HELP, taking the the old 540i6 to VIR in a month

[Marticus3]

Plan is to take my 98 540i6 to Virginia International for a "track sprint". I'm excited. I'm all paid up.

https://www.motorsportreg.com/events...e-ridge-454736
The event consists of 2 or 3 practice sessions, listed as 50 minutes long. I'm assuming they're spacing cars by 20 second during practice and you only do a lap, but I could easily be wrong.
The car is a daily driver, its got ultra-low performance all season P02 sumitomos, it's one wheel drive, it weighs six thousand pounds... etc.

I doubt I'll be pushing the car all that hard but she's heavy. What do I need that will still serve the rest of the year on the road? I have those akebono pads on it now, a year old and 50 to 60% left (I just rotated tires a couple weeks ago). They aren't adequate are they? If I need to get a real track pad that wont be great on the street I'll just swap the current ones back on after I driver her home.

That I need recommendations on:
Brake fluid
Brake pads
I was also told to overfill the oil slightly so it doesn't get starved in the turns.

98540i6.jpg

Thanks a lot guys. I know I'm going to have a blast and cant wait to put to use all that experience I earned at the electric go cart track at the mall.

[douglawrence42]

This is being run by the autocross club, on the patriot course. Speeds will be pretty low for an actual racetrack. I’m no expert, but I suspect that if your not doing anything about those tires, then nothing else you are considering will matter that much. I was planning to bring a fiat 500 Abarth I just bought, but maybe I should bring the e39? It would surprise everyone to have 2 540i6’s show up. No matter what you do, I don’t think it will be all that competitive, and it’s a safe track. I hope to see you there


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[JimLev]

The car is a daily driver, it weighs six thousand pounds... etc.

Before you go remove all the extra weight you must have added. From the factory it was only 3748Lbs and that was with a full tank of fuel and the driver.
Have fun at the track.

[Marticus3]

Doug, I bet that little Fiat would be awesome! It'd be cool to grab a ride along with you either way.

If you were going to take the 540 whatbrake fluid would you use? Just new regular stuff?

Is over filling the oil an old wives tale?

Jim, lol will do.

[douglawrence42]

I’m a total novice as well, this will be my first time also (well I hope to run the March event also). So don’t take any advice from me. I have a lot of friends who do it, and who have run that course. Closest comparison I can give is my friends mustang, only light suspension mods, decent tires, hawk pads. He said everything was fine except the brakes were already fading after just 2 laps. So unless your doing something drastic, I don’t think any quick fixes will turn our fat pigs into anything except what they are. Regardless, should be a good time.


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[Marticus3]

I have no doubt of that part haha.

[sienayr]

Is this your first time at the track? If so, don’t worry about upgrades, especially tires. It’s much better to learn to drive your car on track with street tires, stock suspension, stock brakes, etc. As you gain seat time and experience, you’ll know when it’s time to start upgrading. The first time I took my e36 M3 to the track it was bone stock with real shitty half used up Yokohama run flats. Running on street tires helps you learn the most important aspect of track driving- car control, and understanding the dynamics of your car at speed.

Flush your brake fluid with Ate Gold, and do a coolant flush if you haven’t in the last two years. If you plan to start attending track events regularly, I highly recommend investing in a motive brake bleeder, as you will be flushing your brake fluid at least once per year.

There is something to overfilling the oil, but I suspect you won’t be pushing at the level where you will starve your engine in corners so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

If it’s like CCA track events, there should be an inspection form; you can do your own inspection if you are comfortable doing so or take to a shop and have them fill it out (most CCA events will have a shop that will do free inspections). If they don’t provide a form, you can probably google it and find one online. Even if it’s not required, I would highly recommend you do a tech inspection especially since it’s your daily driver. It’s pretty standard to do one before every track event.

Pay special attention to your motor mounts and transmission mounts. If they are original, and you are able, I would recommend replacing those before the event. You will be putting force on those components that they may have never seen before, and if they are already worn out then the entire drive train can start shifting about.

Have fun!

[Marticus3]

Thanks sienayr, I'm feeling a lot better. Sounds like this event will be more like an autocross so should be a good intro to the track for my first time. I've borrowed my buddies bleeder, that thing was amazing.

All the advice is good stuff, exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks bud

[geargrinder]

I know a couple guys around here who used to track day their 540's and M5's and they do like to eat tires and pads IF you're driving at higher levels. Different clubs run the n00b events differently, some use up almost no tire or brake at all the first few times and its all 'easy cruisin' that's barely different than some brisk highway driving with sharper turns, while others "get right into it" in terms of starting to practice braking points etc...

You might ask around to people who've done this event as a n00b before (or ask the club directly, talking to one of the instructors is always a good idea).

Otherwise: Siena covered it but to reiterate - the club, unless they are really bad at this, will have a tech list you're supposed to comply with and that virtually always includes full brake fluid flush and might even have trackside testing to confirm that.
Yep a lotta instructors actually recommend not great tires to keep speeds down. Yes ye olde piggy will wear those street tires down on you once the speeds start to increase. Moreso for brake pads.

I probably would not worry about the tires, but, based on the wear you have on the pads now, you could consider having new pads tossed on when you have the fluid flush done. Since regardless you're gonna be in a n00b group I would NOT pick a real hardcore track pad (even if they encourage you to push it at this event, you still prob won't heat a real cold track pad up enough to make it work most of the time...) but you could go with an aggressive street / light track pad, like a Hawk HP or something like that. Pads are like motor oil: Ask 10 guys what brake pad to use and you'll get 10 answers, but something of that nature at any rate.

Re: the oil, yeah, the M62 carries around over 8 quarts of oil and most of the time most of that is down in the pan (yeah the spec says 8Q but when my cars is filled to the line it takes 8.5...) Its gonna be pretty hard to starve that sump. I wouldn't worry about that even if you WERE driving the car pretty hard.

