First Race with Coilovers

Only slightly exciting than finally getting to test the coilovers is that I finally got my girlfriend to race my car in the womens class, but more on that in just a bit.

Sitting in the morning sun down at PPIR, the car looked great. I was thrilled to finally get to test it. However, I had no clue where to set the front and rear shock stiffness at. For starters, I set the front to full stiff, the rears to half.

By now, I am sure that you have realized that there is a big "W" on the side of the car. That is for my lovely girlfriend who agreed to give racing a shot. Her racing is not the craziest part though. She had only learned how to drive manual the night before and had maybe one hour under her belt. We just practiced launching the car, flooring it through first, and then shifting into second. While she was learning how to drive manual, we realized that even with the seat all the way forward, she could not fully press in the clutch without sliding forward in the seat. Solution: pillow.

The day went pretty well and I was rather happy with the setup of the car. Overall, the car. was really tail happy, so I changed the shocks stiffness to half up front and full soft in the rear. Kinda Next race will tell if that helped any. Now that I had the coilovers on, the next biggest thing that I needed to tackle was my lack of a limited slip differential. Looking at the images from the race, you can see my inside rear lighting up on corner exit. UGH! Slowing me down SO MUCH!

Here is a nice video that I got from a GoPro showing my best run of the day....man do I need a LSD and to dial out that oversteer.

D-Street Prepared
						Hometown		(Index)	Best	Pts
		Vehicle			Sponsor
T	1.	125/DSP	Lee Michael			Arvada, CO			48.825	955
		93 BMW 325is / Hoosier			SCR Performance
		1) 48.825		2) 50.966	3) 49.757		4) 49.594		5) --
T	2.	165/DSP	Scott Herbert			Colorado Spring, CO			50.140	930
		09 Chevy Cobalt SS / Hoosier			Copperhead Road/Front Range Muffler
		1) 51.260		2) 51.854	3) 50.140		4) 50.260 + 1		5) --
	3.	30/DSP	Matthew Stephenson (N)			Centennial, CO			51.737	902
		89 BMW 325i			AMANDA!!!!!!!!
		1) 52.004		2) 51.737	3) 51.787		4) 51.296 + 1		5) --
	4.	89/DSP	Daniel Heffron (N)			Denver, CO			53.455	873
		89 BMW 325i
		1) 54.711		2) 55.291	3) 54.035		4) 53.455		5) --

Coilovers!

Now that I have some R-comp tires and some lightweight wheels to go with them, I needed some suspension goodies to replace my monster truck status. I compared the Ground Control AST setups, but ultimately went with the GC coilovers due to their cheaper price.

I decided to send in my stock shock housings to have them shortened, support tabs welded on, and to be powder coated. The kit included some Koni Yellows revalved to my desired spring rates, Eibach springs, and some Ground Control race camber plates.

Apparently Koni was way behind at their factory in Denmark, so long story short, I waited about six weeks to get them back. They looked great when they arrived. Each spring came with a ride height adjuster. I figured that I would just leave it at the middle for now and adjust later.

I ran into some problems with the install. First, the front right wheel bearing was shot, so that got replaced. Also, as a best practice, I ordered new axle nuts and dust caps. However, neither fit. Oh yah, and I got them from a BMW dealership!! They were poorly made and manufacturing flaws made them unable to fit. That was another setback. Also, there rentable spring compressor from O'Reilly Autoparts sucks and is the hardest thing in the world to use to get stock springs off. 

Here is the car after I pulled it out of the garage and gave it a test drive. It was VERY wet out, so the test drive was slideways for sure.

CAMBER!!

I took the car home and threw on my race rubber to make sure that it would fit and there would not be any rubbing issues.

I am very happy with the setup. I think it looks great. Worth noting is that the camber is set to max negative right now. Not sure the actual number. Now I need to go racing!

First AutoX

Now that the car has some nice racing wheels and tires, I took it out to its first AutoX event. This event was held at Front Range Airport. There were 6 drivers registered for DSP including me. The weather for the day was supposed to be nice in the morning and then turn into a blizzard in the afternoon. Good thin I ran in the first heat!

