Portland folks: Pro-3 E30s racing at Portland Int'l Raceway Sept 23-24

[JJe30]

I might try to make it to this.

[Lance Racing]

Pro-3 Schedule for this weekend at PIR:

Saturday
9:44am Practice
2:55pm Qualifying 1

Sunday
10:00am Qualifying 2
3:35pm Race (30 minutes long)

Overall, there are 6 race groups. First race is at 2:15pm. Last race green flags at 5:50pm. All races are 30 minutes.

Whats the latest on PDX weather for this weekend?

[Lance Racing]

How to build a Pro-3 race car.

Rather than retyping it, I'll cut and paste and excellent post that Dale Beuning put together. In particular, look at the minimum you need to do to get on the track compared to an all-out build. For Pro-3, before you can race with the big boys, you have to go through a Novice program to secure a senior license. SO you have time to make incremental improvements to the car to make it competitive. Most guys coming into Pro-3 do not show up with a car that has maxed out what is allowed.

Here is the link:

http://www.unofficialbmw.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=24824

And I've snipped the first post, so it is archived here.

(snip)

What's it take to build a Pro3 race car?

At a minimum, the safety gear, and stripping out all interior except dash and door panels, and the right tires.

Minimum:
8 point roll cage, prefer welded over boltin
Autopower sells a boltin, or a weld-in kit

http://www.ioportracing.com/faq/APapplications.htm

On the East Coast, talk to James at http://www.bimmerworld.com.
In the Northwest, talk to Russ at RaceTechFAb in Portland http://www.racetechfab.com/

You can buy most of the following parts from Andy at Armadillo Racing http://www.armadilloracing.com/ And your safety gear as well. Tell him Dale@unofficialbmw.com sent you. He also has a complete line of safety gear.
- window net
- racing bucket seat
- 5 point or 6 point racing harness
- fire suppression system

- set of 4 225/50/14 Toyo RA1 tires shaved to 4/32s
- AIM Tire has good prices and does a good job on shaving tires: http://www.aimtire.com/typ_category....&ObjectID=6369
- Also Vilven in IL is a good source.

- remove all sound insulation from the flooring. get dry ice, apply, then whack with a mallet. comes right up.

- get weight down to 2650 pounds, including driver, at the _end_ of the race, not the start.

Optional Go-Fast stuff:

SUSPENSION:

- 14x7 Panasport ultralight wheels or 15x7 wheels http://www.midatlanticmotorsport.com/panasport_ul_.htm
Or from Mac Russell if you are in the Northwest.

- coilover suspension with adjustable Bilstein or Koni shocks, no external resovoir
Ground Control: http://www.ground-control.com/?D=f60...c64e162db6d324

Ireland Engineering:

http://www.bmw2002.com/

- also get camber plates for the front top strut mount, rear camber/toe adjustment not as important

- sway bars, I like the Suspension Techniques, but the tubular ones from Ireland
are cool also, and more adjustable.

ENGINE:

- header, either Ireland's or the Stahl header, free flow exhaust

http://www.kormanfastbmw.com/e30.htm

- cold-air intake

- chip, I recommend Mark D'Sylva, tell him Dale at Unofficialbmw.com sent you

http://www.dsylva-tech.ca/

--> Don't buy a crap chip off of ebay!

- remove all A/C components! All that extra weight is slowing you down!

- remove power steering belt, pump, and hoses. block off the holes in the
power steering rack with bolts after removing
power steering fluid.

- remove engine fan, when you're moving, you don't need a fan, if you're stopped, shut it off! (doesn't apply to street cars) I have no fan whatsoever on my race car, most guys will run an electric fan.

DRIVETRAIN:

- 4.10LSD diff, stock on E30 M3, I'd try to find it on ebay, then get rebuilt by local shop. NW Differentials in Kirkland WA for those in the NW.

http://motors.listings.ebay.com/Transmission- Drivetrain_Differentials-Parts_W0QQfromZR11QQsacategoryZ33731QQsocmdZListin gItemList

- front strut brace, I like the Sparco or Ireland 1piece bar. Be careful to measure your shock tower distance before ordering.

- general, new control arms, only stock steel, no aluminum!! new tie-rods

- short shifter, more fun to shift fast, I like the factory Z3 1.9 shift lever and
the rest of the components just new factory stuff. 30% reduction in shift throw
length with this shift lever

BRAKES:

- stock ABS, it's legal in our class, so be sure yours works!

