As most of you know, last weekend was the start to the season for me. Jeff and my brother Chris had already participated in a few events – a lapping day at Shannonville with K-Playground and a “Test and Tune” at the Picton Airfield with the St-LAC club. Because of my overhaul, the bimmer’s spring break-in was done at Calabogie Motorsports Park.
Thursday night:
Jeff and I both went to Carp to work on a few little things that were left to do before the weekend. I had to install my new electric fan temp switch (the one on the car was dead) and then adjust my brakes because of the new proportioning valve. Jeff was planning on trying to install a subframe brace on his Protégé. After I had finished installing the switch and letting the car heat up to make sure the fan worked, I set out to test out the brakes. There was only one problem: I had forgotten to close my hood pins!!! As soon as I got up to speed, the hood flew open into the winshield and cracked it end to end instantly. After several moments of panic realizing I may have just ruined my weekend, I got on the phone and started calling everyone I knew who could help me. The answer was always the same – no one can do anything on a Thursday night at 9pm. I’d have to wait until Friday morning – the only issue with that was that I was supposed to be leaving for CMP at 6:30am! So I then proceeded to call every autoglass store in the area to try and find out when they opened until I called Speedy and someone picked up! What? It turns out that their headquarters are open 24 hours and can book appointments! I was shocked. I was even more shocked when they told me my windshield was in stock and that it would be in Ottawa by 8:30 the next morning AND that there was an opening at 8:00am at the Kanata location! I couldn’t believe it! At worst, I would miss half a day! Chris and I took my twisted hood off the car before heading to bed.
Friday:
The next morning I woke up at 5:30 with Jeff and Chris and watched them leave without me (that sucked). I then loaded the car onto the trailer and drove over to Speedy Autoglass. The guys there were great, and let me watch them as they worked. By the time they had gotten the old glass off, the new one had arrived. With one hour, they had the new glass installed. Normally, the car is not allowed to be driven while the glue cures (about 1.5 hours after the install). Since my car was going on a trailer, they said that would be fine! I made it to Calabogie by 10:30am! I couldn’t beleive it! The organizers were great and allowed me to run without my hood. Jeff and Chris had already done 2 20 minute sessions, but I was able to get on with them for the third of the 7 sessions we would be getting that day. That first session I was very hesitant – I didn’t know how the car would handle with my new modifications, and I was worried because I didn’t really get a chance to adjust my brakes. After that, things started getting back to normal – I started remembering my lines, and becoming more and more confident. My car was AMAZING! I couldn’t believe how incredibly it handled. All the hard work I had done and it was paying off! I was started out in the beginner run group with Jeff, Chris, Naresh, and Pat. I wasn’t assigned an instructor, but I grabbed as many people as I could to get in the car with me to give me pointers. By the end of the day, I was ecstatic. The car was perfect (almost) – my only issue was an exhaust leak between the headers and the midpipe, however this didn’t affect anything on track – only at idle.
Saturday:
The next day, my dad Pierre joined the party in his Infinity G37S. Because we were sharing the track with the racing school, we raced on the east track instead of the full track (still an insane amount of fun). Mike and his brother Fadi (the guys who helped me install my transmission) came up to get some rides, and did we ever give them some! We all had a blast, and then it started raining. For Jeff, Chris, and Pierre, it wasn’t a big deal because they all had hoods and new tires. I, on the other hand, was running on season-old tires with a car that had no hood! It turned out the that hood was not an issue at all, but the tires were. The car was so loose in the wet, I could barely get the power down. I had to be so sensitive on the throttle and I was almost a gear slower throughout the majority of the track. We all had a few scary moments, but we all ended the day it one piece and still had a blast. In the rain, both my brother and my dad were faster than I was – oh well. That evening, Chris and I set out to reinstall the hood. After some precision bodywork with the back-end of an axe, we managed to fit it back into place. It actually didn’t look too bad!
Sunday:
Today was the last day. We were all getting tired, but none of us wanted it to end! After inspection my tires, I noticed that my two driver side tires were suffering: the front had heat cracking on the shoulders from being overheated, and the rear was starting to lose chunks of rubber. I decided that I was going to have to drive more cautiously that day to try and make them last till the end. After a few sessions in the morning, I decided to rotate them from side to side. Technically you aren’t supposed to do this because of the directional tread, but since the tires were almost finished and the track was dry, I figured it would be fine. This was the first time I had jacked up the car since I had put on the new endlinks and I quickly discovered that there was an issue with that – they bind! It was a quick fix, but something I will have to watch out for when I raise up the car. With the tires rotated, 
I started pushing harder and harder again, and I kept having more and more fun. By the end of that afternoon, all four tires had started chunking, and the tread was starting to peel off. I guess I put them to good use! My exhaust leak was also getting worse – I discovered monday night that over the course of the weekend, the leak had caused the gasket to desintegrate, and that’s why it had gotten worse.
Monday:
Monday was a cleanup day. After having taken over my dad’s garage for the past month, I owed it to him to clean it back up. After it was swept and all the tools were put away, I put the car back on the lift and started working on the exhaust. I took the clamps off the midpipe and seam welded them. My plan is now to helicoil the hole in the manifold where the bolt was stripped so that I can seal it up there too.
The weekend was phenomenal – the organization was amazing, and everything went off without a glitch. I had a blast drivng my “new” car, and there were no issues with any of the work I had done – all the bushings were intact, the gauges worked, the fan worked, there was no overheating, and (other than the windshield and the tires), everything stayed in one piece :). It wasn’t budgeted for this year, but it looks like I’ll be buying new tires soon (and new rims while I’m at it). I will be going to a 16 inch rim that weigh 2.2lbs less than the OEM BMW rims. I’ll also be increasing to a 225 series tire instead of the 205s that I’m running now.
303 Imaging was at the track all weekend and sold us hundreds of pictures of all our cars. Check out the Gallery under Lapping to see them!
Shawn
As some of you know, the weekend that Jeff and I spent in Calabogie a few weeks back was incredible and a great way to start the season. Unfortunately for me, I destroyed my tires sooner than I had thought, but on the other hand, it allowed me to go out a purchase some new rubber and new rims that will be arriving hopefully by the end of next week. Lets just say for now that they are going to be bigger than what I’m using now, so some modifications to the car will be required.
First off, the wider rubber is going to require the use of spacers in the front to clear the shocks. Next, to get the rears to fit, fender rolling as well as more-than-stock camber will be necessary. So my checkbook came out once more and I purchased some adjustable rear control arms from Bimmerworld and some used spacers for the front (I got a set of 10mm and 15mm and will return the ones I don’t need). Because of the spacers, I also had to get something longer to bolt my wheels to the hub, and I opted to buy some extended studs and nuts and converted the BMW to this system instead of the original bolt system.
After that, we tackled the rear control arms. In theory, there was two bolts holding them on and all we need to do is take them out and replace the arms. In practice – wrong! The bolt that holds the arm into the subframe is blocked by the differential, so it wouldn’t come out all the way. To remove the diff, we would first have to:
