The Drift46 (not sure how this is going to work.)

[Jrcanes55]

Well, season is over, E28 is mangled. There's a BS event this weekend at Piedmont Drag Strip. It's about to rain so e28 can't go. Figured I'd take the e46 daily (04 330i 6 speed) and see how she does. Picking up a 3.07 diff tonight to weld up and some Koni race springs friday to install the night before the event (classic.) Anyway it's been a while since I've been on track in a 3 series and I need some help.
Two main questions
For those of you who drift your e46, any luck with the stock e-brake? Mine is a complete turd. I've tried adjusting it to no avail. It either sticks, or it locks the right side. No matter how tight or loose I make it. Any tips?

Second, steering rack spacers, I couldn't find a definitive answer anywhere online, I know E30, E36, and E46 racks all work on the different cars, but are the rack spacers all the same? I was going to order some Monday but forgot and to be honest stock angle on the e46 sucks a butt.

Anyway, thanks for any input and hopefully all goes well this weekend and I come home with most of my clutch still in tact.

Pic for swag.

http://i.imgur.com/spiTVaQ.jpg

[Rustyfriend]

If the factory ebrake doesn't work try left foot braking and flicking her harder. I daily a 350z so it's a similar situation (stock ebrake sucks). I took her to the last event and by throwing it harder during transitions and left foot braking I got it to work. Car is 100% stock.

[Jrcanes55]

If the factory ebrake doesn't work try left foot braking and flicking her harder. I daily a 350z so it's a similar situation (stock ebrake sucks). I took her to the last event and by throwing it harder during transitions and left foot braking I got it to work. Car is 100% stock.

That was going to be the plan. The first event I ever did in my e36 m3 I didn't have an ebrake. So I guess I'm going to have to YOLO that shit and throw some stupid manji entries.

[DriftProf]

Ebrake works well on mine but I'm not sure what all Chelsea did when he swapped subframes, there might be some tweaking done there. My 325 has either a 330 or M3 rear subframe and brake setup. I did add an extension to make it easy to get on the handle - check out my build thread for pictures of that. The extension is solely for access though, not power.

As for angle, skip the spacers and either get the angle kit or get someone to mod your knuckles. I had Derrick Rogers out of Dallas mod mine and it makes the car so easy to work with. Aaron Losey took my car out for a few laps and commented that for a simple car it worked so well thanks to a good drift alignment and the knuckles. PM me if you want contact info for Derrick. He has done knuckles for most of the Texas drift community now. For that matter IIRC, he did Chelsea Denofa's E36 back in the day.

[Jrcanes55]

Well, Lowered the car, welded the diff, took it to the event. Car is no where near as good as my E28, but I had a blast non the less.

http://i.imgur.com/MfMJwM4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YBbTgNk.jpg

ran a few laps with these clowns. Conditions were absolutely miserable. Pouring rain and freezing cold. I got soaked, my car was disgusting afterwards, but like I said it was super fun. The car exceeded all expectations and I finally got comfortable driving with a welded diff. Of course given the choice I would take an LSD 110% of the time. Also got the E-brake to work. It made my life so much easier. I hate not having one.

http://i.imgur.com/MhqMntz.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hQWVpeW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bfiwdm2.jpg

I cleaned her all up the day after and now I'm waiting for a slightly warmer day to swap the welded diff out of the car. I didn't get any pictures and the few videos I got are on my gopro which is currently about 100 miles away in my friends truck. So when I get a hold of it I'll post them up. It was pretty awesome drifting with 5 people in the car. Kind of sketchy but I managed to kill a run.

http://i.imgur.com/i13xpFN.jpg

Things that need improvement
Throttle response: Fly by wire is the work of satan.
Clutch: It has been getting weaker for a while. It was trying to slip sometimes and at one point I completely roasted it on a clutch kick.
Steering angle: Stock angle sucks a fat one. I'm going to order rack spacers.
Seat: I have premium pack seats, they don't have bolsters, they suck, so much.
Steering wheel: Wasn't bad but I don't like the feel
Ebrake: The handle placement is awful and I couldn't get the button out so I would get it stuck on sometimes.

[DavidD123]

I have an e46 (XI :( ) as a daily so it's pretty cool seeing someone take a nearly stock e46 skidding. I completely agree with the seats though, non-sport e46 seats have ZERO support at all.

[DriftProf]

Your throttle response sucks? Interesting - I really like the response I'm getting from my E46 but I'm really starting to wonder if there isn't a lighter flywheel hidden in that transmission.

[Jrcanes55]

Your throttle response sucks? Interesting - I really like the response I'm getting from my E46 but I'm really starting to wonder if there isn't a lighter flywheel hidden in that transmission.

Man it's horrible. My e28 reacts instantly. The e46 I can slam the pedal to the floor and it takes a good second to catch up. Although after the event the car did seem to feel a lot faster in a straight line. Not sure if that's true or it's just becasue I just haven't driven the e28 in like a month.

[DriftProf]

Hmm. This is the problem with my car. There's so many mystery parts left over from Chelsea that I'm not sure if it has had the ECU fiddled with for throttle response or if it has a flywheel or something. I guess I'll figure that out when I pull the transmission to throw a new clutch in there.

[Jrcanes55]

Finally got my gopro back. I asked a kid to take some videos of my car. He took one. and it sucked. But here it is. Probably my 4th run of the day. track was so slick. You can tell because A: it's wet and B: The car is slower than most turtles.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6C6xH-BwbU&feature=youtu.be

[jeepster]

nice entry!