Half-Life | '91 DS 318iS Slicktop | Track & Weekend Warrior

[moatilliatta]

Thanks for the tip, I will check that stuff out. It sucks when a tiny hole takes out a perfectly good radiator! I at least need some mesh in my grill openings at the very least. How do you mount the honeycomb? Do you think I could use it on my oil cooler too?

The twin cam car has a G260, so overdrive 5th just like the single cam car. The twin cam has a 4.10 in it so it might be ok with the 225/45. I'd like to run them both on the same tires, though, since they both have similar E30 M3 5-lug suspension setups. So one of the cars is probably going to end up with a diff change, tranny change, or both (I'd love them both to run ZF320's, honestly).

The rear fenders on both cars are rolled flat. They still have the fender lips on the inside, though. Definitely would get more clearance if I cut out the inner lips.

Thanks for checking out the site and subscribing, and glad you liked that article. I hadn't made many changes to the setup of my car for a couple of years, so it was a fun process this year to really dial it in. I enjoy driving it on the track soooo much more, now.

I'll have to see how it plays out with updating this thread and running the site. As you know, doing large photodumps for updates here takes forever just to get the photos into the post, let alone writing much. I may post excerpts about new Rising Edge posts here in this thread if it doesn't come across as too spammy.

Those pull though "Fan mount" ties. It should, I run it on both.. I'm about to do some mesh work on my valance. E36/46 cars seem much easier..

My inner and outer fender metal is squished together... I have a few dents from the inside out from those jankey hofmeister kink grommets failing, I think from not having the rain gutter & jointing clips..

I think there is some potential for the old rear suspension..Most just ride it out. I have a feeling I'm going to go down on rear spring to try and get more rear grip next.

Anyone here seeks more content, we would all rather read articles written by an enthusiast than spambots..

[Digitalwave]

Yeah, duh. I forgot about those fan mount ties. I never put mesh on my valance because I have no idea how to attach it without drilling through the valance. I'll order some of this honeycomb stuff since I have two brand new CSF radiators sitting in the garage.

I didn't even remove the seam sealer from my fender lips before rolling them, so they are not as flat as they could be. But eventually the lip isn't the issue anymore, and it will rub on the inside of the arch depending on the ride height and stiffness.

I went down 100# on the rear spring and it helped, but I could probably go down another 100# no problem (currently running 650F and 850R). I would like to reduce my valving by about 20% too, both on compression and rebound, but that is not as easy, well not as cheap, as changing springs.

My car is more balanced than it has every been. It's going to be interesting driving the new twin cam car on the track. I expect it to be similar, but also very different in some ways. It has more modern dampers (digressive AST's), spherical rear adjusters, and it will be running aero ("real" splitter and a true aerofoil wing). Should be fun!

[Digitalwave]

RISING EDGE
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Here is some of the latest content from Rising Edge:


Tire Parity in NASA Super Touring & Time Trials
NASA's Super Touring and Time Trial classification can be a little confusing, and there are some clear winners when it comes to the tire balance of performance.


Roebling Race Report — Sept. '22 (New Pavement)
Wherein we discuss the most recent NASA race at Roebling Road, the first race back on the freshly paved track.


Yokohama A052 versus Toyo RR
These tires are not often compared to one another, but in the vein of the tire parity article, I set out to compare the two myself.


Built Not Bought (Is Dumb)
Why I don't have any plans to build a car from the ground up again, and why you should respect that choice even if you are a builder.


Quick Hits: Death of Forums + Sim Racing
A short form article lamenting the death of car forums, plus me dipping my toes into the world of sim racing.



Thanks for looking!

[Digitalwave]

RISING EDGE
🏁 Let's drive fast and have fun.
✏ New article every Thursday morning!
📲 Subscribe for free.


Here is some of the latest content from Rising Edge:


The Right Tool for the Job
The adage "the right tool for the job" is typically referring to, quite literally, using the correct tool for the task at hand. But what if your tool is a race car?



On Motivation & Proving Oneself
What motivates you when it comes to cars/racing? Thinking back, it was interesting to identify how my motivation has changed quite a bit over the years.




Heading back to the track this weekend! I'm on the way to Carolina Motorsport Park for the first time, and spent the last 2 weeks or so changing the setup on my Great Lakes E30 in order to class-down to TT6 (from TT5). Here's to hoping the car fits into the class better, so that I can be more competitive! Updates to follow.

