E36 328i (Budget) Track Car

[f0xy]

bad luck with the car.

Couldn`t you have made a temporary `solid mount` with a length of threaded bar and 4 nuts ? :S

I suppose these teething problems are to be expected. Never saw you out on track. I came across the other 2 E36`s, I`m not sure if you were together ? Some of their driving was `interesting`..


If you didn`t have the same wheels on the track car, could you have put the space-saver on the front (less load) and the front wheel onto the rear ? Thats what I`ve have had to do.

Yeah, we thought about that. Rears on the E46 are 255/35 and the fronts are 225/40, im not sure if the front wheels offset is correct to miss the brakes though!

Tried a number of things to bodge it for the day but nothing was suitable really. The holes are offset on the rubber, so a straight piece of bar wouldn't have done it unfortunately. We loosened the whole engine off and sat it as far to the O/S as we could, which lasted for a few laps until it was back the same etc.

Not sure who the other E36s were, one of them came over to see what the problem was but thats about it!

He should have a staggered setup on the e46 so rear wheels are wider.

Love these threads amazes me the amount you can fix trackside with a bit of luck and some hope

Yeah staggered!

 

[Nige]

He should have a staggered setup on the e46 so rear wheels are wider.

Agreed, its the same on my X5, but rather than fit the space saver on the rear, instead, as a `get you home slowly` measure, why not put that on the front and the front wheel on the rear ?

 

[f0xy]

Yeah, could have done pending it fitting over the rear brake setup as I'm pretty sure the offsets on the wider wheels are slightly different. I'm looking at changing to a 5 series anyway and I'l be sure to get a full size wheel to fit under the floor, there is easily enough room for it on mine but still they put a space saver in there!

 

[Nige]

Sorry, I replied without seeing your response.

Sounds like you tried everything to get back on track.

 

[Nige]

E36, 328i Coupe, Sport, MTech Bodykit, non Sunroof, Leather, Monza Blue with 18"`s to convert to a track car you say ?

OK.

 

[Donny_Dog]

E36, 328i Coupe, Sport, MTech Bodykit, non Sunroof, Leather, Monza Blue with 18"`s to convert to a track car you say ?

OK.

You've bought it? What about the golf?

 

[Nige]

You've bought it? What about the golf?

Its my sons. Golf is mine

In a nutshell, not trying to take this too far off topic, he`s 17. Insurance quotes for a road car are around £4,000, unless he goes for a classic beetle (£1,700) or Classic mini (pre 1980, £2400). He decided to save that money until he NEEDS a car for commuting and in the meantime will spend that money on a track car and track days.

So his first car isn`t a rusty 1970 Beetle, its a 200HP, 2.8 Straight 6, RWD BMW Coupe

 

[f0xy]

Looks good, insurance for new drivers seemed to shoot up after I passed in 2006, wasn't even a 3rd of that on a 2005 1.2 Clio at the time!

No doubt it will be a good experience anyhow, should be a good project too. Will keep an eye on the thread :clap:

 

[f0xy]

Got round to sorting a couple of bits over the last few days, first up was the engine mount. I've got another front subframe that I need to weld some plates to so I can swap to solid mounts at some point, I will also probably change the rack at the same time too but thats in the future - I just needed it running for now. I considered buying a genuine mount but after finding out they were £70+ each and not even in stock that went out the window, ECP had one on the shelf.

Needless to say the old one was shot..

Next up was an oil/filter change. The factors ended up supplying me the wrong filter (inner dia. changed in 1996 apparently) so I had a bit of messing around to get the right one..

The previous owner had apparently serviced it '5000' miles ago, but I doubted this after finding lots of sh*t in the bottom of the oil filter housing, along with part of an old filter (at a guess)

Anyway, new filter, seal, washer and oil in..

The rear drop links had already been replaced and are still in good condition, the fronts were quite old though so I picked some up at the same time. Got those swapped over and the old ones in the bin..

Had a bit of time to finish the heel plate for the drivers side too. The E36 floorpan is pretty terrible with no carpet in...

Took some 2mm plate and bent it into a channel to sit in the lower section. Welded 4x M6 nuts on so bolts can be put through the floor from underneath to hold it in place. Another longer piece of 2mm plate was put on top to take it over to the other side. The whole thing had to be notched for the throttle pedal to sit it slightly further back otherwise I ended up catching my heels on the back edge.

Quick spray to stop any more surface rust..

Then some griptape that I used on the Mk1 and bolted it into place..

In the middle of finishing front doorcards at the moment along with a few other bits, so I will do another bit of an update later this week. Only a couple of weeks until Anglesey now :sleepy:

 

[JoeyD]

Awesome fabrication skills! The foot plate looks OEM tbh.
Where do you get the grip tape from? Might be in need of some in the near future.

