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Thread: NASA Spec3 Build v2.0

  1. #101
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    Quote Originally Posted by Andy View Post
    Do you know what happened to the red Spec3 car that you passed going to Nascar (left turn) at VIR in Aug or Oct this year? It seems as you were passing him, he money-shifted and his car spun out.

    Found it! 3:06 of this Oct VIR race:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxPnMb7WehU
    Basically as you described. Apparently not quite a money shift, though, as he was running with AudiClub a couple weeks ago.

  2. #102
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    Over the winter, I relocated my coolant overflow tank to behind the passenger shock tower using an E30 tank and brackets.

    I used these parts:
    E30 late-model 6 cyl. tank (17111712641)
    Front Plastic Clip: (17111719190)
    Rear Euro Mount (41122256492)

    First, relocate the battery terminal by notching the metal:
    IMG_2441.jpg

    Drill a couple holes and mount the battery terminal:
    IMG_2442.jpg

    Make a bracket out of aluminum stock for the front plastic clip:
    IMG_2444.jpg

    Rivet the rear euro mount/bracket to the firewall:
    IMG_2446.jpg

    Wedge the rear of the tank into the euro mount and snap the front clip into place:
    IMG_2447.jpg


  3. #103
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    I also installed a new hood (thanks Dan!) so I could relocate my hood pins from the outer corners to the middle hump. The middle hump provides just enough clearance to get the hood fully seated. This position also allows me to retain the stock back-up hood latch.

    Mark with tape and use a Dremel to cut holes in the top of the hood:
    IMG_2491.jpg

    Then use a grinder to remove the bracing material on the under side:
    IMG_2493.jpg

    Using washers to fill the gap, install the hood pins in the existing holes:
    IMG_2494.jpg

    Voila:
    IMG_2495.jpg

  4. #104
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    My vinyl from last year faded terribly in the sun. Apparently that's a known problem with neon colors. Bummer. New bigly vinyl all round:

    IMG_2505.jpg

    IMG_2507.jpg

    IMG_2508.jpg

    IMG_2509.jpg

  5. #105
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    Hyperfest! I got the car aligned at Radial Tire in Silver Spring, MD (highly recommend if you know the settings you want) and was pumped to try out the new setup. My hope is that the new alignment would promote better turn-in at the expense of being a bit loose in the back end. Given my aggressive driving style, I think I'm better at catching oversteer than I am at minimizing understeer. At least that's the best theory I can come up with.

    The weekend started off pretty well and the car initially felt good during Saturday practice. As the session continued, however, my steering wheel began shaking sorta violently in high load right-hand turns. I checked and tightened the usual front suspension bolts and the bolts that secure the strut housing to the hub were a bit loose. With those tightened up, I figured all was well. When I went out for qualifying, the shaking was still present and probably worse so I pulled off immediately without setting a qualifying time. I discovered that the bolts attaching my steering rack to the front subframe had loosened quite a bit. Kinda scary but I was glad to find a simple fix.

    I started the race in 8th place but jumped up to 4th by T3. The 3rd place car bobbled the exit of Oak Tree and I moved up to 3rd before the end of the back straight. Then I basically maintained the gap up to 2nd place where Jon and Charles were duking it out. I couldn't quite catch the leaders until Honda traffic slowed them way down at 11:55. I capitalized and passed Charles for 2nd place. Jon and I stayed nose to tail for several laps and I mostly wanted to put a gap between us and Charles in 3rd. Jon ran wide at 14:31 but I couldn't quite pull off a pass in the uphill esses. After several laps, Charles had closed up much of the gap and just needed one mistake to be right back in the battle for 1st. Jon and I encountered a slow Miata at Hogpen at 20:22 which allowed Charles to get a run on the front straight. The white flag waived as we crossed the start/finish line. I took a defensive line under braking into T1 (20:42) and Charles made a bold move to the inside. Jon and Charles had some contact I was able to cruise to an easy win. Last to first!



