Update from the first NASA event in the E46, March 13, 2010: This was the first NASA Texas event that I could make this season, and the only 2nd time to have this car on track since purchasing it late last year. The first time it was run on the same AST 4200s and the same 18x10 wheels & 265mm Yokohama tires, but without any fender rolling so I had lots of tire rub out back, and it was raining. Since then we'd installed a few more go fast goodies, clearenced the fenders, and performed lots of preventative maintenance and repair work.
First off, let's start with the gallery of photos:
http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...11524828_ffSQp - 168 some odd pictures from Saturday
The E46 ran flawlessly, other than feeling down on power, as usual. I'm used to running Amy's E36 M3 on track, which has only "15 more hp" but feels more like +75.
The 265/35/18 Yokohama A032 tires on the D-Force 18x10's were the only saving grace on the E46, making plenty of grip.
My biggest concern was the tire clearancing done the night before, as well as the completely untested cooling system upgrades. Before putting the car onto the trailer the night before I drove around the block and immediately noticed a significant leak from the lower radiator hose. When I installed the new hose I forgot to order a new coolant sensor, which clips into place in the hose. Just as it did when I did the same hose swap on the '99 323i a couple of months ago, the re-use of the old sensor (and O-ring) in a new hose caused an identical leak on the 330Ci. Stupid mistake - not learning from a previous mistake. There was no solution to be found at 10 pm at night other than a bit of RTV around the O-ring, which somehow actually worked, and even lasted the weekend.
Of course in Time Trials there was open passing, but this is the track we ran, in a Clockwise direction
The fender rolling in the rear seemed to be adequate. With a stock exhaust the car was deathly quiet on track, the only noise coming from the tires. So it was obvious that the tires were clearing the fenders, and a quick check after each session proved this out. I only noticed a slight tire noise when I clipped the inside curbing when entering Little Bend, coming from the left rear. It proved to be a non-issue, and I could avoid the curbing with no impact on lap times.
I struggled a bit on my first session, exploring the limit of the tires in the cool morning air and finding the proper gear changes on the MSR 1.7 mile course. I missed my 1st of 4 sessions, due to an exceedingly long tech line where I shuffled the E46 and the M3 through simultaneously. I quickly realized that my car and TTD in general was going to be in the slower half of the cars in the Time Trial group. But oddly enough, the 330 was only really losing ground on the straights (power), and keeping up with or passing the majority of the TT cars in the big corners like Big Bend and into heaving braking, entering Rattlesnake and Little Bend. The tires, a year old set of well used Yokohama A032 medium-hard compound 265/35/18s, worked great after a barely a few turns, and were well up to operating temps within 2 laps. My fastest laps in the 3 sessions coming on my 3rd, 4th or 5th laps. By days end I had picked up more rubber than had been used - literally.
The Hawk HP+ front pads proved to be a good improvement from the old stock pads used at ECR in December, but the car still had stock replacement pads on the rear, old fluid, stock rubber brake lines, and since we didn't change those we didn't bleed the system. The pedal was unsurprisingly mushy, but overall the brakes proved to be still very effective. The only cars out-braking the E46 were KenO's E46 M3 on Stop Techs and a few of the faster TTU Corvettes. I hope with new lines, fluid and upgraded Hawk rear pads it will be even better.
The handling was quite good straight off, with the compression on the AST 4200 shocks set at full soft (0) and the rebound started at +6 from full soft all around, -3.9° front camber, and 1/4" of front toe out. We had no time to schedule a proper alignment, thrashing to finish the other repairs the week before, so I checked and adjusted the front toe in the pits before my first (which was the 2nd TT) session.
Brian Hanchey of AST-USA was there offering track side support to AST customers, and was kind enough to pass along some outside observations. He noticed a bit of front wheel bouncing going into the bumpier sections of the track, so I upper the rebound +2 and +3 clicks at each end, which really smoothed things out. He was watching all of the cars, and noted that the AST equipped cars all looked VERY composed than the rest in the bumpy sections and through the tight bits like Rattlesnake. Many other racers were bouncing about the track, as we normally see.
