1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

[Fair!]

Alpha car weight + autocross pics

Update for 9/3/08: Car was wicked loose at the SCCA/TMS autocross last weekend. Me thinks these tires are dead.





Need to order a new set of tires ASAP... SCCA Nationals is in less than 2 weeks. Other than the tires the car ran flawlessly, if a bit loud (open headers, until we can get a new Y-pipe built).

Re-corner weighed the car. Just about perfect, and 2508 soaking wet with the new cage.

[McCall]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

The car looks GOOD! Needs BIGGER stickers though

[Redwood]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

And M3 side strips and front & rear Roundels. Looks great though! An M3 rear bumper wouldn't hurt, but that would cost a bit more.

[Fair!]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"



That picture pretty much sums up my 2008 SCCA Solo Nationals experience. The car worked brilliantly on the Sunday warm-up event, and was posting times that were extremely competitive... but 2 days later I noticed on my first competition run that the brakes were very VERY grabby and kept locking up - and this was in 55°F temps on dead cold brakes. My first run was OK, and 2nd fastest in class, but that ended up being my only clean run.

Sure enough, on my 2nd and 3rd runs with warm brakes the problem got a LOT worse, and on any corner where I needed to brake aggressively that was over ~40 mph the rears locked badly. Those lock-ups ended up as big "ice mode" ABS moments, where the brakes wouldn't come back at all, and ultimately DNF runs.

The same thing happened on Day 2 - my first run was tentative and the brakes were very iffy, but I tagged a cone so that run was blown. Runs 2 (that's shown in the picture above) and 3 were terrible and the ABS nonfunctional. We didn't have a spare ABS unit and there was nothing I could do but brake like a wuss... and with something else amiss in the brakes (fronts were fried) the rears kept locking. My 3rd run on Day 2 was tip toeing on the brakes and dropped me to 8th overall in class. Bleh.

I took in-car video of all 6 competition runs but we have to edit them HEAVILY due to some language that has to be censored. I was none too pleased with the behavior of the once unflappable brakes, and kind of lost my cool when they took a sh!t on course.

I am putting new pads on the car today and will try to test it again at an autocross tomorrow, held on the Texas Motor Speedway road course. Its going to involve a lot of high speed braking so if the problem is still there it will show up tomorrow. The ABS is still borked - so I may have to run with it disconnected Sunday.


We need to do the Aero that Bob T had on his car last year. He ran in EMod this year, which doesn't allow a rear wing (only a spoiler).

Next year I plan to keep racing the car in SCCA XPrepared and NASA TT, and Hanchey will run it too between stints in his EVO X MR. We know we need to address several issues on the Alpha, such as adding a lot more horsepower (especially for NASA Time Trial/road course events), but also potentially a full brake system upgrade (bigger/better rotors and calipers), put the rear wing back on and develop the car with real aero (splitter on front), and also a possible wheel change. The 315mm rears were not scrubbing to the edge well squeezed onto 17x11s. An 11.5" or 12" wheel would be better for this tire size, we think.


First and second place cars in XP, both mid engined and lightweight.

The car showed to be 2558 pounds at the HPT scales (but was 2508 on ours the week before). Regardless, it is 200 pounds overweight for the class, and the top finisher in XP was an 1800 pound supercharged Lotus Elise on slicks, with 2nd place going to the V6 powered MR2 that was about 1950 pounds. Our minimum weight is 2375 and we can easily achieve this - Lexan in place of glass, composite trunk and hood, gutted doors, and that sort of thing. Of course we will chronicle every pound removed in this build thread.



Stay tuned,

[Fair!]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

We're bad about updating this thread...

Update from Oct 7, 2008:

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...2#post14337102 - updated the "kit" thread with new parts.



I did a high speed autocross held on Texas Motor Speedways road course a week ago and the brake lockup was still pronounced. I made one run with the ABS unit disconnected and the only change was that I had a light on the dash - brakes still locked up the same way, so the ABS system is completely ineffective. Hmm... I've got it on the lift now trying to get to the bottom of it. We have a NASA Time Trial this weekend at Eagles Canyon so we're running out of time...

edit:

The ABS problems were from a failed ABS computer, which we fixed right after this event. The fix was easy once we got a replacement computer. I finally uploaded the video from my 2nd run that day where the ABS started to wig out:


click for video

[Fair!]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

Update from Oct 13, 2007:

The Vorshlag crew attended the Saturday races on the inaugural NASA weekend at Eagles Canyon Raceway. The track has been partially repaved/repaired and they deemed it ready for racing. 2.5 mile track with 11 turns and 70' of elevation change. A really fun track.



