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and now for something completely different... E46 M3 rally car

84K views 120 replies 44 participants last post by  volxport1 
#1 · (Edited)
I've always been a BMW guy. My first car was an '88 528e wreck that I rebuilt, which kicked off a long line of BMWs; an E36 328i, a '95 M3 (which eventually become a road racer), an '88 M3 with an Evo 2.5l motor, the first ZHP 330i in the country, a Dinan S2 X5, and my current E46 M3 (a 2002 model I bought back in '05). During this time I always tracked my BMWs, but back in 2006 I switched from road racing to rallying, running a Mitsubishi Evo IX RS at Targa Newfoundland and then in the Canadian Rally Championship. After taking a job at a software start-up (read-as: no money and even less free time) I decided to take a break from racing. I sold the Evo at the end of 2011, and have had to feed the addiction solely with track days since.

I suspected that wouldn't last.

Track days are fun, but when you're used to racing it's just not enough. So, I've decided to take my beloved 2002 BMW M3 and convert it into a racer. The plan for the car is a unique one; it'll be converted to Rally America spec and raced at the Empire State Performance Rally, the New England Hill Climb series (capped off by the Climb to the Clouds up Mount Washington) and -- if budget allows -- a return for my 6th run at Targa Newfoundland.

This thread will track my progress on the build. So, comment below and follow along as I convert the car. Enjoy!

 
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#63 ·
Back at it again today. Only a month out now from my first event, so need to pick up the pace.

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Got my tires for the event mounted and balanced. Falken provided me with a set of their Azenis RT615K in 265/35-18. I've mounted them on a set of Rota 18x9.5" race wheels.





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Next up was to remove the A/C system. Air conditioning can be nice in a track car, but it's a whole lot of weight (close to 80 lbs of crap) hanging off the nose of the car. So out it had to go.

You basically have to remove everything in the front of the car to get the A/C parts out; bumper, right headlight, air duct, radiator, etc.



Now that's a whole lot of stuff. I also removed the windshield washer reservoir, as I'll be relocating the tank to the back of the car.



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I have been dealing with very high temps in the car for some time. The problem was always the same -- oil temps would climb as I got deep into a track session, and then water temp would climb until the car was too hot. Bimmerworld manufactures an upgraded oil cooler for the S54 to deal with just this situation. Needless to say, it was a must-do as I converted the car into a racer.






Last thing to do was to make sure that air makes it into the oil cooler. With the A/C condenser out of the way, there's a gap between the plastic air guide and the cooler. So, I added a sheet of aluminum to make sure that the air entering the bottom of the bumper opening is guided all the way to the oil cooler and doesn't rise towards the radiator.





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I'm just down to odds-and-ends now before the car is ready for it's first race! Keep watching this space.
 
#74 ·
Almost done!

We're now less than two weeks away from the Empire State Rally, so I'm in the final push to prep the car. Check out my latest:



I created a simple portable jack for the car using an old Porsche 944 aluminum jack. I cut off the tab where you use a crank handle to rotate it and tapped on a socket. The idea is that I'll attach my impact gun to the socket and the jack will raise the car. Voila!



I also added the required first aid kit and a tool roll to the supplies in the trunk. The First Aid Kit is simply bungeed to the framing in the trunk.



The tool roll is strapped to the carbon fiber plate I fabricated earlier. The tool roll itself includes all of the tools you'd find in a factory tool kit along with a an upgraded screwdriver set-up with multiple bits, pliers and cutters, zip-ties, and a blade. It's enough to handle simple on-road repairs.



Also, to clean up the airflow around the splitter, I put some black helicopter tape on the seam between the front lip spoiler and the side splitters.

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My last major project was to install a fan switch to control the electric fan on the backside of my radiator. I'll only really really need it for when the car is sitting at idle, so there's no need for a fancy temperature switch.



I bought a SPAL fan harness as it would mate right up to my SPAL electric fan.



I mounted the relay for the fan switch near the ABS pump. I powered it from the main positive post. The other wires run out to the fan, and into the cabin for switched power and ground.





The fan switch itself was mounted to the carbon fiber panel I fabricated earlier. The switch on the left is for the fan, while the two switches on the right are for the rally computer and interior lights.

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To close out the project, I had some custom vinyl cut for the car. James at Bimmerworld was really helpful during the project, and Falken provided tires. The main stickers are to promote the open-source web development software Drupal. I have been working in the project for the last 4 years and (lacking a main sponsor) I decided to help promote awareness of this amazing community and software.

Check out some final pre-event shots of the car:



















 
#79 ·
We're less than a week away now. I finally got the car corner balanced and aligned. I brought it to Turner Motorsport, as their race shop is right here in the North Shore of Massachusetts.



The car weighs a lot more than I was hoping for; 3300lbs with all spares and supplies. That means a full racing weight north of 3700lbs. *oink* *oink*

If I strip out the spare wheel, jack and impact gun, triangles, first aid kit, passenger seat, etc., I can probably get the car under 3200lbs for road racing. Still too freakin' heavy. I may need to take a sawzall to it. :)



The good news is that the front/rear weight balance is really good. The car should rotate well.

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Once I picked the car up, i took it to the BMW CCA school at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. I volunteered to instruct, which gives me some open lapping to get a feel for the car and for the Falken tires, and to shake out any bugs.



The event was a mixed bag. I ran two solid sessions and the car felt great. The Falken RT-615ks were a bit of a revelation. They definitely lacked the grip of a full race tire, but they were sticky, predictable, and gave really good feedback at the limit. I could push the car confidently and know how much it would slide. They also heat up quickly, which will be helpful at Empire State as the temps are expected to be low and the stages are relatively short.