After my first session (Group C, Trial 2) my fastest lap was in the 1:33's... yeesh. That looked pretty bad on the results sheet from that session, with only 2 cars running slower. I recall Hanchey running 1:24's last year on street tires in the TTA EVO X, and we both ran quicker than that in the TTU V8 E36 (of course). I had never driven a car this slow at MSR, and the only gauge I had at the time were the other competitors in TT. The car felt SO SLOW on the straights, and I was trying pretty hard to keep out of everyone's way. The next 7 closest cars faster than me were running 1:29-1:30 fastest times, so I pushed harder in Trial 3 to catch that little group. In Trial 3 I manged a 1:29.811 fast lap. Not really what I'd call fast, but it was still a TTD track record, and I was now passing a few TTC cars, even one TTA car, and the car was keeping up with almost everything in the corners.
In this session on most corners I was previously doing a check-up or even considerable braking into, I realized could be taken flat out in the 330. It was a total momentum car now, with so little power. I suspect there was another 1-2 seconds in just deeper braking as well, which we'll see with a proper flush and real pads. I've got to get the VANOS repair done, get the bigger Hoosiers on, and the headers/exhaust installed!
Flat-out in Big Bend, after passing a TTA C5 Z06 (who followed me for a few laps and repassed me)
The open diff and the crazy tall rear gearing wasn't hurting me as much on this 1.7 mile track, but it sure wasn't helping, either. I did most of the course in 3rd gear, only touching 4th in 2 places, but I couldn't use 2nd gear in the tighter "Rattlesnake" (?) complex of turns at all, as it would just ignite the inside rear tire in plumes of smoke, so I lugged around there in 3rd... still catching most of the non-autocrossers in this section (plus in Big Bend, which the car could take flat). I was getting killed on the power sections and spent plenty of time giving point-bys to the faster cars, though. It felt "RX8 weak".
I drove offline into the klag more than a few times trying to give some faster folks room to go around, and actually GAINED considerable rubber on the tires after the event was over. These Yokohamas wear like stone but make GREAT grip. I cannot count how many track laps we've done on this set of tires on the EVO X, Amy's M3 and my E46: Its in the
hundreds over the past 12+ months.
Ken O was flying on Saturday and ripped off a new TTA track record in his AST 4200 equipped E46 M3, to the tune of a 1:22.8. Wow. I tried to follow him in 2 different sessions and didn't hang with him for long, as you could imagine with an 8 second difference in lap times. That car had power, brakes, and grip galore. He was hustling around the track looking for more Hoosier contingency in the larger TTA class, and getting it done once again in a TTB car, as he did at the last NASA race at MSR-Houston. The new 18x10" D-Force wheels and 285 Hoosier R6 rubber made for some phenomenal cornering speeds, and he's still learning the setup on his ASTs. Dave B's E36 325i (aka: Goldmember) was into the 1:28's on Saturday and 1:27s on Sunday, also on AST4200s, and moved up from HPDE4 to TT in the 4th run group after a checkout ride from Ken. He was super-psyched to be moved up to TTS, and the flares we both worked so hard on in previous weeks looked good over the fat 18x10" D-Force wheels and 285mm R1 rubber, and most importantly: they didn't rub. There's more time on track easily available for Dave once he gets a proper tune on his very recent (first fired last week!) S50 swap.
MER hosted a
GREAT party Saturday after the day of races. They served up some badass Texas chili and lots of
ICE cold beer. After being dehydrated that cold beer went down fast! Great bash - thanks to all the folks at MER for opening their doors and serving the grub and drinks.
At the end of the day its hard to be proud of a 1:29 lap time at MSR on the 1.7, which is the slowest I can ever remember recording here, but its at least a good starting point to build upon with the 330. Sliding around in stock seats/belts all day really sucked, and my back and arms were really sore the next day. The new OS Giken-equipped 3.38 rear end arrived the following Monday morning, so we've got a lot of work to do to get that in, the poly diff bushings installed, and the fenders clearanced for the 285mm tires before the SCCA Regional/Pennington Field auto-x next weekend, and the National Tour the week after that. A new employee is starting tomorrow to help turn wrenches around here, so hopefully we don't get so backed up working on our shop cars.
Until next time...