E36 M3 - interior painted

A bit more progress has been made on the M3, after a long week or so of prepping the inside we were ready for some paint.

Bit of a toss up between going for a subtle mid grey or brighter colour but in the end opted for the inka orange which I'm very pleased with, certainly shouldn't miss it

E36 M3 Build - Update

I pleased to say at long last the E36 M3 has a roll cage installed.

I went for the full FIA approved custom cages option which is looking fairly substantial, having had the seat trial fitted the car's now at SPR coachworks having the inside painted before returning home.

Donington Park - 29th September 2013 - PBMW rounds 11 & 12

After all the stress, hard work and cost of rebuilding the engine I was really looking forward to rounds 11 and 12 of the PBMW championship, Unfortunately due to work commitments  I could do the test day before the weekend, which in hindsight isn't ideal.

Sunday started off with an early qualifying, as always only 7 laps to remember where the track goes and set a time. Ended up with a time of 2:05.014 which whilst being towards the back of the grid in 25nd place was still over 5 seconds quicker than my qualifying time in 2012.

First race was fairly quiet trying to continue to find a bit of time eventually finishing 22nd with a best time of 2:04.683 equalling my best time of the previous year.

Got a good start in race 2 and for the next 7 laps had one of the best races to date with Arron Morgan and Rob Cooper. Unfortunately on Lap 8 whilst trying to pass Rob I put the car into the gravel, real shame as they finished 14th and 16th so a reasonable result could have been achievable.

On a positive note my best time of 2:03.233 was over 1.3 seconds faster than I previously been at Donington so I left quite content despite the trip into the gravel.

Now only a few days until the last rounds of the championship at Castle Combe, Another track I've never visited and another test day I'll miss due to work.

Snetterton - 19th September - Trackday

After several weeks of hard work the engine was now ready for running in.

As well as giving everything a clean and checking tolerances to make it as new, we also replaced piston rings, main and bottom end bearings, valve guides, skimmed the head and added an oil pressure gauge.  

Found a few other minor issues along the way, including noticing we'd only been getting 80-85% throttle for a while and quite embarrassingly I also found the current clutch looked like this when it was removed, may go some way to explain the lack to drive out of corners! 

With everything looking good I set off to Snetterton to run in the engine, Started off on a dry track with limited revs for the morning, It was a relieve to see everything running correctly after all the hard work which went into building it.

By the afternoon the rain had set in and a good number of people had left the track (there was only 26 signed on in the first place) In many ways this came just at the right time as I was now able to use higher revs and the wet weather and quite track meant for an ideal opportunity to gain some experience of driving on a wet track, something which up until now I hadn't done much of.

Ended the day positive that the car was ready for Donnington in a weeks time, check engine and gear box oils and both were fine. Now all it needs is a quick oil change and the hand brake shoes replacing as for some reason all of the material had come off of one and was locking the rear wheel.

New Engine for the 320.

After destroying the engine at Cadwell it was time to locate and rebuild a new engine. ASWR managed to supply a used engine in super fast time and in order to make sure we where going to get the most out off it a rebuild was going to be needed.

In order to keep the cost a little more sensible I stripped down the new engine and took care the the time consuming task of de-greasing and cleaning all of the parts as the engine builder wasn't about to start putting together parts which weren't like new.

after hours of cleaning the block, pistons and head we're currently starting to look on track.

Cadwell Park - 20th July - PBMW rounds 7 & 8

Cadwell was another first for me having never visited the circuit before, I had concerns about the width of the track in a few places but after a few laps this was all forgotten as the circuit is great.

Prior to the weekend the rear shocks had been sent back to GAZ and shortened to eliminate the bottoming out, this seams to have done the trick, Nice to see some forward progress after several annoying outings.

We did the test day on Friday and although we had a little under steer the car generally felt good, Come the qualifying we ended up on the back of the grid, I think mostly down to using worn tyres, still had plenty of tread but past their best.

A quick trip to the kwik fit van for a pair of fronts both cured the understeer and improved the pace slightly for race 1. Unfortunately they only had 2 tyres left.

Between Races 1 and 2 Ben Woodcock took the class win in Project 8 Racing saloons (sure he won't tell the grand children it was first of 1!)

