GeorgeCo.org

Week 3: Titled but not Fully Baked

At the end of week 3 I managed to patch together the broken headlight carrier, install a new headlight and re-aim the beams. I managed to save $50 by repairing the broken carrier. The black wheels look slick. Today I installed the new co-pilot seat (not pictured) I found on bimmerforums for that $50 I didn’t spend on the headlight carrier.

All-in-all the project is proceeding well, if more slowly than planned. I’m finding each little project takes about twice as much time as I think it should. That’s what happens when you have a 20 year old car I suppose. (Next year it’s “Historic”.) I have to work more on the family/garage balance thing. Too bad I have to go to work. Or sleep….

In Maryland, you have to pass the safety inspection before you can register a car. I got the car titled this week and got a 30-day registration to get it passed inspection. Looking at the inspection list, I think only the non-functioning speedo/odometer is holding me up now. My goal is to get the car ready in more or less stock configuration in time for the next CCA driver’s school 1 August. I think it’s doable.

Three Wheelin’ MINI

Since the F-22 isn’t yet registered, I decided to run the MINI at the CDC autocross today. The morning started out quite wet, with a light drizzle falling most of the early morning. Since I was running in the third heat, I took a chance and switched to the R comps, which was the right choice. My morning runs were in the mid 42 second range, with my best run of 42.02 coming after lunch. It seemed like most of the runners were in the 44-47 range, with only the Cobras below 41. The car felt really well balanced, even if 3 runs wasn’t quite enough to get the required amount of heat into the tires. They continue to wear well. I just bought a set of spacers so hopefully they will fit on the BMW as well.

It wasn’t until I got home and saw the photos my friend took that I even realized how much I was picking up the rear inside wheel in tight turns. You would think with only three tires on the ground, that I’d notice the rear-end getting light, but I didn’t really sense it was coming around on me. I wonder what it would be like with the sway-bar on the stiffest setting…

End of Week 2: Out with the old

I’m at the end of the second week of this project and have made some significant progress with only a few (unpleasant) surprises. I secured the battery in the trunk (no brick required) and patched the hole in the fender well from the inside — I still have to finish it off on the outside. I removed the excess trim from the trunk and the electric antenna. That was about 10 lbs. of weight. I replaced all of the light bulbs.

From the interior, I removed the backseats, back seatbelts, stereo, four speakers, some speaker wire, and the center console. Total of about 40 lbs. I also removed one of the two front seats, but I plan to replace that. I fixed and reattached the glove box, removed the annoying key chime, and fitted a new UUC shift knob. I installed a new steering wheel cover. The rotten shift boot is still waiting to be replaced. I relocated the window switches to the dash and found out the reverse light has been disconnected and is on a separate switch now. Now sure why.

Under the hood, I removed the cruise control servo (the brains are long gone); replaced the air cleaner with a K&N cone filter; removed the AC compressor, condensor, evaporator and associated hardware (weight savings alone 25 lbs. fore of the front axle). I replaced the blower resistor and the coil; new oil and coolant caps. I replaced all of the fuses and found a new fuse box cover. I replaced the leaky power steering fluid reservoir and both leaky low-pressure hoses. I cleaned up much of the mess associated with those leaks as well.

The dented right front fender proved to be a bit more complicated than I estimated. I knew I had to fix the front turn signal and replace a headlight, but once I got everything apart, I found the damage was more extensive, but not structural. I removed and replaced the fender liner. Removed the bumper and fixed the turn signal. I removed the air-dam and replaced the fog lamps with blanks (saving a couple of pounds at the very front). Once I removed the grille I found the headlamp carrier was broken. (That’s the one piece on back-order that’s stopping me from registering the car.) I straightened out the interior supporting members so I could rehang the fender. I decided to just pound out the fender and hit it with some paint. It is actually the best painted part of the car now (which says less about the quality of my painting and more about the sorry state of the paint job as a whole).

Since I had the whole front end opened up, I removed the AC and associated parts including the auxiliary fan (which I plan to eventually replace). The fan alone weighs about 5 lbs. Eventually I plan to remove the fan from the engine and run just with an electric fan, but not now. I had Safelight put in a new windshield as well.

