Cooling Continued

Picking up from where we left off in Part 1…over the past few weeks we have continued to work on ensuring our BMW E46 M3 survives the thin-air and increased cooling demands of Pikes Peak. I sourced a KSR hood vent (thanks Ken) which is the perfect size to serve as a ducted exit for the v-mounted intercooler. We also added an inlet to the driver side carbon fiber lens to feed the hungry Active Autowerke Rotrex C38 supercharger.

Ducting Continued

Mike did an awesome job of building the ducting between the intercooler and the radiator. I always find that form follows function. I especially love the details that went into ensuring air flows properly through the supercharger cooler and the engine oil cooler.

Lots of dyno Time with jei at blacktrax

We made multiple trips to Blacktrax in order to build a really robust and useful tune for Pikes Peak. Jei had a great idea to start by building an “NA tune” by disconnecting one of the charge pipes. This way, if we blow one off on the mountain I can still finish the race and make it to the checkered flag; albeit with much less horsepower. He then built the “boost tune” on top in a way where we can properly account for the altitude throughout the run. Really neat.

As she sits now, the car makes 543.89 wheel horsepower and 369.08 ft lbs of torque. Woo!

ready to shakedown

After making good power using only 1 (of 2) Radium fuel pumps and about 60% duty cycle of the injectors, we decided it was time to drive the beast on track. We decided to bring the car to Thunderhill West on Saturday, August 26th for the Shootout Time Attack series hosted by OnGrid.

not without some issues

Overall, our first shakedown was a huge success. The car ran very well, pressures and temps were good, and I was careful about not blowing up my H-pattern gearbox. The car was very easy to drive, the new JRZ active dampers are amazing and we are only just beginning to scratch the surface with what they’re capable of. At the same time, the day wasn’t without it’s challenges. During session 2, I suddenly felt like something in my seat bracket had broken because I was moving around a ton on track. Turns out, we snapped a seat bolt and didn’t have a way to fix it at the track. Fortunately, we had a small ratchet strap and a clean Costco sock which seemed to do the trick for the rest of the day.

I was also struggling to get any GPS data. For some weird reason, the AIM PDM wasn’t picking up the GPS beacon. As such, I drove a bit blind by not having MPH or any lap data. Normally, I use the predictive lap time indicator as well as the +/- reference lap data while driving. Both are really helpful tools for quickly improving my pace on track. Oh, well. I look forward to figuring out what’s going on with Robbie, Roger, Mike, and team after the weekend.

So, while the purpose of going to Thunderhill was to shakedown the car, I did mention earlier that we had signed-up for the Shootout Time Attack series. Based on the rules, we were in the top-class (Race) and we ended up taking 1st Place as well as FTD (fastest-time-of-day) honors. Definitely a nice surprise!

Unfortunately the in-car video is lacking a lot of useful data we’re all used to seeing because of the aforementioned GPS issue, but you can still ride-along with me for a lap around Thunderhill West and enjoy some boost noises.

Next Time…

In Part 3, we’ll be covering the installation of my new Drenth DG500 sequential gearbox, VAC Motorsports prepped custom driveshaft, Tilton triple disc clutch, and much more!