(Z3) M Coupe Time Trial Build

The Build

I was never able to keep my toys in their boxes as a kid. I was always careful with them, but leaving them encapsulated in plastic required more restraint than my childhood self could muster. Not much has changed. When I got my dream car, a 5 year old 2002 (Z3) M Coupe (number 533 of 678 S54 powered examples built), I babied it like an Optimus Prime transformer freshly emancipated from its packaging. I spent the first year getting to know the car and enjoying Colorado's plentiful mountain roads. It was a fantastic way to enjoy the M Coupe and explore my rapidly advancing driving skills. It was also an exercise in frustration. Traffic, speed limits, and variables beyond my control always loomed in the background robbing the purity of the experience. So in 2008 the M Coupe and I went to the racetrack for a Rocky Mountain Chapter BMW performance driving school. After one session I was hooked. Suddenly, driving became a competitive skill set of lifetime improvement like hang gliding and mountain biking were. I advanced quickly from the beginner D group to the advanced A group. The M Coupe was an animal. Its hooligan traits showed themselves, but a healthy fear of scratching my baby kept me from exceeding my limits.

Fast forward to the spring of 2012 and I was at a turning point. I had just completed a BMW club racing school, of which one day was in wonderfully wet conditions. If you can drive a (first gen) M Coupe near the limit, you are good. If you can drive an M Coupe near the limit in the wet, you can drive damn near anything. Confident after doing both I was ready to make the leap to racing. The M Coupe was too precious to subject to the racing environment; I would have to find something else. At great fiscal irresponsibility, I stumbled into owning a track-prepped M Roadster in the same Imola Red color as the M Coupe. I also came to the stark realization that my budget would only allow wheel to wheel racing in karts and $500 Chump Cars. The M Roady would be a Time Trial car, racing the clock (with a bunch of other cars racing the clock).  The roadster allowed me to push the limits and learn suspension-tuning eccentricities unique to the Z3 platform.  Both Z3M's share a similar rear trailing arm suspension design with the original E30 M3, but on a shorter wheelbase and with more power. Keeping the rear end tidy is a constant struggle. My learning opportunities came at the expense of a few scary off-track excursions, but learning how to go "off" is a lesson every track driver should know.  While the Roady was a great platform to learn and get my NASA time trial license in, I longed for the power and rigidity of the M Coupe. Last November I sold the Roady and began the next phase of the M Coupe's evolution.

The M Roady in Top Form

M Roady at Pueblo Motorsports Park
(my "off" is at 1:45)

The M Coupe is my legacy car. I never plan on selling it. I committed to modify it only as necessary to advance both the car's and my performance, but not in anyway that could not be put back to stock. My goals were to use it as a time trial and instruction car (this would be my first year instructing for the BMW club). In the five previous years I had improved the M Coupe from stock form with:

• KW V3 coil-over suspension
• Ireland Engineering green subframe bushings
• Euro-spec floating front brake rotors
• Stainless steel brake lines
• 330 millimeter steering wheel
• Sport mode, which allowed for easier throttle blips
• Super Sprint Exhaust

The M Coupe Before the Build

The next step was to apply what I had learned with the roadster. I focused on three areas: suspension and balance, driving position and cockpit, and fixing a persistent oil leak. Factory understeer would be corrected to a more neutral setup through suspension and wheels. Suspension and wheel build:

• KW V3 Coilovers Out (possibly for sale)
• TC Kline Double Adjustable Coilovers in (to fit wider front wheels / tires)
• TC Kline Camber / Caster Plates (-2.4 degrees camber up front)
• 550lb Front / 700lb Rear Springs
• Disconnected Rear Sway Bar
• 30mm Front Sway Bar
• 17 x 9" Apex Arc-8 Wheels (Gloss Black) w/ BF Goodrich R1 Tires (for the track)
• 17 x 9.5" Apex Arc-8 Wheels (Hyper Silver) w/ Dunlop Dizzera ZII Tires (for the track and street)

KW V3 Coilovers Out, TC Kline DA Coilovers In

Hyper Silver Concave Apex Arc-8 Wheels

The hyper silver wheels contrast Imola red brillantly. The rear end of the M Coupe swallows wide tires, but the front is limited. 255/40 R17 size front tires stick out slightly. To protect my paint from the inevitable projectiles that result from sticky tires I added a set of WRX racer-boy mud flaps. They look like pit stains on a super model and attract much unwanted attention from hipsters, but my paint is more important than my pride! The M Coupe is enough of an ugly duckling that it almost pulls it off -- almost. Luckily, I managed to source the last set of OEM BMW Z3 mud flaps in the country from a Toyota dealer in Ohio.

Mud Flaps

The Last Set of OEM BMW Mud Flaps in the Country
(sourced from Toyota!)