As I was waiting for the paint to dry on the fender, I replaced the rotors and brake pads. I have stainless steel brake lines, but don’t have a pressure bleeder so I’ll leave that up to someone else to install. I also installed studs from Turner Motorsports. I bought new Falken Ziex 912s (195/60R14) to go on the stock 14 inch basked weaves. I looked at getting the wheels refinished, but at $40-$50 per wheel for sand blasting alone, I decided instead to just blast them with some paint myself. The photos show the car riding on snow tires as the paint on the wheels hasn’t dried yet.

I’m still hopeful that if the headlight carrier arrives this week, I can get the car inspected and registered to make the next Autocross on the 5th or later in the month on the 20th. With wheel spacers, I should be able to run my MINI autcross wheels. I have replacements for all of the hoses, timing belt, and water pump. I also have a colder thermostat to install at the same time. After that, I think I’ll fix the dubious suspension parts (control arms; tie-rods; bushings; & end-links) before the last track event of the season. That will give me the winter to get the race suspension (springs, shocks, sway bars, camber plates) and roll-cage installed.

Total weight savings so far is about 80 lbs. or just under 3 percent.

F-22 Stealth Bimmer

[Click photo for link to full set of photos on Flickr.]

After months of a low level search of various message boards and Craigslist cities, I finally found the car I’ve been looking for: a 1989 E30 325is. I finally got to the point where I’m running in the fastest run group on the track and am generally one of the faster cars in the group. With the extra speed came the realization that if I go off the track, I could really mess up my car. Hence the genesis of the idea of a dedicated autocross and track car: The ultimate sleeper car, stripped of anything that doesn’t help it go faster, painted in radar-evading flat black.

I wanted something with about the same power to weight ratio as the MINI, but rear wheel drive (so I can finally graduate from the NCC Instructor Program — besides number of days, I need to do a full lap of oversteer on the skid pad. Tough to do in a front wheel drive car…) I wanted a car that can easily be resold; has lots of cheap parts available; and was relatively inexpensive to run on the track (15 inch wheels mean inexpensive tires; light weight means less expensive brake pads, etc.) I figured on getting a good 325is under $2K; put about $2K into it; sell off all of the parts I take out to reduce weight; and I might break even when I eventually sell it. Worst case is I smack a $4K car; best case is I’m just out the cost of the wear items I would have had to buy for the MINI. Depending on how the engine tests, I may even be able to swap the engine into the convertible, then spend the winter rebuilding the convertible engine for next season in this car. Win win.

So what to do with the car? It’s currently painted in what I like to call, backyard flat black. It didn’t start out that way, but somewhere along the way it picked up a very pad paint job that’s very thick and very oxidized. What I liked about this car was that it had a clean CARFAX report; it was a Florida car for most of it’s life; and all of the body panels match indicating it hadn’t been in any major accidents. The right front fender is a bit messed up, but that appears to be very recent. The engine is very strong and the transmission isn’t a complete pile of goo. I figure it’s a project in about four stages:

Stage 1: Get it registered. I want to keep it street legal so I have to fix up enough to pass the Maryland State Inspection (MSI). Although this program is primarily a jobs program for the shops that inspect vehicles, at least it provides a basic safety baseline. So far, I know I have to replace the windshield, one headlight, and the hole I just found under the battery. We’ll see what else pops up when I drop it off at the local inspection shop. I figure I’ll replace brake pads and rotors all around regardless. You have to know you can stop before you go. Once I get it passed the MSI, I’ll get it dyno’d and weighed to establish a baseline.

Stage 2: Replace known wear items. Since the car sat for several months and I have no repair records, I need to do some preventive maintenance. Replace all of the hoses; flush the cooling and brake systems (stainless steel lines at the same time); replace the timing belt; water pump; thermostat; fan belt; and oil change.

Stage 3: Lose the fat. I’ve actually started some of that as I’m peeling back all of the trim and carpet to see the underlying condition of the chassis, but my intent is to remove anything that isn’t required to go fast. That means trim, carpet, rear seats, rear seatbelts, headliner, sunroof cassette, stereo, speakers, speaker wiring, antennae, center console, etc. I’m hoping I can get 100-150 lbs. out of the car. I want to get to where I can autocross it and take it to the track in August. That should give me a good idea of what the car can do in stock form without any suspension mods.

