Dan's track day to race car progression thread

[DanThe]

Im leaning towards the Tilton top mount, just need to work out the ratios before I decide exactly what to buy, could take a while...

[Motorhole]

Im leaning towards the Tilton top mount, just need to work out the ratios before I decide exactly what to buy, could take a while...

I do have a spreadsheet that might be able to help. Stick in a few things like disc sizes, wheel/tyre sizes, weight & COG height etc, pedal ratio etc then choose a front m/c size. It'll churn out a rear m/c size to match and how many kg needed on the pedal to execute the desired no. of Gs - probably around 1 on road tyres, a little more on track tyres, more again on slicks.

It's not exact as it's trying to condense a dynamic system into a static one. But it'll get you well within the margin of adjustment available when setting the box up and via the bias bar. For the setup on my E30, pedal effort comes out about 30kg to execute 1.1G - which feels fair enough as it's perfectly comfortable to use. And for my Fabia about 125kg! Which also probably isn't unreasonable, if you imagine trying to do a full-on emergency stop from speed, on OEM brakes, with no servo.

If you think it'll help, PM me your email and I'll send it through.

[DanThe]

Sounds ideal, if you can generate 1G with 30kg of foot pressure I would be happy with that!

[brettski]

All the pics are gone.

[DanThe]

Thanks to photobucket being greedy...

[Kos]

EFA

Thanks to photobucket being cun7s

[DanThe]

Some more vids up since I last updated the thread, which was a while ago

Click on the youtube link and you can find some more

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr6KQ ... _cGGCToPGg

[DanThe]

Some footage from last weeks trip to Oulton Park, this is from early on in the day with Yokohoma ADO8Rs, will be uploading a vid from later on when had the slicks fitted

[rix313]

Not sluggish is it! Was that a car club day? We've got a race there next year I'm quite looking forward to it.

[DanThe]

Yes was a CC day, did another there a couple of weeks later, will hopefully be joining you for that race Rich

[rix313]

Yes was a CC day, did another there a couple of weeks later, will hopefully be joining you for that race Rich

Ah awesome! I'd love to do a day up there before then but I doubt I'll get a chance.

[DanThe]

Let me know if you do get a day booked

[rix313]

Is this the car you were going to race in the BMWCCR in, Dan?

[DanThe]

Yes mate, was going to try and make some races in 2019 but had a big setback with the cage from Safety Devices which meant I was waiting nearly 6 months longer than expected, then work got in the way so wrote 2019 off. Finally got everything ready this year, 2020 race licence landed, paid up 750MC, paid up BMWCCR and even paid for the Dony weekend for April then 1 week later shit hits the fan and everything canceled

[rix313]

Ahhh ok! Interested to see what dates and tracks we can get if any! Be cool to be out on track with you

[DanThe]

Long overdue update, got plenty to type!
So as I wanted to enter the BMWCCR racing series I had a few problems, firstly the cage was not up to regs so in August 2018 I ordered a Safety Devices bolt in, it eventually turned up in May the following year...
The other problem was the S54 powerplant, one of the rules for the series is as an amateur racer you cannot use M power engines, so back to M52 power I had to go.
Eventually got the cage fitted during the summer of 2019
Some photos

[DanThe]

Regs state A and B posts have to be welded to the cage, so ive added plates where needed and also a few at the base of the tubes incase the bolts pull through in a big impact

Once that was fitted/painted it was time to reduce the power by over 100hp

[DanThe]

The series is run on a power to weight basis to keep everything as fair and equal as possible and to avoid the 'cheque book' style racing, this keeps it more about driver skill rather than bank ballance.
After a look at the power/weight chart I was confident I could get the post race minimum weight (car + me + any remaining fuel) down to 1120kg which gave me a maximum power figure of 225hp, so I chose an M52B28 with cams as the powerplant.

No heaters!

Once the engine had done a few road miles without problems I got booked into chipwizards for some mapping, all competitors must present power maps to prove power figures and be eligible to race.
The engine initially pulled 231hp, the peak can be seen on the graph

But with some expert adjustment the peak was reduced which gave a maximum output of 224.6hp which was perfect!

With that done I got booked onto a track day to start some testing, first day out at Oulton Park ended up with me killing the clutch cover after only 1 hour track time, its hard going back to an M52 after hooning round with an S54 for so long

So with the day cut short I got the cover repaired and managed to get another day out booked the next week

[DanThe]

So back to my favourite bit of tarmac mid November in the pouring rain
The early morning conditions were horrendous, the trees were almost horizontal!
I couldnt manage more than about 4 or 5 laps without the screen steaming up to the point I couldnt see where I was going, no heater and I sit so far back I cant reach the screen to wipe it meant I had to keep coming back into the pits to mop the footwells out in an attempt to dry the inside of the car out.
This turned out to be leaks from where the new cage had triangulated through to the front strut towers.

