I think I will class into D Street Prepared. Not expecting to be remotely competitive but I'm sure I'll have a good time and hopefully learn some things and make some friends along the way.
I still strongly prefer getting my first track day under my belt over autox but given limited options I've got to jump on the first opportunity that presents itself at this point.
Holy E36 M3 guys.....my AC works! When I bought the car it was late September/early October and the seller told me blah blah blah AC issues, I just ordered a new compressor and I'll have it shipped to your house.
On my way home from cars and coffee this morning I got caught in a light rain which normally I wouldn't care much about but the trans tunnel was throwing off all kinds of heat so I had all four windows down. After suffering for about five minutes with the windows up, crawling in stop and go traffic I figured what could go wrong, might as well try the AC. And it worked! In seconds I was covered in delightfully cool air.
Two of my faves from the cars and coffee
And finally, I got good parking next to this beauty
trumant (Forum Supporter) said:I think I will class into D Street Prepared.
Well, I would class into DSP if I didn't have an engine swap. Upon a closer reading of the classing rules instead it looks like I'll be enjoying myself in Street Modified. Magnetic numbers, sun hat, sunscreen and tire pressure gauge all on order.
Is the engine swap the only thing pushing you to SM? If the car were an M3 in BSP, would it be any different mechanically?
This is a weird situation I have thought about often. There are some cars that aren't listed on the same line, and you can't do a package conversion from one to the other, but they are otherwise identical. Eg. WRX & 2.5RS from the same year.
If you aren't concerned with being that competitive it doesn't really matter anyway. But if you wanted to ask the locals if you could run in BSP I'm sure that would be an option.
That's a great point. Will toss the idea around with folks when I'm at the test and tune.
Registered for my first Track Night in America on the Lightning course at NJMP on Sept 1. With any luck the weather will be great and attendance will be light given that it's a Tuesday night.
Registration for my SCCA region's first autox test and tune opens tomorrow night at 7 with 50 spots. Fingers crossed that I'll be able to get a spot.
In thinking about the TNIA I registered for I realized that I had gotten a coupon for $25 off when I became an SCCA member that I forgot to use.
So, rather than throw away the savings I decided to check the other TNIA dates at NJMP and whaddya know but there's another date on July 21st that I can make. So I'm now registered for that event as well.
The promo code is I<3TireRack if you want to save $25.
The July event runs on the Thunderbolt course and the September event runs on Lightning so I'll get a taste of both with an hour and twenty minutes of runs each time for less than $300. Seems like the perfect, economical and relatively low stress way to get my first track experience in a car.
Doubly glad that I got these TNIA registrations done because our local region organizer just announced earlier today that the test and tune and first autocross points events I was going to register for next weekend are restricted to participants with 2+ years of experience so the organizers can work through the adjustments of COVID precautions during the events.
I fully respect the decision but I can't say that I'm not disappointed to miss these first two events.
Magnetic numbers arrived today, but won't be used for awhile unless my local region loosens up restrictions on the two events next weekend.
Planning on a brake fluid flush, Motul RBF600 going in and installing my Hawk HP+ pads this weekend. Once that's done I just need to do an oil change, check my fasteners and inspect for leaks and I should be good to go for my first track day in a few weeks.
Big news folks, first oil change in the bag!
Haven't had the car up on jack stands and been under it in months. Was happy to see that nearly all of the surfaces I'd cleaned up on the underside months ago are mostly in the same state I left them. I've got a slow leak somewhere but I'll be damned if I can see quite where and it's not enough to be a concern heading into my first track day.
Oil change was completely uneventful but for two things. First, draining 6 qts took way longer than I expected. Possibly due to some nose down incline on the stands but who knows. Second, the drain plug I removed had some very funky threads and I was happy to have a new one to install.
Car stayed on the stands for now as tomorrow I'll be installing new brake pads all around and flushing/replacing the brake fluid.
I don't have any calipers to measure the amount of meat left on the bone for the rotors. Should I cheat and just eyeball it with a decent metal ruler or grab some calipers?
Turns out the new HF jack stands that replaced the last recall are also now part of the recall so one way or the other I've got a trip over there in my future.