    Saturday night I got to attack Cobetto with champagne with all the other class winners from the day. Good times but man did my champagne-soaked clothes smell terrible the next day. Unfortunately, the steering wheel shake had re-emerged about mid-way through the Saturday race, albeit not nearly as bad as it was before. So the car went back up on jack stands and I discovered that the driver inner tie rod was very worn and loose. Luckily Jon lent me a spare inner/outer tie rod and Charles lent me some toe plates to get the alignment back to "good enough."

    The car was transformed. I finally felt like I was able to just drive the piss out of the car without constantly worrying about some vibration from the drivetrain, steering, etc. I qualified on pole for the Sunday race and, though Charles took the lead early on, it felt like I had the quicker car. Charles and I pretty quickly separated from the rest of the field and battled nose-to-tail and door-to-door for many laps. At 7:10 I got next to Charles into T1 on the outside and we stayed door-to-door through T2. I got rather sideways on the inside of T3 with Charles just to the outside. Undeterred, I tried to keep position to the inside of T4 and gave Charles a love tap at 7:40. At 11:40 I made a move to the inside of T1 but couldn't make it stick on exit. At 14:01 I tried the outside of T1 and Charles mostly had position on exit but I kept the inside line for T2 and T3 eventually completing the pass by T4. At 15:30 a Honda that had previously spun came up from behind and put himself between Charles and I. Good thing, because I almost lost it big time through hogpen at 15:53. Over the next few laps I pushed hard and opened a bit of a gap over Charles. Everything was getting hot and my tires were losing grip. I drifted T4-T5 at 21:18, then drifted T11 at 21:55 and then drifted T4-T5 again at 23:32. Full-course yellows came out at 24:35 followed shortly thereafter by Code 35. The Code 35 dropped at 27:11, reverting to normal double-yellow but the Miatas ahead of Charles missed the memo and held him back for several seconds. By now, my tires had mostly cooled off and I was able to hustle it to the checker without any drama. First ever double-win weekend!




    Back to Summit Point this weekend.

  6. #106
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    Nice driving, nice win!

  7. #107
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    I stepped back from this thread for a bit because .... life. With everybody now socially isolated, time for some updates:

    During the 2nd to last race weekend of the season at VIR, I ran a bit wide entering Oak Tree. The tire barrier was there to greet me.
    IMG_2731.jpg

    I pulled it into the south paddock pits and the corner workers pried the front driver fender away from the tire. Send it! I went back out and finished the race a lap down. 2:21 ain't bad for a car that ugly!
    IMG_2875.PNG

    On teardown, the frame rail appears perfectly straight. Phew. Just a bunch of body panels to replace.
    IMG_2744.jpg

    All body panels acquired and installed:
    IMG_2846.jpg
    Last edited by OCRentAPopo; 03-13-2020 at 01:06 PM.

  8. #108
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    For some personal and financial reasons, I am not going to run the entire Spec3 season this year. Instead, I plan to devote more time to developing the car. Last season often felt like I was rushing just to keep the car on track. That led to some frustrating weekends and many worrying front-end vibrations. It often felt like I was merely managing the car and not really able to reach max attack. So, rather than a focus on season points, I plan to focus on lap times and 1st place finishes. To that end, let the improvements begin:

    Rear door before:
    IMG_2860.jpg

    Rear door guts:
    IMG_2861.jpg

    Rear door gutted and lexan installed:
    IMG_2862.jpg

    Detail:
    IMG_2864.jpg
    Attached Images Attached Images

  9. #109
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    Looks a lot like the old Benetton VWs of past with all the new coloured panels.
    glad to see the driver and car made it out of the tire barriers. kudos for going back out there and finishing that race.

    that puppy sure looks sad for you and having to rebuild the front end...

    - - - Updated - - -

    Would also love to see how much weight you shave off.

  10. #110
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    I borrowed a bathroom scale to weigh the glass and other stuff removed from the rear doors -- 15lbs per door. Accounting for the lexan and hardware I added, I'd guess the weight savings is about 12lbs per door. Plus the rear windows will actually stay up now so my aero will improve somewhat.
    Last edited by OCRentAPopo; 03-24-2020 at 05:08 PM.

