.3bar so I thought sod it I have to try something. It was still doing it but not nearly as much. In this race I made a good start and made up a lot of places into the famous Quarry corner. I spent the rest of the race tucked up behind one of the cup cars in the usual status quo of being left behind on the straights and up their tail pipe in the corners. This came to a head when I thought they had made a mistake and I thought I had space to get up the inside before the next chicane. Alas, they did go off line but came back on and didn't see me. Luckily I did see this wasn't going to plan so steered away and lifted, The rear of my car came around and thumped their rear bumper spinning me off onto the infield. My car now has a huge dent in the rear quarter. Thankfully (as it was my fault). Their car was without any damage. Would have been the same story for me but a weekend of frustration had built up to that point.

My best time was 1:21.827 which despite being on 4 race event old tyres with my stuttering issues I was reasonably happy with. I feel it could have been quicker again if not held up in the corners.

Some dodgy screen shots:






'repairs'




So to sum up I think it's probably clear from the tone I am a tad frustrated with a lack of measurable competition. The damage to the car has upset me to a degree as I go way back with this car and always like things to be tidy and straight, I know there's the old 'its a race car' BS but for me a race car is a presentable machine and that comes from my work at top level motorsport. Damage was always going to happen at some point and I'm certain it will be repaired at some point. As for the engine stuttering, I'm going to swap parts between my other cars and do some tests, bugs me it was great one minute then out of nowhere there is an issue.

It's Friday, time for a

[rix313]

A couple of nice photos from Monday:

[milescook]

Enjoyed the read! It's all good experience

Dude get one of your cars PBMW spec there's more competition there than you can shake a stick at! We have power to weight rules this year so people who have spent thousands on their engines are a bit pissed off, but as it happens I'm not one of them

PM'd you re trackbook btw (yes it is that thing I started 6 years ago!)

[rix313]

They're all iS so more hassle than it's worth mate.

[milescook]

They're all iS so more hassle than it's worth mate.

Bugger! Sorry - I'm sure we've had this same convo before! Old age and memory loss y'see...

[rix313]

Lordy Lordy it has been a long time since I update this! Here goes:

After Castle Combe my next race was at Silverstone on the international layout. For those that don't know it, it runs out of the Wing complex and instead of turning onto the Wellington (it'll always be the National straight in my eyes) you turn right and hop over the link road and onto Hanger. For me this layout is a good mix of fast and slow technical corners and straights, far superior to the National triangle yawn fest.

I arrived still not knowing if my gremlins from Combe were going to show their pig ugly face but as it was my local race to home I decided to go for it and see what happened. One thing I did note at Combe was how manky the fuel looked when I was pumping it out between sessions. So this time bought 40L of fresh fuel and ditched the other stuff when I got to the track, Hey bloody presto it seems problem solved! It pays to keep the Keep It Simple Stupid KISS theory sometimes.

Once again I was tugging around on my own however this layout did give me the opportunity to at least mix it up in the corners with the bigger engine cars. Sadly as soon as that looooong Hanger straight came into the equation all I could do was sit and watch them all fly past me and leave too much of a gap to be able to out brake them. Only drama I had was when I got to the assembly area for race one a coolant hose to the heater matrix dropped its guts and it was a race for me to fix it while in my racing gear. I almost gave up then slapped myself mentally and got on it. Thankfully cutting 20mm off the end of the hose and sticking back on again fixed it; hands covered in coolant I thrashed around to get back in the car and still make the green flag lap. I made it and all was well.

Some pics anyway:





And what could have been an epic photo if not for the E46 compact



I also managed to crack my sump again. Doh.


---------------------


So that was the end really of the race season with that car and other than a trackway at Donington he's just been sat. Today I finally decided to dig into my nice engine I had built but over revved at Brands Hatch what seems like an eternity ago. Pulled the head off, no shock the exhaust valves were bent. Sadly they'd had a good encounter with the pistons so now they are toast







I knew it was going to look this smelly but I really hoped to just chuck a set of valves in and be on my way. Never. So I have removed a set of pistons from another block I have cluttering the place up and now I'm at a bit of a cross roads. Pop these pistons in, throw a head gasket and some exhaust valves at it and be done.

OR

I have been accumulating parts for some time to build basically an M42/M44 hybrid with M44 bottom end, M42 timing case with guide instead of idler pulley. E36 M42 head with 6mm valves. Hardly a factory S42 but all parts I have laying around the place. Part of me just wants to fix this engine up then use one of my other blocks to build this up as a longer term when funds allow for matching etc project (again not exactly a difficult one but all the same).

