[JPoland]

After getting several requests from members/friends on here recently I have decided that I will post pics and talk about my car a little bit. I have posted some pics in the past but it wasn't focusing on the car but more of maintenance aspects so you really didn't see a whole lot.

Several members have seen my car but not for a long while (except for Zach who sees it all the time). So, for those of you that I talk to outside the forum, there may be a surprise or two

Let me preface the photos by saying, this is my cars CURRENT form. It wasn't always so and as a matter of fact, the car was 100% stock when I purchased it in August of 2008. Also, these are NOT glamor shots so go easy


These were taken this past weekend at Road Atlanta during an HPDE. The car wasn't washed before hand as I was busy getting it back together and ready for the track.


mismatched headlights I just haven't gotten around to cleaning up and putting the other stock headlight back in (yes I said stock, I'll explain shortly).





AND because I think this was a hilarious move by Zach...


I digress, there is more that I haven't told many people...

Yup, I'm a stripper





So if you just like pictures then this post is basically over because I will now talk about what I have done to the car.

As you have seen, I have gone a little bit of a different route than many of the people on here in that I have stripped my car out and turned it into a track machine. Calvin has been going down this path for some time and before I suspected I might do the same.
The real modifications started when I got the AST 4100s which I'm still running and have been phenomenal for me. I got the kit with vorshlag camber plates and AST RSMs (prior to that I was using the Rogue RSM which are also great). The springs are hyperco 550 lbs/inch front and 650 lbs/inch rear. I might be looking to get a set with a higher spring rate at some point.

I've put in poly AKG motor mounts at the same time I added the VAC oil pan baffle and the AKG front subframe reinforcements. I refreshed the rest of the front suspension with new OE parts.

I managed to get new wheels before my first track day at Roebling Road (back in June). They are 17x9 D-Force LTW5s with 255/40/17 Star Specs on all 4 corners. I rolled the rear fenders and am using a 12mm spacer up front but I would like to go to a 10mm spacer for piece of mind against rubbing (not that I really rub now).

Roebling Road was fantastic and gave me the motivation I needed to monsterfy the car. I took several months off to really try to get the car into a better condition for hard track duty.

So this past summer I suffered through the b*tch a$$ Georgia weather and buckled down. I put in a Zionsville competition cooling kit radiator which came with a spal fan and wiring kit. I did not delete the aux fan as I wanted the insurance against the GA heat and I don't see myself pulling this out anytime that soon. I also put in a Stewart water pump. I currently have this waiting to go in as well

This is the Euro expansion tank kit from Bimmerworld which is nice because it is self bleeding. I did this because I don't want to risk an overheat due to a damn bubble that didn't get bled. However, so far the new cooling system has been great and handled hard laps at Road Atlanta in 90F weather very well.

I have also added the sensors and wires for SPA gauges. All I need to do now is finish routing the wiring through the firewall and hook them up but I've rigged them up and they worked great.

[JPoland]

So we are about here right now. You can see the new radiator and the braided stainless steel line I have used to remote mount the oil pressure sender (this is done so the weight of the pressure transducer doesn't cause the fitting which screws into the oil distribution block to break (if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, no worries you will if you are ever ready to get to that point)).

So, continuing this rant...

This is now starting to get pretty recent with the review of what I've done.
At this point, there were a lot of threads flying around of people that had their RTABs fail on them and rip the bolt out. My RTABs were the originals but they looked good, as have all of my bushings to date/before I replaced them. Still, I didn't want to deal with failed RTABs. So I worked with a friend/shop owner who welded in the BW RTAB reinforcements.



Since having the reinforcements welded in meant I had to remove the Rear Trailing Arm (RTA) (the B in RTAB is for bushing for any noobs), this meant that I had to get an alignment. So, why not get as much done as possible prior to the alignment, no? So obviously the bushings were done.


You can see the AKG 80A poly bushing in this picture.

I had already purchased the parts necessary for the CV boot refresh a while prior to this but now it was time to actually do the deed.


Massive appreciation goes out to Cal on this because his DIY basically walked me through the procedure. If you have gotten plenty of sleep then doing this is not hard but if you have been loosing a ton of sleep to get the car ready to go then its not so easy. Anyway, I repacked the boots with CV2 redline. I had already repacked the wheel bearings with CV2 so they were ready to go in.
Taking a step back in time for a moment, I had done the front wheel bearings before Roebling road and had repacked those with CV2 grease which is when I also repacked the rear bearings, I just didn't get them in until recently.
I also replaced the ball joints because I DO NOT (repeat... NNNNOOOOOTTTTTT) want do deal with those RTAs again. Its not that they are THAT big of a PITA but its just the way I had to do it since I don't have a full work shop yet (damn apartment garage).
Anyway, I was then able to get an alignment which I can now keep for a while... yay!

