Alpina B3 2.7 Track Car

[kid325e]

inspiration. motivation. ovulation.

[Andreas]

Well, we're back from the 2 Hour at Phakisa. Sadly the car had nothing but problems the whole weekend. The fuel pressure kept on dropping, sometimes to 2 bar and often below and cause engine cut-outs. We could not complete a single practice session and both Super Saloons races ended on the outlap. It was a very frustrating problem because it came and then went away completely. We bought a new fuel pump - no difference. Went out again and bought a new fuel pressure regulator and new fuel filter - both did not solve the problem. Rewired the fuel pump directly to the battery, eliminating all old plugs with potential bad contacts - nothing worked.

Dismayed, the new external fuel pump was removed again and then the problem revealed itself. The fuel tank had extensive rust that was mixed thoroughly with the fuel once the car was driven hard. When the car stood still, all rust settled on the bottom of the tank again and upon restart, the fuel was "clean" enough for the pump to work sufficiently well to run the engine smoothly. When we removed the in-tank BMW fuel pump, it had to be wiggled around substantially to be able to remove it from the petrol tank causing all the rust to fall off from the pump's filter leading us to think that the fuel was clean. The external pump however had no filter and its inlet was totally blocked with rust particles.

Next we installed one filter before the fuel pump and one after. We then drove the car around hard, returned to the pits and cleaned the filter situated between the tank and the pump. We did this about 4 times until the filter looked quite clean. Everything was put together and all the cars for the 2 Hour were already out on the track proceeding to the starting line-up. I was still let out of the pits despite that virtually the whole grid (roughly 60 cars) was already lined up. I started second last but was overtaking the cars ahead easily once the race got underway. Some guy's engine blew up and the whole uphill was full of white smoke - I could hardly see where I was driving and I was frantically looking for the offending car ahead and also worrying about being hit from behind by an overzealous driver. I got through and just after I crossed the start finish line, the safety car came out and I was stuck there, 4 cars in front of me and the rest of the field was continuing on, meaning that I would be a lap down on virtually the whole field.

Before the safety car pulled off, the car was already acting up intermittently again with loss of fuel pressure. Soon after we were released, the problem became bad enough to force me into the pits for a fuel filter cleaning excercise. So it turned out that we could run for about 8-10 laps and then come in for a filter cleaning. No way to win anything but at least we were having fun passing other cars. Our favourite victim was the Big Boss Auto Opel SuperBoss (2.0 16V). I think my co-driver observed a 920 kg mass for SuperBoss with driver whereas we were sitting at 1170 kg. He had a very wild cam (guessing over 300 deg duration) and for me as an Austrian, I took great pleasure in beating a German driving the E30's archrival car from production car racing many years back.

After my co-driver drove two filter clogging stints, I went out again. The car immediately felt odd. Turning right required a lot more steering input than turning left. The car felt sluggish when steering right, almost as if it had oil on the tyres. I also noticed that the steering wheel had to be turned a bit as if steering to the right just to keep the car straight. I backed off and came in straight away. I reported my concerns to my pit crew and they looked under the car while I steered left and right. Everything looked OK. I was sent back out. The car continued its strange behaviour. I took it easy through the two high speed right sweeps and then the car's wheel broke off in the very next right hander. Luckily no other cars were around me and I had plenty run-off area and not too much speed.

Other than that, the race was very eventful with 4-5 safety car periods, lots of crashes (car to car) and numerous breakdowns that were littered across the track.

Upon further inspection, it was clear that three of the four small screws that bolt the bottom section of the strut to the top shockabsorber section had fallen out and the last remaining bolt sheared off. The front coilovers were built for me by a local company. Were the correct screws installed or just any old 4 screws that were lying around. Did they use Loctite ? All this on top of their extremely slow product delivery.

While it is sad that my Alpina B3 is damaged for the very first time since I have owned it, I am relieved that it happened where it did. Different circumstances might have resulted in a write off and it looks like it was guaranteed to happen. Here is a picture of the team.