Stage 4: Improve the suspension and install roll cage. I’m trying to comply with the Spec E30 rules as I mod the car. Not so much because I plan to race, but I’d like to get there eventually. If I stick to one set of rules, it should be easier to sell the car should I need to in the future. By complying with a spec class, it also gives me better way to compare my performance to others over time.

Jefferson Circuit, Summit Point, 30 May - 1 June 2008

My driving season is split into two parts: there’s the first half that starts once the snow melts and ends when summer swimming starts. The second half picks up after summer swimming and ends around Thanksgiving. This past weekend with the NCCBMWCCA at Summit Point marked the end of the first half. And what a great way to end it. The video shows about a lap and a quarter in the counter-clockwise direction. (The camera mount is too low and it’s a bit overexposed, but it is good for recording corner entry and exit speeds.) It starts mid corner in Turn 7 and ends just after the start finish line a lap later.

Since I started in the Instructor Academy in March, I’ve been taking a day of vacation on Friday and making it a three day weekend at the track. The Friday sessions are great because you effectively double your track time and you get as much time on the skid pad as you normally get in a year of driving events.

I like driving on the Jeff. It’s a very short track and laps tick off rapidly at around 1:04 a lap (counter-clockwise, not that it’s officially timed either way….). You can pick one or two corners and really concentrate on getting them right. Before you know it, you right back at it again.

Here’s what I need to remember for next time. Counter-clockwise:

• Exit the pits, stay off-line to the right, enter turn 1 on the inside and rejoin the line. It’s good practice for when you’re tired and you don’t check that someone is storming down the straight.
• Left-foot brake from turn 2 to through turn 5. Tap the brakes between 2 and 3, try to accelerate in a straight line, but stay to the inside of 3. Don’t swing to the right like the RWD cars. Let the car drift to track center on the exit but don’t go too far out.
• Come in for turn 4, but don’t force the car to the left. Speed is more important than clipping the apex. Don’t get on the apron for the entry to turn 5, there’s a dip and it upsets the car.
• The turn-in to turn 5 is faster than you think. Tap the brakes to begin the turn, don’t bleed off too much, and get on the gas early. Track out but watch the bump on the apron at the edge.
• Stay middle-right on the set up to turn six and carry more speed in to seven than you think at first. You want enough speed so that you don’t have to come off the brakes to make turn in to turn 7.
• Go deeper into turn 7 and trail-brake to get the car to start to rotate. Get on the gas as soon as you’re pointed at the apex. Your best chance to pass is coming out of turn 4 and turn 7. Stay to the left, check gauges and relax. Rinse and repeat.

Clockwise:

• Exiting the pits, stay off-line through turn 7 until you’re sure no one is closing rapidly on you. Turn six is a throw-away in this direction.
• Go deep into turn 5. Use all of the road to the left. Trail-brake when comfortable with speed. Since you’ll be heading up hill out of 5, you can carry more speed than you think. Look through the apex to track-out. Stay off of the apron.
• Tap the brakes to settle the car to turn-in to turn 4. Stay further to the left on turn in and try to straight line the braking zone and make it parallel to the dirt patch at the start of the curb.
• Trail-brake to rotate into turn 3. The braking is hard-medium-hard. Try to straighten out to set up entry into turn 2.
• Straight-line turn 2 as much as possible but don’t ride the curbs. Don’t go all the way to the right to set up for turn-in to turn 1.
• In this direction, turn 1 takes patience, especially in the wet. There isn’t much grip in the dry and you have to be patient. Get the car to turn, get to the apex then get on the power. Turn in too early or power on too early and you’ll have to lift on exit. Your best chance to pass is coming out of 1. Pass on the left.
• Turn 7 is a double-apex with no grip in the middle. There is good grip at the turn-in and about 3/4 of the way through. Hit the first apex, drift out to the middle but hold a steady arc, and come back in to the second apex and that sets you up for turn six. Get the arc right and you’re on full throttle as soon as you’ve made it through the slippery part mid turn. There will be puddles at the second apex in 7 and at the apex in 5 when it rains. Turn 5 has the most grip in the wet. Don’t use it to judge the rest of the track.

