E30 M3 Group Ring Trip

The weekend started with a trip to Camberley to meet up with a mate who was towing his M3 out for the weekend - I had left mine at the ring three weeks previous.

we were taking out a replacement diff 3.64 ratio to be fitted to my M3 - Olli was also fitting a new prop shaft and two drive shafts - Oh and a new starter motor & spark plugs ........

Olli fitted the Diff and I picked the car up at 330pm drove (gently) to Adenau to book into the hotel and then drove back straight to Olli as there was a strange noise coming from the back :-(

We got in the car for a run so he could listen to the noise - but we could not go anywhere as one of the new shafts had snapped!!!! Olli took them off and put the old ones back on :-( - so I did not get on the Ring until 540pm so lost 20/25 minutes - did 4/5 laps - going well. Last lap and parked up to have a coffee - went back to the car and the battery was flat again.......?

Down Pistenklaus for dinner with the crew - no beers no wine as driving to Adenau - at the end of the night went out to the car - flat battery again - jump start and off to Adenau - pulled into the Aral garage and bought and fitted a new battery.

Up in the morning and out to the car - guess what - flat battery..........................

Lex at the enroadcafe jumped me and I was off down to the track few good laps and then up to Olli's to put the R888's on - noticed the cooling fan was staying on a long time mmmmmm Olli checked it out and found a loose wire - he sorted this and problem solved. However, all the jump starting had effected the ABS - i.e. it no longer worked - tried cleaning the sensors to no avail - so no ABS

Did some fast laps and really getting into the groove - funny thing though all our cars started running rich? nobody could work it out? Front nearside tyre was very worn (even driving on three wheels wasn't helping) by now so I went down to Olli's to change it but I missed him....damm - he had said he would be in Sunday so I thought OK go down in the morning but sadly no Olli - he eventually turned up at lunch time with his Mum and Dad going to the DTM race but it meant I only got passenger laps in the morning. He fitted my spare R888 and I was off for some more laps

I was being chased by a GT3 for most of a lap but the extra power of the GT3 on the straights meant I let him by :-) He came up in the car park later to say I was on good lines but the car was doing a good impersonation of a flame thrower. LOL

My brakes started to rumble badly again with pad transfer - I thought I had cured this with the new pads ....

One of the guys who was in a 540 saloon (he is rebuilding his M3) had a video cam in the car and followed me for most of a lap when I get it from him I will post it on Youtube - decided against this since a guy I know got a one day ban for doing this.

We were going out for a lap about 5pm with all the M3's in convoy I was behind Kevin at the front of the convoy and we were going strong but going down to Briedshied bridge the gear lever detached from the box and I had no gears - fortunately it had come out of gear and I was able to brake, put on the hazards and steer thro the gate into the car park at Adenau..

Phoned ADAC and they came and picked me up ( eventually - about 1 3/4 later) and took me to Munch where some of the damaged cars from the day were stored - the red Swedish 911 RS 964 was particularly sad - I believe he came together with an Mitsibitsi Evo in Wipperman which spun him backwards into the Armco

ADAC then delivered the car to Olli's in the morning and I went down to Mullenbach and they had a gear lever which Olli adapted and fitted to the car - works fine but it has changed the throw which feels odd because I have been driving it with the previous throw for 7 years.

Then while having a coffee and a piece of cake - a German asked me a question and I turned to answer and then took a bite of cake - something buzzed and stung the inside of my mouth - a f*****g wasp - I did kill it with my chewing :-(at this point I did think of flying home and leaving the car there :-(

Drive home in convoy with a couple of mates - delays on the Brussels RO meant we missed the 2000 and had to wait for the 2200 - got home at 0200 knackered. Good news the pads/disks seemed to have cleared.

BMW E30 M3 Ring trip in June

Quite a few E30 M3 owners decided to have a long weekend at the Ring so we all made our arrangements to get out there for the weekend of the 15th June.


I was catching the 8am ferry from Dover to Dunkirk - I packed the car up the night before after the garage had checked it all over and given it a clean bill of health.

Therefore, I was less than pleased to go out at 5am in the morning to a flat battery :-( the neighbours must have loved me (not) I had to start the Audi A8 in order to jump start the M3 - so both cars rumbling away on the driveway......