Getting the bimmers racing shoes on is a nice easy process. Running 15 mm spacers all around stops any worry of rubbing. Here is the car as it sits in grid getting ready to race.

I did ok. I was happy with the grip of the car, but it was getting really cold out and the tires were brand new, so the grip was not there. Here are so pictures of the race and the car in action!

That is a lot of body roll!! I also look like a monster truck. This needs to be fixed with some suspension goodies. Here are the results from the race. I am happy with the car, but seeing as it is 100% stock (except for shoes) in a prepared class, it has a long way to go!

D-Street Prepared
						Hometown		(Index)	Best	Pts
		Vehicle			Sponsor
T	1.	65/DSP	Scott Herbert			Colorado Spring, CO			64.393	904
		09 Chevy Cobalt SS / Hoosier			Copperhead Road/Front Range Muffler
		1) 66.553		2) 64.621	3) 64.393
T	2.	32/DSP	Corky Newcombe			Colorado Spring, CO			66.005	882
		96 Mazda Miata / Toyo			Freshcut Lawn Service
		1) 70.610 + 2		2) 68.381	3) 66.005
	3.	30/DSP	Matthew Stephenson (N)			Centennial, CO			67.203	867
		89 BMW 325i
		1) 68.832		2) 67.203	3) 68.051
	4.	24/DSP	Cory Long			Colorado Spring, CO			70.413	827
		95 Nissan 240sx / dunlop
		1) 72.870		2) 72.538	3) 70.413
	5.	89/DSP	Daniel Heffron (N)			Denver, CO			71.770	812
		89 BMW 325i / Hoosier
		1) 75.046		2) 72.652	3) 71.770
	6.	130/DSP	Joe Vigil (N)			Denver, CO			78.836	739
		89 BMW 325I
		1) 83.510		2) 82.258	3) 78.836

Becoming AutoX Official

So, I bought the car with the notion that I would take it autocrossing and would like to modify it to the point of being competitive, yet still enjoyable for street driving. First mods: wheels and tires!

I ordered some 15x8 6UL's from 949 Racing. That are technically for Miata's, but if the shoe fits, wear it. They weigh 12 lbs each which is super light!

They needed some rubber, so I got 225/45/15 Nitto NT-01's. I know that they are not tip top of the line racing wheels, but they were $111 each for me which is less than half the price of A6's. So, until the car can get prepped more, these will do just great!

 

Due to their offset, I needed to get 15mm spacers. Really, I only needed these for the front, but I put them all around so that the car did not end up looking funny. The fronts are SOOO close to rubbing, but don't so yay! The rears have oodles of room.

They look nice on the car, but could use some serious low!

And to make myself AutoX official, I am now 30 DSP!

Lights...need lights

So, both of the fog lights have cracked lenses and only one actually works. I ordered some Lamin-X convers and two new fog lights. The fog lights were an Ebay special, and I kinda ended up paying for it. The fitment was poor and the did not really have flush seams. The main issue was that the connector on the back of the housings did not match up with the plug from the wires. So, I broke off the plastic housing on the wires and manually plugged them in. Covered them with electrical tape and walla.
I decided not to put the Lamin-X on the low beams, only the fogs and the highs. I am happy with the results.

One of my favorite pictures!

Every engine needs to be cleaned!

So, right after getting the car, I realized that the engine bay had been neglected for a very long time! Time to clean!

Super bad! After some nice scrubbing and TLC, the engine valve cover and intake manifold were looking great.

However, everything was covered in a thin yellowish film. I believe that this was from the new hood lining. I think as it was heated up it kinda baked some crap off and covered everything. This did not come off at all really. It still bugs me, but I'm not sure if there is any easy fix.

Bought My first E30!

I have been into cars my entire life, starting with my first word, so when I became old enough I bought a 2005 Mini Cooper S. I absolutely loved it! After three years of  owning it, I sold it. I had a truck for a while, but needed a fun car badly! I searched a long time online and finally found one that looked right for me. An 8 hour drive with my amazing girlfriend and great friend produced this beauty sitting in the driveway.

It is a 1989 BMW 325i manual (that was a must). It had 157k on the odometer but the car had been amazingly well taken care of. The interior was near perfect. What a great car!