Less is More



Virtually Invisible
(Especially Next to the New M4)

The next area of improvement would be the cockpit. The M Coupe's two-tone red and black leather seats were works of art, but were woefully unsupportive for track driving. I had been slipping and sliding around the track on them for years. I was also pathologically paranoid about ruining the side bolsters. Much to my wife's public embarrassment, each entry and exit I would hang myself off the steering wheel like I was pooping in the woods. Here's the cockpit build:

• Sparco EVO II US Seats
• VAC M Coupe Floor Mounts w/ Anti-Submarine Bars
• Motion Motorsport Seat Brackets
• Schroth Profii 6-point Hans Compatible Harnesses
• HMS M Coupe Harness Bar
• NRG 320mm Steering Wheel
• Convex 14" Mirror Mounted on Go Pro Suction Cups

Seats

Floor Mounts

New Seat and Brackets

Harnesses

Harness Bar

Steering Wheel

Shifter

Convex Mirror and Go Pro Suction Cups

To make the seats work I had to hack off 3 inches of the outside wing of each seat to make them fit in the narrow cockpit. Hacking into set of brand new seats was super stressful, but it worked. The next problem was how to install a harness bar without hacking up my precious interior. I sourced a Hard Motorsports harness bar, but it required drilling through metal and carpet to install. This violated my not being able to return it perfectly to stock rule, so it was out. HMS made a limited production of semi-triangulated (front to rear) bars that bolted into the B pillars and rear hatch cargo tie down points. Through days of Internet searching I managed to track down an M Coupe owner who had the bar installed and was willing to let me borrow and duplicate it. Then another forum member emailed me saying he had an uninstalled for sale. It was the fastest PayPal I'd ever sent!

Seat Wings Too Wide

Trimmed to Fit the M Coupe

The last order of business was fixing a nagging oil leak that I had been chasing for years. It would leak a silver dollar-sized spot after being driven. I had replaced all of the usual S54 engine suspects, even special ordering a VANOS oil control line from Germany. Finally, I sent it to the professionals to diagnose. The conclusion was that the head gasket was leaking out of the unpressurized portion surrounding the timing chain. I swallowed my pride and turned it over to Josh and Cal Parker at Autosport Werks. It turned out it may have been a loose timing chain guide bolt, but the motor was so torn apart I went ahead with the replacement anyway.

Location of my Oil Leak
(below the head on the timing chain cover)

Head Off

Suspected Leak Culprit
(timing chain guide bolt)

Item #10 in Both Diagrams

With less than 72 hours before the track gates opened I headed to SCR Performance for a corner balance. Mark, Dan, and Pete worked their magic.  We had to swap some springs (luckily my new suspension came with 3 sets) to get the ride height close. I'd like to go 3-5 mm lower in the front, but there is just too much tire. Quality problems! They were not impressed with the plywood spacers I used in the rear, but it'll work until I get proper ride height adjusters from TC Kline.

Finished Product

Track Test

The inaugural BMW club Time Trial would be taking place with our local Rocky Mountain Chapter at High Plains raceway on Memorial Day. I would be instructing Saturday and Sunday before TT'ing Monday. I finished prepping the M Coupe at 2:30 am on Saturday morning! A crew of us rented an RV for the weekend. It supposedly slept seven adults, but as I said to the lady at the rental counter “not without "man-touching." For the first time my M Coupe would not be the sole E36/8 in attendance. Colby and Cameron were doing their first driving schools in Dakar Yellow and Estoril Blue coupes. Cory and Casey both brought Avus Blue and Arctic Silver '95 E36 M3's. Fellow new instructor Fox brought his black E28 535 M Tech sedan, and Eric brought the beastly S50B32 powered Henna Red E30 M3 that we drove across country in March. Our paddock was constantly bustling with activity that was complimented by copious gas-passing in the close quarters of the RV. Thank god it was a rental! Other usual suspects of the Rocky Mountain BMW CCA chapter rounded out the weekend proving once again, it is the people and the community, not the cars or driving that make such tomfoolery so much fun.

The M Coupe Prepped and Ready

Eric's S50B32 M3

Cory's Avus M3

At the Car Wash

I spent Saturday and Sunday staving off motion sickness while instructing A through D students. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it to watch my students grow and improve. They were all great guys with good attitudes. The cars ranged from a track prepped E36, Mini Cooper S, E46 M3, to a VW GTI. I spent the instructor drives learning my M Coupe all over with some suspension tuning help from Eugene. On Saturday morning Fox's nearly 30 year old ECU (computer) died, but conveniently, not until after he had mounted his race tires and accidentally occupied someone else's paddock. After lots of jacking, pushing, and trouble shooting Fox had a great attitude, but we all knew he was in a pit of despair.  A life-line text to the Parker's resulted in a replacement ECU from Cal's secret stash showing up in Sunday morning. Finding a red label BMW 195 ECU in Colorado, much less getting it in less than 24 hours to a racetrack into the desolate plains, was a miracle. We should have bought lottery tickets!

Fox's E28 Waiting for an ECU

Monday morning I was ready to Time Trial.  The BMW club is the best performance driving instruction available in Colorado, which is no doubt also true at a nationwide level. The club has an impeccable safety record and holds its instructors to a very high standard. I experienced this first hand getting put through the ringer during my instructor training / evaluation. Time trails (TT) are the next logical step for advanced students of BMW's curriculum. It is a perfect bridge for those who might want to eventually pursue club racing. It is also an ideal venue for those who want to continue to advance their driving without intrusive car modifications or costly safety equipment more suited to wheel to wheel racing. Open passing, off-line driving, situational awareness, strategy, and the goal of being faster against the clock, not just a better driver are all challenges unique to time trials. The satisfaction of employing various strategies and seeing your results after each session is deeply rewarding (or frustrating). The fact that the Rocky Mountain Chapter was chosen to host the first BMW Club time trail event was a huge honor for our members. Gary Bohn, Dave Jobush, Zung Tran, Steve Roepken, Roland Nieves, and Dean Croucher took great care to define what BMW club TT should look like. Taking a cue from the success of BMW club autocross they molded the successful similarities of other TT programs into a program that focuses on competitive improvement and performance, while retaining the excellent safety standards that have made the BMW club so successful.  I highly encourage advanced driving school students to consider BMW Club TT.  It will be the most fun you will have had in your car all over again!

New PR During the BMW Club TT
(2:07.773)