Getting to the site was a bit of a trek into the back country, as it was ~16 miles off of any highway down country roads. The remoteness was probably to avoid encroaching development and looming noise restrictions, but it makes it difficult to leave the site to find food, hotel, parts, etc - its all 20 minutes away. Luckily they now have food on site, fuel (of sorts), bathrooms, a driver's lounge, a small bleacher section on a hill that overlooks most of the track (see pics), and almost enough paddock space for all racers to setup on pavement. They still don't have garages, landscaping/erosion control is a bit of a mess, they still need more paddock space (we parked in a gravel pit), and the track is pretty damn bumpy in two areas. There's some nasty runoff areas that could use attention as well. All in all, pretty good for what's really their first year of operation.

OK, so Amy, Brian and I all signed up for the NASA event online - Amy for HPDE1 (beginner - she hadn't done a DE in 10 years), and Brian and I for Time Trial. We get there and had a bit of trouble finding the place, so that put us on site a bit late (7:45). To say it was a bit disorganized would be a fair statement - the huge tech line hadn't started to move yet, registration was a bit unsorted, but the beginner's class had already started so it was a bit of a cluster. We got the cars teched eventually but found out there were only 4 instructors for all of the beginner DE drivers, so I was "deputized" to be Amy's instructor. That worked out great and she and I had a blast during 3 of her 4 HPDE1 sessions. They also had 5 loaner transponders - we had rented 2 but only got 1, so Brian and I had to swap it out to both get times in TT. Several TT competitors never got a transponder on Saturday.


Our paddock was on gravel, but we later just parked in a little used pre-grid area and left them there all day when not on course.

We saw lots of folks out there - our friend Jeff Wirtz kicking butt in his CMC classed 3rd gen Camaro (set pole in qualifying and won the first race). We also saw Stuart and the Maxey's, plus Dave B, a forum member here. Dave was a big help all day and stepped in while I was on course to get the EVO aligned after Brian's first plow-intensive session proved it needed as much camber as the soft stock suspension would allow. Thanks Dave!


The EVO X is a leaning machine...

I'll let Brian go over his impressions of the EVO X, running in TTB. The Alpha car ran in TTU and I had a blast driving it. My first session was fun and informative, but I quickly got stuck behind slower TTU and TTS cars for most of the first session. Still, it let me learn the track while forcing me to drive at 8/10ths. I finally had the (now charged) rental transponder on the car for session 2 and started near the front of the grid, so I got a clean track and 5 good laps in without seeing another car in front or behind, posting a few 1:59s and a best of 1:57 on the 2.5 mile course. I didn't run session 2 and 3 for the day but from the times I saw posted, the closest any TT competitors got were 2:02's (a heavily modded TTS RX7-TT and a TTU C6-Z06 with mods) on Saturday. No telling what they ran in session 4 or on Sunday, but I think my time was enough for the TTU win? Who knows when NASA will post results.

I was very happy with the handling, brakes (ABS was fixed by replacing the ABS computer, yea!), and the power was adequate... right until I head a terrifying knocking sound at the end of session 2.


The Alpha car was fast and furious... until it wiped a rod bearing?

We think its a rod bearing; our soon-to-be engine builder told me what to check and there's a remote chance its only a collapsed lifter. Normally we run +1 qt in the LS1, as these motors need the extra volume on a road course, but I was lax and ran it with only the normal ~6 qts of oil (just at the "full" mark). With lateral cornering in the 1.5g range on long, sustained corners it must have sucked air and wiped the bearing. I shut it down seconds after hearing the noise but the damage was done. Once the motor cooled off (oil thickened) the engine fired up and sounded fine, but we know its probably "not long for this earth" so we'll start a tear down immediately. Oh well, it was only a junkyard motor that has been abused for 2 years of racing. Now we have an excuse to do some power and reliability mods. Oiling system improvements are on order, of course. Accusump at the very least.