 

[f0xy]

I had loads (a lot of people on here had sheets off me) when I had the Mk1, just got left overs remaining at the moment. I will probably be getting more, its industrial stuff, made at a place up in Chorley. Next time I pass I will probably pick some up as its useful to have so just let me know whenever if you still need any.

 

[JoeyD]

Nice one, cheers!
It'll be whenever I get round to 'curing' my rust issue - in the next couple of months probably.

 

[Nige]

You didn`t even remove the soundproofing before fitting the footplate !

 

[f0xy]

Well the reason is.... I couldn't be bothered just yet heh. Going to do the whole lot in one go when I get time!

 

[f0xy]

Had a couple of hours spare this afternoon to finish off the door cards. Started life as sheets of black 3mm polycarbonate sheet..

Rough sort of shape I was looking for, then taped into position and mounting locations worked out..

Cue some M6 rivnuts..

Decided on enough locations all the way round the door to make sure it held shape, then drilled the card in the right place also..

I decided to just have a basic pull to open the door. I could have cut the doorcard and mounted the OEM handle, but thats more time and messing about when its not really required. Removed the standard handle to leave me with the wire, then drilled a hole to allow it to pass through the door card..

Put some black vacuum hose over it and bent it into a hoop out of the way, pulls forward to pop open the door.

Pretty much ready for Anglesey in 2 weeks now, fingers crossed for some decent weather.

Ive been playing with some GPS logging/data logging over the past couple of weeks also in spare time at work. Many of you may have seen videos which have overlays of speed/rpm/track/temps, usually produced by an expensive data logging system or an iPhone/Android app (Harrys Lap Timer/Race Chrono etc). I could have used one of those but I just wanted to log raw data that could be used to overlay videos, and also to see if anything was amiss (sensor data).

Racelogic and similar are good at what they do, but I didn't want to spend anywhere near that for this... as usual I wanted it to be DIY. I already video with a Contour, so I just needed the logging side. To start I just needed a microcontroller (Arduino), and a couple of sensors (2 Axis Accelerometer, 10hz GPS Chip and an SD Card chip).

The microcontroller has 50+ analog/digital inputs, so theoretically I can log anything/sensor as long as I know the ranges they work at. There are also many 'off the shelf' sensors available, from pressure to temperature, and thermocouples for measuring really hot stuff. Its all ridiculously cheap also. After a couple of hours I had this..

..and some of..

Which in turn writes me a nice CSV file with Time, Longitude, Latitude, X-Force (Gs), Y-Force (Gs) and MPH. Keeping it basic now so I can keep increasing the sample rate to make sure everything works fine. The even better thing is its powered from a USB cable (5v), and begins to run as soon as its plugged in. Once the GPS has a fix the data starts logging to a MicroSD card.

With the CSV file the data can either be formatted in Excel, or imported into something like RaceRender/Dashware for a pretty overlay. Heres one I tested earlier..



Even with a sample rate of 2 times a second it works quite well in the video. Ive since upped it to run the full 10hz and it works so much better. Rather simple to put together and do for pretty much no cost (sensors were a tenner each and I already had the Arduino).. you just have to put the code together. Going to see how it goes and add more inputs as I go, more of something to play with than anything!

 

[Jon.G]

Looks great that data logging.

What language is that written in? Cannot work it out!

 

[f0xy]

Essentially its all based on C, but the language itself library specific to the Arduino. Their own library is based on Wiring (another barebones microcontroller language).. to be fair its not much different to most things, their own 'language' is just a set of functions to make things easier/quicker for their microcontroller. With it all being open source people have released additional libraries for the accelerometers/GPS/etc so its even quicker still. The functions are all there you just need to apply the logic and write the code

 

[Pedro19]

Look likes LUA and Javascript

 

[Jon.G]

Yeah, I thought it must be based around something and then have a library of functions to use. Languages are all very similar anyway, if you've a brain for it anyway.

Looks good anyway!

 

[p@blo]

Data logger is quality Jord, nice work! Refresh rate on it seems to work pretty well

What did you install the rivnuts with btw?

 

[f0xy]

Data logger is quality Jord, nice work! Refresh rate on it seems to work pretty well

What did you install the rivnuts with btw?

Il probably do another test with it over the next few days, up to 10 samples a second now instead of 2.

Believe it or not.... a rivnut tool Got a cheapy one that broke after 5 ally rivnuts. So a bit of fettling and some weld = one bulletproof tool I've done it with washers and bolt before but its so much easier and quicker with the gun/tool.

 

[Nige]

Whoa, I like the logger !

