Eclipsor Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 (edited) Hey guys. First time poster, here. This past weekend at VIR was my first NASA event, and I had a great time! I'll start you guys off with a bit of background about this car. It's a 1998 M3 that was built from the ground up to win BMWCCA I-Prepared races. I purchased it just over two years ago from the guy who had it built. It was raced hard and had over 25 class wins. At the time of purchase, it was the holder of the following IP class track records: LRP WGI Mont Tremblant Barber NJMP - Thunderbolt Here's a list of the mods... Balanced & Blueprinted s52, with Sunbelt Cams, SuperSprint Long Tube Headers, Active AW Custom Tuning Custom Aluminum Racing Radiator HD Silicone Hoses TMS Cold Air Intake VAC Oil Cooler & Filter w/ SS Braided Hoses Clutchmasters HD Clutch & PP Full Active AW Exhaust system, Straight Pipe & addl Resonator JRZ Suspension System - w/ 2 race weekends Eibach Adj Sway Bars, Front & Rear Custom Front Splitter with Integrated Brake Ducts, and custom Dive Planes (Easy Removal, no duct work required) VAC Custom Cage with NASCAR Bars Wilwood Front Brakes (e46 M3 Rotors), M3 Rears TMS Carbon Fiber Brake Duct Hats Cobra Kevlar Seat, with VAC custom Adj Mounts VAC Quick Removal Steering Hub Stripped fully painted Interior Diffs Online Custom Diff MA Shaw Carbon Fiber PTG Rear Wing 3 Sets Of SSR 17x9 Wheels Fire Suppression System Perfectly Corner Weighted & exact 2009 IP Weight with 1/8 Fuel Dual In Tank Pick Up Fuel Delivery Wide View Wink Mirror Momo Suede Grip Racing Wheel Rogue Short Shift Kit Delrin Motor & Trans Mounts This car then sat in a trailer for two years, due to lack of funds and motivation, so I started by draining the old fuel by disconnecting the inlet host to the fuel rail and coupling it to another hose which fed into a gas can. I then manually activated the fuel pump by hot-wiring the relay, and the tank was dry about twenty minutes later. I changed the oil and attempted to bleed the brakes, when I realized that the brake master cylinder had gone bad. This problem manifested itself when I poured brake fluid into the reservoir and saw it leak into the driver's side footwell near the pedals. The seals in the master cylinder had deteriorated from abuse on the track combined with the time sitting in the trailer. I took the car to a local shop and had them replace the brake master cylinder and brake booster, at which point they noticed a couple other issues that needed to be addressed. One was the shift selector seal on the transmission, which was leaking a bit of oil. They replaced that, as well as a leaking power steering reservoir. They were about to give me my car back, when they stepped on the clutch and more brake fluid leaked out into the driver's side footwell area. They then proceeded to change the clutch master and slave cylinder and all was then kosher. On top of all that, I had to address an issue that came about when I purchased new Hoosier slicks for the car, which were the “same size” as the old Hankook Ventus Z214 tires that the previous owner had run. Both sets were 245/40-17, but the Hoosiers were a half inch wider than the Hankooks, resulting on rubbing on both the inside and outside of the tire. This was not fixable due to clearance and the fact that there was already a 15mm spacer on each corner of the car. I ended up resolving this issue at the last minute by miraculously finding a set of the Hankooks (which were on national backorder). Fast-forward to this past weekend... I towed the trailer/car all the way down to VIR, six hours through rush-hour traffic and failed traffic lights. I'm pretty used to towing the trailer, by this point, but backing it up is still a challenge. I'm improving quickly, though, and I’m hoping that it becomes second nature here shortly. I didn't race, but I was signed up for HPDE-3 on Saturday and Sunday. I was ready for a weekend full of little issues, and I was definitely not under the impression that I'd be on the track for every session with a perfectly working car. I'm glad I was ready, because the car did not disappoint. I'll just copy/paste my issue log from the weekend, starting with the first issue of the morning on Saturday and going in chronological order... ENGINE-MELTER symptoms: engine overheating at idle while waiting for tech inspection; 243 deg max before shutdown cause: radiator fan not running fix: cut the positive wire from the fan and hot-wired it directly to the positive battery terminal WONKY WHEEL symptoms: large amount of toe-out on driver's side front tire; steering wheel must be turned 20-30 deg clockwise to keep the car tracking straight cause: most likely a bent tie-rod fix: Wayne from RRT (THANKS!!) helped and adjusted the tie-rod inward to reduce the toe-out; after a few sessions of trial and error, we got the car tracking straight RUBBER-SLICER symptoms: bumper contacting driver's side tire when wheel is turned cause: driver’s side bumper mount adjusted too far to the rear fix: loosened the main bolt for the driver's side bumper-mount (using vice-grips) and adjusted it as far forward as it would go, then tightened everything back up GHETTO-MOBILE symptoms: bumper falling off the passenger side mount cause: bumper under too much tension, combined with over-stressed and warped passenger side plastic bumper mount fix: duct tape baby, and lots of it permanent fix: minimally, replace the passenger side mount; total bumper replacement may be necessary The car had not yet put a tire on the track, at this point, as I missed the first session of the morning while wrenching away on