BMW E30 M3 Track Day Outing
Nov 3rd, 2007 by Tim Skipper
Seeing as BMW produced the E30 M3 in order to go racing, so it seemed only natural, mandatory even, that my own example should get a damned good spanking round my local circuit, Snetterton. Actually, what it really deserves is a damned good spanking around the Nurburgring, but that’s for another journal entry.
I’m no stranger to Snetterton; I raced my Caterham there in 2004 and have driven hundreds of laps during testing, as its only 15 minutes drive from home. It’s a circuit I love, with the longest straight in the UK and some very fast corners; it’s a good test of any car, especially the brakes, with two big stops per lap from the fun side of 100 mph.
I’ve now been there twice in the M3, both times open pit lane events with Book-A-Track, who I have long considered to be the premier track day organisers in the UK. Their down to earth no-nonsense approach and zero tolerance of idiots make a BAT day a safe no-brainer over anyone else offering the same circuits.
I wasn’t really expecting the M3 to get around Snetterton anywhere near as quickly as the Caterham, but looking back at the in-car video I was pedalling it round about 4 seconds a lap slower than my fastest Caterham times – pretty good going for a 16 year old car with tired suspension bushes and road tyres.
Some interesting comparisons; at the end of Revett straight in the Caterham I’m at approx 120 mph and can consistently brake for Esses at about 80 metres. In the M3 speed peaked at 117 mph (GPS logged) and at my bravest I managed to leave it until approx 90 metres, but repeatedly around 100 metres, before braking for Esses.
It will happily do this lap after lap all day – not many road cars will equal that – for example the brakes on a friend’s E36 M3 EVO needed a rest after just 3 laps and a much earlier braking point. In fact the only ill effect was a longer pedal, the result of that weeping seal I mentioned in my last journal, but it wasn’t affecting stopping distance, just making heel and toe a little trickier.
The tyres didn’t take much of a pasting either, thanks to the M3s excellent geometry and suspension set up keeping the tyres square to the road. The Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres have only a slightly feathered outside edge after two full track days and several thousand kilometres of being driven hard on the road.
So it’s been light on tyres, light on brakes - the last time I checked the Ferrodo DS2500 pads were about 75% worn - despite giving them a lot of abuse, and it even manages 15 to the gallon being caned round a track all day.
In terms of consumables, the M3 is proving to be pretty good value for money so far with fuel economy around 23-24 mpg apparently regardless of driving style.
There is some play in the steering track rod ends and a general creaking, suggesting that the various suspension bushes are getting past their best; they look like the original 16 year old items to me so it’s no surprise. I’ve now got a complete set of Powerflex poly bushes waiting to go on so I’m looking forward to seeing how that tightens things up further.
The internet is a wonderful thing, as well as making a large proportion of my living from it; it also provides an excellent resource for E30 M3 owners in the form of the S14 web site. There’s a US bias to the forum discussion, but since the important bits on the E30 M3 were largely the same worldwide it doesn’t really matter – the amount of technical knowledge available there is superb and it has proven invaluable with my constant need to tinker with the car for the sake of it.
Without S14, for example, I wouldn’t have discovered that the ECU in the M3 has two maps; one for regular 95 RON fuel and another more aggressive map for 98 RON Super unleaded. Switching between the two is a simple case of grounding out a pin on the ECU socket, so of course I had to do this to mine. The result was a noticeable increase in the mid-range. How often do you get free power?
The poor front bumper, already scraped by the roundabout that attacked it post-spin, has taken another battering. This time the offending item was a pheasant which wandered into the road just as I was on another qualifying… err, gentle drive out in the country.
I really don’t recommend cleaning pheasant guts out of a hot oil cooler as a pastime, especially if your house doesn’t have an outside tap with which to connect a hose pipe.
Anyway now a couple of the vertical posts in the oil cooler opening are cracked at the base, but at least they haven’t fallen out. It’s going to need tidying up before long.