Big Baller. New Stance, New Shoes.

So here is how the car sits now with the H&R race springs installed. I believe the car is flat and lowered evenly, but the rear just looks lower than the front. That's my only beef with the look. I'm pretty sure that the rear oblong flare of the e36 just looks like that, but if it were me and I had coil-overs, I would create a little more rake.

After that I threw on the style 197 wheels I picked up a couple months ago. Since every kid out here in socal sells the stock wheels off their lease car that daddy paid for, I was able to get these relatively on the cheap. They're made by BBS 18x8 F 18x8.5 R with the correct offset for the 3-series. I'm not one usually to run modern style wheels on an older car, but for the look, price, size and something that hasn't been played to death I had to go for it.

I didn't have the time or means to get a photo shoot going on, but you get the idea. I'm pretty happy with the look. It's for sure more of a baller setup than anything performance related. The rims and run-flats are much heavier. It's really just a rim for cruising. Definitely an upgrade from my curbed up DS1s!

Fog Light How-To

So one of my fog lights died. I figured, this will be easy. What was I thinking? This is a German car. Whatever solution they decided for the fog lights will be ingenious and simple, but not obvious. I had to consult the bentley.

There is apparently a little tab you can depress through the grill or brake duct, depending on e36 model, that releases the fog light. After that you can replace the bulb. That's it. I was pulling from behind. Trying all sorts of wrong ideas.

I thought that was pretty cool. In the end it was a very simple and easy way to remove light, just not totally intuitive.

Dumpy Dump. H&R Race Spring Installation.

Mileage 143,300

So I finally got around to installing a set of H&R Race Springs for my 1995 M3. I already had the billie sports left on from the previous owner so I figured I would pair them up with the race springs. I could not find them for cheaper than $240 shipped. I shopped around awhile too. The best deal I found was from the Tirerack at $246.05 shipped.

In addition to the springs I also ordered new upper and lower spring pads for the front and rear as well as the replacement self-locking and locking collar nuts for the front. This was the first job in the new garage, and I was a little hesitant due to the large amount of black widow spiders I had killed the weeks prior. I bought some crazy spider spray, and as long as I kept my eyes out I would be ok. Southern California garage work. Small and spider ridden. It doesn't get much better than that.

So first things first I checked out the bentley to see what it had to say about suspension installation. Of course it wanted me to remove the caliper, rotor, steering arm, tie rod etc...but I took a look and it appeared that I could just unbolt the strut assembly and support the hub without much of a problem.

There are three bolts connecting the steering arm to the strut. Three collar nuts up top holding the strut mount to the body and one nut attached to the end link of the sway bar, if you have one. I unbolted everything on the bottom with a little help from my air tools then slowly took the nuts off the top. I put a jack under the control arm and placed various devices in accordance with some addtional jacks stands at various points of rigidity to station the brake and hub assembly from moving and tearing a ball joint. A wire hanger may work as well.

I pulled the strut assembly out without much of a problem. I then turned my attention to my newly purchased $8 spring compressors from Harbor Freight.

I strapped those bad boys up to the spring and hit the top 22mm nut with my impact wrench. As you can see the dust boot got a little twisted, but that simply straightened out and didn't tear.

The spring actually didn't fully uncompress until I broke the spring perch free from the strut. This was after I already removed the compressors. It bounced a little, but it wasn't under much tension.

I decided to just reuse the 95 strut mounts with all their miles on them. New ones weren't cheap. About $90 a piece. I figured I would just replace them with Caster/Camber mounts kits when the time came so I had no problem reusing them.

I replaced the busted up spring pads.

Whoever installed the Bilstein sports didn't use the correct top spring pads. It looks like they just used all lower spring pads. The front left was torn and the others were blown out.

I wasn't exactly sure which direction the spring was supposed to go. It didn't really say in the H&R handout either. I assumed the dead coils, or coils bunched close together, would go at the top and the logo would be right side up. Let me know if I'm wrong, because I couldn't find any definite information. I just went with "logic."

UPDATE: Called H&R. They confirmed the dead coils go at the top and the logos go right side up.

Comparison side by side stock vs. H&R Race

So I put the new pads in and dropped the spring in. I assembled the strut mount back on top with the assortment of washers and then torqued it down using a new self-locking nut. I was able to torque the nut down to 32ftlbs. I then hit it with the impact for a little extra snug.

