Just dropped a deposit on some M Power - Trackday Project Car

[Gibbo]

Yea, that's what I thought. Pretty sure there is no switchable ABS?

I shall have to test it, supposedly the DSC model on my car has ABS disable function, shall try it in the car park later as I can trigger ABS so easy in wet, so very easy to tell if its on or off.

 

[Gibbo]

I too don't think ABS is switchable. Just what clarkey said.

Just tried it, hold DSC in for 15s, can confirm it's worked as DSC cannot be switched back on, only way to get DSC back is to restart the car.

It's definetely doing something, I could not get ABS to trigger at all the car just stopped much quicker. Restarted car with DSC on and felt abs interference straight away, so ABS is either off or it's cut in point much later.

Shall get the true answer on a track day, but according to a few of the M3 guys the 2000 to June 2002 cars had a different DSC module which cannot be flashed to the CSL DSC to include track mode, but on the upside absolutely everything can be shut down.

 

[Gibbo]

Hmmm maybe you can then!

Did the wheels lock and skid when you tested it with the button pushed down?

A little, the car just seem to stop quicker with no pedal interference. Am not 100% convinced but only so much you can do on road with being dangerous, track shall be best test.

 

[Gibbo]

Had a google and seems its not abs when turning it off.

Off one click seems to be traction off but stability limited or something.
Hold for so long off seems to be everything off bar the abs.

Think your probably right, just odd that when you do fully turn it off, as to why you can't turn it back on again without restarting the car.

Though the guy who told this trick has built a drift car and swears for him it's stopped the ABS interference he used to get when drifting.

 

[Gibbo]

Hey Gibbo, has it got the stock bonnet (Sorry if it's already mentioned).
If so, have you considered a carbon bonnet? Not sure if the weight difference is worth it though as the stock is aluminium isn't it?

It does and you are right, a carbon bonnet is only 2-5k lighter depending on which carbon bonnet you buy.

Its a lot of expense for very little saving.

Car is now at a point where it needs to be enjoyed, any further weight reduction will be serious reduction that is costly and will turn it into a full track machine really with dis-advantages such as:-
Change bonnet and wings - Very costly + paint
Remove AC / Heaters - Good 20-30kg from front, but again damp days, hard to see where going, cold days, no heating. Of course you can buy a heater box.
Another set of lighter wheels with slicks - Cage would be a good idea if doing this.
Carbon doors - Can easily save 20-30kg with this mod, but eliminates crash protection, plastic windows etc. Plus again about £2000 worth of work for doors which don't fit great.


My next plans are:-

Plating rear shelf structure to re-position harnesses onto rear shelf, making them level and safe, the shelf is strong enough for this, but it shall be plated to be extra safe.

Door cards, rear quarter cards, parcel shelf card, close boot off, lightweight carpet for interior and going to either cover the door cards in alcantera trim or get them flocked, so they don't reflect.

Lighter UD pulleys, under-drives power steering, supposedly free's up some horses but most of all it makes the steering a little heavier and more feel some, so a good modification for track and whilst doing this I shall refresh all the pulleys as they are not so expensive.

Then it shall be done, going to go with SuperSport tyres on current wheels simply as they offer near cup dry grip performance on track but last 3-4 times longer and do everything else so much better and will make it even more enjoyable on the road.

So very little left to do and it is so much better on the road now, even in the damp/wet, waiting for some nice dry roads so I can properly nail it.

 

[Gibbo]

Emailed BMW a few days ago to check all re-calls had being done. Appears my engine had quite some work done it:-


Morning Andrew and Happy New Year to you.



Checked the history this morning for you and the car has had a number of campaigns carried out on it.


•27/05/2003 it had a fair bit done with the replacement of the big end bearing, replacement of the oil pump, replacement of the hose clamp on the gearbox, replacement of a bonnet trim, replacement of the the O/S window regulator and last but not least the O/S seatbelt tensioner was replaced.
•21/06/2004 it had both outer weatherstrips that run from the wing mirror along the glass line to the rear quarter window replaced.
•10/08/2004 it had the SMG relay and the bootlid handle replaced.
•28/07/2005 it had the conrod bearing shells replaced and the SMG control unit recoded.

