Comp School. I've likely used this phrase more than any other two words during the last 4 or so months. I've been looking forward to it with so much excitement and fear...typically leaning toward the fear side. All the stories I've been told have led me to believe that it can be very taxing on both student and car, and that there isn't any time to deal with any "hiccups" along the way. Since I would be attending with a newly built/rebuilt car, I knew that the chances for failure of the car and failure of the school were possible. Still, the car seemed ready to go and so was I.
A good friend of mine offered to help me out with the car through Comp School, so we arrived at Carolina Motorsports Park just after the gates opened Thursday afternoon. I found some prime real estate parking and unloaded the car. There wasn't much to do after that, so we got the car covered and got ready to hit the road. Before leaving the paddock, there was quite a bit of discussion about the temperature dropping into the lower 20's that night. Since race cars are not allowed to have any antifreeze in their cooling systems, cold temperatures can present quite a problem. I had never had to deal with this before and began to freak out a little. We decided to try to find something we could use to keep the car's engine bay above freezing during the night. The "typical" thing that folks do is to leave a halogen work light on and wedged between the engine and radiator. With this technique in mind, we set off for Kershaw, SC.
Unfortunately, almost every retail store in Kershaw closes at 6:00pm. This meant all the hardware stores, auto parts stores, and the like had been dark for over an hour. It looked bleak until we decided to swing into the RiteAid drug store (the only thing open besides the Dollar Store). There on the same aisle as the light bulbs and extension cords was a plug-in cook top. It was basically a single electric stove eye. It was either going to be cheap insurance that I would have a functional car in the morning, or a $19 method of burning my car to the ground. We headed back to the paddock and plugged it in. We set it on the "low" setting and put it on top of the splitter in between the sway bar and the bottom front edge of the oil pan. It glowed orange but wasn't near anything obviously flammable. Without a whole lot of confidence, we covered the car back up and headed to the hotel. It was a long night just waiting on the phone to ring to tell me I had burnt up my own car. Thankfully, that call never came.
Our all-hands meeting was at 7:30 Friday morning. This was my second NASA event ever and my first in 6 years, so this was really my chance to start getting the feel of the crowd that I'm going to be a part of now. A good bit of that meeting was spent giving us a little rookie hazing so I could immediately tell it was going to be my kind of crowd.
Our schedule for the school was simple and grueling...track/class/track/class/track/lunch/class/track/graduation. Literally as soon as class ended we had to run jump in the cars and get on track. Then, as soon as we pulled off track we had to jump out of the cars and hustle to class. Hence the extreme importance of having someone there to help out. My buddy agreed to check over the car (tires, oil, lug nuts, etc) every time I came off track to make sure it was staying together. Without him there to do that, I would not have been able to devote my full attention to the classes and track exercises.
The first thing we did was to get on track to warm up the cars and our minds in hopes to knock the winter rust off of both. I realized as I left the pits behind a slower car that I had passed another car without permission from its driver. That was all about to change. Drastically. The first lap was under full course yellow, but by the exit of turn 3 on the first hot lap it was time to let the passing begin. I fired by several cars during that practice session and got my first tastes of how much fun this was going to be.
The classroom sessions were open and informative with 5 veteran racers as our instructors. We covered lots of procedural things like grid, starts, flags and so on. We also discussed bits of race strategy and how to mentally approach what we were doing out there. These classroom sessions were then expanded upon with on-track exercises such as side-by-side drills and off-line driving drills. All of the driving sessions were fairly tepid, except for the fact that we were also out there with several cars driving in the "test and tune". This meant they weren't in our school and were instead out there working on making their cars faster. This also meant they were ready and willing mess with us students when they had the chance, something a few of them did quite well. Once all the drills were done and we all passed the "written exam", it was time for our mock race.
The mock race is made up of all the students in comp school as well as 6 or so instructors who are out there just to give you a hard time. My goal for the mock race was to drive hard but to be extremely conservative and to keep my nose clean as I had no plans to risk passing comp school for a race that doesn't count. I drew a 3rd place starting position and headed out for our formation lap. That was the first time I had the "wow...this is actually happening" emotions. We rounded turn 14 and pulled onto the front straight. The green flag finally flew and we were off for turn 1. After 6 or 7 laps (which felt like no more than 3 minutes since I was so fired up), we got the white and then the checkered flag. As I pulled into the pits I knew a Rookie Provisional License was in my near future.
12 other rookies successfully graduated as well. I was now eligible to race, for real, on Saturday and Sunday. This is why I came. A couple celebratory beers, some delicious Mexican food (San Jose Restaurant in Lugoff, SC), and a good nights sleep later, I'd be back at the track ready to become a "racer".
Looking back over these blog posts reminds about about what has had to happen over the last few months to get everything together. So much of it had to be accomplished over the last month and a half. I had to have a lot of things go right the first time and a lot of help from others. Fortunately, I got plenty of both and it all worked out.