As a final send off to the race weekend, the Iveco truck that I had used to trailer the car to Phakisa Raceway broke down on the way home right there on the most dangerous section of highway - the Grasmere Plaza. Problem : engine cutting out and then coming alive again while the injector warning light was flashing. After a few rebirths, the truck gave up completely.

[ikkitousen]

Oh MAN! That is heart breaking. and to add insult to injury with the Tow Truck.
Wel I'm sure we all look forward to seeing the fixes and what else you have up your sleeves. Keep up the hard work my friend.

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DAMN IT IS WHAT IT IS!!!

[madformx5]

Nice to have you Blokes from way down south on R3V. Even banged up I love your car. I don't have time to read the entire tread right now so I am subscribing to it so I can finish it later. Is that a carbon fiber hood you have?

[craz azn]

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes. I would suggest for the future to drill little holes in the heads of the suspension bolts and safety wire them all together so there is less chance of another episode of a wheel falling off. Good luck on your next race weekend!

[JRKOUPE]

After standing around for a few years as a stripped shell, I have put the car back together.

As an intro to the car, here is a video from a recent open day at a track in South Africa. I live up on the reef, roughly 1600m above sea level), and naturally aspirated engines suffer somewhat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEothF7C-Ik (uploaded in high quality)

good stuff...

great sounding m20......
your bro may be a bit quicker than you..hehehehe
I only sped thru the thread...do ya know why wheel fell off?....


lets see pics of car...in and out!...any idea on hp?.200 ish?...

[Massive Lee]

Were the correct screws installed or just any old 4 screws that were lying around. Did they use Loctite ? All this on top of their extremely slow product delivery.

Did you check the bolts between each session/race? Even "old screws" will hold up if they are properly torqued.:up:

[Andreas]

Is that a carbon fiber hood you have?

Yes, it is a locally manufactured carbon bonnet.

Here is a video; it shows the two offs that I had and also demonstrates that when entering turn 1, you can barely make out the fast car in the background and by turn 2 he is already past me despite being held up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLaNjaK4RIE

@ Massive Lee
No, I never checked any bolts since driving in March 2009 - my mistake.

[Andreas]

good stuff...

great sounding m20......
your bro may be a bit quicker than you..hehehehe
I only sped thru the thread...do ya know why wheel fell off?....


lets see pics of car...in and out!...any idea on hp?.200 ish?...

Thanks.

I'll put up some pics soon to show which bolts came loose. I believe the South African 325is suspension is the same as the E30 M3.

I had the car tuned on a notoriously stingy dyno. Here is a video of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHhFlRc50kk

[Andreas]

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes. I would suggest for the future to drill little holes in the heads of the suspension bolts and safety wire them all together so there is less chance of another episode of a wheel falling off. Good luck on your next race weekend!

Thanks, I will be doing that.

[Andreas]

Oh MAN! That is heart breaking. and to add insult to injury with the Tow Truck.
Wel I'm sure we all look forward to seeing the fixes and what else you have up your sleeves. Keep up the hard work my friend.

I had just closed up the hole left from removing the spare wheel well. There are no more edges for airflow to catch on and it is also a bit of a rear diffusor.

For next time (mid July), I will continue to work on the underbody, making it nice and flat to reduce drag. Hopefully I will also have the ITBs installed.

[SpecRaceM5]

cool car. how much track experience do you have and what kind of run group was that? Eveyone's lines were all over the place, in combination with open passing. looked like a dangerous mix

I agree. Cool vid, but someone should go over track etiquette with everyone. Did you come to a complete stop when the white car came on the track at the first corner?

[madformx5]

I love love love love love love love love love love love love love love the sound of you car. Did I say I love it enough or too many times? Just listening to the audio as I'm typing this post. I will probably restart it again when it finishes just so I can listen to it again.

[madformx5]

Sucks about you car and you tow vehicle.

[madformx5]

At least you were having fun on my birthday. What exactly were your numbers on the second pull? The curve looked a lot better but I missed the final numbers.

Thanks.

I'll put up some pics soon to show which bolts came loose. I believe the South African 325is suspension is the same as the E30 M3.

I had the car tuned on a notoriously stingy dyno. Here is a video of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHhFlRc50kk