For now this is where I have left it as I'm going on holiday



Oh yeah and he ultimate goal is to have this engine cleaned up and running again to install this bad boy a long with a set of sport cams and an Emerald ECU





P.S. if anyone is on Faceache I would be most grateful if you could like my page www.facebook.com/VisionRacingDevelopments furthermore my instagram is Rixharrison. Much obliged.

[rix313]

Ciao everyone. firstly, I have been working through this thread to repair and replace all the Photobucket photos to a new hosting site. It's been arduous but getting there.

So I have dug into the 'red' engine to get it running again. What a patience tester that has been! After replacing the pistons with some spare ones I find that the rod bearings were knackered. Replaced those. Then finding 7mm stem valves proved to be such a ball ache I decided to fit my 6mm stem head (better anyway). It also turned out the 7mm head guides were mashed by the valves as well so that was a no go. Then I have managed to lose ONE of the spring cups for the single valve springs so ordered a new one from BMW. THEN I noticed there was a dowel missing from the block to locate the head so that also had to be ordered in. I also took the time to replace the stem seals on this head.








While I waited for the head parts to arrive I took the time to remove the other engine, prepare the engine bay and fit the 'red' bottom end. I decided to make a clutch alignment tool as I aways just did it with a pair of verniers which worked but was a PITA. In doing so I discovered that the spigot bearings I have been running (the entire time I've had the car) have been wrong! They are the 15mm E36 spec ones as opposed to the 10mm E30 one I should have. Oops. So I knocked up a top hat to correct this issue (god bless having a lathe).








I also took the time to remove the shockingly heavy bulkhead panel and replace it with a piece of carbon sheet.




Now the engine was in it was time to start looking at my engine loom. I had one that had been 'cut about' by someone else so I used this to practice on. What started out as a practice loom quickly turned into the really thing when I realised A: it wasn't that bad and B: I was going to reconfigure it anyway. Instead of being at the nippy unit I came home and started this work in front of the fire. I found some fantastic resources online for the E30 wiring which I'm more than happy to send people. It was a bit of a learning curve figuring out what was needed, what could go and how to adapt it to the Emerald ECU but once I got into it, I found it quite easy and very satisfying. A power probe and a multimeter were tools that certainly helped a huge amount too.




While I was doing all of this work I also decided to delete the small heater I had added previously. I had an issue at Silverstone last year and I recently dawned on me that I never actually used it and it also wasn't very powerful. By removing it I saved the weight, simplified the cooling system and gave myself more space. The space freed up by removing the heater gave the ECU a home and I am super chuffed with how It worked out. I made a carbon plate and mounted the ECU to it.






While I was inside the car I also fitted some gauges I bought ages ago. My previous set up was a dual oil pressure/oil temp gauge and volts/fuel pressure. As I have now also removed my standard cluster in favour of a single tacho I needed to have my water temp somewhere else. So my new gauge layout is the oil press/oil temp, water temp/fuel press and volts/fuel level. The fuel level is pretty irrelevant as I always measure the fuel in but its all information at the end of the day.




Fitting these also allowed me to incorporate their wiring into the engine loom. I have spent a while with this. I decided I could utilise the old heater matrix grommet to run the wiring. This would allow me to shorten a lot of the wires and it's also really neat and tidy. Once I knew where everything was I could finalise the wire lengths and reduce the bulk so it ran nicely. I shortened all the wires for the coil packs for my COP conversion then terminated everything at the ECU. This included having to re-crimp the shielded wires to the coils and from the cam and crank sensors. I learned so much doing all of this and Im really happy I had the time to do it how I wanted. I finally wrapped it all in Tesa loom tape from Speedsport at Silverstone and I have my finished product. Finally I removed the C101 plug in favour of an 8 pin Deutsch connector. I only ended up with 6 wires left for this plug. I used the final two terminals for my fuel pump override switch. I mounted a non latching switch next to the fuse box and this will now allow me to pump the fuel out without having to take the loom cover off and bridge the relay terminals a Is used to do.








Standard vs modified




Thats all for now. Hopefully the bits from BMW arrive soon and I can finally complete the engine build. Then it'll be time to fit the ITB's, make the in take and then make the fuel system

[martauto]

Great write up mate, keep it going

Mart.