Seems as though the ducting worked very well - my coolant temps were back to normal - sitting around 180-185F, and oil temps were also good, at around 205-210F. The car ran flawlessly yesterday! I was having some issues with my wideband O2 sensor resetting itself, but when it was working the AFRs were sitting between 12.5-13.0 at WOT .
Jamie came with me to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and was my "race engineer" for the day. It was awesome - we got a whole bunch of data after every session including lap times, tire pressures, tire temps, suspension settings, etc. We debriefed after every session and I explained to him how the car was acting in different corners... it was really cool - I've never had to do that before and it forced me to think about what the car was doing while it was on track, and then to explain it.
Seems as though the strategy worked! At the beginning of the day I was running 1:43s (still getting the gitters out - it was my first time back since the crash). By the third session I was back to my times from last year - 1:38s, and then the 4th I dropped to the 1:36s and stayed between there and 1:37 the rest of the day. I may have been able to break the 1:35s if I was running with the same fresh rubber as I had in the morning, but it was really cool to feel the improvements of the car's handling.
Here's a video of session 4: Started out with a battle with an STi, then another with doogee, and finished off with a couple of Porsches
The no point-by passing is tricky because sometimes when you go to pass, you aren't sure if the other driver saw you or not. The "close" call with the STi was just that - I didn't think he saw me so I back off in the braking zone - good thing!
My battle with the STi also gave me my first real experience with aero effects – going up the back straight when I was drafting him, I hit the rev limiter in 5th super EARLY compared to sessions where I didn’t have anyone to draft. Very cool
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Shawn
1992 3.0L M52 325i (ex-daily driver - current RACECAR)
2002 330Ci (ex-daily driver - sold!) Check out my e36 track car build
Got the video from the last session loaded!
During this session, as I pulled out onto the track, Rudy (craz_azn) passed me driving Kurt's (doogee) car. The racewars began:
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Shawn
1992 3.0L M52 325i (ex-daily driver - current RACECAR)
2002 330Ci (ex-daily driver - sold!) Check out my e36 track car build
I was the passenger when Rudy was driving, man was that ever fun!
I had the same problem with my gopro and I couldn't figure out why I was getting so much glare from inside the car looking outside. There's a setting for it. You should change it cause you can't see shit lol.
It was great meeting you Shawn! Your brother is insane too out there
I was the passenger when Rudy was driving, man was that ever fun!
I had the same problem with my gopro and I couldn't figure out why I was getting so much glare from inside the car looking outside. There's a setting for it. You should change it cause you can't see shit lol.
It was great meeting you Shawn! Your brother is insane too out there
Hey Dave - yeah that session was nuts - I couldn't stop smiling
It was great to meet you - hopefully we'll see each other at the track again soon!
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Shawn
1992 3.0L M52 325i (ex-daily driver - current RACECAR)
2002 330Ci (ex-daily driver - sold!) Check out my e36 track car build
When I was at Tremblant with 8Legs/CTCC I chatted for a while with the one and only Massive Lee (does brake stuff, look him up). He sells a brake booster delete kit that was made famous for e30s, and only recently started manufacturing them for e36s.
Well a bit later that day I was offered a deal on a kit that my buddy had bought from him but changed his mind, and I couldn't pass it up. It's something I had been meaning to do but was on the fence about how I wanted to go about it (debating whether i was going to delete the booster and fab up a bracket running the stock MC, or buy the ML kit & a new MC).
With Massive Lee's kit, you need to buy an e30/porsche master cylinder because the e36 one doesn't bolt up. He did that on purpose, because the stock MC is too big (25.6mm bore), and you don't get the "ideal" pedal feel (you need a 19-21mm bore for roughly a 6:1 pedal ratio).
So I bought a new master cylinder from 8Legs, and picked up a used resevoir tank from europarts. I had to grab some line unions from Part Source as well.
The install went pretty well - had to drill the pedal, weld on some shims, and then mount everything up. hardest part was getting the rod trimmed to the right size, but that went relatively well too. Andrea helped me bleed the brakes friday night, and then afterwards asked if I would ever let her drive the car.... I think I'm slowly winning her over
I had a lapping night at Calabogie Saturday hosted by Midnight Runs, and that was the big test. The brakes were awesome - it took a bit of getting used to, but they felt SO good once I got the hang of it. I found the pedal travel a bit longer than my previous, but it made heel-toeing easier, and it was much more progressive - I could actually feel the pedal! I basically had to put the pedal to the floor to get them to lock up, so I'm pretty excited about getting more track time with this setup.
Sunday I had the autoX, and they did well there too!
Videos will be coming in the next few days!
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Shawn
1992 3.0L M52 325i (ex-daily driver - current RACECAR)
2002 330Ci (ex-daily driver - sold!) Check out my e36 track car build
The shaft is offset for the purpose of moving the MC over as much as possible to free up more space in the engine bay. No rubbing because of what Shawn said. Lee makes a good product, nicely machined parts!
The brakes work! The pedal was a bit longer than my previous setup, but I'm not sure if it's because of the new MC or just because I didn't bleed it properly. Either way, it took a bit of getting used to, but was really happy with the setup by the end of the evening. I'll be rebleeding it just to be sure before the Time Attack at St-Eustache next weekend.
It was my first time running long track this year and it was a blast! I was turning slower times than I was the last year which was a bit disappointing, but I'm still plagued with handling issues. I'm going to try softening the front bar, and reducing the rear camber to reduce my corner entry understeer, and my corner exit oversteer, respectively. The MCO chief instructor came in the car with me in the last session and gave me some good pointers on how too be faster, which certainly helped!
Hopefully that can make me a bit more competitive in my last TA event and the last GT race I'll be doing on Sept 14th.
Here's the video:
Last sunday (July 29th), I also did my second AutoX of the season. The brakes were good for that too! I was able to place 3rd in A-class:
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Shawn
1992 3.0L M52 325i (ex-daily driver - current RACECAR)
2002 330Ci (ex-daily driver - sold!) Check out my e36 track car build
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1989 325 IX Touring 
Linear Mode