In the 3rd session, however, I had an ABS/DSC fault and lost the ABS braking. Not sure if you all have felt that before, but the results are disastrous. The brake balance gets out of whack and it's very easy to lock the wheels. I tried cleaning the sensors at the track, but to no avail. The car was basically undriveable at the limit with the brakes in that condition.

I left the track with huge angst. Was it a sensor? Could the ECU be having a problem? Thankfully I have a local repair shop that has a factory-compatible scanner. They traced it back to the left rear wheel speed sensor, and a replacement from the dealer fixed the issue. I ordered the other 3, and will try to get them on the car before Empire State.

Next time I post should be after the rally, so please wish me well!

Thanks for following.
 
#80 ·
Cool project,

It's very heavy. It might be time for some lexan. SAP delete, and cabin filter assembly delete, and kevlar bumper bars would help too.

What is the name of the vendor that sells the carbon fiber panels? I want to do something similar to my door panels.

Keep up the good work
 
#85 · (Edited)
Empire State Performance Rally -- Race Recap



I ran the Empire State Performance Rally this weekend. The event is a 2-day long tarmac rally held in the roads around Rock Hill, New York. The roads are mostly marked 25-35mph and are rough, have significant elevation change, and are heavily crowned and sandy/gravelly from the winter. Some say it's perfect conditions for Subaru's, but I beg to differ. :)

As you know from the build thread, after more than 2 years away from stage rally, I decided to build up my street E46 M3 so I could do the handful of tarmac events in North America; ESPR, some hillclimbs, and Targa Newfoundland. My budget was short, so as you see in the build thread I focused solely on adding safety equipment and completing key maintenance. The car is exactly as I drove it to work every day for the last 8 years, with mild suspension tweaks, engine bolt-ons, and a lightweight hood and trunk. It's a total pig at 3300lbs without driver/co-driver, but I love the car anyway. Seeing a service park full of gutted and turbo'ed monsters running proper 5-figure rally suspension made me seriously re-think the decision to leave in the heater core, power windows, sound deadening, etc. :cry:

I decided to run a smart race rather than a flat-out race. I was starting the rally with limited experience with pace notes, a new car, a new co-driver, with a suspension that I wasn't sure could handle the bumps, and on roads I have never seen before. It felt right to focus on running as quickly as I was comfortable, avoid pushing on the jumps and gravel sections, and really focus on trying to finish the event at a competitive pace and see how we made out along the way.

Day 1 started well. I was right within striking distance of the other 2WD cars. It was really hard to get comfortable trusting the pace notes over the high speed crests, and I was braking heavily for the jumps so as to save the suspension. There were issues with a couple of local residents trying to disrupt the rally so we had a couple of stage cancellations, so unfortunately the times were equalized and I missed out on time I was really hoping for to learn the car and get comfortable with the notes before the long, high speed stages that closed the day.

After our lunch service we started the first run of the longest stage of the rally. I was off-pace, and uncomfortable. I didn't know how much to push the car and stay within a reasonable pace, and the rough roads were pounding the suspension into the bump stops. Towards the end of the stage, I was caught by the leader in 2WD, Erik Potts in his turbocharged focus. Thankfully it was just the kick in the ass I needed. With Erik 100 or so yards off my rear bumper I picked up the pace and managed to maintain the gap through the finish. I limited the damage to only 1 minute, but it was poor driving and would set us back for the rest of the event. I didn't make the same mistake on the second run through the stage. I was flat over all of the crests, braked as late as possible before jumps, and carried as much speed as was reasonable through the short gravel section on the stage. I cut a full minute off of my time in the first run and got right back on pace with the leaders. I ended Day 1 back in 5th, but now I was even more determined to keep my pace up while not risking the car.

Day 2 started at Monticello Motor Club. The rally would use the track for 2 "stages" that started from the pit lane, included two chicanes to slow down the high speed cars, and ended back in the pit lane. This was our chance to make back time. I had never seen the track before, but attacked the course and managed to dominate both my competitors in 2WD as well as all of the AWD cars. It was just the boost I needed, and allowed me to claw back over half the time I lost on my slow stage time.

With that motivation, and with increased confidence in my co-driver, I proceeded to attack the rest of the day's stages in order to climb back up the order. I was still losing a ton of time having to crawl through the gravel sections, and to avoid any of the cuts so as to not damage the unprotected belly of the M3. Instead, I was focusing on making the time back by using the high-speed handling advantage of the M3 to push harder through the fast sections than I knew my competitors would be able to.

When all the results were tallied, we managed to claw back all of the time we lost and finished the day in 2nd place in 2WD (behind the incredibly well prepared and expertly driven Ford Focus of Erik Potts) and 6th place overall. Not a bad result.



Thanks to James Clay @ Bimmerworld for his invaluable advice and for supplying some critical maintenance and reliability parts, to TC Design for suspension set-up advice, to Marco at Motive for the tools and supplies, and to Falken for the tires.

I plan to make some key changes to the car to make it more competitive; switch to a suspension set-up that will give me more travel and durability, and to a semi-slick tire like our competitors ran, we'll cut as much weight out of the car as possible, and protect the underbody so that we don't have to fear the gravel and the cuts. With those changes, I believe we have a set-up that could do really well at Targa, and could win next year's Empire State Rally (and maybe even podium in the overall).

Some more pics below, courtesy of NCRally:



 
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