It was a beautiful bright sunny day with temperatures in excess of 30 Celsius! An extra few minutes in the assembly area were excruciatingly hot in the car. Snetterton is a complex 11 turn circuit with a complicated in-field section. However I did manage to get a testing session the previous day. 2×25 min sessions at an eye watering cost of £250 (thanks to MSV) so at £5 per minute I had to make the most of it. Learning a track in just over 20 laps was going to be tricky.
I qualified in 35th out of 47 (8th of 12 in Class C) in a time of 2m21.73s. This put me on row 17 of the grid. The leading Class C car was on row 11.
By comparison the leading ClassC car, Jonathan Packer’s Type R qualified in 21st overall in 2m15.27s.
I finished 31st overall of 39 finishers (9th of 11 in Class C)
Highest position held during the race was 6th. 8th to 9th position was due to racing incident (see video, final corner, final lap)
The weather was perfect for this one. Again sharing the drive with Mike Jacobs. He would drive first in both quali and race due to back-to-back races in his own Ma7da Locost. The Roadsports race is the only ‘endurance’ race of the day so are allocated garages. Parking in the garages makes you feel like a proper racing driver, albeit with imposter syndrome!
Pre race adjustments
The car adjustments were minor. Passenger seat and 10Kg ballast added to make the minimum weight (1315Kg @ 236.7 bhp for Class C is 180 bhp/tonne) and not require any remaining fuel to do so. Still finished with half a tank so all good there. May drop the 10Kg ballast next outing. Rear anti roll bar softened to it’s minimum setting. The front remained on it’s hardest setting. One click up all round on the dampers. Front now 17 of 21, rear 14 of 21. Will go up one at the front for the next race. And a car to pit radio fitted, with integrated helmet mic also spliced off for voice recording.
The race
We qualified 32nd of 38 cars overall, 12th of 15 cars in Class C. It’s obvious how much more seasoned the drivers are here (750mc) in comparison to the MSV Track Day Trophy (Race 1). Matt Creed (Clio 200) qualified in Class C pole with a time of 55.53, we managed 58.87 (Mike) and 59.07 (Ed). Rory Baptiste in a similar car to us managed a 55.62 to put him 3rd for the Class C start. this put us way back on row 14 out of 17.
On the grid 5 cars qualified within 1 second of us, and 14 within 2 seconds. We’d have a lot of work to do. It’s clear that with the rolling start that grid position really matters more than the standing start as we’re more spread out with much more track to make up for any position challenges.
The ‘Indy’ circuit is short at about 1.2 miles and is sub 1 minute laps, so being lapped, and lapping the slower cars, will be a major influence here. The fastest class A cars are lapping at 53 odd seconds, 6 seconds faster than us, so it will only be about 10 laps until they catch us. Then it will be continuous.
The results
“To finish first, first you have to finish” was ringing true here. In the end there were 6 DNF of the 32 cars that started (18%). We would ultimately end up finishing 21st overall (of 28 finishers) and 8th out of 12 Class C Finishers. I was delighted.
The damage
The car faired well with the same issues of the power steering reservoir ‘venting’ into the intake. This is possibly due to the maximum use of kerbs and the fact that the intake creating negative pressure adjacent to the reservoir. I’ll plug it with half an ear bud! The front nearside lower wishbone has taken a pounding giving some play in the inner ball joint. This will be replaced by a Meyle HD version for the next race.
Improvements
The nearside lower wishbone will be replaced. I saw the uprated Meyle HD versions on Amazon for £112 (pair) and couldn’t believe the price! I thought it couldn’t be true so ordered them anyway. No scam, just an amazing price, so I ordered another pair as spares. 🙂
The radio range is limited, as it’s a license free PMR446 setup and only 0.5 watts to comply. We experienced the signal ‘breaking up’ even in the close proximity at Brands so I’m fitting a Midland GB1 radio for the next time which has the same power due to the regulations but has a roof mounted antenna so should be free of the ‘faraday cage’ effect of the interior antenna. Next race is Snetterton which is a much larger circuit. Hopefully this will avoid any of the broken transmission issues we had at Brands.
I noticed that the AIM Solo 2 that we use for data logging was giving some erratic ‘G’ signals whilst mounted on the steering wheel and a quick phone call to them confirmed my suspicions that it’s not the ideal place to be mounted. The movement of the wheel affects the sensors so this will be relocated to the dash to provide a more accurate reading. I can now add a power cord rather than rely on the battery, and one less thing to forget to do!
Keeping the oil cool (total cost £425, including gauges)
This mod will work for all M52, M54 and M56 engines. Roadsports races last 45 minutes but the club enduro races are 2 hours. Others report that at close to 45 minutes the without an oil cooler the temperature gets uncomfortingly high. This presents a serious problem as the oil temperatures will steadily rise further and could exceed the design perimeters of the oil, typically 160 degrees. It can be compensated somewhat by using a heavier oil 10w60 instead of 5w40. The heavier oil helps maintain the oil pressure, and therefore protection, as the oil heats and thins. Continue reading “Oil Cooler Mod (330Ci)”
Circuit Days Track Day, Silverstone International (9th April 2021)
So before I went to the circuit I used this video on YouTube to get familiar with the track.
With me on the day was a friend and fellow racer, Mike Jacobs from AE Racing Ltd. He took the car out first and discovered some lift off oversteer on turn in. His suggestion was to stiffen the rear dampers just a couple of clicks and see how it drove. Continue reading “Silverstone International Track Day”
Running a higher diff ratio puts more pressure on the final drive. Longer race durations simply multiply that even further! Standard drive ratio for the 330Ci manual is 2.93, and we’ll be running a 3.73 after the rebuild (April 2021). This all means that the input shaft is spinning faster for the same forward speed. There are more crown teeth engaging, therefore more contact, more friction, and more heat generated. We do this to improve acceleration at the expense of outright top speed. Continue reading “e46 Differential Cooling Mod”
In my ‘Final Drives Matter‘ discussion I investigated the massive difference that a higher final drive ratio would make to the acceleration at the expense of Vmax (down to 140mph!). In that I concluded that the original diff (an Automatic Torque Bias one) would have to be replaced and at almost £1000 with an almost identical one but with a different offset to cater for the different sized crown wheel. It just wasn’t financially viable. Disappointing as it was, I’d enjoy the benefits of the existing diff albeit with a slower accelerating car.
Weighed in at 1290Kg; roughly what I expected. The standard car curb weight is 1430Kg but that includes a 75Kg driver and a full tank of fuel (45Kg) so only 20Kg was actually shaved off. Remember that we’ve added strengthening to the rear chassis, added a heavy roll cage and updated the suspension. Now for two separate dyno runs to certify bhp/ton for the different racing classes.
When you remove the carpet in an e46 you save around 20Kg. However there’s a little dip just short of the accelerator pedal. I’m assuming that it’s designed that way to add add extra cushioning at the heel contact point there. However with the carpet removed the contact point on the pedal now is lower down, the heel is lower than the pivot point, and your foot slides on the pedal when it’s depressed. This all feels slightly weird. Continue reading “Wilvern Floor”