the car. By now, however, I was confident that it was in good enough shape to test my luck. I was not too enthusiastic about it, though; with all these issues, I was starting to think the thing might just fall apart and explode into flames after the second lap. Fortunately, that was not the case, as the car quickly proved itself to be a beast. In my opinion, my first experience with this car on the track was just about perfect. VIR (full course) is a long track @ 3.27 miles, and I was fortunate enough to experience something that I had never before encountered. The back half of the track, from the climbing esses to right around Hog Pen, was pouring rain with ominous black clouds, while the front half of the track was bone dry and sunny... literally. Rooster tails were being kicked up by cars coming out of Oak Tree onto the back straight while I was squinting my eyes coming down the front straight. Rainbows were visible at multiple spots around the circuit, as well. It was almost surreal. At first, this was pretty daunting because I was on slicks (no tread), but I dove right in and tested my limits. It was a great exercise in smoothness and I found that the Hankook Ventus Z214 tires were muuuch more grippy in the wet than I ever would have imagined. The tires heated up a looootttt in the dry section of the track, and they had phenomenal grip when I got to the soaking wet sections. I did get squirrely a couple times coming out of Oak Tree, but it was very predictable and easily countered. It was a bit hairy at times because almost everyone I had to pass was getting sideways on the wet pavement in front of me. Obviously, I realize that puddles would have resulted in almost instant hydroplaning, but the rain wasn't hard enough or long enough to result in any standing water on the track. Not to mention that the back half of VIR is anything but flat, and there are very few spots for water to pool. The transition from wet to dry was great. It allowed me to experience almost every possible condition in one compressed, super-educational session. The fun was cut short by about ten minutes because someone crashed a pretty E30 into the barrier in the climbing esses and a tow-truck was required to remove the wreckage. My second session on Saturday was dry and mostly uneventful. The car performed extremely well and I was continuing to push my limits, compress my brake zones, open the throttle earlier out of corners, and toss the car into corners a bit more violently (it likes that). I was pleased to find that the car felt very torquey and powerful, pulling smoothly all the way up to near 8k RPMs. It was also super grippy, planted, and firm, as well as light and flickable. It was also quickly apparent that the car had a lightened flywheel, as the heel-toe throttle blips were insane and I always went way over the RPMs I was intending to hit when I blipped the throttle. Not to mention that I still don't think the shop bled my brakes properly after installing the new master cylinder, because I had a slightly mushy brake pedal all weekend, which screwed up my heel-toe rev matching. The comfort-level was a breath of fresh air when compared to my experience in Skip Barber formula cars. After a SB race, I literally felt like someone had kicked the crap out of me. In contrast, the M3 was soooo comfortable. The steering wheel could have been positioned a bit lower, but that’s just nit-picking. I didn't realize how much gas the car was eating up, so I had to come in a bit early so as not to run the fuel tank dry. That turned out to be a fortuitous occurrence that I will address shortly. As the day wound down, I moved the car back into the trailer and noticed something ominous. The clutch engagement/disengagement point had moved from about half-way between the floor and the top of the pedal travel, down to about one inch from the floor. I knew something was most likely going to happen the next day... I just didn't know how soon. It turned out to be very soon!! I finally got my camera setup on the car and was ready to run some laps in the nice cool temperatures (80 deg) at 9:30 in the morning. I got through one warm-up lap and three quarters of the next lap at speed, before the clutch failed to disengage, preventing me from shifting the car into gear. Here's the video of that lap and the failure (don't forget to watch in 1080 with sound): And here are the rest of my issues... GRINDING GEARS symptoms: clutch disengagement point moving closer and closer toward the floor, eventually resulting in total loss of the clutch (failure to disengage), subsequently preventing the use of the precious transmission (read: could not put the car into gear) cause: possible failure of the plastic pivot pin for the clutch (inside the bell-housing of the transmission) fix: duct tape baby... just kidding; we started the car in second gear to move it across the paddock area over to the trailer, then pushed it up into its final resting place permanent fix: remove tranny, inspect situation, replace offending parts NO SWITCH FOR YOU!! symptoms: main shut-off switch failed to shut off electrical power to the car cause: the two locking nuts had loosened and the back-end control unit for the shut-off switch was rotating with the switch, thus preventing the toggle action from occurring fix: removed the panel holding the switch and racepak display (two phillips head screws) and used two large wrenches (1”) to tighten the nuts holding the shut-off switch unit. I try to look at the silver lining in everything. In this case, I can be happy that I had to come in early on Saturday due to lack of fuel. If I