I used my special 22mm socket that I have repurposed into a, "strut tool/castle socket." It looks nasty but does the job. It was first, "created," way back so I could hold the top nut of struts while accessing the internal hex, but then it turned into a castle socket for a clutch replacement on a 1974 cb750. It still works!

Assembled and ready to go back in.

Without disturbing the brake/hub assembly contraption I put the strut assembly back into it's place. I held it in by threading the new collar nuts up top and then tightened down the rest of the bolts.

The other side went pretty much the same way only faster.

Unfortunately I suffered from lowered car-double jack syndrome when trying to put the car back down after the fronts were installed. Usually I put the low profile jack in the front and jack up the middle of the front subframe. I did this after completing the spring installation and basically trapped my jack under the car. There was no room to pump the jack back up so I resorted to the factory jack! Which to my surprise is probably the best factory jack I have ever seen out of any car I've owned.

E36 M3 Factory jack FTW!

I backed the car in for the rears and also decided to bypass the Bentley's suggestion of rear spring removal. It consisted of removing the axle from the diff and lowering the rear trailing arm etc, so I basically said not today. I jacked the car up and removed the lower strut bolt. I positioned a jack beneath the trailing arm but it only rebounded a little bit.

I didn't have enough men or much of my own man power to just push down on the hub assembly and pull the spring out so I went with the redneck solution. I got the spring compressors in there as much as I could and started clamping the spring down.

After awhile I was able to wedge the stock spring out of its pocket. I'm kind of embarrassed to show that image, but that's how I did it. Not sure if that's ghetto or standard, but it worked.

I replaced the upper and lower spring pads with the OEM replacement pieces. The race spring went in without much convincing. I used a long wrench to pry down the suspension and push the spring into place. After that I torqued the bolt on the rear strut down and put the wheel back on. The rears didn't take much time at all.

Left rear installed.

Right rear installed.

Loaded gun rolling around the garage.

Another OEM BMW part that I've never used but decided to bust out purely out of being exhausted and fed up with wheel bolts instead of studs is the thing that comes in the tool kit on the boot lid. It's job is to actually go into a wheel bolt thread to help align the wheel.

Another shot of the "tool"

Overall the job went down about as expected. Would've been a bigger pain in the ass without air tools. Also might not have been possible without the spring compressors. And as far as the first run in the garage goes...not bad! About the same space as the last place but totally enclosed so I was covered from the rain this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised that it worked out as well as it did. I'll post some pics of just the garage in a couple weeks.

As far as ride quality and performance goes...well it was too wet to get on some corners. It's definitely more stiff, but the billie sports account for about 75% of that. I'm saying that it was already stiff, now it's just paired with the correct springs. We'll have to see how it goes on the track! I'm excited to see what it can do, stay tuned.

Race day! NASA HPDE Buttonwillow 10/10/10

It's been awhile since I was at the track. I figured I needed to get back out there. With NASA's Buttonwillow event right around the corner I took up the opportunity to hit one of socal's most fun and technical courses. The last time I was at Buttonwillow was in the spring of 2008 with my 01 Audi TT 225. That car preformed pretty lackluster to say the least. This time around was a much different story.

After anxiously taking three different exits before the acutal exit, I rolled up around 7:15 for tech inspection. The last two track days I've been out with the M3, I generally just pick the first open spot in the paddock that I see. Those spots have generally been around Honda dudes. Nice guys, but not much in common when it comes to swapping tips and tricks. This time though I looked for the BMWs.

I saw about 5 or 6 e36 M3's and figured that would be a good place to park. I met the owner of the company sponsoring the cars Ian from Midnight Oil Motors. Stationed in San Diego, they apparently had just started up at the beginning of the race season this year. Ian said he had 7 cars competing that day including the class winning spec e30.

Throughout the day I was able to ask them about tire pressures, specifics on the S50 and whatever BMW related race questions I seemed to come up with. Obviously I was a noob running in HPDE2, but everyone was super friendly and seemed to have no problem with me hanging around.

So the day started off well. From here on I'm going to give my personal experience of the race day. The day went extremely well and I found that the control and restraint I exercised allowed me to do much better than I had ever done in the past.

