Update on “Daily Driven Track Car” E46

We’ve covered another round of repairs and upgrades plus one more race weekend in our “Daily Driven Track Car” project in this latest 3-part forum build thread update. This is an example of a compromised dual-purpose car we tell our customers NOT to build, but they do it anyway… so we decided to give it a try and see how far we could push a car in NASA Time Trial that really was daily driven, had air conditioning, a radio, and other nice creature comforts.

This 2001 BMW 330Ci is finally getting more competitive after it’s 3rd track weekend, but we still have many more modifications planned for this car during the 2016 season. We took the car to another NASA Time Trial event at MSR-Cresson and won the class both days, but just missed resetting the old TTD track record. After this event we put the car on the dyno rollers for a “lie detector” test – where the bone stock, 160K+ mile mototr put out 195 whp and 200 wtq. That means we’re still 50 whp down, so plans are in place to fix that.

The biggest upgrade on this car to date was completed right before this NASA event – the Powerbrake 4-piston big brake upgrade, shown above. The 330 is still running on the non-adjustable Bilstein PSS kit with upgraded springs, but it has too much roll – this car needs a LOT more spring rate and better dampers. Tune in next time to see that, but for now, you can catch up on this project starting here.

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