Jamie and #395 racing the Mt. Washington hillclimb in 2011
2009
I purchased my BMW E36 M3 from Larry Barbieri in early 2009; its first hillclimb was the spring Mount Ascutney I. The car was run without any modifications from Larry's setup. It still had the full leather interior, stock seats, etc. A nice road car. Larry had made the following modifications.
Engine
- Jim Conforti cold air intake
Larger European airflow meter with adapter to the stock intake rubber elbow
Jim Conforti chip
Turner Shorty headers
Stock factory catalytic converter
Borla cat-back exhaust and muffler
- Stock flywheel and clutch, stock ZF 5 speed with 1.000 fifth, and stock 3.11 LSD
UUC short shift kit
- Koni single-adjustable dampers
H&R springs, approx 1.5 inch lower ride height
Slotted front camber plates
Delrin front control arm lollipop inserts
- Koni single-adjustable dampers
H&R springs, approx 1.5 inch lower ride height
Turner rear lower adjustable camber arms
- Factory 7" wheels with a Toyo street tire 235/45-17 all around
- Wilwood Superlight 4 piston calipers (old cast version) with UUC mounting kit
E46 M3 BMW Motorsport rotors (drilled) with pin-drive alloy hats
Braided stainless steel brake lines
On Saturday of the spring 2009 Mount Ascutney hillclimb, I broke out on each of my first two runs up the hill before anyone including me realized I had broke out. I got my warning and did not break out again until my first official race run on Sunday morning. I broke out by half a second and got sent home. Nevermind, Burke moutain was coming right up!
At Burke Mountain I also broke out. Time for a cage.
Peter Fielding Rowell stripped the interior and prepared for the cage. Chris Howard in Massachusetts built a cage, halfway between a minimal road racing cage and a full FIA spec rally cage. Basic six point cage with a single main hope diagonal up to the drivers head, two door bars in an X configuration but bent and welded together leaving two continuous tubes. Foot protection was added at the front and a brace placed between the rear damper towers.
Updates
Body
- Full cage by Chris Howard
Cobra Sebring Pro race seat with lateral head support
Cobra Suzuka race seat for co-driver/passenger/instructor
Momo 3 spoke race steering wheel with quick release
Aluminium strut brace (purchased used)
- D-Force 17x8.5 LTW wheels
Dunlop Direzza Star Spec tires 255/40-17
The rock turn at Mt. Philo
2010
For 2010, the M3 was the same basic mechanical specification as in 2009. However the cylinder head developed a small oil leak just above the timing chain tensioner.
Wheels and Tires
- D-Force 17x8.5 LTW wheels
Toyo R888 tires 255/40-17
Mt Ascutney Spring 2010
At Mount Ascutney, I had a strange problem where the steering wheel would lock solid in a corner and would not easily return to center position. This happened several times on one run, and it kept happening for the rest of Saturday. Saturday night we tried to find and fix the problem but found nothing. Sunday I raced a car again with the wheel locking in the corner and it would only unlock by doing something with the accelerator and brake and steering all at once. After the event, we discovered that the engine mount and gearbox mount had both broken and so the engine was rotating under torque and the engine mount would contact the steering knuckle and prevent the steering from unwinding. We replaced the engine mounts and gearbox mounts with solid aluminium mounts.
Transmission
- Solid aluminium engine mounts
Solid aluminium transmission mounts
2011
The Mount Washington Hill climb returned in 2011 and I decided to fix up the car properly. I had the cylinder head machined, had SuperTech +1 mm valves installed with SuperTech springs and retainers. The oil leak was welded up which turned out to be a crack in the cylinder head oil gallery just above the timing chain tensioner.
The cracked cylinder head. This has caused me a lot of anguish.
Rebuilding the head.
Head back in the car.
Below are the changes to the car for 2011. The spring rates are approximate.
Engine
- Rebuilt cylinder head
SuperTech +1 mm valves with SuperTech springs and retainers
Schrick 256 degree duration cams from Turner Motorsport
Jim Conforti Chip
Samco rubber air intake boot
- 3.91 three clutch LSD with 90/30 ramps and built by Dan at diffsonline
- AST 5200 double adjustable struts with remote reservoirs
Hypercoil compound springs with an initial rate of 440 pounds per inch and increasing to 850 pounds per inch on full compression
Vorshlag monoball camber plates
- AST 5200 double adjustable dampers with remote reservoirs
Hypercoil compound springs with an initial rate of 280 pounds per inch and increasing to 650 pounds per inch on full compression
Upper control arm/spring carrier replaced with lightweight camber arm from Turner Motorsport
All rubber removed
Solid monoball upper damper mounts
All solid ball joints in the suspension
Solid bushings for the subframe and differential
- Wilwood forged Superlight six piston calipers
Wilwood 12.2 inch diameter rotors with aluminium hats, total weight 12 pounds (compared to 17 pounds for the BMW Motorsport rotors)
Wilwood 600 brake fluid
- D-Force 17x8.5 LTW wheels
Hoosier A6 tires 245/40-17 all around
- Large aluminium rear wing from New England Motor Racing Supplies. This is a front wing off a Super Modified race car
Door bars added to the cage by Butch Sr. and Butch Jr. at New England Motor Racing Supplies (on Father's day no less!)
Butch Sr. getting ready to weld.
New 3.91 three clutch LSD from Diffsonline.com
I had a dyno run done in early 2012 for this engine before we put the VEMS engine management in, so this is the "Mt. Washington engine".
Mt. Washington 2011. First day of practice, first run of practice, second corner...
Winning the Hillclimb 2 class at Mt. Washington 2011
The cylinder head started leaking oil again at the very first event (Mt. Washington). I raced only five hillclimbs all year and did no track events. Also the limited slip differential had stopped working completely. I had Dan at http://diffsonline.com rebuild the diff for me and he showed me the three clutch discs with their teeth completely stripped. He said it's actually impressive to be able to strip the teeth all at once. Probably did that at Mt. Washington.
Mt Ascutney Fall 2011
Good photo of the new wing at the bridge, Mt Ascutney Fall 2011
2012
I entered the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb in 2012 and was trying to get the turbo car #317 built. Could not get it done in time so we switched back to number 395 for Pikes Peak. Most of the work was done by Cyrus House at Black Arts Fabrication and Charlie Gerry at Six Star Motors.
Engine
- Rebuilt the cylinder head, again...
VEMS engine management system
Tuned for VP109 Motorsports racing fuel
Removed the catalytic converter and Borla exhaust
Custom thin-wall mild steel exhaust system with single resonator
- BMW solid race gearshift lever from Bimmerworld
- TSW 18x9 Interlagos wheels
Hoosier Radial slicks 265/645R18 with R80 compound all around
- Custom carbon fiber bonnet (hood) by Bill Lockwood, weighs 5 lbs (2.3 kg)
Custom carbon fiber boot (trunk) by Bill Lockwood, weighs 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg)
New rear wing mounts
Front splitter and dive planes with side plates
Here are the before VEMS and after VEMS dyno runs by Jason Russell.
The first hillclimb to test the new configuration was Okemo I.
Bill and Jamie checking out the front dive planes built by Cyrus House
Qualifying on the lower section of Pikes Peak
Practice on the middle section of Pikes Peak
Race day at Pikes Peak International Hillclimb 2012