So, in the midst of the RTA stuff, I was also doing interior work when I just didn't have the motivation to get down and dirty under the car.


The seats I have put in are Recaro Pole positions. These are very popular these days and for a good reason, they hold you REALLY tightly. The pole position is on the small end of seats for me and in the future I will likely go a little bigger and probably get a seat with a halo assuming I continue to track the car (which is very likely barring something unforeseen). The mounts I'm using for the seat are VAC long plates + Recaro sliders and VAC side mounts. This combination puts me directly in front of the steering wheel which I am very happy about. It has also moved me down enough so that my helmet clears the headliner versus with the vaders when it didn't and I had to tilt my head slightly or slouch.

The harnesses which are shown in shot looking through the trunk of the first post are Schroth 4 point clip ins. They use the stock seatbelt locations as mounts. Most clubs (be it for auto-x or HPDE) won't allow 4 point harnesses due to their propensity to allow "submarining" where in a font end impact, a person can slide out from under the lap belts since there is no crotch belt. The beauty of the schroth belts is that they have patented ASM (anti-submarining) technology and are made specifically for the E36 M3 (they make the belts for other models as well IIRC). Due to this, clubs will allow the use of these belts and they work great as well. Probably the best feature is that you can use these with your stock interior and stock seats and then if you ever go aftermarket, you can keep using them. So until I get a cage, these are what I will run. Their resale value is also very good.

Back to under the body, right before I got the alignment I finally installed my Turner rear camber arms. When I had got an alignment before Roebling Road (b/c of the coilovers + tie-rod installation) they maxed out my rear camber and it was barely enough to handle the 255 SS tires. I wanted some more adjust-ability and since those would require an alignment anyway, I put them on.

So that is basically where I am currently at with the suspension and under the car. Inside I've removed all of the carpet and center console stuff along with everything behind the driver/passenger seats including the side trim cards.

One of the other things you probably noticed are the wing and splitter. The wing is something I have wanted for a while and had a line on one until SOMEONE (ahem*Ant*ahem) got the jump on me and picked it up lol. I had put that I wanted to buy a genuine LTW/GT wing in my sig on bf.c and one day out of the blue I got a PM from a guy looking to sell his. So after a trip up to Washington DC to get the wing and visit a friend, I had a genuine GT wing. I was painted BR green at one time (the stamped serial plate is still BR green) but the wing was repainted cosmos which I have left. I have seen wings of this style which were painted Estoril and I did not like them... too much blue. Don't get me wrong I still LOVE my color but it just wouldn't look right IMHO. So its not that I didn't want to pay the $$, I was going to have it painted cosmos even if it didn't come to me that way so I actually got lucky that Ant got the wing I was first looking at.

The splitter is from Harrison motorsports (a local guy for me but my favorite vendor to go to as he is honest and just a fun guy to know (also my HPDE instructor at Road Atlanta and a darn good driver to boot)). The splitter is mainly to balance out the downforce of the wing in the rear but at $250 a piece, it really made sense to me to go with this because if I destroy it by running off the track, it isn't the end of the world.

Time for shake down at Road Atlanta...

[JPoland]

Ok so I want to finish this up but I may have to do it in parts since work is all over the place at the moment.

So the day before Road Atlanta I am working on taking care of some last minute things. One of them is going to the aftermarket steering wheel. (Warning: I am not endorsing the removal or any airbags. If you remove one or more airbag it is at your own risk. Airbags do save lives).
Note, the bolts which hold the airbag console in are torx NOT hex A good bit of information to remember is most things relating to safety are torx heads.
This is where the Personal steering wheel went it. The model I'm using the is fitti corsa with red stitching. Since the wheel is wrapped with suede, I wear my driving gloves all the time now Oh well I really don't mind it.
I also have an NRG quick release which is VERY sturdy and is not coming off unexpectedly however in hind sight... I don't need this right now. This is really for a situation with a cage where it is a PITA to get out of the car. What I will do until I get a cage is pick up a hub adapter.

I also replaced my exhaust hangers and mid-pipe to muffler nuts and bolts. I was having problems with my exhaust rubbing on the LR tire and hitting the valence. The hangers looked fine to be and only after I got them out did I see that one of them had torn where it was difficult to see.

Road Atlanta.

The session on the first day was alright, I got the track down and explored the characteristics of the car in its new form. The handling & acceleration was DEFINITELY benefited from all of the weight loss. I got to do a session in the wet at the end of day 1 which was something I'd been dying to try. It was a lot of fun! The car remained very controlled and either had a little 4 wheel drift or just a little bit of oversteer which is what I wanted.