The day was broken up into 4 sessions for the "classroom" setting run groups. Between those 4 sessions were actual races of the series that NASA has setup. These series include a spec miata, 944 and e30 race. Other class races went on as well. The way the system works is you race from HPDE 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 until you're deemed ready to race with the big boys. You then apply for a license in a certain class. Generally people race for about a whole year (8 sessions/weekends) before they apply for a license.

HPDE1 requires an instructor. In HPDE2 an instructor is optional. I was able to move up to HPDE2 after California Speedway. I was happy because I prefer about 75% my own instruction and 25% teacher information. I've found I work best if I'm told the major parts of the equation, filling the rest in myself. The past two instructors didn't exactly work for me. Just like any teacher or instructor is can be hard to find the right person who works with one's style.

So with that all being said I pulled up to the wall outside pit lane with the rest of the HPDE1/2 cars. A guy comes up to my window and asks if I need an instructor. Recently I've been more positive and under the impression that I shouldn't turn anything down that is offered to me (within reason). So I said, sure, hop in.

His name was Tim. He said he also drove an e36 with a cammed m50 variant of some sorts. This was a good sign for me. The last two instructors drove FWD Fords.....kind of a different beast entirely. I told Tim I hadn't been out since April. He told me he hadn't raced until yesterday for 4 years. It's like riding a bike he said.

I took off and instantly the line I remembered from 2008 comes back to me. Tim doesn't say much, I keep pushing it. I feel good. All four tires are the same now and talk to me on all the corners. There is some sliding, but I know exactly where the car is. Tim gives me some tips about what gears to be in around each corner.

The first time out on the last couple tracks I tend to down shift too much and keep the car in the red a little too much. With most of the M3 torque kicking in around 3250RPM, I'm able to use higher gears and not downshift. I finish up the session and pull back to my spot. Tim gets out and we talk about smooth inputs and slow-in fast-out. He shakes my hand says well, you're fast. Felt good to hear that, like I passed some requirement or something.

The last couple times the instructors had been pretty critical. I was always trying to overdrive the car. I really really wanted to "feel" fast. I knew I wasn't doing the best I could and I realized it had alot to do with my use of energy and my "all-in" attitude. I took a different approach this time out and fortunately, on my own after the first session, I got faster and faster throughout the day. I felt good about my position in the group being one of the faster cars.

One thing I can attribute the better driving to is the overall attention to what I was doing. The night before I planned out my whole day making sure not to use up all my energy at once. I set aside 2.5 hours in the morning for just the drive there. After that I knew I had two sessions then lunch. I didn't eat a whole lot like I had last time, just kept it moderate. After lunch 2 more sessions but don't forget the drive back. The last couple times I spent all my energy for the 4 sessions. 5:00 rolls around and I can barely drive back home. It's like I forgot I had to get home. Not only did that make the drive home slightly dangerous by being so tired, it caused me to not allot my energy sparingly enough throughout the day which I believe, this time around, was the difference.

Being able to reserve myself allowed me to really calm down and drive. Other times I just go full bore and nutty on the track. I really took in the mantra of "you have to slow down to go fast." I noticed that while I was racing at speeds past 100mph, shifting, engaging the clutch, heel toe and turning the steering wheel, I still had to watch for everyone behind and in front of me. It's amazing to me that while all of this sounds so hectic on paper, you're body is producing so much adrenaline just to "slow" your brain down to handle it all and make instantaneous decisions. That thought somehow crept into my mind while I was racing.

I remember getting out of the car after the 3rd session heart racing, hands shaking. You stop all the inputs, but the body continues it's course. It really just amazed me.

I was able to really think about my body, brain, attitude and control all those things so I could have a really successful race day. I now understand that you can pretty much use the idea of restraint and control and be successful in almost anything, but nothing holds more true than in racing. You have to be totally reserved. There is no room to be any other way.

Overall I was very happy with how the day turned out. The whole day left me soaring. I can only think about the next time I'll be out there, and what I can do to my car next. Yet while I don't have the budget or time right now to race every other weekend and work on my car, I still hope and know one day (soon) I will.

So that's my personal experience with the day. There were some sick cars in the paddock including an SL AMG Black. I didn't get a picture, sorry. Here are some of the other cars including some sick Porsche's, a couple e30 M3s and a cool paint scheme on a Honda. If the timing works out I'm heading back to buttonwillow on November 6!