had not done that, and either ran another lap or added a couple gallons of gas, the clutch failure would have occurred on Saturday evening rather than Sunday morning. Since I didn’t get my camera setup working until Sunday morning, I would not have recorded even one measly lap worth of video for you guys to watch!! Anyways, I've typed too much. I hope you all enjoyed my write-up and short video. Bye for now! Edited August 7, 2012 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t500hps Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Sorry to hear your troubles but glad you found them (could have been worse, like the guy with the E30) I was in your HPDE3 group and had very minor issues compared to you. My first time on slicks at VIR and corded them in the first session......had to run on my street tires the rest of the weekend. (Red Charger) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclipsor Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 Sorry to hear your troubles but glad you found them (could have been worse, like the guy with the E30) Absolutely. I definitely did not leave disappointed. I was in your HPDE3 group and had very minor issues compared to you. My first time on slicks at VIR and corded them in the first session......had to run on my street tires the rest of the weekend. (Red Charger) I remember you. How did you cord your slicks in the first session? Were they already at the end of their life? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beach Cruiser Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Sorry to hear about your troubles too, Everyone in my pit group broke. My son blew up his accord, the viper lost a powersteering pump, and Brian's TTA car lost something in the valvetrain (Lifter?) I was bragging that I'm the only one that didn't break (I have to drive the car home, everyone else has trailers) Till I swapped tires and found a front rotor cracked so bad it looked like a pizza with a piece missing! Because Racecar... And to t500hps, I'm in DE3 now, I'll be coming for you! You are the only car ever that I've had to point by! Won't happen again with me on A6's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra4B Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 And to t500hps, I'm in DE3 now, I'll be coming for you! You are the only car ever that I've had to point by! Won't happen again with me on A6's Oh no... what have I created Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t500hps Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 .............And to t500hps, I'm in DE3 now, I'll be coming for you! You are the only car ever that I've had to point by! Won't happen again with me on A6's Be careful what you wish for, I was on street tires too when we ran together (280 treadwear).......now I'll be on slicks if it's dry. I rarely got passed until my first HPDE3, boy that was an eye opener. We have high HP cars but some of those guys can make you feel like your running a 4 cyl!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tronix Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Great post Eclipsor! Can't wait for your next outing. It'll be much better, I promise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red00gt Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Your car looks and sounds like a hoot to drive!! and very fast! Good luck with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclipsor Posted August 6, 2012 Author Share Posted August 6, 2012 Thanks for the compliments, guys. I will definitely post more video when I go out to Summit Point here on the 18/19th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclipsor Posted August 6, 2012 Author Share Posted August 6, 2012 Also, I sent the moderator a PM about this, but it hasn't changed... I can't post without moderator approval. I promise I'm not a spambot!! Please let me post without approval. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getfast Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 Get to 5 posts and you shall have the freedom you desire. As explained here and here and here and here and here and here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclipsor Posted August 7, 2012 Author Share Posted August 7, 2012 I see. Thank you for the explanation. Edit: yay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getfast Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 Woohoo you're free now! And sorry for the hassle. The amount of spam we delete on here in a week would blow your mind. Dozens (sometimes hundreds) of posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captahole Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Great another m3 at NASA! Can you feel my sarcasim? Haha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclipsor Posted August 18, 2012 Author Share Posted August 18, 2012 Ha, funny. I had more bad luck this weekend (today, actually)... my oil pump failed right near the end of my first session. At least I got to pass quite a few people and was subsequently rewarded with a couple laps all to my lonesome. My best clear lap was somewhere around 1:21. I will be uploading more video later, but this is all I have right now. Don't forget to watch in 1080! Here's a video with lots of point-bys... Edit: Here are some laps from Sunday in my Dad's 991S. I was black-flagged for an issue with the brake lights mid-way through my session (loose connection, fixed). Laps before the black flag - Laps after the black flag (AC Cobra spins at the 10:25 mark) - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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