I then drove down to Dover with no other incidents and boarded the ferry with no further issues - apart from a strange resonance from the exhaust.


Drove through France and up into Belguim where the road through Eupen was closed and had to take a detour through some backroads. I met up with some fellow Northloopers at a service station in Belguim - I had a bit of confusion trying to fill the car with petrol. The pumps I was trying to use are specifically for Belgians with Belgian credit cards!!!! with no signs to inform you of this oddity.


Arrived in the Eifel area and stopped of at Marc Ludemann's place TTE- Technics to check out the exhaust noise and put on the other wheels with the R888's. As usual Marc and his guys were very helpful. It looks and sounds as if the baffles inside the central silencer are adrift/loose so I will need to get it changed when I get back to the UK.

Went down to the Ring for a few laps before checking into the hotel - it felt good to be back.

We then all meet up at the Pistenklause for dinner and drinks and a laugh. as usual we all had the steak on a stone - we are so predictable - but it is a great way to eat a steak especially with a good glass of Multipulciano.

The next day was a full open day at the Ring but the weather was looking a bit dodgy. The rain came and went and we managed to get lots of laps in - here is a typical picture as you can see this was a dry period. there were a few stoppages but nothing major.

Spotted Sabine in a Maclaren Mercedes SLR 722 queing to get onto the Ring for some practice, but did not have my camera so could not get a picture. Here is one of her - one of the photographers took of her on the Ring in the SLR 722 - this is the number Stirling Moss had when he won the Mille Milgia in the original SLR in '56 I believe.

Aparently on the Monday morning she was going to race a plane along the Dotting Hohe straight. I had to pack and get on the road to the ferry at this time so I was going to miss this event

Steve from Scotland had come along on his newly repaired and repainted M3 CSL - in White - in paint unlike another Northerner who had his wrapped in vynal.


He had some problems with the car on the way over and not far from the Ring - Alternater, battery and water pump. The car had to be recovered to BMW "Dawn" a very good BMW garage and dealership that has helped me out in the past. It was warranty work and they said they would do their best to get it back to Steve for midday the next day.....

However, true to their word the car was ready and Steve went and picked it up.


There were quite a few exotica there and one of them was a Lamborghini Murcielago and it was been driven by a guy who knew the Ring and could drive. Perfect positioning in the Karrousel :-)















I met up with Thor an Icelandic chap who has a white M3 with a supercharged six cylinder BMW engine putting out 470bhp - that's correct 470bhp! He has traction control fitted.

I went out with Thor in the car and I think it is too much power and there were a couple of instances where I thought we were not going to make it round some of the corners! Thor really tortured those R888's.



You can see he has a very appropriate number plate

Since then Thor has discovered his rear subframe was broken in two! :-( no wonder it felt loose at the rear.



I spotted this E36 M3 in the car park with a very interesting paint job of the Ring with a lot of the corners named.

It was a very well executed paint job - I was impresssed

Another interesting car brought along by "big Dave" was an Audi RS6 with Nos injection - over 700bhp, Movit big brakes and I think 20" wheels.........

The next day was gorgeous dry and sunny with high temperatures - excellent for lapping the Ring. Unfortunately this meant lots of incidents and stoppages - more than in the wet/dry changeable conditions of the previous day :-(

People obviously pushing themselves in the dry conditions beyond thier (and thier machines) capabilities.

It was Kevin's special birthday and wife Gill had got some special stickers for his car for the day - LOL. This meant we would all gather at the Pistenklause again that evening to celebrate the special occassion.

At one point myself, Kevin and Uwe were in convoy in our Black E30 M3's doing a lap of the Ring - all with Carbon fibre airboxes and engines at full chat - it must have been quite a sight and noise from outside.... Here is myself and Kevin and another with Uwe catching up behind.

At one point all three of us blasted by James in his 968CS like an express train (his words).

Some more exotic cars on the day - I must admit the Ferrari 308GT4 is one of my all time favourites - this one has been fully rebuilt by a Scot and good play to him he takes it round the Ring and he does not hang about.

The Ultima driver knew what was what as well and the car went beautifully.