Video here from once the clouds had moved along, track still water logged but the car felt good and I was driving past pretty much everything else on track



Soaked footwell and steaming water

[DanThe]

Moving into winter and feeling happy with how the car is working I turned my attention to a few other areas, main one was the front end of the car,due to how id attached the grp bumper years ago it was a PITA to remove so I decided to get it mounted on quick release mounts, id also had thoughts of getting the radiator further forward in the engine bay so over Christmas I decided to cut the front panel off and make a new one out of tube

Even though its only 1.5mm wall tube the front end is now massively stronger than the original, oil cooler is bolted to welded on mountings.

I also took the opportunity to cut out some rust

[DanThe]

I dont seem to have any photos of the bumper mods but it is now fitted with aero catch quick release mountings.

On display at Autosport 2020 at the NEC

[DanThe]

Next mods were brakes, id had the Porsche 6 pot front and 4 pot rear on for probably 4 years now and was starting to get the better of them.
Looking at the rear pads that id never changed it seemed the rear brakes were doing 3/5 of bugger all so I decided to go back to standard 325i rears, this saved 10kg on the rear axle.
For the fronts ive used Alcon 4 pots with fully floating racing rotors and custom made ally bells, this has saved another 10kg on the front axle!

In other areas ive fitted a Cobra racing seat

Electronic fire extinguisher system

Lithium battery

And an electronic battery cut off/engine kill system

The scuttle grills have also been removed as there is no heater to supply air to and also in an attempt to keep water out of the car/mount some nice carbon panels/switches

[steve_k]

thats a really good update dan keep it coming,

i'd be interested to know where you got the front brake bells from as i'm looking for some but really struggling to find any.

"jeff" is starting to look like a proper old skool racer now.

[DanThe]

Thanks Steve, the bells were made by BG Developments, not cheap but they are fantastic to deal with and always turn out the best quality parts

[martauto]

Great write up Dan, I actually understood most of it lol.
The welding looks really good mate !!

Mart.

[rix313]

Been a busy chap! I like the simplified rad brackets! What electronic isolator have you fitted? How do you find the Powerlite battery, they're very well priced aren't they.

[DanThe]

Its a TE 300a sealed relay Rich, I wasn't clued up enough on them and the preferred switches to use so paid someone to come and do the setup for me as time was running out and I had other jobs to do.
Battery is great, its approx 1.5kg and stays above 13v for at least a month when not in use, the car hasn't sat still long at all this year so couldn't comment anymore! Im sure it has a safety cutout that is activated when it drops below a certain voltage

[steve_k]

Thanks Steve, the bells were made by BG Developments, not cheap but they are fantastic to deal with and always turn out the best quality parts

cheers dan i'll have a look, there's always rally design if need be.

[rix313]

Its a TE 300a sealed relay Rich, I wasn't clued up enough on them and the preferred switches to use so paid someone to come and do the setup for me as time was running out and I had other jobs to do.
Battery is great, its approx 1.5kg and stays above 13v for at least a month when not in use, the car hasn't sat still long at all this year so couldn't comment anymore! Im sure it has a safety cutout that is activated when it drops below a certain voltage

Ah cool, that's the same one I have. Very good bit of kit! My Braille battery has always been great, I haven't experience of leaving it with the TE isolator but with the old mechanical one, it never lost any charge. While I was doing the wiring it did run down a couple of times and I crapped myself. thankfully the Optimate optimser saved it.

[DanThe]

So next was a day out in February at Anglesey, fantastic track in a fantastic part of the world, its worth it just for the scenery alone.
Another great track day with the car performing brilliantly, short video below, you can see im catching even clearly faster cars on the brakes and through corners



The one thing I did notice had changed was the coolant and oil temps were slightly higher than I would normally see, considering the time of year and being on the coast with plenty of cold air it shouldn't have been this hot but was obviously a result of the front panel delete so I decided to get constructive with some plastic sheet and build some shrouds around the radiator and oil cooler

This helped massively, I did a bit of road testing and saw a huge reduction in temperature when I could get the speed up.
Also fitted a heated screen, after driving blind at Oulton in November I decided it would be money well spent to be able to see where im going!
You can see the zigzag elements in the glass

This was the start of March and by now id had my 2020 race licence turn up in the post so swiftly got online paid up my annual memberships and booked and paid for the first race at Donington in April, a week later Covid struck and everything was cancelled

[flybynite]

Good Stuff! Goes to show BMW knew what they were doing with the design a bit more than we give them credit for sometimes I guess

Is that windscreen M3 fitment or did you find one to fit as per a standard car? Been looking for std fitment but cannot find one.

[martauto]

That had me well gripped Dan
Where on Anglesy is the track as me and oooor lass love the place and been there many times ?

Mart.

[DanThe]

Its a standard fit windscreen, I bought this in Jan/Feb but I do know that since covid they have been in short supply as they all come from China!

Circuit is on the south west coast Mart, very nice part of the island

[rix313]

Which screen did you go for Dan? I’d been looking at a Ricky Evans one?

[DanThe]

It is from Ricky Evans yes, although ive since found out Templar Performance screens are the same but cheaper (not including postage)