Also saw here that the wing was really working at high speeds. Midway down the back straight I was doing 110 mph and glanced in my rearview mirror make sure no one was coming up on me and saw the water shooting way into the air (much higher than cars without a functional wing).

Day 2 was great and I really had the line down by the end of the day. I have a video from my Go-Pro but since I'm at work I can't load it on vimeo yet. Its not my best session by any means but Zach is in there so you can see how he and I were very strong in our group.

So now comes plans for the future.
For the short term there are a few things that Road Atlanta brought to light. One of which I knew might be a problem and that is the shifter. That thing is just worn and I had to be care when changing gears. I've also got new AKG transmission mounts which will go in. I also need to work with my fender liners just a little bit and make sure they are nicely held into the proper place. A clutch job MAY be in order for the future but I need to make that assessment this week.

For the long term, well there are a lot of plans. One of the big things is a cage. Having a stripped out car which is pushed hard on the track means safety really needs to be taken care of.
Another thing is maybe I can get some more power out of this engine. I was originally ready to do an S54 swap but after having seen what I can do with this stock motor and a lightened chassis, I will stick with what I have a focus on being competitive with the S52. Then if I upgrade, I will be able to better utilize the increased power.

BUUUUTTTTT... recently something came up which I knew might not ever happen again so I jumped on it.


Evosport race cams

I don't have any of the supporting mods yet (injectors, HFM, intake, full exhaust) or obviously a tune but I can't expect to see these cams go up for sale again and me to be in the right place at the right time to get them. So there will be more happening with the car in the near and far future.

I'm happy to share what I know or what I've done with anyone. I hope this has been entertaining and informative. As I said, there is a LOT I didn't mention so feel free to ask.

[Potenza]

Originally Posted by Mr Estoril

I don't have any of the supporting mods yet (injectors, HFM, intake, full exhaust) or obviously a tune but I can't expect to see these cams go up for sale again and me to be in the right place at the right time to get them. So there will be more happening with the car in the near and far future.

That's the same principle that started the pile of boxed parts in my garage. It's something I don't think my wife will ever understand.

"Do you really need that? No, but I will later, and it's on sale now."

Looks like you have a well prepped car.

Boiler UP!

[hencini]

VERY cool and well thought-out car... Nice work!!

[thedood]

It's about time, Joe!

Joe has really transformed that car. It was a solid stock-ish car when I first saw it, but he's been relentless over the past 6 months! I can't believe how much time he's put into it.

I think Joe & I both had a great weekend at Road Atlanta. We were in the D run group so there were a lot of guys who weren't driving as aggressively or consistently, meaning we had a lot of trains at times, but the event was awesome. Like Joe said, we had some fun in the rain Saturday afternoon, which was a blast.

On a side note, I can't believe how dirty that picture made my car look. That was after the rain on Saturday, which really did a number on it. At least you didn't take a picture after I tried to take a shortcut.

Originally Posted by ANT'S M3

Ps where I can get these harnesses.... I want em lol

Ant, if my girlfriend doesn't want my "old" one, you can buy mine. It's red & looks like new; I've used it for ~6 autocrosses and a couple track events. Let me know if you're interested.

Originally Posted by SG_M3

Any reason you guys run so much rake? evosport cams?

I'm not sure where Joe is sitting, but I'm at 12.25"/11.25" F/R on 500 pound springs at all corners. The rear was getting light in certain turns at RA, but overall it was very neutral & predictable.

My M3 is currently my only car, so it has to endure all sorts of speed bumps, ramps, & crappy Atlanta roads.

[Jvanmater]

Originally Posted by Mr Estoril

Thanks Joe! I appreciate the praise! I love the direction you have gone with yours as well.

Thank you too

Can't wait to see what you think about the evosports.

Originally Posted by thedood

I'm not sure where Joe is sitting, but I'm at 12.25"/11.25" F/R on 500 pound springs at all corners. The rear was getting light in certain turns at RA, but overall it was very neutral & predictable.

My M3 is currently my only car, so it has to endure all sorts of speed bumps, ramps, & crappy Atlanta roads.

That is wayyy low imo. I run 13"F and 12"R for ample suspension travel.


You too definitely need to attend the NE meet next time

[adema24]

Car is looking mighty beastly Joe!

[MPRESV]

What front splitter is that?


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[JPoland]

Originally Posted by MPRESV

What front splitter is that?


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Ah glad you asked as I was thinking you might. It is the Harrison Motorsports splitter.