By the time race 2 came round we'd located a second pair of new tyres for the rear. I got a reasonable start getting passed a car or 2 but on the second lap whilst trying to make up some time to the cars in front there was a sudden loss of power and a very poorly sounding engine.

We're not sure what cause the failure, either over revving the engine and the valve head eventually coming off or if the bearing failed, either way it's pretty safe today number 6 is past it's best so the hunt for a new engine starts. 

But we did at least get a picture of the car in the programe

Some Progress on the E36 M3

Whilst trying to sort out the E30 Handling the E36 M3 build has been a little neglected.

Since the Last Production BMW round at oulton the rear shocks have gone back to gaz and with great efficiency were rebuilt and shortened, New Performance friction front pads fitted and pagid rears. Only thing that might be an issue is that I'm starting to suspect  the chap who built the car may have left the master cylinder from the drum braked shell in place which might send to much pressure to the rear brakes but that can be looked at another day.

With the E30 ready for Cadwell Park attention turned to the E36 over the last couple of days the remaining parts of the wiring loom were removed and the fuel tank taken out which involved removing the exhaust and dropping the prop shaft down.

This now means that bar removing the front and rear screens, adding some bonnet pins and possibly doing something with the sunroof the car is ready to be sent to Custom cages for a multi point cage

North Weald Autosolo - 30th June 2013

Ever since marshalling at an autosolo in 2010 I'd been keen to have a go but for some reason until this year I'd never quite found the time.

Seeing the tyres on my 996 GT3 looking well past their best I thought the north weald event run by sevenoaks motor club was the perfect excuse to enter my first autosolo before replacing the tyres.

The format is similar to a sprint but slower and much tighter. I knew the GT3 wasn't really the ideal tool for the job but with just under 400bhp and no traction control 2 things were certain. Firstly over steer and secondly fun.

In total 4 different courses were set up the best two times from each course were added together to give the total time at the end. I managed to take a wrong route on the first run of each course just to back things more difficult. I think I managed to come 10th in class out of 22 with the top runners being in more nimble MX5's.

Great fun event and very good value for anyone looking to try some affordable Motorsport as no license or safety gear is required just £20 to join the club and £35 entry fee for the day.

Oulton Park - 15th June - PBMW rounds 5 & 6

Having had a complete disaster last year at Oulton by heading out for qualifying without ever having been to the track, and then subsequently throwing the car in the gravel on lap 2, which unluckily snapped the cam belt, we thought it wise to do the Friday test day.

As I share the car we each did 2 30 minute test sessions unfortunately both of mine were wet and very early in the second someone managed to crack a sump on one of the curbs and cover the next part of the track in oil.

Qualifying took place on a drying track, but unfortunately on my last lap I encountered 2 cars that had spun which slowed me slightly, not sure it would have made any difference to me starting towards the back.

Race one was an eventful start with a number of cars in front being involved in an  accident, went on to finish down in 22nd place after being held up a little towards the end.

Started Race 2 in 22nd place, had a good start and made it past a few cars, Also had a few of the faster cars which had retired due to the first race accident come past. Another fun battle chasing Rob Cooper until he spun and then trying to stay in front after he recovered.

Still suffering with the rear shock bottoming out but hoping this will be solved for Cadwell Park in a few weeks.

Brands Hatch Indy - 5th June - Trackday

After the disappointing day on the Grand Prix circuit in May we went home and after much head scratching traced the issue the rear suspension, Initially changed the rear springs from 300lb to 250lb in an attempt to soften the rear. However whilst doing this the real issue became apparent. The bump stops which had been provided were thick enough to restrict the rear suspension movement.

we cut down the rear bump stops, raised the rear ride height by 10mm and adjusted the shocks in order to get sufficient suspension movement before heading off to Brands hatch for a trackday.

by the end of the first lap it was quite apparent that we'd made significant improvements to the car and the only corner we felt the suspension was still causing an issue was at surtees , later in the day raising the rear a further 5mm seamed to improve this.

Now can look forward to the next rounds at Oulton Park.

Brands Hatch GP - 12th April 2013 - PBMW Rounds 3 &4

Reflecting on the weekend a couple of days after and I think the only positive thing I say take away is that a few worthwhile lessons were learned.

Firstly even though Friday testing was restricted to indy circuit we should have done it just to check all was well with the car. Unfortunately jury service had meant that I couldn't do the test day on the GP circuit the week before so qualifying was always going to be compromised.