[Jb325is]

Good luck @ CMP... Interested to hear your thoughts on the track. I've managed to avoid it throughout my entire career in motorsports, but since I've been toying with the idea of getting back on track with this "new" e30 it's been pretty high on my list to check out.

[Digitalwave]

I noticed some picture issues on the thread today so I went back and fixed/replaced/removed whatever I could to clean the thread back up. Sorry if anyone came across any issues.

Good luck @ CMP... Interested to hear your thoughts on the track. I've managed to avoid it throughout my entire career in motorsports, but since I've been toying with the idea of getting back on track with this "new" e30 it's been pretty high on my list to check out.

CMP was AWESOME. What a cool track. I wish I'd gone sooner, since it's so close! I'll post pics and more info once I get a chance, and get the photos from the event.

[Digitalwave]

RISING EDGE
🏁 Let's drive fast and have fun.
✏ New article every Thursday morning!
📲 Subscribe for free.


Here is some of the latest content from Rising Edge:


Quick Hits: A052 2nd Try + Sim Racing Update
A bit of a follow up to my Yokohama A052, plus checking in on how sim racing has been going.


Why is safety such an after-thought?
The title says it all. Musings about car safety on track, and the lack of attention that it seems to receive.


Giving Thanks // Black Friday Deals
This one isn't very timely, unfortunately, as the deals have since passed.


CMP Race Report - Nov. '22
My full race report from my first visit to Carolina Motorsports Park. Spoiler alert: I won my class both days, out of 13 racers!


SpecE30 Is Dead
Wherein we discuss the death of SpecE30 as a viable racing class.

[Digitalwave]

Update on the cars. Not a lot has gone on since the last update. I really haven't been motivated to work on cars. I need to seriously find a local shop that can work on my cars between events. I still want to drive and be at the track, but lately the passion for wrenching just isn't there.

Since Roebling Road and my leaky radiator, I put a new CSF rad in the car. Also got one for the grey car but haven't installed it yet. Found the pin hole on the radiator, something must have hit it.
























Since the end of the 2021 season, I was toying around with classing the car down from TT5 where it wasn't very competitive down to the slower class of TT6 where it would fit better. I never really got around to it until recently. I finally said F it and added a ton of ballast to the car to class down. It took a full tank of gas (usually ran it pretty low) plus 145lbs in the passenger seat and another 100lbs in the trunk to make weight.

Because we were nearly the end of the 2022 season, I didn't want to bother with re-tuning the car to reduce the power at all, since the 2023 rules are coming out soon and there is always the chance of major changes. My car is quite high HP and high weight for the class.

The good news is that the actual balance of the car is quite a bit better now.

Drilling the 8 holes in each weight plate way verrryyyy tedious.









Did a tiny bit of work on the new grey car by finishing up the interior. Since I did a cluster delete in that car I still needed to mount some of the dummy lights somewhere. I put them in a radio blank panel, but I don't really have a good way of securing the bulb holders except for super glue. There in there, but it's probably not a permanent solution. Maybe I'll have a friend 3D print something for me.












Tis the season






Lots of fluids ready to be sent to FCPEuro. They changed their lifetime warranty to store credit instead of a refund. I guess that doesn't matter a lot to me, as I'll continue to use the credits to purchase new stuff, and the cycle will continue.


















With the extra ~300lbs in the car, I needed to re-check my alignment as well as corner balance the car again. The corner balance surprisingly wasn't as far off as I expected, but weight balance/bias improved by quite a bit.

Front weight bias improved from 55.3% down to 52.4%. Left-side weight improved from 52.3% down to 50.6%.

I fixed up the corner balance and was ready for CMP.













In order to fit into TT6 I had to use just about every positive modifier available to me, including BTM (base trim model) aero, which means the body has to be 100% stock as per the base trim model of the generation (in this case a late model 318i). I had to take the spoiler off, put stock mirrors back on, run the thin 'i" front lip. The rules allow you to run a lightweight and/or vented hood, but with the "stock" look overall and needing the ballast, I put the stock steel hood back on for the time being.

The field was stacked with 13 cars and I was able to win both days at my first outing in the class! So even despite having ~500lbs on the Miatas, the setup worked well overall. I am going to keep the car as-is for 2023, it seems, and work on getting the new grey car ready for TT/ST5 (wheel to wheel racing).