A week and a half before my first race I handed the car over to a couple of guys in the paint department at the Haddock's body shop next door. They cleaned it up a little, scuffed it down, and gave it a new coat of black paint. It came out looking better than it ever has during my ownership. It wasn't perfect, but this ain't no show queen.
Before:
After:
After reassembling everything that had to come off during paint (bumpers, wing, trim), I turned my attention to finishing up the safety stuff. The mocked up window net and center net were finalized and tightened down. The driver's side harnesses were replaced with brand new versions. The seat was adjusted to a better position. The fire extinguisher and mount were installed. The kill switch and remaining wiring were finished. With all that done and time continuing to run out, vinyl was next.
Extreme Vinyl came through with all my required stickers and a few more. Here's the entire order before application:
Thank goodness I have a very detail oriented wife. She was willing to help me install the vinyl and ended up doing most of it herself. She took so much extra time making sure it was perfect. I know I would have likely just slapped it on and been unhappy with the result. Instead, it turned out looking better than I had hoped.
Next up was going through the dyno testing. This part terrified me. Since the car isn't street legal, I can't go out and drive it around to find out how the rebuild worked and how the car is running. All I could do was run in around the parking lot. Going to the dyno meant finding out, with numbers, exactly how healthy the engine was. It could also mean blowing the thing up again and destroying my hopes for starting the race season anytime soon.
I decided to go to Mayhem Motorsports in Raleigh for the dyno testing. I had dyno'd the car with them before, so I knew they were good folks and that they would also have my previous data for comparison. I could not have been happier with the experience. In all, I made 12 runs on the dyno over an hour and a half. After diagnosing and fixing a dragging left rear brake, the engine topped out at 226/217; gains of 7 hp and 17 lb-ft over my last runs in 2009!
I then focused on getting the power down to where it needed to be for my class. I went through several different sizes of restrictor plates and eventually settled on this plate at 204/205:
This puts me at at 14.58 hp/wt ratio with no gas in the car. With my max class ratio set at 14.5, I'd call that perfect. I may find the desire to increase weight and increase power down the road, but for now, this is exactly what I was hoping for.
With the dyno runs complete and some satisfaction that the engine was going to detonate when it hit the track, it was time to go through NASA's annual safety inspection process. A local guy who does inspection and issues log books was recommended to me by a racing buddy. He met me at the shop on Wednesday night to go over the car. Thankfully, all my efforts at preparing the car had paid off and he issued me a log book with no hassle.
With everything done and all my paperwork in hand, I loaded up the car and my trusty rental van from Triangle Rentacar the next afternoon and set off for Carolina Motorsports Park. My Comp School and first two races were now close at hand. I couldn't wait to hit the track Friday morning.
There are few things as glorifying as the sound of your recently reassembled engine firing up (successfully) for the first time.
Everything seemed to go OK with getting the head mounted back onto the block and putting the timing set back together. After all that was buttoned up it was time to turn the key. When I turned it for the first time I got...nothing. Well, nothing except one click from the starter solenoid. I didn't think it could be the starter since it was working just fine when I turned the car off back in October. I went through all the power wiring and grounds as well as the recently installed kill switch and everything looked fine. It pained me to do, but I dove back into the engine bay and pulled out the intake manifold to get to the starter. Fortunately, my local Advance Auto Parts had a reman'd starter in stock.
Old one out, new one in. I put everything back together and turned the key again. This time, the garage was filled with the sound of 240 horses coming out of hibernation. It is hard to find the words to describe how much stress can be lifted from one's shoulders by that sound.
Other things have been getting worked on as well. The time table is so short now that I can't really do things in stages and have to do many things at once instead. Window net is in. Center net is in. Vinyl has been chosen and sent off to Extreme Vinyl for production. I've gotten a new helmet and a different racing suit (which is much lighter and better fitting than my first choice). Now the car is at Haddock's Collision getting a new coat of black paint. I'm very excited about this as the car has never really been "pretty" while I've owned it. And while it won't be perfect (it is a race car after all), I'm looking forward to have a car that is a little easier on the eyes. Still several important things to be done, the two most important of which are dyno testing and putting the vinyl on the car. Not out of the woods yet, but we are getting there.
Window net
Center net
Early stages of vinyl scheme (required stuff only)
Welcome to 2011 everyone! Another year in the books and another track season looming in the not to distant future. So much for all that free time during the offseason to get things ready on the car.
Those of us who do this "racing" thing as a hobby must be gluttons for punishment. Although we typically schedule events months in advance, things always seem to sneak up on us somehow. Go ahead and try to find a fellow racer who has his/her car ready to go well before the event. It's not going to happen. We will wait until we are basically forced to work on the car just so it will be ready at the last minute. We'll all pull onto track at that first event with things having just been tightened down and lots of offseason to-do list items still not checked off. We probably wouldn't feel normal if there wasn't some kind of last minute thrash to get the car to an event.
