Live thread: An insider look at a GRM track test

dean1484 said:

I hope you do more of these.  It is cool to see this!!!

Thanks and welcome to our weird, little world. Photo from the convoy home. 

So, the M3’s minor issues.

After JG ran the car on track, it sat for a maybe an hour–with the hood closed, if that matters.

When I went to drive it home, it had a bad miss. Like, bad. 

But then it cleared up. I drove it around the facility, and still no issues.

After stopping for lunch–right near the track–I got a MIL so we checked for any codes: No. 4 misfire. 

Car ran fine the entire 90 minutes home.

I bought the car from a friend, and he included spares as well as detailed notes.

His maintenance spreadsheet doesn’t mention any coil replacements, but he did list list the purchase of a spare coil.

So I just looked in the box of M3 spares sitting in the garage. 

Forgot to post this earlier: Thank you, Chris, for having the GRM Media Center up and open for business. 

Wow, super-quick shipping from BimmerWorld! Package just landed. 

Okay, it’s not new coil packs. 

When we talked to BimmerWorld’s James Clay about the E46 M3, he cautioned that some of the M3-specific parts wouldn’t be available forever.

So, it was (finally) time to heed that advice:

Still need to download and sort today’s photo.

So, any guesses as to how many images I shot?

Call this your hint: We had three cars going today. 

JG Pasterjak said:

I'm doing laundry because I accidentally left my balaclava in my gear bag for like six weeks and it smelled like hobo taint. 

If it was anybody else, I'd ask how you know what hobo taint smells like.

David S. Wallens said:

So, the M3’s minor issues.

After JG ran the car on track, it sat for a maybe an hour–with the hood closed, if that matters.

When I went to drive it home, it had a bad miss. Like, bad. 

But then it cleared up. I drove it around the facility, and still no issues.

After stopping for lunch–right near the track–I got a MIL so we checked for any codes: No. 4 misfire. 

Car ran fine the entire 90 minutes home.

I bought the car from a friend, and he included spares as well as detailed notes.

His maintenance spreadsheet doesn’t mention any coil replacements, but he did list list the purchase of a spare coil.

So I just looked in the box of M3 spares sitting in the garage. 

Are S54's affected by valve lashes being too tight? I recall they need periodic adjustments like hondas do? I had a weird issue at the FIRM one year on the Integra where the valve lash being too tight was causing misfires at WOT from 5k to 7k. 

Ran them a little looser (dont recall what the specs were, but they were on the tighter end) and the problem went away.

wvumtnbkr said:

JG Pasterjak said:

I'm doing laundry because I accidentally left my balaclava in my gear bag for like six weeks and it smelled like hobo taint. 

If it was anybody else, I'd ask how you know what hobo taint smells like.

One whiff of that head sock and you'd be like "Oh yeah, no more questions."

In reply to aw614 :

The S54s do need valve adjustment but, unlike a Honda, it’s done via shims. Sounds like coil packs could be the culprit here. I’ll see how the car is feeling later today. 

And to back up what JG said, it was hot yesterday–like Florida summer hot with no breeze. And I was wearing jeans since I was going to be shooting trackside.

And when I got home, I mowed the lawn. (I changed into shorts.)

I drove both David's E46 M3 and the GTI yesterday and both were spectacularly impressive.

The M3 feels like a thoroughly modern car with no bad habits and a wide usable envelope of performance. It could use some better pads, but the Bilsteins really suit it and the chassis just feels like an old friend. it has that typical BMW sedan trait of being better at mid and late corner than it is on entry, but i totaly get why every third car you see cruising around the neighborhoods around the Nurburgring is an E46 M3 with a race seat and a roll bar. It just works.

The GTI blew me away. It feels like a completely different car than I drove a few months ago when it was stock. The simple addition of springs, plates, pads, a front bar and a tune completely transformed the thing into a track monster, even on 340TW rubber. To make it go fast you have to do a lot of counterintuitive things, but it just BEGS for punishment and stays stable the whole time. It's just kind of ridiculous how hard you can hog it into a corner and how early you can (actually NEED) to get on the throttle. 

Just went out to the garage, and the M3 idles just fine. Still, I think someone’s getting some new coil packs very soon.

So I didn't drive the GTI on track but I drove it to the track and back and have had it over the weekend. 
It's a really good car, I don't understand why there are not more cars this shape with this performance available. 

In reply to ChrisTropea :

The GTI looks “right-sized” going down the road, too. 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Its relatively HUGE inside too. With 4 grown men on the taller side, there was zero conflict with headroom or knee space. 

And a pic of JG in the M3 at speed: Bilstein B16 coil-overs, Powerflex bushings, Vorshlag camber plates, 255/40R17 Falkens.

Coming soon: JG’s data analysis of the M3. 

And parts are on the way from BimmerWorld.