Also I have noticed there is an outstanding recall for the drivers airbag module that the car is still due so you might want to contact your local dealer about having that done if you still have the original steering wheel etc in the car.



Good to know and I don't think I need to worry about the drivers airbag, considering its no longer there.

 

[Gibbo]

Gibbo can any car have the recalls checked or do you need some sort of extra warranty? If I can who did you email?

Not gonna give out my email contact as its a friend.

In short, any dealership can check re-call information for you on any vehicle upto any age. Simply call them, ask them if any outstanding recalls are on your vehicle, they shall need your VIN number which is stamped in the windscreen bottom corner.

 

[Gibbo]

Iain check this out for you Gibbo?

I'm intrigued;
27/05/2003 it had a fair bit done with the replacement of the big end bearing
28/07/2005 it had the conrod bearing shells replaced

Con-rod bearing shells are big end bearings, same part.

Yes mate, Iain, maybe first time was not done right? I'll ask him nextweek if you don't first.

 

[Gibbo]

It wasn't so much of a question but more me saying it was chucking it down, I bet the thing is lovely to drive hard.

When did you see it in Sainburys mate, not feint for a while? Funnily enough an M3 driver pulled up along me at some traffic lights last night and said "your brave stripping all that weight out, considering how tail happy these are"

In the wet now it's setup properly it handles much better, but respect is demanded but it can now be driven faster in the wet, biggest weakness is tyres. Put something like F1 eagles on it or SuperSports and I suspect be amazing in such conditions. But alignment and tyre wise it's setup as a dry weather car and it's bloody amazing in such conditions.

Off to centre gravity now.

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there

Well car setup wise is now finished.

Anyone out there with an E46 M3 these are my allignment, ride height settings etc:-

Front:
-3 negative camber either side (shall reduce to circa -2.80 area with eccentric bush)
6:42 caster either side (going to increase this with Z4M/CSL eccentric bush, take it too about 7:15 caster)
Toe: neutral, shall keep this at neutral

Rear:-
-2 negative camber either side
Toe: 14 minutes toe in across the axle.

Ride heights:-
Aim for 580mm front from bottom of wheel lip or 330mm measured from centre
Aim for 570mm rear from bottom of wheel lip or 325mm measured from centre

Corner weights:-
Was 79kg out on cross axle, this is now reduced to just 4kg.
Car weight with half tank fuel 1370kg

All above settings made with driver in the car!!


Damper test and settings:-
KW Clubsports
Test: 0% out between axles, dampers are perfect.
Changed to wet settings:-
Front rebound 9 clicks
Front compression: 6 clicks (1 turn)
Rear rebound: 12 clicks
Rear compression: 1 turn

Track dry settings:-
Front rebound 6 clicks
Front compression: 4 clicks (0.75 turn)
Rear rebound: 9 clicks
Rear compression: 0.5 turn

All suspension waxed!
Front right anti roll bar drop link repaired.


They recommended changing following for road and track use:-
Eccentric bushes for lower arms, stock fitment for Z4M and CSL, about £40 each from BMW and 20 minutes per side to fix. They give more caster and more camber during a turn. Effect on front geo will be less front camber, upto 15 minutes less but more camber preserved during turn, more caster of upto 30-45 minutes. All that will need adjusting is toe back to neutral. For now they said leave as is, do couple of track days and then change to see/feel difference.

Fitting lighter boot lid they commented won't upset corner weighting as no different than having a full tank or empty tank of fuel

Tyres:-
They said Michelins are far better tyres, both road and track compared to Federals and advices cups if track times are important or SuperSports as best all round tyre. Only issue is SuperSports only come in 40 wall profile, I need 35 wall profile ideally on 18" in 255/265 width. They also said AD08 is a very good wet tyre too, but better tyres will give a dramatic improvement on road or in wet conditions, with minor better dry performance. Wheels and tyres weighed 23.5kg each, so not the lightest wheels, gonna weigh a spare tyre I have and work out wheel weight. If heavy of course lighter wheels give quite an improvement. What we did notice is the fronts are 8" wide and rears 9" wide, so the tyres are a little two wide for the width of the wheel, ideal would be 245 width front and 255 width rear, so another reason to buy new wheels and go 9" front and 9.5" rear.

Gonna risk it and book February 15th at Donnington I think, even if it's wet I can get a good feel for how the car is now, though new tyres are at the top of the next job list.

In short after all above, car just feels creamy on the road and the ride quality on the wet settings, very impressive indeed. Of course still harnesses, door cards and rear carpet to sort.

 

[Gibbo]

Should be very good at that

Aye.
Annoyed Michelin don't do the SuperSports in 255/35/18 and 265/35/18, they only do 265/40/18 which no use to me.

However I see the new AD08R's are available in my sizes, guess I'll be grabbing a set of those after a couple of track days.

 

[Gibbo]

265/35/18 is an E39 size not an E46 size, the M3 is 255/35 isn't it?

I hardly run stock sizes mate. Wider wheels, wider tyres, more grip.

 

[Gibbo]

Gibbo you should get over on CSL Register. There are lots of boys on there with track experience and who have done quite a bit to their cars. Might pick up some more stuff of use.

Where I got my ride heights and damper settings from.

Shall have a look to see what tyres they run, seems if 19" then SuperSports and cups are the most popular. SuperSports be my no.1 choice as I know they are superb on track and immense on road/wet and as a plus point they last forever. Just not in my size for 18"

18" those are not available, not in size I need anyway, so shall see what people have used and experienced, as R888's, V70A's, AD08R's, 595RSR's, F1A2's are all in size I need, shall have a read of what other E46 track guys have used.

 

[Gibbo]

I vote ad08r, the original were a tremendous all rounder. Will most likely get a set for the s15. Bought some re002 for the bmw, getting them on tomorrow so will see what they are like.

RE-02 that a Bridgestone or something else?

 

[Gibbo]

Yeah Bridgestone

Yanks rave about them! Let me know how they are in this cold wet weather m8.

The problem seems to me that some high performance track/road tyres have great dry grip but are dire in the cold/damp/wet and very hard to get heat into. I found the 595RSR's and Pirelli Corsas to be like this, nice stiff sidewalls though.

Whereas the Michelin cups are better in the dry but believe it or not also better in the wet too, even with less tread. Simply because you can get heat into them far easier, meaning they work far better on the road and wet track days, just watch for aquaplaning. SuperSports awesome too. Heard R888's are easy to get heat into too, but only fair in wet and sound aweful road noise wise.

Hence why I wanted SuperSports. If I was going for a track dry only tyre I'd go with Federal FZ-201, it's supposed to be amazing in dry and last very well, plus in my sizes too, but again hard to get heat into, so useless for road or wet conditions.

 

[Gibbo]

Pretty sure it must have been you last night, the reg was "M3 OCUK" if I remember right?

That is Daves one, it's an M3 CS and he's not butchered it lime I have mine.

Mine is M3 XSV.

 

[Gibbo]

Just changed rear offside tyre for a spare one I had as it was barely legal and had a screw in it.

So thought good time to weigh the wheel, discover two downsides:-

Wheel - 11-12kg
Tyre - 11-12kg

So I've got lead for wheels and the tyres are also heavier than usual.

Can easily save 5kg per corner, that would in short make a huge difference, best add a set of wheels to the shopping list, which could mean find some genuine 19" CSL wheels and fit with the SuperSports I so want, something to do mid-end year though, gonna do a track day or two and finish the Federals off first.

 

[Gibbo]

Think when it comes to changing wheels later in year, these are a firm favourite:-

Around 8-8.5kg a wheel, could go with 18x9 all round or 18x9.5 with a 265/35/18 square setup tyre wise.

What do people think, silver looks good, black kind of looks lost I think, darker silver or gunmental could be best colour?

 

[Gibbo]

Wasn't it only a couple of pages ago that you were finished with weight reduction and modifications?

I think someone's got a bit of an addiction going on here!

Quite understandable though!!!

Change the wheels mid-end of year, get some track days in first, but when it comes to new tyres, might as well get wheels to suit as well, that's my excuse anyway.

 

[Gibbo]

I want a M3 CSL - stop showing pictures like that!

Sorry Simon:-

Think those are Hyperblack and Bronze in colour, think they look amazing.

Think dark silver/hyperblack is a better choice due to brake dust. Bronze looks pretty good too.

Think Silver and black are a no go!