[BlkD12agon]

Originally Posted by ATLBlue

Not going to lie, at first glance that spider scared the sh!t out of me hahaha

[ATLBlue]

Originally Posted by BlkD12agon

Not going to lie, at first glance that spider scared the sh!t out of me hahaha

They use to have this other sculpture at Barber Motorsportspark that made me regret not to have my swimsuit with me

[ATLBlue]

Bad Karma? What did I do wrong?

I have run into a few issues with my E46 M3 over the last two months.
I have had a big maintenance done and the waterpump preventatively replaced before taking it to the track. After two laps, a seal blew up and I lost all of my cooling fluid

I was planning on using the M3 in the afternoon but kept driving the F30 instead and the car was towed to the shop to get fixed:



My (spoiled? ) high school son daily drives the M3 and, while it is a lot of car for a teenager, it is also more economical than having more cars in the family stable. Unfortunately, I woke up a morning on a business trip in San Francisco only to find a dozen text messages from my son, including this picture :



Nothing dramatic, he was OK and had rear ended somebody else without too much damage. Or it was at least my assessment until a reputable body shop asked more than $6,000 to fix the car. This amount was irrelevant given its age, mileage and value. Since the damages could be fixed by only replacing bolt-on parts, I took the car to my usual mechanical shop and put my son in charge of getting the car repaired on a budget.

We found used parts in an equivalent or better condition that those that got broken and only bought a few new parts (Radiator, fan). The most costly part was the hood and it turned out to be cheaper to go for an OK quality CF hood than an OEM hood + paint job.

7 weeks later, the car is now back on the road and my son took the bimmers out for a quick photoshoot tonight. Leaving him in charge of fixing the M3 has of course resulted in something with a bit more of a boy racer look, but I am fine with it for the track (not sure I would take the car to a business meeting though).

So here's where we are today:











I am now trying to focus on good deeds to improve my Car-ma!

[ATLBlue]

Suspension upgrade (hopefully)

The front camber can not be adjusted on the F30 and I did not feel like installing camber plates. I just wanted a bit more negative camber for better cornering and reduce understeer during occasional trackdays.

A simple solution seems to install the F8x M3/M4 front lower control arms on the F3x (and F22). They are a direct fit while being 10mm longer, which results in a negative camber increase of 1.0. The inner bushing also uses a sealed steel bearing that should be more precise and provide a better road feel than rubber bushings.

Here are the F8x control arms:



and a comparison with a shorter F3x arm:



They have shipped today and I hope to get them mounted on Friday. I will report first impressions this weekend

[Bamsterman68]

Originally Posted by ATLBlue

Bad Karma? What did I do wrong?

I have run into a few issues with my E46 M3 over the last two months.
I have had a big maintenance done and the waterpump preventatively replaced before taking it to the track. After two laps, a seal blew up and I lost all of my cooling fluid

I was planning on using the M3 in the afternoon but kept driving the F30 instead and the car was towed to the shop to get fixed:



My (spoiled? ) high school son daily drives the M3 and, while it is a lot of car for a teenager, it is also more economical than having more cars in the family stable. Unfortunately, I woke up a morning on a business trip in San Francisco only to find a dozen text messages from my son, including this picture :



Nothing dramatic, he was OK and had rear ended somebody else without too much damage. Or it was at least my assessment until a reputable body shop asked more than $6,000 to fix the car. This amount was irrelevant given its age, mileage and value. Since the damages could be fixed by only replacing bolt-on parts, I took the car to my usual mechanical shop and put my son in charge of getting the car repaired on a budget.

We found used parts in an equivalent or better condition that those that got broken and only bought a few new parts (Radiator, fan). The most costly part was the hood and it turned out to be cheaper to go for an OK quality CF hood than an OEM hood + paint job.

7 weeks later, the car is now back on the road and my son took the bimmers out for a quick photoshoot tonight. Leaving him in charge of fixing the M3 has of course resulted in something with a bit more of a boy racer look, but I am fine with it for the track (not sure I would take the car to a business meeting though).

So here's where we are today:


I am now trying to focus on good deeds to improve my Car-ma!

Thats always something that could be painted later on down the road too. Still looks good, and glad everyone was OK

[BlkD12agon]

Originally Posted by ATLBlue

They use to have this other sculpture at Barber Motorsportspark that made me regret not to have my swimsuit with me

hahaha

[ATLBlue]

Re-badged !

OK, this is probably my most uninteresting post, but after having de-badged my car the first day, I just re-badged it



I am not overly concerned by what others think or say, but I kept getting the question "is it the new M3?" including from a bunch of BMW owners. Most of us on the forum would never confuse an M-sport and an M, but plenty of (non-BMW) car enthusiasts seem to be.
I find the 'true M' argument utterly pointless -see the short video below-, but I also do not want to feel like I am a wannabe... Not to mention that it will make passing M3s at the track even more fun. jk

[ATLBlue]

F8x Front Lower Control Arms

I have been driving the car with the M3/4 front lower control arms for a few days and am happy to report that the mod is totally worth it. The parts themselves are not overly expensive (and much cheaper online with companies like Turnermotorsports than with your local dealer...) and the install can be done by yourself or by your usual shop for in one to two hours. In both cases, you will need an alignment.
The new control arms simply increase the front negative camber by one degree and replace rubber bushings by steel bearings

Alignment with the stock F30 control arms:



Alignement after install of the F8x control arms:




The turn in and road/steering feel are improved with no degradation of the ride comfort. I am eager to check the improvement on the track, but it is definitely noticeable in daily driving situation.