My power steering belt came off when I was parking so a trip down to Ring Racing to have it sorted was neccessary - but it happened the next day as well. Kevin had a new one which he lent me and Olli who has set up premises opposite the Zur Burg fitted it for me. He spotted what the problem was the Alternator bracket was chaffing the belt on full load - something to get sorted when I get home.

It was time to pack up and head for Dunkirk and catch the ferry home - time was a bit tight what with Olli having to fit the new belt. I set off and made the ferry with 15 mins to spare having had no hold ups on the road.

Next trip is 3rd August but prior to that there are a few mods to do and a trip to North Yorkshire to Croft to fit in .................................

Lotus on Track trip to Folembray and Abbeville

Surprisingly my wife, Jane, agreed to come with me on this trip but not to attend the track days!

We were staying at a nice hotel in Albert which is mid way between Folembray and Abbeville but close to Amiens and Arras.




We had an uneventful trip down, but a problem emerged whereby the expansion bottle would overheat and water would escape out of the cap :-( just keep an eye on the temperature and kept topping up the water at petrol stops. also carried a couple of big bottles of water in the boot, just in case.






The car is a Lotus Elan SE Turbo - which is a fantastic little sports car. It is easy to get in and out through conventional doors, the seats are very comfortable (but being leather are very slippy in hard cornering), the windscreen is a long way away giving the impression of more cabin space and the boot is a decent size (two peoples bags for the weekend, some tools, the water bottles, helmet, racing boots/gloves, spare wheel, oil, camera, wind break) this is because it is FWD! the only one Lotus ever made.







On the Saturday Jane and I went to visit the Medieval walled city of Laon which is on the top of a very large hill. The views on a clear day must be fabulous but when we were there it was a bit misty but very hot about 26 degrees.








Had to put on sunscreen and a hat - fair skinned and burn and end up like "roast beef" as the French affectionately refer to us. Also gave me a chance to wear my Lotus on Track cap - which my wife loves - NOT!



Took loads of photos of the views and the medieval streets which I wont post on here, but the cathedral is breathtaking and I will post a couple of those. It is worth visiting Laon just to see the Cathedral.














Now my previous impressions of France had been that lunch was a long drawn out affair which coould last into the late afternoon? However, in Laon everything is over by two and all you can get is a snack! albeit in a very friendly bar with some other "roast beefs". Every other establishment gave you the mad British look - you want to eat lunch now? You sometimes get this look in the UK too :-)


Here are some pictures of the outside of the cathedral which was equally as fascinating.





















and yes !that is a hippopotamus on the building - there were lots of strange creatures on the walls of the cathedral.















Next day I went off to Folembray to the trackday and Jane went off by train to Amiens for a tourist day and some shopping.


Folembray is a lovely little circuit hidden away in the middle of a forest at the back of the town. It is short but quite challenging and loads of fun. There were obviously a lot of Loti there but only two Elans; mine and Monty's (from the Forum - Lotus Elan Central). The Folembray sign and entrance gate can be seen in the background.
















There was a contingent of fellow Scots who had come down in a few Porsches and a couple of Loti - one of them a Honda VTEC powered Exige - Wow.


It was a lovely sunny day with temperatures in the high twenties again - so time for the suncream and hat :-)




Monty's car is a bit special, lowered, adjustable suspension and a very "bling" engine bay - looks and goes really well. Dico his friend was there, but was a bit off colour from the night before - enough said!












Here are some of the other cars there on the day













The first one had come over from Belguim for the day.






There were even two BMW's and one of them an E30 M3 like mine and in Shwartzmetallic - also like mine.























Unfortunately, the expansion bottle problem got worse and a blown head gasket was the general consensus of opinion :-( and in addition the Hall Sensor was giving problems along with the fact that the two coils are underneath the expansion tank and were being soaked. Boo Hoo as children say - needless to say this put an end to my track day and I cancelled going to Abbeville the next day opting to spent the time with my wife sightseeing on the way home.



Unfortuantely it rained all day and after looking around Arras for a short while and having a marvelloous lunch just off the main square - we headed off to Dunkirk to see if we could catch an earlier ferry.