Some notes on car set-up:

• I ran F39/R36 lbs cold pressure. This got me 41/38 hot and even temps across all four tires. The outside tires take much more of a beating on this track, but the fact that you can change direction and run both ways really helps with tire wear.
• Tire temps were much closer front to rear than in the past. I take that as a sign that I’m working the rear tires harder and getting the car to rotate more. Some of that is probably due to the increase in front downforce from the splitter. Some (hopefully) from better driving and more trail-braking.
• By effectively doubling my track miles and the increase in speed with the move up to A group, I’m going through a set of brake pads in the weekend. Rotor temps were as high as 650 degrees in the front. I’ve opened up the front to try to get more air in to the wheel well, but I’m going to need to go to a higher temp pad next time. I didn’t notice a lot of fade, but I used 80% of the pad in three days. The once green pad plates look like they’ve been sitting in the gas grill for a while.
• I am going to have to get a RWD car if I ever want to graduate from the skid-pad though. There’s just no way to sustain oversteer as long as they require for the program.

Here’s a longer clip.

DIY Splitter

I’ve been thinking about making my own front splitter ever since I read this article at Special Projects Motorsports. This got me thinking that a good splitter should be: a). disposable and b). cheap. While trying to sell some parts over on NAM to pay for the new cylinder head for the BMW I came across this thread about building your own splitter for the MINI. So I got the template and set about to make a splitter out of (mostly) found materials.

Here’s how I made it:

Start with this template.

Rough out the splitter out of light-weight plywood or ABS plastic. I used some spare under-layment that I sandwiched together with some waterproof glue. Cost: $3 for the glue.

Next I covered it in some resin and fiberglass I had from a previous project. Then I sanded it smooth. Cost: $0.00.

When the resin was dry, I used some automotive spray paint to paint it black and then cover with clearcoat. Cost: $0.00.

Since you have to think of the splitter as disposable (and your bumper cover not) I wanted the mount to support the load forces to be applied, but break away under shear force. I made some T-brackets out of spare metal stock and connected the splitter with snow-blower shear-bolts. Cost: $3.50.

At this point, the mount was strong enough for highway speeds, but it still had quite a bit of flex. It certainly wouldn’t be good enough for track speeds. I ordered some slick splitter turnbuckles, but they won’t be available in time for the track this weekend, so again I headed off to the hardware store.

This took some creativity to piece together. I started with a turnbuckle used to support a sagging gate. I replaced one end with an eye bolt. I attached it to another eye bolt attached to the splitter. At the other end of the turnbuckle, I heated and shaped the rod to form two 90-degree angles like a zig-zag and I cut it off about 6 inches from the threaded end. I drilled a hole in the bumper and threaded the zig-zag end like you do a tool hook in a peg-board — if that makes sense. Once I put tension on the turnbuckle, it pulled out the gap under the chin spoiler and would probably now support my weight if I tried to stand on it. The pair formed the most expensive parts of this whole project. Cost: $27.

Total Cost: $33.50 (and the better part of a 4-day weekend….) Now that I have the template, I’m going to work up a couple of spares.

Gas Widget

Here’s something useful thanks to Automotive.com, the Gas Widget. Update it with your information and “Grab it”.

Quaife Limited Slip & New Tune Map

I finally saved enough to get a limited slip differential installed at Behe Performance. Here’s what it looked like the day after I dropped it off:

I was able to get the Quaife LSD through a great group buy on NAM. The price was almost $700 less than I’ve seen it listed at some (unnamed) major online catalogs.

In the past week I’ve had the pulley belt replaced; control arm bushings replaced (boy were they shot); and the oil pan gasket replaced. Along with the Quaife and dyno tune, I’m getting the shifter cables replaced and a new clutch. I should be good for another 90K miles….