What I WOULD do that isn't on this page yet is make sure the COOLING system is all tickety-boo. Having a lower thermostat mod would be ideal but regardless be sure your rad and exp tank and hoses and fans etc. etc. are all up to snuff. Everyone will hate you if your car pukes its coolant on the track unexpectedly.

[sienayr]

Everyone will hate you if your car pukes its coolant on the track unexpectedly.

True 'dat

[Marticus3]

Awesome geargrinder, I really appreciate the in depth posts. Lots of info in them.

As far as my cooling I bought rk's csf aluminum radiator. Lower thermostat mod was done over a year ago. I haven't had over heating problems since the new radiator, before that I went through 2 new behrs in less than a year.. New hoses and expansion jug when I did the radiator that was about 2 years ago. My obd scanner has her running at 208 pretty consistently and I don't think I've ever seen 210 on its graph. Only thing that I haven't done is the water pump which is supposed to be about 3 or 4 years old now (kinda scary)(previous owner). Fan clutch is working good and the plastic on the fan looks ok. Fluid was flushed 6 months ago.. End of summer sometime.

Sounds like making sure the oil is topped off is the wise move.

Screenshot_20190214-110653_Adobe Acrobat.jpgI'll attach the safety checklist, looks pretty simple. I know I have an old car though and want to minimize the chance of being the idiot who blew a bunch of fluid on the track.

From some reading last night practice is do a lap then go to the back of the line.. So atleast she will have some time in between laps to cool off if I do get her hot. Originally I though we were going to be doing 1/2 hour practice sessions, running laps the whole time. I'm much less anxious about this setup.

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What do you guys think of my water pump? I don't feel like I'm taking a big risk with it, but does that throw up red flags for you guys?

[geargrinder]

OK just clicked on the link - its a time-trial setup... Hmmm pretty slim on rules and procedures. Unless its' really a parking lot auto-x track, its pretty unusual to just set guys out on a road course without any kind of check-out first. More commonly you either prove track experience or you do a lap or two with an instructor at the very least. I'm guessing they'll have instructors and n00bz will be required to do a run or two with them before you're set to solo? Maybe during the "untimed" portion? You should ask how that works.

[Marticus3]

Will do. I'm hoping an instructor will ride with me anyway, especially since I won't be able to follow anyone and see the right way.

Anyway point is to be safe, stay on the track, have fun, and drive her home. I'm not even putting beating the guy in the buick regal as a goal lol. Hes probably experienced.

I'm pretty sure they are treating this like a glorified autocross.. It's a 1 mile loop with a 90-100mph top speed from the YouTube video of this subcircuit.

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They do have tech that I have to pass at the track, so they might be more stringent than the check list.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

A 1 mile loop, 100 mph,.... HoooWaaa! Sounds like not so much fun, don’t forget to turn left...

[douglawrence42]

Looks pretty damn fun to me...

https://youtu.be/wKpcUn3BZGw




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[Marticus3]

Haha yeah definitely Doug, I'm sure it looks tame to track veterans... But to me it looks 10 times better than the autocross I was going to sign up for!

That 2002 is awesome.. Dream car

[blackknight530i]

Patriot course is what they train teenagers on for teen survival events, so it should be quite tame. E39s are not that well suited for autocross, unless you have rack and pinion and lighter weight. I just did the BMW Performance Center auto-x with my M5 and it was quite difficult as you never really get to very high speeds and when you do, you're turning so hard into the corner that it just wants to understeer really bad. I purchased my 330Ci for track duty instead of the M5 as it should be much more suited for it, and cheaper to run. The M5 is still great on the full course at VIR, but I never tried running it with some proper summer/track tires.

[geargrinder]

Thats' very true. There's something to be learned by pushing a piggy car around an auto-x type track and learning how to trailbrake and weight the front tires and get it to better to try to mitigate the push and whatnot, but if that's really an auto-x type track yeah for a n00b thats way more fun in a little car than a big one.

[Marticus3]

Pay special attention to your motor mounts and transmission mounts. If they are original, and you are able, I would recommend replacing those before the event. You will be putting force on those components that they may have never seen before, and if they are already worn out then the entire drive train can start shifting about.

Have fun!

Sure enough just started getting a soft clunk in between the acceleration and deceleration transition. Bought new trans mounts, and have to figure out the rear subframe mounts.. Lol perfect timing! Thanks for the heads up.

[Marticus3]

Trans mounts didn't fix it, turned out to be a motor mount!

[douglawrence42]

Do you have the parts? If you are in a crunch to get mounts by this weekend, I am sitting on brand new ones that I haven’t installed yet, and I work with a guy who lives in Spout Springs that could make you getting them easier


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[Marticus3]

Thanksfor the offer Doug! One is installed and the other is arriving Friday, but if it doesnt I will track you down!

[Marticus3]

I had an awesome time.. That was a pretty crazy experience, maybe a little too much excitement at times. But I stayed on track, and never spun out. I think it was a great introduction to what track driving is like!

Here's a video my wife shot from the passenger seat.
https://youtu.be/B_SwFrl3KKs

[douglawrence42]

It was a great time, and the honor of the E39 is intact. Given two (as far as we know) equally clueless novice drivers, the 540 is ~3 seconds faster around the course than the Abarth. So, data point? Surprisingly, raw horsepower muscle type cars were the fastest things out there, owing to two long straights (top finishers were hitting 120 at the end of the big straight, i almost got to 85). FTD was a very supercharged mustang, followed by 2 corvettes, all of which beat porches and a beautiful lotus. But neither of us was last, and we both drove our racecars home intact.



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[Stamos]

What's the story with the Buick and his plate that reads "GNX-ISH"?