I will edit the in-car footage from the Alpha car and get it posted. You can hear the poor motor's last death throws in the video, too.

Pictures http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/gallery/6220603_T6jYA

[Fair!]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

Update from Oct 21, 2008:

In-car video from the Alpha car at ECR. This is from my 2nd session at ECR during the NASA event, a week and a half ago. Its about a 5 minute video and has a couple of hot laps plus the fateful corner where the Death Rattle begins.


click for video

Yes - there are loads of driver errors and I'm not pushing the car hard in many/most corners. This was still a new track for me and I was still getting my bearings, since I hadn't tracked it since May. Excuses, excuses...

http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=993488 - This is a link to results from the 2nd Saturday Time Trial session. A little hard to follow, as it just has a name and number, no class designation or car description. This is the free web results generated by AMB, their transponder supplier. From the pictures we took, car #67 was the black RX7 Turbo (TTS) and #117 was the black C6 Z06 running in TTU with me.

Thanks,

[Fair!]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

Quick update for Nov 6, 2008: Hanchey and I have been working on all sorts of little projects on the Alpha car for the past two weeks. We got some under trays from MotionMotorsport that we've needed to install for a while. Nice parts - got one on the M3 and about to put one on the Alpha car next. We'll make an extension for a front splitter from this.


Left: Alpha car's underpinnings are an aero mess! Right: Newly installed aluminum panel on our E36 M3 is clean and replaces 5 (broken) plastic parts

We threw the dice for a long time and the stock lower rear control arms didn't buckle, but why take chances? We've been putting a lot of load through these arms with 315mm R compound tires through long corners, so we replaced them with much heavier duty aftermarket arms from Mason Engineering during the down time waiting on the motor. Stout stuff, but only 0.3 pounds heavier than the cheesy stock stamped steel junk.


Mason adjustable lower control arms/spherical ends replace OEM


This job is a whole lot easier on a lift! The diff housing has to come partially out to make access for the inboard bolts

We've also installed this trick shift boot cover assembly that covers the gross hack job on the shifter hole (this Alpha car has had 3 different motor mount iterations, and each moved the shift hole location). This snap-on boot is fire proof, includes an aluminum base frame, and was very easy to install (10 minutes) and fit perfectly. I'll post more info next time I shoot pics. Also working on a driver's side window net and then a remote main electrical disconnect install and battery relocation (putting that thing back in the trunk since we need to re-run battery cables anyway). Fire system and seat back brace is coming as well. Safety upgrades that were all long overdue on a track car of this capability - kudos to Hanchey for pushing the issue before any of it was ever needed.







I spent a day at HK Racing Engines in Houston a week ago, they build a lot of high end LS1 race engines, and we have a very over-built LS2 motor being built now. Got to see Warhawk & LSX and LS2/LS7/LS3 blocks, every flavor of LS1 head/piston/crank/rod, etc. The LS2 based engine we chose should easily meet our 500 whp limit that our current TTU chassis weight dictates (with an inlet restrictor). We're going to make the LS2 oil pan fit (it looks like it will clear the crossmember after some review), as it has a much better sump and windage tray. Accusump going in, too.

Cheers,

[Fair!]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"



The fire proof shift boot we added to the Alpha car last week. Works well with our race car, not so much on a street car. Just received a crap load of brake ducting hose for this car and the EVO, plus some mesh screen for rock guards.

[hancheyb]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

Not only that but it keeps the hot air from under the car coming into the cabin. A current treat on August days.

[Fair!]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

The new LS2 motor is finally wrapping up so we're going to pull the old motor on Thursday, Feb 26, 2009. Calling all hands!

MOTOR PULL PARTY! Thursday night! 7 pm until 11 pm ish. Step up!

Thanks,

[John in Houston]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

Sorry... I'll be in FLA kicking back on the beach.

[Redwood]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

Sorry, we're going to a Stars game with half our office.

[Paul]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

I think I can make it. As long as I get out of work in time.

[DBeck]

Re: 1992 318is / LS1 aka: "Alpha E36 LS1"

I can help tomorrow guys. Keep the fridge stocked.