E46 Fanatics Forum banner

Spec E46 operational costs

8K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  Greg Holmberg 
#1 ·
On ApexSpeed.com I've been conducting a survey of operational costs for each class.

Here I'm only looking at the predictable costs that vary between the classes.

Some costs are more or less the same between classes, such as towing, hotel, food, entry fee, and so on. I am ignoring those costs.

Some costs are personal choice, and not inherent in the class, such as how much you choose to spend on your tow vehicle or RV, or paying people to support you. I am ignoring those too.

Some costs, while having some correlation to the class, are unpredictable and so difficult to quantify, such as crash repairs or engine failures. I am ignoring those too.

That leaves me with:
  • tires
  • engine rebuild (by a professional)
  • gearbox rebuild
  • fuel
  • brake pads
  • other, depending on the class

So as to be able to make an apple-to-apples comparison between classes, it's necessary to say that when putting numbers to these costs, we're talking about a nationally competitive car. In some classes in the survey, nearly all cars are nationally competitive (FE, SRF3), so nationally competitive has to be the basis for comparison. In many classes it can be much cheaper to run mid-pack in regional races, but I can't use that for comparison.

I guess there are other smaller but predictable maintenance costs, such as oil changes, brake rotors, brake fluid, etc. If you think Spec E46 has above or below average expenses in these areas, let me know, and I will include them.

Drivers from many of the classes have responded with data for their class, and the result is:

a spreadsheet in Google docs

Here's what I have for Spec E46. Some of these I just made up out of thin air, and are merely place-holders until I get better numbers from this community. If you have changes, please reply below, and I will update the spreadsheet.

Class name: SE46
Engine make: BMW
Engine model: M54
Displacement: 3000
Power at crank, HP: 253
Torque at crank, ft-lbs: 246
Weight with driver, lbs: 2,850
Purchase new, $: 50,000 professional build, nationaly competitive
Purchase used, $: 30,000 professional build, nationally competitive
Tires set, $: 944 Toyo RR
Tire competitive heat cycles: 13
Engine rebuild, $: 5,000
Engine competitive hours: 80
Fuel $/gallon: 3.00
Fuel gallons/hour: 10
Brake pads set, $: 513
Brake pads hours: 10
Gearbox rebuild: ?
Gearbox hours: ?
Other operational costs per weekend or per hour, $:​

As for engine costs, here is the scenario. You have a fresh engine producing power that is competitive in a Majors race or the Run-offs. It produces this power for some amount of time, and then starts to fall off, and at some point is no longer competitive. You send the engine back to the builder, who does whatever is necessary for that particular engine (some classes more, some less) to make it competitive again. How much does the builder charge for this? And how many hours did the engine operate competitively before becoming non-competitive?


Thanks,

Greg Holmberg_a_
 
See less See more
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top