I started to hear a nasty creaking sound when I pushed the brake pedal in before I went to start the car (actually the only time I’d hear it since the car was about as quiet as a Boeing 747 screaming past your years at full throttle). I had anna push the pedal in while I moved around the car searching for the source. And, eventually, I realized, it was coming for sure from the front driver’s side brake caliper. …and since the brakes are the thing that keep me from slamming into very hard objects at 100+ MPH, I decided to invesitgate.

Not having any track days at that time, I jacked the car up, and pulled that caliper apart completely. Well, as soon as I removed the dust cover for that piston, I knew I had likely located the problem, a very ripped dust boot:

Once I saw this, my leading suspicion was that the dust boot around the caliper piston had torn, allowing contaminants to get between the piston and the caliper bore, scratching up the piston and who knows what else. So, I continued pulling it apart, ..the piston on top in the picture below is the one in question:

Knowing full well that typically when one part in a set is damaged, that likely most of the others are worn too, I decided to do a complete brake rebuild. So, tear it ALLLLLLL apart!

and upgrade with:

->Bimmerworld Stainless Steel Brake Lines
->Bimmerworld Stainless Steel Brake Caliper Pistons (harder than stock)
->New Piston Seals
->Motul RBF600 Brake fluid (overkill, but hey, it’s a race car!)

Afterward, I found out the hard way that I shouldn’t have drained all of the fluid out of the brake system. There was now air in the system. However, Ramon (Bavarian Motorsport) was able to cycle out the air from the system by activatingn the ABS with his car computer. Thanks Ramon! You’re a life saver!

“….I can hear the sounds of violins
Long before it begins
Make me thrill as only you know how
Sway me smooth, sway me now…”

Showed patience, and eventually ended up getting Ground Control Sways. According to Tony, there is nothing else on the market that even comes close:

-Tubular Lightweight Design (Front and Back)
-Infinite Front Adjustments, 5 Rear adjustments
-Front equivalent to aroudn 30mm Solid bar

…Sold.

Prior to getting the aftermarket sways, a problem existed in the rear suspension. Each time I brough the car back down from being jacked up, you had to be uber careful to make sure that the rear springs lined up with their spring hats. Failing to do so resulted in one of three annoyances.

#1: The rear spring ended up sitting on the spring hat, and slam down once driven

#2: the rear spring would sit on the spring hat, and break it (happened one time)

So, I decided to fix this, with what you ask? Zip ties of course! I thikn 50% of the parts on my car are secured using zip ties. These things truly were mother nature’s 2nd choice for the glue that binds all things together.

So, been a while since I updated, so, before we go forward in this story, we need to go back, back to the day the car came home. When I went to pick up the car, I was ecstatic, ..could barely contain myself, …When I finally set down in the seat, I was reminded immediately that this wasn’t the same car.

I loved the race seats immediately. They were mounted with a custom fixed seat mount that Tony had fabbed up so I could finally drive the car with my helmet on and NOT bang my head against the roof! (bonus!). The Combination of the race seats and harnesses lead to a result that I hadn’t anticipated. The Driver’s orientation changed at the same time that the car’s orientation did. This lead to the driver having an increased awareness of when the car was letting go (of traction) at the limit (nice!).

I loved the way Tony’s Gauge panel had come out. He used Carbon Fiber that filled the space of the stock central vent, stereo, and climate controls. The Quick Release Steering Wheel Mechanism took a while to get used to. At first, I kept forgetting to pull it off before getting in and out of the car. That made egress and ingress extremely difficult.

Just like Tony said, the first perception I had was that the car was understeering, even though it wasn’t. I was used to a crazy lean when I turned hard, and now, while I didn’t have sways yet, the car just lightly swayed to the side, and the car turned.

What most excited me though, was that now, I had a car I could drive on the track as much as I could afford, and I wouldn’t have to constantly worry about my safety. I had safety built-in-by-design.

Now, if only the day after I brought it home, that asshole in the work van hadn’t plowed into my rear bumper (sigh…).

Tony is expecting to be around this Friday. I’m sooo having withdrawls, so I hope it’s done, but even if it’s not, I’m sure the end result will be awesome. I had asked about how the gauge warning lights work, here’s what he had to say:

“They are pre-set for 230 water, 270 oil, 20psi oil pressure. The oil pressure you may get to go off after a hot session at idle. You also will see it flicker in some corners if you have not baffled the oil pan yet.”

Reminded of another project I have yet to still do (baffling of the oil pan). So much to do! Tony also recommended I change out the rear subframe bushings, but as I recalled, and this was the case, you have to remove the differential to get out at the rear subframe bushings, which, is the perfect time (labor wise) to do a differential upgrade (rear-end gears and lock-up). But, this is expensive. A remanufactured Diff with new internals is around $2300 minus a refundable $600 core charge. This will get me 3.64 gears, a three-clutch setup, with as much as 50% lockup that will probably outlast the car!

This is Wednesday’s update from Tony, when asked if the car would still be done this Friday:

We are going to be very close, I will know tomorrow afternoon.

We still have a lot left but we have a pretty good velocity going.