Got half way through the brake pad install and fluid flush/replace/bleed. Basically got all of the old pads off, rotors measured and cleaned up and sucked all the old brake fluid out of the reservoir. The high temps in the garage finally wore me down so I staged all the new pads and hardware at each wheel and called it a night and headed inside to enjoy a cold beer.
One of the most satisfying part of the job is that I now have the Haynes shop manual for the car and my tool collection now includes things like a Mighty Vac to suck all the old fluid out and a healthy collection of zip ties to hang the calipers while I work.
I'm really looking forward to using the pressurized bleeder for the first time and being able to bleed to brakes without a second person to help out.
I jinxed myself in my previous post saying that this was the first time I had all the tools that I needed. Turns out that I'm missing 7 and 9mm wrenches for the damn bleeder valves. So all four corners have new pads and the reservoir is full of new fluid but pressure bleeding the whole system is going to have to wait until tomorrow.
Motherberkeleyer!!!!! Four different local stores today before I was able to find a 7mm wrench that fit the bleeder valves on the car. Once I had what I needed the bleed job went very easily though with the pressure bleeder and catch bottle.
Threw the wheels on, took the car off the jack stands and tightened all the lugs by hand with my half inch drive socket...
and a motherberkeleying wheel stud snapped!
On the plus side it snapped now and not when I was at my track day, but it's keeping me from bedding in the new pads and I don't think I can get new studs until early next week.
Do you have the original wheel bolts to use while you wait on studs?
Nope :(
Studs were on the car when I got it.
Removing a broken wheel stud started since this is my first time dealing with such a problem.
Based on the advice and a little research I now have a full set of new wheel studs on the way from FCP Euro, grabbed a torch and 3/8" cold chisel from the local hammer store and Amazon is sending me an extractor kit, some cutting oil and a center punch kit.
Put my baby back up on stands and pulled the rear wheels, both rear calipers, caliper mounting brackets and using the double nut technique and a lot of profanity was able to get all of the remaining, unbroken studs out thankfully without any further shearing. Each any every one of them was just slathered in red Loctite so the going was slow but I finally prevailed.
The one saving grace is that the PO has been kind enough not to use rotor retaining screws since those always seem to be a real bear to remove without an impact.
Given the copious amount of red Loctite that was securing the old studs and the age of the hubs I ordered a Lang 15 piece set of metric thread restorers.
Will use those to go over all the threads in the hub before new studs go in and probably chase the threads for the rotor mount and caliper mounting holes while I'm at it.
With 118k miles in the Northeast it pays to treat all of my fasteners the best I can to make up for previous exposure to the elements.
New punches, reverse drill bits and extractors arrived a day early and I managed to get that little berkeleyer out.
Tomorrow my thread restorers and new wheel studs should arrive and I'll be able to get the car buttoned back up and on the road so I can bed in the new pads.
Could you class in Street Touring Extreme, instead of SM?
STX requires cats which I don't have and doesn't seem to allow engine swaps.
That said, I view any and all outings to autox events as simply an opportunity for cheaper seat time.
The South Jersey chapter of the SCCA organizes track sprint events that follow time trials classing and take place at NJMP my local track offer a slightly more expensive way to get seat time with the added benefit of being on track and no work shifts required. So I'm prioritizing those and other NJMP track days over autox even though they are a bit more expensive.
Given the car is likely getting a roll bar and fixed seats this fall or winter I'll be re-examining options next year and maybe take a look at some NASA events, BMW CCA club racing, time trials, etc.
trumant (Forum Supporter) said:STX requires cats which I don't have and doesn't seem to allow engine swaps.
My bad, I said the wrong one. Extreme Street. That's what I'm running my M3 in this year (we aren't doing points this year because of COVID, but that's my PAX), and if you haven't checked it out yet, it's essentially CAM for foreign cars. You can have a swap and you don't need cats.
Nice tip! I'll recheck the rules. Appreciate the insight.
Aha it's a newly announced supplemental class! No wonder I didn't find it in the main Solo rules.
Extreme Street Solo Rules for those of you following along at home.
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