Nurburgring Spa and Mods!

[David H]

I thought it was about time I posted a few words about my recent upgrades and a trip to the Nurburgring and Spa with my M3.

As most of you know I sold my Westfield last year and bought an M3. I did this for many reasons, the main one being the weather. I like to use my 'fun car' more than just a few times a year and I only managed a few thousand miles a year in my Westies. Now I don't have to worry about the weather anymore and can even look forward to a track day being wet!! It's a new world.

The M3 takes all of my energy to keep on the black stuff on a rainy day, which is a lot of fun.... I get to do this whilst being dry and should I choose to have the aircon on.... I can.

Hoobahole, myself and a few others decided to take our wives to Spa. Our plan was to leave them there to check out the town, relax and enjoy the scenery whilst we nipped over to the Ring for a few laps and home for dinner. The next day we had a track day booked at Spa with Circuitdays. We were hoping the wives wouldn't mind being at Spa as the facilities are good, therefore combining keeping the wives happy whilst enjoying a couple of track days!

It has taken many months of work to get the M3 ready for this trip. A few track days last year and this year told me the car was a keeper and worth working with. I have to be honest, this car is awesome and I have enjoyed it very much. It is however weak in a couple of areas as standard and basically useless on track unless you only want to do just one or two laps at a time, or pansy round all day.

On a journey to a kit car show last year it was apparent the M3 felt unstable at high speed or under acceleration. (I have had to be careful not to compare it too much to my old Westy, although its been tough) Also I managed to completely cook the brakes on a journey to Richard's to pick up some wheels I wanted for track days. Within a mile or two of steep hill high speed driving where brakes are needed, they started to hum, then smell, then they stopped working altogether. These two issues were clearly an obstacle, if I was planning to drive it like I drove my old Westy.

After a fair amount of fiddling around I have settled on 360mm rotors with massive 6 pot calipers on the front, Carbone Lorraine pads all round and Racing Blue fluid going through braided hoses. The brakes also have some air ducts. This set up has been the best compromise of braking for the road and track. I have managed to destroy most pads except the Pagids, unfortunately these made the brakes judder and needed very careful bedding in every time they were used. This isn't going to work for me so I moved onto Carbone Lorriane's RC5+ which are a track pad that don't require bedding in. I will be upgrading to their full on race pad, RC6 once these have worn as I could do with even more stopping power but these are like chalk and cheese compared to the standard set up but I can boil the fluid if I want to due to the compound nature of this pad and stopping a 1520kgs of car.

To combat the poor handling I have fitted some Coilovers which are adjustable from under the bonnet or in the boot. I have made some castor plates out of nylon and increased the castor although I have to make some adjustments to the plates for perfect precision. I have tried many geo set ups and have settled on just under 3 degrees neg camber on front with 2.5 on the rear, toe out on the front and toe in on the rear. It is now possible to adjust the camber and toe very easily at a trackday if I need to as I have calculated that each face on the track rod end is approx 0.3 Degrees toe in or out.

The handling is vastly improved. It is constant work to reach 'perfection' although I am now very happy with it. It is quite unbelievable that such a heavy car with a full leather interior can go so well!

I have managed to squeeze some rear wheels on the front with some semi slicks all round (found a good source of second hand AO48s) These are medium hard compound and require warming up to work. And they work!

The bushes have been replaced with Powerflex bushes to sharpen the response. There are rubber mounts in a few other places that I would consider replacing with solid for example the steering column but this is not a priority at the moment.

I have installed a steering rack from a Z4MC. This rack has the quickest ratio of any production BMW so far. I might be one of the first in England to do the conversion as many have been put off by the possibility of DSC/traction control issues, apparently due to the different position of the rack compared to wheel etc. This has put a few people off doing it until just recently a guinea pig in the USA confirmed it fitted with no known issues. I found a rack before he had tested it as I thought they would soon be gold dust if the conversion worked. Luckily it did work and I haven't had any issues so far either, apart from having to reposition the steering column/rack/steering wheel to satisfy the various sensors. This mod is a good one as it is now possible to keep my hands on the wheel round most circuits unless I'm driving like a hooligan.

BMW made the M3 rack ratio longer than standard, not shorter, to help drivers with motorway accuracy at high speeds.... Cant quite grasp the concept.

