A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

rear toe is about 2mm in so its there or there abouts. i really dont want to do anything to unsettle the rear end, sideways might be good in a drift car, and a loose rear is great for changing direction with a rally car on gravel, but its slow on a race track

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

a hidden benefit of moving the extinguisher, battery, wiring etc is the inside of the car looks tidier, looking tidy does not give a performance advantage, but i know as a scrut myself if a car looks tidy i dont look as hard for stuff wrong! just need to clean the floor now!



when i bought the car it had short stubby dtm look mirrors, which i replaced with standard E30 ones, the reason being one was damaged and reward visibility was rubbish, having not raced for a long while i was more concerned with rearward visibility than go faster mirrors. last year experimenting with ducting air into the cabin i was stunned as to how much air pressure built up just under the mirrors, so i have bought some cheap extended dtm type mirrors, i should still have decent rearward visibility and they are certainly a lot more slippery shape, half the weight of the OE ones too.



lastly for the moment ive bought a new screen, a preformed polycarbonate one, its half the weight of the glass one, plus i dont need the screen rubber which saves another 2kg weight. it cost a small fortune, but if it out lasts 4 glass screens it will of paid for itself. i used to use poly screens before, i used to cut them out myself, but being cut from a flat sheet they never fitted great and had to be screwed in, which probably didnt help with wet weather condensation problems i used to have.

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

ive been pondering what to do with the front spoiler, after it was damaged i had repaired it with fibreglass, but its looking pretty secondhand.
i could of easily bought a new one but in the end opted not to, instead fit an OE bumper skin its lighter, cheaper wont shatter if knocked and easy to attach with a few bolts, and will probably stay attached if knocked. in circuit racing you want panels reasonably well attached, bodywork hanging off is likely to get you black flagged and ruin your race.

as the bumper skin is lighter than the old spoiler and ive saved a bit of weight doing away with its mounts i gave thought to giving the center section a bit of reinforcement, partly to help it stay attached and partly a bit more protection for the rad and oil cooler.





i also used the opportunity to upgrade the webbing front towing strap to a pair of wire straps, although the old strap seemed plenty strong enough, it wasnt really blue book compliant. Finally i got the corner weight scales out again, all the recent work has paid off, the cars down another 10kg to 918kg, heavy by escort standards, but not bad given an iron blocked straight six up front, best bit is the nose of the car is actually 20kg lighter, so we are back to 55/45 weight distribution with a near empty tank and me on board. i really need to put myself on a diet now, as i now make up 10% of the cars all up weight!

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

interestingly ive just realised the car is now lighter than the blue one, although to be fair this one has 8x15 wheels which are a lot lighter than the blue cars 10x18

[turbo m]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

I like your thinking on this. WHAT CAN I DO to make it lighter rather than spend spend spend.
I would have drilled those penny washers on the bumper too might have saved a gram!!!

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

I like your thinking on this. WHAT CAN I DO to make it lighter rather than spend spend spend.
I would have drilled those penny washers on the bumper too might have saved a gram!!!

cheapest way to lighten things is loose weight myself, i shed over 10kgs but have got stuck now!

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!



due to the effects of covid last month i had my one and only competitive outing of the year.

theoretically the car was ready as i did have a test day and race booked at the beginning of the year. so my pre race prep consisted of charging batteries, blowing up the tyres, which was a bit of a problem because i couldnt remember what pressures to use! i used to have a brilliant memory and never had to write anything down, but it seems its not what it used to be! anyway after guessing pressures i put some fuel in it and gave it a blat round the industrial estate to check it still worked and chucked it on the trailer, and headed to Donington park. My one and only previous race at Donington was the last race i did at the tail end of last year in total monsoon conditions, so i arrived this time with only the most basic idea of the track layout.

i had entered the CSCC future classics 40 min race, it has quite a varied grid, consiting of several e30s a stack of Porche 944s several 911's couple of skylines, usually a few V8 powered cars, its generally a full grid, my E30 is way down on power compared to quite a few so running anywhere in the top half of the field is good., it was almost a year since i had driven the car and i was back at a circuit i didnt know, most of the guys had raced earlier in the year, and a lot tested the day before so i wasnt that hopefull of a good result.