[ATLBlue]

I have been traveling quite a bit lately and it did not leave me as much driver seat or forum writing time as I wanted

Nevertheless, I recently took advantage from a trip from Atlanta to East TN to spend time on Appalachian mountain roads and stay away from the boring Hwy75 or Hwy85.



You can recognize a few famous roads: The Tail of the Dragon, Cherohala Skyway, Blue Ridge Parkway... etc. Sure it probably took me about 9+ hours instead of 4.5, but it was definitely worth it.
The Tail of the Dragon, 318 curves in 11 miles, is overrated due to the amount of traffic, LEOs and bikers who sometimes go well beyond reasonable limits. At one end of the Tail, the "Tree of Shame" is covered in parts of wrecked motorcycles -dated and signed- that didn’t make it:



That day was a bit of an exception as I could manage to do the Tail twice -at an OK pace- without being held up by a 2005 Deville with an FL license plate (just an example). One of the nice things is that you always have a bunch of photographers taking pics of cars and bikes and posting them on the internet for you to purchase:





There was a nice Yas Marina Blue M3 about the same time as me and I bought a couple of pics of our cars at the same spots. Not that I have any pretention to compare my ride to an F80, but just for the fun of it:










Finally, if you ever thought about a career in law enforcement, this is probably one of the best places in the world. Instead of being posted on a corner in an old Interceptor, LEOs are now patrolling on a bike:

[ATLBlue]

Nothing extraordinary... just found one of my car's sibling parked next to it on the Best Buy lot a couple of days ago.

[Felosenco]

Originally Posted by ATLBlue

Nothing extraordinary... just found one of my car's sibling parked next to it on the Best Buy lot a couple of days ago.

The wheels on the other car look tiny against yours. And those ugly fender reflectors

Definitely makes yours a stand out.

[CalCarNut]

Good comparison between the M-sport black kidneys vs stock. Nice!!!

[ATLBlue]

Participated to a trackday at Atlanta Motorsports Park organized by Hooked on Driving last Saturday.
Uneventful but fun. Here's a short video (sorry for the musical soundtrack instead of the sound of the inline 6, but I had to cover the windnoise...)

[Junkball]

What tint brand and % came equipped and are you satisfied?

[ATLBlue]

Originally Posted by Junkball

What tint brand and % came equipped and are you satisfied?

35% Ceramic tint, but can not remember the brand, sorry.
Very satisfied with the result.

[ATLBlue]

I finally found the time and opportunity to take the F30 to Road Atlanta during a track event organized by Chin Motorsports last week end. Road Atlanta is a much faster track than the two others where I had been with this car before (Barber and AMP) and I was curious to find out how it would perform at a higher pace.

The good surprise is that the F30 was relatively quick, hitting 110+ mph before turn 1 and turn 6 and 140+mph on the back straight. It remained stable and composed all the time including under heavy breaking (140 mph down to 50 before turn 10a). Fastest lap times were around 1:46s which is nothing exceptional but OK for a daily driver and normally gets you among the fast cars in your group... but not this time. My 335i was by far the most pedestrian vehicle last Sunday with a crowd made of 911 GT3s, Mac Laren, AMG GTS, GTRs, Z06s etc. Very enjoyable company but definitely difficult to keep up with.

The only bit of bad news came at the end of the day when a very loud grinding noise appeared during a cool down lap. I thought a debris of some kind was trapped between a brake heat shield and a rotor but was surprised to discover the culprit in the rear undercarriage cover:



A large bolt attaching the guiding link of the rear suspension on the driver side had broken and the control arm was touching the axle. This made me miss the last session of the day and drive back home very carefully. With only the bolt, guiding link and a bushing to replace, the fix was straightforward and relatively inexpensive, but this incident takes some of my confidence in the car away. I guess this is why you buy an M-car if you plan to spend time at the track...

Here is a video showing a morning lap. Observe the red 991 GT3 blowing by without breaking a sweat

[fhlh]

Originally Posted by ATLBlue

Track & Tires

A this point, I'll get a fresh set of front PSSs for my 19" wheels I'll daily drive and am considering to get a set of more track oriented tires for my 18" wheels set (not going all the way to to R-compoud though, unless I would install a BBK).

First world problems, not losing sleep over this

Been reading this thread from the beginning on and off today and kept wondering to myself, when is he going to run his 18's at the track and the 19's for the street ??

Excellent progress on your car. Really like how it is turning out.
I will continue reading

[ATLBlue]

Originally Posted by fhlh

Been reading this thread from the beginning on and off today and kept wondering to myself, when is he going to run his 18's at the track and the 19's for the street ??

Excellent progress on your car. Really like how it is turning out.
I will continue reading

Thanks!
As far as tires are concerned, I keep running both sets but the 18's will eventually be dedicated to the track. For now, I like the stiff sidewalls of the Potenzas, but the Michelin PSSs are consistently 1 to 2s faster around the track.
The fact of the matter is that neither of the two are good track tires on the F30. Michelins are the best street tires and Potenzas are average at best on the street and the track.

[ATLBlue]

The 911 GT3 is my favorite track car, but with my F30 I do not stand a chance to keep up

Short video of these beautiful machines leaving me in the dust:

[ATLBlue]

First post in a long time. Attended the Peachtree BMW CCA HPDE at Road Atlanta today and there was a new M2 with M Performance accessories driven by a pro. Very impressive little car

[ATLBlue]

Video from the BMW CCA Peachtree HPDE at Road Atlanta.
Not to be taken too seriously... especially the soundtrack (needed to find something free to use on Youtube to cover the wind noise)

[ATLBlue]

More track footage. This time the last session of the week end (first 15 minutes) without editing and without cheesy music, just the inline 6 soundtrack.
Just in case one of you is looking for a way to kill time...