I never knew there were GPS options for the Arduino. I`d strongly look into an external GPS aerial if I were you, I realy like the look of that. Do you need to have the programming skills you already have, or is there a lot of help online ? Having built a Megasquirt ECU, the assembly looks straightforward, its the programming I`m not sure about.

 

[f0xy]

Yeah, I've already got an external one from a long time ago, the GPS chip has an MCX connector on it to allow one to be used. As for the programming its not too hard to grasp but I've done similar for years, there is help on line and various forums but its mostly broken information and you just have to apply some logic to write the code and put it together.

Everything is plug and play on them, so nothing like putting a MS together.. its just the programming side that would take some time to learn. Very much so trial and error to be honest, now I've got the basics working I need to try and see what else I can input into it!

 

[Gray]

Nice work, Jord.. The GPS / data project looks interesting surprising what you can put together with a little know how!

 

[wilky19]

not seen a Arduino board since uni. is it still using a modified version of processing for the code.

 

[f0xy]

Not sure, they seem to be releasing different models all the time with v1.01 code? I was weighing up the options to use other stuff at first (Raspberry etc) but none of them did things as simple as I wanted - didnt want the overhead of an OS on a Pi etc.

 

[GiT]

Absolutely awesome thread this. If I had the space - this would be my hobby no doubt!

 

[wilky19]

Not sure, they seem to be releasing different models all the time with v1.01 code? I was weighing up the options to use other stuff at first (Raspberry etc) but none of them did things as simple as I wanted - didnt want the overhead of an OS on a Pi etc.

im lost now with stuff like this, a few years ago when i was doing stuff with them at uni they had a coding platform based on open source software called processing. http://processing.org some people were doing some mad s**t with them.

either way that looks s**t hot.

 

[f0xy]

Final few bits sorted for Anglesey this coming weekend. Also now got another set of 17" BBS wheels, staggered too. These have 'road' tyres on to be used whenever for now. I've also put it back on the road for testing/developing/driving, hopefully avoiding more wasted days :race:

 

[f0xy]

Update from Anglesey - the weather forecast was touch and go but ended up being great on the day - non stop sunshine. Got the car ready and on the trailer, then headed over the day before with a couple of others, staying only a few miles from the circuit.

Literally had non-stop track time all day due to the car going well and the weather being great. I had the Federal 595 RS-Rs on and they seemed to offer plenty of grip. Couple of pics from various people (cheers to Bren/JamesBryan/etc)..

All was going well until pushing a bit harder and realised it slides very easily, even with decent tyres. Eventually ended up in a telling off for 'drifting' :clown:

The day also highlighted a number of issues with the car. There is far too much body roll on the H&Rs:

...and I couldn't get away with adjusting the pressures enough to combat the understeer I was getting. I think the H&Rs are just too soft for what I need and having no damping adjustability is hindering getting the driving feel right.

Next was the steering feel, far too light IMO. I'm going to fit the E46 067 Sport rack that I had on my E30, and find some way of giving it a bit more weight - maybe a restrictor in the hydraulic line or similar, not too sure yet.

I also had a problem with the N/S outer edge of the wheel wearing/delaminating. I thought it was catching on the wing, but after swapping the fronts over from side to side the other tyre did not do it, so Im assuming it was either a bad tyre or something else. Also the wheel alignment is out now after taking some curbs a bit too hard, so will have to look at that.

Anyway, here is a bit of a highlights video:



More soon...

 

[Jon.G]

There does seem like a lot of roll in it. Do you think its possibly down to some of the weight reduction?

Seems to want to oversteer a lot

 

[f0xy]

I think its just because the coilovers are height adjustable only, and probably just based around general driving. Need something with adjustable height and damping, HSD's are looking favourable at the moment!

It oversteers quite easily when required, even in 3rd with the completely standard engine. Obviously no clutch kicking on track days mind, but it would easily carry on if I had done so...

 

[JamesBryan]

Found the pics then.

I've still got loads to put up yet, there might be some better ones.

 

[Jamie86]

With the Federal comment there does seem to be a few reports of that happening to them..

 

[Bluebeard]

Chip was telling me today that his last of federals started falling apart.

He still runs them though so they must be worth it.

 

[TimR26]

A few people on Meganesport have had issues with the tread on Federal RS-R's.

 

[f0xy]

Il post some pictures of the tyre up, it literally went from a normal tyre to cords on the outside edge in like 2 sessions. Very odd.

 

[Jay Payne]

Just caught up with this,all looking spot on mate. Shame it couldnt make it to Llandow yesterday

 

[VeinAST]

Looks great on track that

 

[Nige]

Did the datalogger work ?

If you are wearing the outer edge (Church really hammers the N/S Front), is it worth adding a bit more front camber ?