For qualifying i arrived at the collection area fairly early and lined up behind a collection of 911's, they had obviously made an effort to line up at the front to get some clear track, i figured my only real hope of getting a good grid position was to get a tow, trouble was i was sure the 911's would take off too fast for me to live with on a strange track and in a car running different geometry from when i last raced. As predicted the 911's took off too fast for me, and intially so did a Bmw E21, but i did manage to slightly distantly hang on to it, that E21 has a later E30 325 engine, it doesnt have anything like the straight-line grunt i have, but its pilots absolutely drive the wheels off it through the corners, it always looks like its about to crash but never does. once i got a measure of just how fast craner curves actually are i got on the tail of the E21, followed it for a couple of laps then over took it as i found it was holding me up.

one thing that was a little alarming was an alarm literally, the right hand kink at craner was giving oil pressure warnings whilst i didnt brake there i was out of the throttle so i chose to ignore it. At a couple of points on circuit the car was a bit understeery but the rear was absolutely planted so the rear beam mods i made last winter were defiantly working. near the end of the half hour qualifying session i did a practice pit stop ( race has mandatory pit stop) i dont normally practise the stop during the qualify session, but the format was changed due to covid, instead of having to get out the car and back in quick as possible, it was now a minimum of two minute time in the pit lane without having to get out the car. I exited the pits but only did another lap or two as i was feeling car sick, making a mental noet to take more travel sick pills before the race.

checking the quali times on TSL i was 16th out of 39, just one slot behind Paul Dolans E30 which is the one id had a great dice against round Anglesey last year. i was well chuffed with that. just to show the difference between a track conditions compared to last years monsoon i was lapping 20 seconds a lap faster

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

between qualifying and the race i didnt do much, i put a bit more oil in the engine to try and reduce the oil surge, and topped up the fuel a bit, only a bit because i did qualy with far too much fuel in the tank, quite simply i couldn't remember how much fuel the car would need for a 30 min session, see i really need to start writing stuff down. i literally didnt do anything else to the car.

thinking about where it understeered which was mostly out of Redgate, the only corner where you need a lot of steering input, thinking about it, its similar to the only corner at Brands where it wanted to understeer last year and thats Druids, again, only corner where a lot of steering input is needed. Thinking about it the way forward might be to take a little caster out of the front , the large caster angle is probably giving too much neg camber on the tighter corners.

Race. the race itself i got a good start, getting round the outside of a couple of cars into the first corner, Id got myself ahead of Paul Dolan in his E30, past a skyline and few others, spent the next few laps trying to hang onto the tails of a couple of 944's, which isnt easy, having transaxles, really low slung engines etc they are really fast and stable through the corners. i had decent pace it was lap 6 before the skyline i passed at the start overtook me again. i was aware of Paul in his E30 behind me most corners and that his car was oversteering whilst my car had a tendancy to understeer, i knew my weak spot on the circuit was Redgate, trying too hard would see me understeering off into the gravel, i tried to keep it cautious into that corner but lap 7 i was too cautious paul dived up the inside and i had no answer, he than pulled a bit of a gap on me, thing is by this point age and lack of fitness coupled with no power steering is showing it can be hard to react when you get passed, but i dug deep and over the next 2 laps got back on pauls tail, at which point he pitted, i pushed passing a MR2 on a nearly empty track and pitted next time round.

Having got a good last couple of laps in and timed the pitstop well after the stop i was back ahead of Paul again. next few laps were pretty uneventful, track was pretty empty i caught a 944, was about to pass it, until yellow flags were deployed after the incident he gapped me a bit, i caught and passed the 944, but meanst while Paul in his E30 was closing in again, i kept him at bay until and incident caused a safety car deployment which bunched everyone up. lap 23 after hassling a 944 into Goddards it got very crowded, i tried barking late, but the car wasnt having it, it didnt slow like i expected, it was probably a mixture of tyres and brakes loosing temperature as it was very late in the day and quite cool, but also i noted looking back at the video i was going 5mph faster than normal before i hit the brakes, either way i had to make a quick decision as to whether to cut the chicane or risk hitting a stack of tyres or maybe another car, i chose to cut the chicane, that dropped me a few places, letting Paul by again in the process, a bit annoying because had i not trying to pass the 944 into the chicane i would of probably got past it anyway and with only 2 laps of the race left finished in the top ten.

so looking back, im a bit annoyed at my mistake, but i enjoyed the race, was happy with my competitiveness and last winters changes to the car.

so thats it season over as soon as it started. over the winter i want to tidy the car a bit, tweek the front end geometry and have another look at sump baffling, thats if work and getting the dyno up and running allow me any time

[katana]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

I exited the pits but only did another lap or two as i was feeling car sick, making a mental note to take more travel sick pills before the race.

That bit did make me smile - strange hobby choice LOL!