Secondly don't change / upgrade major suspension components or settings and just assume it will be better, I cannot believe how differently the car drove.

Unfortunately the car sustained a little damage to the rear quarter on the Saturday when being driven by Ben Woodcock in the P8RS race, a some what unnecessary and desperate dive up the inside by another driver has left us with a reasonable bill for fixing the car, annoyingly no attempt to wander over and apologize was made which in my opinion was more annoying than the move itself.

Come Sunday that was all put behind me as I was looking forward to my first chance to drive the Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch, The first few laps of qualifying was just about learning the circuit by about the 5th lap I was just about starting to get to grips with the GP loop and was looking like getting a more reasonable time when coming across Steve Murphy stranded upside down in a gravel trap on the GP loop, quite rightly the red flags were out seconds later but this meant what I'm sure would have been a better lap wasn't finished.

Speaking to people about suspension settings before the first race we set the shocks to 12 rear and 9 front which seams to be a reasonable place to be, however come the race it was quickly apparent that the shocks, in particular the rears were far to hard, we struggled with a little understeer followed by pretty bad oversteer, ending in a spin at Paddock Hill.

Ended up finishing 2nd to last which was my worse result to date.

Before race 2 we softened the suspension taking it down to 5 on the rear and 6 on the front, results were slightly better and had a couple of fun battles at the back of the field. Still went away slightly disappointed but I guess that's just the way it goes some days.

A little research is needed in order to look into the suspension settings and at least 1 trackday and testday prior to the next round at Oulton Park, fingers crossed that we can start to improve.

A few ungrades for Brands Hatch

Following a reasonable run at Snetterton I felt it was time to look at suspension options, The set up I've always run up until now was a spax RSX kit with inboard rear springs. I've always felt there was better options out there but stuck with them for the first year.

One option was to rebuild the spax as they'd done 2 years racing, however after chatting to a few people in the paddock I was offered a set of Gaz Gold full coilovers.

Also added a new set of Pagid discs (kept the Pagid RS29 pads) as the old one's had terrible vibration at Snetterton, and new front wheel bearings.

The first test will be on the Brands Hatch GP circuit this weekend so fingers crossed there's some improvement over the old set up, otherwise I'll have to find another excuse for not moving up the field.

Snetterton 300 - 7th April 2013 - PBMW rounds 1 & 2

After what seamed like the longest, coldest winter in memory it was time for the first 2 rounds of the 2013 Production BMW championship,which took place on the 7th April on the Snetterton 300 circuit.

It doesn't seam right that one of the biggest worries going in to the first rounds was to be the very real chance of snow making an appearance at Snetterton.  Thankfully the Sun cam out for us which made for a much more pleasant trip.

We spend Friday testing the car were a number of respectable sub 2:30m laps were put so went into qualifying feeling positive. However I got stuck it a bit of traffic and despite trying to drop back and leave a gap I was unable to repeat the times of Friday. Ended up qualifying 24th out of 33 with a time of 2:31.498.

After a slightly disappointing start there were further issues when existing the first corner all I could see was smoke where another competitor had spun, unfortunately being in the middle of the track I had little choice but to brake whilst cars on the outside could pass. Managed to pick up a place over all and had a great battle with Kevin Hodgin

Started Race 2 in 23rd a much less eventful race mostly spent chasing and eventually passing Rob Cooper for 19th with a much more positive best lap of 2:29.724 which whilst sill a far way off of the front runners was 0.8s faster than last year.

Now just need to get the car ready for rounds 3 and 4 on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. we were having a lot of vibration under breaking so new discs have been ordered and hopefully will have new coilovers and all of the geometry looked at in time for Brands.

2013 and time for a bit of colour & test day

With the 2013 season rapidly approaching it was time to add a little color to the car before heading off for a test day at Snetterton on the 300 circuit.  Also please to have picked up some welcome sponsorship from parc ferme surveyors which will inject some welcome support for the 2013 season.

The test day started off with a light dusting of snow which made for an interesting first run of the year. A damp morning gave the opportunity to try the car on a damp circuit for the  first time.

By the afternoon the track had dried and some sensible laps put in to get used to driving the car again.

Car all seams to be running well, with just a few tweaks required before the first race of the season at Snetterton in a few weeks.