While I know this fact all to well, here I sit with a massive list of things left to do to the car over the next 30 days. Engine reassembly, window nets, dyno testing, corner weighting, alignment, paint and a myriad of smaller things have to be done before I roll out toward CMP and Comp School on February 10th. If things go according to plan, I'll likely be finishing it up as I pull it onto the trailer. Stay tuned...
Every car has its quirks. Some cars are plagued by electrical gremlins. Some cars eat up consumables like tires and brakes. Some cars do weird things when driven at the limit on track. Once we start beating on production vehicles in a track setting, we start discovering that many of these quirks turn out to be weak points. No car is going to be perfect, and the E36 chassis BMW certainly is not.
The list of "known weaknesses" with these cars has gotten fairly lengthy...not surprising when considering that then chassis has been in use for more than 18 years now. Weak front subframe mounts, weak rear subframe mounts, weak front lower control arm ball joints, weak rear sway mounts, fuel starvation at lower fuel levels, weak window track mounts, trunk wiring fatigue, leaking DME housing, and leaking power steering hoses are justt some of the items owners of these cars are typically forced to deal with at some point during their ownership. One more item to add to this list is weak valve retainers. Evidently these bad retainers only came in early-production engines in the M3 line. I had heard about this issue before, but never actually had any decent evidence that the problem really existed. I hadn't known anyone to have any problems and even my online research didn't lead me to much. All that didn't matter as I began disassembling the top end of my engine last week. Only one intake valve and one piston were damaged. The reason was quickly and obviously evident...failed valve retainer. This little thing that looks like not much more than a washer has caused me quite a headache and made my wallet a little lighter.
This is the pieces of the retainer and keeper
Here's the damaged valves, spring, lifter, etc.
The damaged intake valve before removal
It should really come as no surprise since this hobby of mine is pretty tough on equipment, but every now and then, things are going to break. This past weekend I got to experience my first ever engine failure. Maybe that isn't such a bad record over 7+ years of doing this.
Tarheel Sports Car Club and the Triangle Z Club had their finale at Carolina Motorsports Park. It was also the final Time Trial event of the THSCC season. I hadn't been to the October event at CMP in years, and most of the events I do at CMP are during the summer, so I usually associate CMP with weather in the 90's and extreme humidity. Instead were were welcomed with lows in the 40's, highs in the 70's, and not a cloud in the sky all weekend. It was, without question, the best track event weather in recent memory.
I only drove two sessions during Saturday's school sessions. The brakes were spongy enough that they didn't give me much confidence, and I had quite bit of rust to knock off, so I was not driving very well. Fortunately, both of my students were doing great which always makes for a rewarding event.
I "qualified" 5th for the Time Trial with a time about equal to my fastest lap during the June event. Since I knew I had been driving poorly and staying conservative, I felt confident that I could knock some more time off during the Time Trial. The green flag dropped and I immediately started driving sloppy again. I just couldn't put together a decent lap. After a few useless laps sliding around, I took a deep breath and slowed my mind down. I told myself that all I needed to do was exactly what I tell my students...be smooth with my inputs and consistently put the car where it needs to be. Next thing I know, I'm closing in on the 4th place car. A perfect example of having to slow down to go faster. I was on the second of two great laps when it all went away.
I went through turn 8, a fast, on camber right hander, as normal. I shifted to 4th and gently went through turn 9, a flat out bend which isn't much of a corner. Somewhere between turn and 10, I heard a pop. Not a loud bang, but a noise that was very obviously not good. The engine started running rough right away. I thought maybe a vacuum hose had popped off or that the throttle position sensor had worked itself loose. I decided to try to limp it into the pits in hopes of a quick fix and another lap or two during the Time Trial. As I rounded turn 13 the engine died. I pulled in behind the corner worker station and parked the car. I had to sit in the car until the Time Trial session finished. It was quite painful sitting there in a dead car watching my competition go by over and over, knowing there was nothing I could do. Eventually, after the second Time Trial session was completed and the track was cold, I was towed back to the pits. Sunday morning I drove the car one more time...for about 15 feet from the paddock onto my trailer. Weekend over. Insult added to injury: I finished second in the Time Trial, meaning I'd finished second in the yearly points championship as well. Wonderful.
After a couple days of mourning, I decided to look more into the problem. Everything pointed to something in the valve train so I went there first. So far I have discovered what is likely a broken valve retainer for the rear intake valve in cylinder 4. I will have to remove the cylinder head to make the repairs, and doing so will allow me to look for any more damage. My fingers are crossed that the damage is limited to the top end. I've also never ventured down the road of internal engine repairs, so I'm hoping I can pull off these repairs successfully.
This is not how I wanted my 2010 track season to end, but this sport can be cruel sometimes. I still love it, however. That's why I'm looking forward to this winter's repairs and upgrades. We've got to pay to play, right?