I have moved the air temp sensor on the air intake for the throttle bodies to get a more accurate and steady reading. The heat soak from the heads was heating the sensor and of course, changing the parameters. This has made the drive smoother

The car went to Evolve who specialize in M3s and M5s to get it remapped. They pulled a healthy 359bhp out of the relatively young engine which is great. The Supersprint centre exhaust pipes may have helped as there is no rasp reduction box therefore a little extra flow. Some race cats would make it even better! The rev limit has been raised to 8,200rpm from 8000. I thought I would find it hard to hit the limiter as it is screaming when it gets there but I have hit it. It's a lovely soft cut out and the car really wont go above the set revs. It genuinely feels as though it could rev much more! Impressive.



Just before we left for Belgium, I installed a 'Rogue Engineering' quick shift. This is a piece of art. Its made out of billet aluminium and the gear change is now rifle bolt sharp! It was a 2nd hand steal and it would have been a shame not to have put it in. Just perfect for those aggressive gear changes whilst hunting down those little Westfields on track! (Actually, truth be told... I wouldn't get anywhere near my old Westfield on a track day) Then the car got a full inspection 2 with new diff and gearbox oil to make sure.

So, after a thorough polish on the Friday, My wife and I jumped in the M and shot over to Folkeston to get an early Channel tunnel on the Sat morning.

A few of you may remember I went to the ring a couple of years ago in my yellow Westfield and was blown away by the sheer volume of track. Well, it hasn't changed. It is still completely nuts. The car performed flawlessly and was a joy to pilot around. My only gripe was I wish there was more time there!! We managed 7-8 laps which is enough to get re acquainted but to get the fast times, another day or so will be needed.







The next day we went to Spa. This is my first time there and I have been told many times that I will not be disappointed.

I was not disappointed. What a track! Seriously amazing. Its fast fast fast and so very smooth. This has been the toughest test of the M so far by far. The brakes took a pounding and everyone was driving like they had stolen their cars!! Brilliant. I managed a 3.02 which is ok but I had absolutely no idea where I was going and there is sooo much room for improvement. Cant wait to go back and get the hang of Eau Rouge...







On my return, I have only had to tighten a suspension strut and take care of some melted pad material on my discs. Other than that the car is sweet.

[dave_bence]

Excellent write up Dave, thanks for sharing

Some nice photos there - your car certainly looks the part on track

I'm surprised that the standard brakes were so poor

As you say, the 'Ring has to be experienced to be believed. It's amazing that such a place exists in this safety-obsessed world, but I'm sure glad it does.

KrazyKen and I did the 'Ring and Spa back in 2008 and it's a week we'll never forget. I still hope to get back there one day. The highlight for me was Spa. The 'Ring is so long, I'd need a couple of months there to get the hang of it - still an amazing experience though.

We had two full days at Spa and we really didn't want to come home  
Like you say, it's a very fast and flowing track and really hard on the car. I'm amazed my poor little car took all that abuse!

Pictures from our trip can still be seen here:

http://www.davebence.co.uk/photo_galleries/gallery_2/album/index.htm

['The Gaffer']

Fantastic write up mate. Car looks awsome

[alastair]

Mate that sounds like loads of fun. I wish I had joined you. Although you would have left the mini standing!
The Nurburgring is definately one track that I'd love to try.

Glad to here you are getting to grips with the M. I have a quite a bit of fun in my 2.0l coupe through the country lanes during the summer so having that extra power must be brilliant. Although I cant say I've ever had issues with the pads cooking. But then again I only use it on the road and don't push too hard. You never quite know whats round the bend on the road!

Like I said before, keep me posted as to any track days you are doing in the near future.

[Grin-a-lot]

Write up sounds like you had fun, the car has a nice low stance on the track, looks terrifying and great!

[Daley Down Under]

Going to be a tough call to beat that trip this year.  What's next on the mods list?  Surely you cant have finished ... 

[David H]

Yeah, that trip is going to be hard to beat indeed. The mods have not finished but I'll probably slow down as we are now expecting a baby!!

[Bulldog Bri]

Yay. Congrats bud 

[Daley Down Under]

Bit more difficult to polish those ones.  Congrats to you both

Adrian

[robp]

Great write up, Dave.  Car looks fantastic.  Hope to come across you and the M at a circuit soon.

[Daley Down Under]

Especially after the TD trip eh Rob?

[Grin-a-lot]

Congrats to you both, next mods will be baby seats and bottle holders I reckon!

[David H]

Thanks chaps....Gowd knows what I'm in for!!

Bottle holder on its way!!

Can you get baby 5 point harnesses?