  11. #111
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    Don't punt people, okay? It's not cool.



    The term “punting” is defined as nose to tail (or side-of-the-nose to side-of-the-tail) contact, where the leading car is significantly knocked off of the racing line.


    In the first lap of the Beast of the East Race I am too late on the brakes heading into Oak Tree and punt the Integra in front of me off the track. Real knucklehead move on my part.


    Heading up the esses and through T10 I am successfully drafting the Integra -- which tends to be a bit quicker in the straights. Unfortunately, I did not remember to give the Integra some breathing room under braking as the Honda Challenge cars typically get on the brakes a bit earlier than my Spec3.


    I am both lucky and thankful that the driver of the Integra managed to keep it out of the tire barrier and was able to continue on -- albeit with a ruined rear bumper. Sorry again, Mike!

  12. #112
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    Bought a retired Red Cross disaster relief vehicle for a tow rig / camper and dragged the Spec3 to paint:

    IMG_3320.jpg

    I still need to apply vinyl and paint the trim but the Spec3 came back looking great!

    IMG_3380.jpg

    IMG_3381.jpg

    IMG_3382.jpg

    IMG_3386.jpg

  13. #113
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    Awesome!!!

  14. #114
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  15. #115
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    Looks good!

  16. #116
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    Kensington? I work at Mini of Moco in Montgomery Village :thumbs up:
    I've followed this build for a long time, but never realized you were in MD. We'll have to meet up at the track sometime, there are a few guys here with e36/e46 track cars

  17. #117
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  18. #118
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    Added a SPA 4.0L AFFF fire system.

    Bottle mounted behind the passenger seat:
    IMG_3480.jpg

    Underside of the bottle reinforced with aluminum scrap:
    IMG_3472.jpg

    Two engine bay nozzles mounted with custom brackets:
    IMG_3477.jpg

    Two nozzles pointed at driver's feet and torso:
    IMG_3474.jpg

    Photo of one of the aluminum brackets I made for the nozzles:
    IMG_3433 (2).JPG

  19. #119
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    Primary fire pull mounted on the driver A-pillar. Accessible to belted driver and corner workers:
    IMG_3471.jpg

    Secondary fire pull mounted near the passenger rear. Not ideal that the corner worker must open the rear door to access it, but I wanted the pull positioned on the passenger rear so it's far away from the primary pull.
    IMG_3479.jpg

    IMG_3478.jpg

    Also added some brake ducts from Advanced Auto Fabrication. As a nice bonus, they work well to mount the transponder.
    IMG_3412.jpg

    IMG_3414.jpg

  20. #120
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    Oh, didn't know about AAF. Bookmarked, thanks.

  21. #121
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scullyman View Post
    Kensington? I work at Mini of Moco in Montgomery Village :thumbs up:
    I've followed this build for a long time, but never realized you were in MD. We'll have to meet up at the track sometime, there are a few guys here with e36/e46 track cars
    Come find me in the paddock at (hopefully) every NASA-MA event this year. I suspect the ambulance will make me pretty easy to find. Also planning to bring the Spec3 out to Cars-and-Coffee (Corner Bakery, 10327 Westlake Drive, Bethesda, MD 20817) to recruit folks to join Spec3.

  22. #122
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    Quote Originally Posted by aeronaut View Post
    Oh, didn't know about AAF. Bookmarked, thanks.
    Appears they are basically the old version of the Hard Motorsports duct kit. Much cheaper than the new Hard Motorsports kit which looks better at keeping hose away from the wheels/tires. Unfortunately, I can't put my wheels at full-lock anymore. Still, a good budget option for brake cooling.

  23. #123
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    mslevin is offline Have you checked RealOEM? BMW CCA Member
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    Those fire pull clamps look great, are they DIY?

  24. #124
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    Quote Originally Posted by mslevin View Post
    Those fire pull clamps look great, are they DIY?
    Nah, just drilled a hole in them for the fire pull. They're JOES Racing Products Roll Bar Clamps 10804. Bought them from Summit Racing.

  25. #125
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    Needs 17s and an M3 bumper ASAP.

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