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

That bit did make me smile - strange hobby choice LOL!

yeah i know, i was always car sick as a kid, only certain race tracks make me feel ill though, its only the ones that have a lot of high G left/right/left combos

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

part one of race, race start is a rolling start approx 3 mins in

https://youtu.be/mSesthyGEDA

the not very exiting part 2

https://youtu.be/a_0Ze-Wy4eU

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

since its one and only outing of the year ive not done a thing to the car, infact i didnt even take it off the trailer until xmas eve. covid, staff shortages not to meantion concerns over money and trying to get the dyno sorted, mean i simply haven't given the car any thought. at this stage ive got no idea how much racing i will do next year, but i do have a small plan of action.


i might of only done one event this year, but it was obvious last years mods gave the rear end a whole heap more grip, that gave a lot more confidence to stick the boot in knowing the rear end would stick, although that did result in understeer in the tighter corners, in my book thats better than not being able to get on the load pedal hard, the car is good in medium and fast corners, the understeer only showing when i need a lot of steering lock so i think its just a case of slightly too much caster, looking up .teh strut top mount, clearly ive got plenty of adjustment


next i need to do something about the oil surge, i did look into an accusump, but dont want the weight/complication or the considerable cost of fitting one so going to tweek the sump and fit a crank scraper.



the sump works really well, unless you turn right, that is. the main problem is the angle of the right side of block and sump, it just sends the oil straight up the side of the block, location and shape of the oil pump and pickup prevent you having an effective horizontal baffle. i also think the existing baffling is reducing oil flow back to where its needed just at the wrong time. if i fit a crank scraper its should help keep the oil in the by scraping it off the crank, and helping stop it climbing up the block sump. im not sure it will help surge going right but it makes sense to add a kick out to the right side of the sump to increase its capacity i will also extend the existing sump wing, my thinking being if its got more oil in it theres a greater chance of it keeping the pickup covered

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

i forgot to take pictures of the sump or scraper plate before they went back on the car, here it is, give or take a bit, its 1.5 litre more capacity, so hopefully that and the scraper will keep the oil under control.

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

Ive just done my first race meeting of the year a 40 min pitstop race at Thruxton. its a circuit i have very little experience, i did two 15 min races about 15 years ago, and in 2019 with the car in its current format, 2019 was a bit of a disaster though, the car wouldn't run properly, then lost 80% of throttle towards the end of the race as well as throwing up several times whilst at the wheel.

pre meeting prep consisted of brake fluid change and new pads all round (DS3000) the rears were not worn but i wanted to put the same material in both ends, it did have standard road pads in the rear the hope being a little less rear brake from cold and a little more hot. I also stocked up on travel sick pills having now worked out which brand to take and how many/when for them to be effective, i also pulled a fraction of caster and camber out the front end

Qualifying went reasonably ok, with only the most basic memory of which direction the track went i really needed to find someone to tow me round, but every other car i came across was slower on the straights and faster in the corners of vice versa. so i gave up and just tried to figure it out on my own. A couple of places i got dash alarms, making me think i had oil surge, much later on i somewhat embarrassingly realized i had forgotten the colour my dash oil warning, its yellow not red! which meant i backed off when there was no need, not to mention pulling earlier than i could of done. Qualifying done I chucked an extra litre of oil in the engine and looked up my grid position. i was to start the race 18th out of 30 and 5th in class so not great but not terrible my qualifying lap being a massive 6 seconds faster than my last outing a the circuit.

it was a standing start race and i didnt make a good one, ive not done many of them as the car stands now, i used slightly too few revs initially then too much throttle and lit the rears up dropping a couple of spots in the process. race itself was good and clean, i figured out better where i was going and in the second half shaved another two seconds off my qualifying pace. and i worked my way upto 8th overall and 3rd in class, which was ok, except that i left the pits 0.34 sec to early and was hit with a 30 sec time penalty, that dropped me to 4th in class and 9th overall. to be honest i fairly happy with my finishing position, 1st bmw home ( there were several e30s in the race) 1st proper saloon car home, the 2 cars in my class which finished ahead of me ( on the road) were 3.0 Porsche 944's, with there low profile and ideal weight distribution from the rear transaxles those things handle like they are on rails, getting an E30 even close is an achievement. the car behaved well during the race, despite the modified sump and extra oil i did get real oil surge a couple of times in the second half of the race, each time through i was seriously sideways either in the chicane or a tight right, left, right and was out the throttle so i hope the engine didnt suffer. Handling wise it was really good, unless i was really aggressive with the throttle in the slow bits the rear end was planted with tenancy and gently understeered in the fast corners.

video of the first half of the race below, some idiot (me) forgot to erase old races from the SD card so i didnt get all the second half of the race!

[alladdin]

Re: A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

were you hunting a tiger ?