I wrote about my first TT6 outing and first time at CMP here on RISING EDGE, if you'd like to read more: https://www.risingxedge.com/cmp-race...november-2022/



Lastly, about a month ago I finally bought a sim rig and started up in iRacing. I still have a lot to learn, but I am doing pretty well as a rookie. Here's some pics of the setup. The short list is: Accuforce 2 direct drive wheel with wireless button box, Fanatec V3 Clubsport pedals, Buttkicker bass shaker, 80/20 rig, triple 27" 144hz 1ms monitors, the PC has an i5 6-core, 32gb RAM, 10gb 3080 GPU, 2tb SSD.

I find it to be quite immersive in the dark room, and I really like racing wheel to wheel in iRacing.

[Digitalwave]

And as usual, I leave you with the photo set from the most recent event @ CMP. Beautiful fall leaves going on!

[2mAn]

adding weight, losing aero and taking podiums... love it

[moatilliatta]

Tis the season! Interesting how much a difference visually the splitter, spoiler, & 17's make. How did it compare without the light aero?

Looks like a killer rig! Anytime I have to get onto Iracing is usually gets chewed up with itself Updating...

Cool to hear there was a big field, I guess small enough to get some clean laps in TT?

Any Barber events next year? Some locals are trying to get me to go down there.

[Digitalwave]

adding weight, losing aero and taking podiums... love it

Thanks man. I have to say it felt really good to win with a deep field. My only other wins have been in small fields of 2-5 cars. Plus, with a field of 5+ I was able to win contingecy money (thus the Toyo Tires stickers that are in some photos and not in others). I won a full set of Toyo RR's.

Tis the season! Interesting how much a difference visually the splitter, spoiler, & 17's make. How did it compare without the light aero?

Looks like a killer rig! Anytime I have to get onto Iracing is usually gets chewed up with itself Updating...

Cool to hear there was a big field, I guess small enough to get some clean laps in TT?

Any Barber events next year? Some locals are trying to get me to go down there.

I would say that the car felt better than ever. If anything with the added weight it was pushing more, especially when the tires got hot. ~2850lbs with 225/50 Toyo RR is asking a lot of the tire IMO. However I have been spending the better part of a year dialing out oversteer and making the car easier to drive/push hard, I guess making it more forgiving and confidence inspiring. I was very happy with the balance, and think that I can overcome some of the issues with some more alignment changes.

For sure I can feel the difference with the small spoiler and small splitters that I have, but neither of them make a dramatic difference especially not under ~80mph.

The car looked totally different 2 years ago and even a year ago. I actually really don't care for the stock body look and I like the look of the 17's better, but the car is way more competitive in this class and the car is better than ever to drive on the 15's. Performance wise I could never go back to the 17's. THAT is a dramatic difference. The compliance and lighter weight of the 15" wheels is one of the best things I've done to the car in recent memory.

All that said this car isn't going anywhere, but it is probably going to morph back more to a street car than be used on track, except maybe for one day events that I do for fun with my friends (like Track Night in America). Next year I will be running the caged M52 grey E30 in ST5 as well as driving a Spec E9X car in Florida, and possibly another E90/E92 in GLTC. We will see, though.

Usually our TT group varies between about 25-45 cars overall for all classes. On some tracks like Roebling Road that is pretty hectic and you are always facing traffic. I think at the last event we had about 30-35 cars overall and traffic wasn't too bad. It has definitely made me aware of pushing hard in warmup as it sets the grid for the day. Sometimes if you get bad grid placement, it takes you all day to overcome that, and then you finally get clean laps when its 2 PM or 3 PM afternoon heat and you can't compete with the morning's times.

I'm about 6 hours from Barber now so it will be feasible to visit at some point, but I don't have any plans at this point. I have heard from a lot of racers that it is one of their favorite tracks in the country, though, so I would definitely like to try it at some point.

[amcp]

I think you'll love Barber. Its a great track and the 30 is super easy to go fast in.
As always, car looks great with meats!

[CubbyChowder]

Looks amazing on track! The pics are sweet.

[DEV0 E30]

Great updates and pictures. Sounds like you've got things rather dialed in. If the black car may get more street time, can we expect some (Kevin/il duce) wheel turned pics?

I've yet to use FCP's return policy, but just as you said, store credit is just as good as a refund --- it's a revolving cycle of money that goes to them anyways.

If possible I try to buy from them for their service for most things. Which reminds me I need to send back on vent valve for a different one.

That's quite the sim setup too!