John’s tuning work is really impressive. He was able to get almost an additional 10 horsepower over my previous (non-custom) tune from MTH. That brings the total to 197 hp at the wheels on a relatively humid day no less. More impressive, however, is the increase in low-end torque. Peak Torque is now almost 167 ft lbs, with 166 ft lbs at 3250 RPM. This with no work to date on the head or header. On average it’s about an 8 percent horsepower gain, and 9% torque gain over the MTH “tuner file” tune, (that’s an incremental gain over a fairly strong tune to start with.) John’s tune (with pulley / intake / exhaust) gives me a 23 percent increase in torque and a whopping 32 percent increase in horsepower over stock. More power, ho-ho-ho.

Checked Paint

I’m not sure what’s going on with the paint on the hood of the BMW. At first I thought I had driven through a gigantic spider web. The entire surface of the hood appears to have cracked. I think it’s just the clear coat. Depending on what the paint guys say, I may have to wet-sand and respray the clear coat with something that is more UV resistant. Odd.

SCCA Test & Tune

This past weekend, I got to participate in an interesting event with the WDCR SCCA. It was a test & tune (non-championship) event where there were only 24 drivers; 2 courses; and 7 hours to test & tune. You had to work 2 of those hours, but could use the remaining 5 hours of drive time any way you wanted. You could work on suspension tuning; tire pressures; different tires; or just drive. I managed to get in 39 runs — about the total I ran all last season.

My goal (besides lots of driving) was to work on tire pressures and do a comparison between my Falken Azenis which is a street tire and my Kumho V170s which is a DOT Competition (R-Compound) tire. I run more events with the CDC than the SCCA so I’m not really interested in the complex SCCA rules of classing. With the SCCA, I’m in the ultra-competitive Street Mod class, where you can pretty much do whatever you want and use any tire you want to be competitive. There, I’m at a real disadvantage. But the CDC looks only at 3 factors: vehicle weight; horse power; and type of tires. I can’t do much about weight; horse power is what it is; but I can change tires. You pay a 3% time penalty for running R-comp tires. (Index time=raw time x 1.03) So the question to solve: Do you get more than a 3% time advantage running R-comps on the same car on the same course in the same conditions?

Sunday was cloudy and temps were in the high 50s. The course was typical for SCCA events at FEDex Field: off-camber; fast slaloms; tricky finishes. We ran the course in one direction in the morning, then slightly modified in the other direction in the afternoon.

I ran the Falkens in the early morning, then ran the V710s in the same direction later, before lunch. In the afternoon, I just ran the V710s working on pressure settings. I also ran the Falkens with almost no gas in the tank. When I switched to the V710s, I had put about 7 gallons of gas in the car. That’s about a 45 pound difference, but with the MINI, extra weight in the back, might be an advantage as it helps balance the car.

In the morning, I did 9 runs in the first session and 7 runs in the second. To try to get a fair comparison, I compared the fastest run from each session as well as the average of the last four runs. I had always heard that R-comps were worth at least 2 seconds on a typical SCCA course. That turns out to be a pretty good estimate. The first session averaged 62.63 sec with the best run at 61.2. The second session averaged 60.3 with the best being 59.0. On average, the R-comps were 3.7% better; and for the best time, they were 3.5% better. Since they were more than 3% better, then I’m better off with R-comps than street tires for CDC events.

In the afternoon, I played with tire pressures. I worked at getting fairly even temps across each tire. Generally, I could get temps in the 115-121 degree range in the front; and 88-98 in the rear. For my set-up and driving style, this came with hot pressures of 40 lbs front/36 lbs rear. If I start off with 39/35 cold I should be good to bleed down after the first couple of runs.

My biggest challenge currently is getting quicker, faster. By that, I mean the number of runs it takes for me to start seeing times drop. My fastest runs were all run 7 or later in each session. Most autocross events only allow 4 runs. By the end of the day, I did manage to get in 3 runs with almost exactly the same times. Now I just need to work on getting that consistency and speed into runs 2-4 instead of 6-8. (The first run is always a throw away as you just find your way around the course.) The good news is that my times continued to drop during the rest of the day. By the last session, my best time was 2.7% better than the best time in the session right after lunch.