I hope it’s done this Friday, but if not, I’ll understand and try to be patient…

Well, Monday came and went. The car is now under the care of Tony from TCDesignFab. Now all I can do is sit and wait.

He’ll be fabbing and installing the roll cage+padding, race seats, 5-point harnesses, fire safety system, gauges, and doing several other tidbits.. such as the ever so common E36 Rear Sway bar tab reinforcement fix, electric radiator fan install, and even replacing my low coolant sensor (doh! Just realized I have this at home still!!!).

The car should be gone for two and a half weeks, which times well since Anna, Cassidy and I are moving to our new place at the same time.

(puts patient hat on)
(sigh)

Last night, I drove my sunroofless, passenger seat-less car over to a free scale and weighed the car to see how Jason, Anna, and I did giving the ‘ol girl a diet….

The magic number?
2680lbs
2680 LBs with 9/32 tank of gas, as weighed last night
2756 with full tank of gas (based on 6.5lb/gallon and a 16.4 gallon tank)
2791 with full tank and second seat (assuming 35lbs for seat and hardware)

Stock weight is 3175 (assuming full tank of gas)

This means the car has shed 384 lbs!!!

Btw, the car feels that way too! On the way over to the scale, in second, I punched it at around 3000 RPM’s, and it spun all the way to redline!!!! I went around a corner near my work (south on San Tomas, exiting to central expressway), the car didn’t sway at all!!! (it used to)

So, going from 2791, Tony said the cage would weigh 150-175lbs, but the AC compressor is coming out (40lbs), so a net change of +110 to 135

After the cage is in, AC compressor out, full tank of gas, passenger seat installed…. car should be between 2901lbs and 2926lbs

…pretty exciting stuff! Thanks again Jason and Anna, I couldn’t have done it without you both!

Well folks, the moment is at hand. Yesterday, I sold some Employee stock purchase plan options, and the money is ready to flow… So, I called Tony and scheduled Monday September 12th as a drop-off date for the car. He will have the car for around two and a half weeks, so almost until the end of September. When I get the car back, here are some changes that will have occurred:

-16″ High Performance SPAL electric radiator fan installed
-Low Coolant sensor replaced
-BMW Prepared Class cage fab’d/installed/and painted (black)
-driver AND PASSENGER race seats installed (Cobra suzuka GT)
-Schroth 5-pt black competition harnesses installed
-AC removed
-Heater core removed
-custom gauge kit along with warning lights installed (more on this in a later post, it’ll be damned cool though)
-kill switch on cage installed (for safety, not racing)
-custom driver’s seat mount fab’d and installed (to bring me lower, it’ll be one piece vs the combination of the VAC floor mount and the Cobra side mounts)
-driver’s side window net installed (clip in type)
-sunroof welded into place
-custom blower wired up (but not purchased, this will be used for defogging/defrosting the window, should it need it).
-Rear sway bar mounting tab reinforcement kit installed.

I’m stoked

“…..what have I done……”

Again, a very special thanks to jason, he’s done so much helping me to get this car ready to race, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to repay him, I hope i will!

The sound deadeing is out (as best I could). Hopefully good enough, I’ll need to check with Trent @ BayAreaCustoms (re: painting the interior).

I’ve begun covering some of the cable with that black plastic protective cable wrap from Fry’s ($5/10 feet of 1″ diameter, also bought some 3/4″ diameter as well).

The driver seat is back in (YAY!). The passenge seat is here, but will go in when the cage goes in (he’ll priobably just have to pull it out again anyway).

In the last week or two, the Schroth 5pt competition harnesses arrived. Here’s what they look like:

Exciting eh? (heh)

The 16″ curved blade high performance SPAL electric radiator fan should arrive on Thursday (probably install that next weekend, shouldn’t take all that long, just the wiring up part maybe, also need to replace a bad low coolant sensor in the radiator resevoir.

I broke the steering column lower cover panel support (on the panel), so, it’ll go back in (screws) but the back won’t stay up, and it gets caught up on the gas pedal (keeping the pedal down too much, not good). So, its still off, and may stay off.

One thing I didn’t think about, at least for now, is that with the sunroof wind diffuser not in place, all of that air is going into this empty m3 interior. It’s like I’m driving an expensive german wind sock! (that odd vibration / sound thing that happens when a car’s interior isn’t well designed, or in my case, missing). It gets that odd vibration above 35 or so. Guess this means no highway runs until the roof is welded into place.

I knew I was going to be in for an adjustment driving the car for the first time with all of that crap removed, but it wasn’t in the way that I thought. Since the spare tire and wheel weren’t bolted down, they were banging around back there, so…out they went (and into the garage). Also, I found that the battery is not bolted down (not sure why), so I’ll need to look into obtaining the proper hardware to do that in this car. Other various cables and bits moving around, you hear EVERYTHING! Granted, you do also hear the motor goodness.

I’m also pretty sure the sound deading that was on the tranny tunnel was heat deflecting or absorbing in some way. After a few minutes drive, the tunnel is moderately warm to the touch. I can only imagine what it wil be like on the track.

Free at last, free at last ….god all mighty! Free at last! …a very very special thanks to my buddy Jason, and my girlfriend Anna, who both put in a lot of effort to help me get this CRAP outta my car!