- brake pads, lots of guys are running the Porterfield R4 pad, lots of choices
Or XP8/XP9/XP10s from CarboTech http://www.carbotecheng.com

- brake rotors, generic OEM Brembo rotors. cryo treat them if you like, but they last just fine without it.

- run 3" cooling ducts to the front brakes, the rears don't need any more cooling
then stock.


For tons of pics of my car, see these pages: http://www.unofficialbmw.com/racing/images/

http://www.unofficialbmw.com/racing/paint/

Rules: See the PDF here, search for '1316' and you'll find the complete exact list of rules.

http://www.icscc.com/rules/Cr2004.pdf

http://www.icscc.com/rules/Cr2005.pdf

http://www.icscc.com/rules/Cr2006.pdf

[Lance Racing]

Note that a rule change proposal is on the table to not allow ABS in Pro-3. We'll know by November if it goes through or not.

Reason to keep ABS: Less chance to flat spot an expensive race tire. One less thing to do to the car when prepping it. Easier to drive car in the rain.

Reason to eliminate ABS: Because Pro-3 as a spec series is a drivers series, using ABS is looked at as masking the true skill of slowing a car down at a race track. Also, the early E30 ABS sometimes has problems in full-on race conditions. Guys have had ABS lock-out at real bad times, resulting in their car crashing because the brake pedal went rock hard in a braking zone.

The Pro-3 community are evenly divided on if ABS should be in Pro-3 or not.

[KenC]

Lance,
It's supposed to be high 70s/ low 80s and sunny in PDX this weekend for both days.

[Lance Racing]

I doubt SpecE30 is going to get any traction in the PNW because of the strength of Pro-3. I'm all for seeing SpecE30 take off in other parts of the country and we've compared notes with the guys that started SpecE30.

How Pro-3 came about was that the E30s were not competitive in the class they had been running in here in Seattle, which was ITS. There were about 8 E30s running at the time. So we looked at what would be a good set of rules to put in place, keeping costs down and promoting driver skill over development of the car. We also looked at the set of E30s already built and set the rules somewhat so the owners who were going to commit to Pro-3 wouldn't have to do too much to modify their cars to meet the rules, or some of them would have decided to keep their cars the way they were.

The two things most people had to remove were an aftermarket camshaft and a MAF.

The one thing we allowed to stay were allowing the spring/shock package to remain open, except remote reservoir shocks are not allowed. We did this because everyone had a different spring/shock package and trying to get everyone to agree to junk their packages to run a spec package for spring/shock was not going to work.

At the time, we were not aware that SpecE30 was also just starting, or there might have been a little more effort to meet their rules regarding a spec spring/shock pacage.

In reality, by next year there will be 20 Pro-3 cars here in the Northwest. From what I hear, that is about the number of SpecE30 cars in the rest of the country. But the PNW is geographically so far away, you are not going to see us towing to California for a race, much less back east. It is too expensive, and one reason people choose any sort of spec E30 class, is low cost. Big long tows are very expensive, both for fuel and hotel costs. And time away from work, etc.

The initial cost on the spring/shock package might be more for Pro-3, but it does allow for more negative camber, which prolongs tire life. So there are some long term cost savings for a more sophisticated spring/shock package versus the spec spring/shock package that SpecE30 run.

Racing an E30 in either configuration is a ton of fun, and I encourage anyone interested to check out cars in your local area.

[Lance Racing]

Thanks for the weather report, that is great news. Even though we race in the rain, certain aspects of the race weekend are just a lot easier if it is dry.

[StereoInstaller1]

Man, that sounds like so much fun. I am scheduled to attend am annual BBQ...but PIR sounds so much better to me!

Luke

[chuckybob]

whatre the regulations for pro-3 and spece30?

-e- googled and holy crap the spec e30 classes are fucked up.

[StereoInstaller1]

So who all is going to spectate?

1. Luke and Nigel: Sunday only

[Little Rocheleau]

Ima be there on sunday. I guess elliot is gonna be in the auto-x that morning too. should be fun

[tonytony]

I would try and make it but i'll be trying to get my car road worthy for the meet next saturday.

[Van Westervelt]

I would try and make it but i'll be trying to get my car road worthy for the meet next saturday.

How much more you got to do? I am trying to get both of mine good. Tranny on one and clutch on another. Damn.

[KenC]

Can't make it. Golfing at Pumpkin Ridge... darn.

[CCCXXV]

Sounds fun. All things willing, we should be there. Nice "please return" sign, though :D.

Nigel