New (old) E36 M3

[bostonaudi]

Fun with RTAB's. Actually not that hard on the E36 with a bushing removal tool. Some guys drill the center out and whack the bushing out with a hammer but the tool makes it way easier. Went with Powerflex in the rear. My old bushings were starting to separate from the centers.

 

[bostonaudi]

Thought I'd wake my old thread up.

Have done two HPDE's in the M3 so far. Still way off the pace of my GTI at its peak - at its best I was hitting low 1:26's at Roebling, and one high 1:25 which was awesome.

Best so far with the M3 is a 1:29, albeit on crappy street tires (Sumi HTR 3's).

Still have some learning, one thing really holding me back is lack of headroom, my head is cocked sideways driving it, so just not comfortable. Have a set of Cobra Suzuka's waiting to go in, so need to get it done soon.

The suspension isn't dialed in quite right either, it needs a refresh, it has an older GC/Koni set up in it now. Another E36 M3 was at the track equipped with TRM coilovers, and he was kicking my ass, he also had better tires, but his car seemed way more composed around the track. The TRM's come with pretty extreme rates, but the shocks seem really well dialed in, owner said car rode pretty well around the street as well.

Track day carnage continues, a brand brand new Cayman S was totalled over the weekend. Came into 5 too hot, when straight off, driver cut wheel to left to try to save it, sand caught the car and it proceeded to roll all the way over once. It landed on wheels again, and most of the body was scratch free, but roof caved in the center. Side airbags went off, drivers OK. Car might be salvageable, body mostly straight and motor fired right up again. I guess chop the top and make it a Boxster! If you have a newer car with a loan, and take it to the track, I'd suggest track day insurance, or better yet bring an older beater you can afford to wreck like my M3.

 

[GGray]

Thought I'd wake my old thread up.

Have done two HPDE's in the M3 so far. Still way off the pace of my GTI at its peak - at its best I was hitting low 1:26's at Roebling, and one high 1:25 which was awesome.

Best so far with the M3 is a 1:29, albeit on crappy street tires (Sumi HTR 3's).

Still have some learning, one thing really holding me back is lack of headroom, my head is cocked sideways driving it, so just not comfortable. Have a set of Cobra Suzuka's waiting to go in, so need to get it done soon.

The suspension isn't dialed in quite right either, it needs a refresh, it has an older GC/Koni set up in it now. Another E36 M3 was at the track equipped with TRM coilovers, and he was kicking my ass, he also had better tires, but his car seemed way more composed around the track. The TRM's come with pretty extreme rates, but the shocks seem really well dialed in, owner said car rode pretty well around the street as well.

Track day carnage continues, a brand brand new Cayman S was totalled over the weekend. Came into 5 too hot, when straight off, driver cut wheel to left to try to save it, sand caught the car and it proceeded to roll all the way over once. It landed on wheels again, and most of the body was scratch free, but roof caved in the center. Side airbags went off, drivers OK. Car might be salvageable, body mostly straight and motor fired right up again. I guess chop the top and make it a Boxster! If you have a newer car with a loan, and take it to the track, I'd suggest track day insurance, or better yet bring an older beater you can afford to wreck like my M3.

That's a buddy of mine Alex Chapman in a Daytona Violet car... He runs ridiculous rates on his car with NO sway bars which is ahhh his deal.. Not what we recommend but he likes it...

Your tires are killing you probably 3-5 seconds JUST in tires...

I run 550Front , 850Rear with Hotchkis bars full stiff front, full soft rear on my touring with R888's and it works great. I have ISC's on the car which are very close to the TRM set up.

I will be at VIR end of the month if your there.

 

[bostonaudi]

Yes, I met Alex, he's quite the suspension enthusiast! Alex said he set his car up with 1200/1200, and yes no bars. He's a dentist, so I suppose he can glue his own teeth back in!

The violet car (or was that Alex's car, I thought it was his friends) had the default TRM set up with something like 670/895? He ran a small front and no rear bar, car was moving well. They also kept a very high ride height on the violet car.

Taking summer off, but hopefully this fall will get the M3 tuned up a bit better. I'll have to ring you guys up on the ISC setup.

 

[GGray]

Yes, I met Alex, he's quite the suspension enthusiast! Alex said he set his car up with 1200/1200, and yes no bars. He's a dentist, so I suppose he can glue his own teeth back in!

The violet car (or was that Alex's car, I thought it was his friends) had the default TRM set up with something like 670/895? He ran a small front and no rear bar, car was moving well. They also kept a very high ride height on the violet car.

Taking summer off, but hopefully this fall will get the M3 tuned up a bit better. I'll have to ring you guys up on the ISC setup.

LOL.. Alex and I have gone round and round about his set up LOL... Belive it or not his car is not THAT bad on street... Shockingly... I swear his car is Higher than stock!

I have driven an E36M3 of my buddies with the ISC's I helped put on and set up. I was shocked how nice they are for the money which is why I put them on mine and took the Koni stuff off.. I did use some Ground Control articulating rear height adjusters with Hypercoil springs.

If you want to go for a ride drop by. Me to, VIR end of this month is it for me until late September to much going on this year!

 

[bostonaudi]

His car seems to be set up at about same height as a stock non-M E36. I think he's going for maximum camber curve and controlling the high CG with massive springs, seems to work. I set my car to what Bentley said was height for an M3 with sport suspension, and I was about an inch lower.

As an aside, this was Dick Shines tuning philosophy around FWD VW's, keep the front high, and control the roll with big springs and a fat rear bar.

you must be running the Chin event at VIR?

 

[bostonaudi]

Holy wheel gap. Put a stock suspension back in over weekend, as track season is over till fall down here, doubt this car has been stock for last 15 yrs. Needed to know what it was that BMW originally shipped. Still fairly firm suspension, but low speed damping a little floaty. Feels fairly similar to stock GTI but M3's spring rates feel a little stouter in rear. Control arms now sitting where they should be! All the same McPherson issues apply here.

 

[GGray]

You sure that is OEM? looks pretty high... Maybe because I have not had a stock M3 in probably 10 years or more... They ship with Sachs dampers all around. The springs are pretty soft from factory.

 

[bostonaudi]

You sure that is OEM? looks pretty high... Maybe because I have not had a stock M3 in probably 10 years or more... They ship with Sachs dampers all around. The springs are pretty soft from factory.

Given the reliability of the used market, could be out of anything. Supposedly came out of a 98 M3 with 90k mi. I likely picked up a little castor using the newer top mounts. Height seems to match what Bentley is saying, at least for the front. I refreshed the shock mounts and it seems pretty tight. Definitely easier hitting bumps.

Just wanted to drive it around for a bit and enjoy factory goodness. Now I can make some informed decisions on where it falls short as a track car and go from there.

Noted there are quite a number of color codes for springs, no idea if I got the right ones. My rears were pink I recall.

 

[bostonaudi]

Verified the springs are out of a convert, which weighs 200 lb more, car is sitting about 10 mm higher than it should.

 

[bostonaudi]

Was taking the camber plates off to refresh the bearings, noted my Koni's seem to have a bottom adjuster, compression apparently. Trying to figure out what model front Koni's I might have. The rears are standard SA Koni's as far as I can tell.