Unfortunately the ferries were full so we had to wait around Dunkirk for hours - not the best place to spent 3 to 4 hours in my opinion, but I did get a new battey fitted to my watch.

Apart from the car problems it had been an enjoyable weekend - good food and wine and very good hotel.

Easter at the Ring

Winter is over and it is time for the first trip of the year to the "Ring" excitment is growing day by day - like Xmas when you were a kid :-)



Wake earlier than planned - car all prepared and packed the night before - head off to catch the ferry. No problems with traffic but got a front wheel wobble so when I arrive in Dover early I call into a tyre place and they balance one of the front wheels.



Board the ferry and go to the quiet room for a nap. All good so far, but off the ferry at Dunkirk and the wheel wobble is worse :-( Nothing for it but drive to Germany at slightly higher speeds than planned - makes for a smoother ride the faser the wheels turn around.....


However, after two hours of this I have had enough and RSI is developing in my hands so I stop and switch the front wheels to the back and vice versa - it is a bit better.

Arrive at the hotel at 730pm park the car and wander down to the Pistenklause to see who is around - the place was heaving and I joined a table with Steve, Jochen, Rich, Dave, Dutch Bob and Rich's mate Mark. Had Steak and Chianti and then off to bed for an early start in the morning.


In the Ring car park for 8am only to find it was not open due to fog at Adenau.........














Spent the time looking at cars and talking to people. Rich's Honda conversion had been done really sweet it looked like it had always been there and the noise it made was even sweeter.

A stag party arrived in convoy - one of them with an MDF spoiler on the back and a Colonel Boogey horn :-) you had to laugh as they were all dressed in Tux's.


Took an age for the Ring to open but then got out for my first slow lap - new wheels and tyres , brakes and carbon fiber air box......steady as she goes. No issues, everything performing ok so about to set off for a second lap when Rich's mate Mark asks if he can have a pax lap. Sure no problem was the reply but you need to wear a helmet - I had a spare in the boot and it fitted so off we went.





After a few laps I drove over to Ring Racing to drop off the road wheels for balancing and to see if they could get a better spacer for the journey home - also to say hello to Manu and Uwe the brothers who run it.

Then it was back to the Ring and more lapping now that the tyres had heated up - the carbon fiber airbox sounds fabulous and the extra power is just intoxicating .......... boys and their toys.


The car park got busier and busier until you could hardly move - very few incidents and almost no closurers - excellent. Went for a pax lap with a few friends in thier cars and other friends came out with me - some just to hear the airbox :-)

I had met some young Irishmen in the carpark of the hotel and offered to take them out to show them the lines - they turned up in a monster 500+bhp Skyline. One by one I took them out and in usual Irish terms they enjoyed the "crack" and could not believe the grip and poise through the corners of the M3.




The weather was fantastic - blue skies, virtually no clouds, but a cold wind. Everyone was in good form and there were no incidents - could life get any better...

Next I noticed a real exotic in the car park a Porsche Carrera GT in silver with an appropriate UK number plate - they only made them in LHD which confused a number of people - the same happens with the E30 M3 - they were only made in LHD also.


It is a lovely supercar as you can see from the photo - the rear tyres are massive 335 breadth - I would not want to be the one paying for their replacement!









The owner turned out to be a guy I know through another friend - James who has a Porsche also - a 968CS. Steve agreed to give me a passenger lap in the Carrera GT - Wow was I pleased - never been round the Ring in such an expensive supercar before. He said he would be back later in the day when it was quieter.


James and I had both done the BMW Car Club Faher Training at the Ring - back when James had a similar E30 M3 but his was a rare Sport Evo. He now has the 968CS in a very attractive shade of Racing Blue. We agreed to go out in my M3 with James as a passenger and then he would follow me in the 968 and then I would have a passenger lap in the 968. All in the cause of science you understand - the science of the petrolhead that is :-)

Well later Steve came back with the Carrera GT and gave me a passenger lap. with a car like this you could not be a "shrinking violet" everyone crowds round and wants to take a photo and ask questions. I had my camera on me and took some shoots from inside the car my favourite is this one - out the passenger window capturing the rear view door mirror with the rear haunches of the car extending backwards and some blurred images of the cars trying to follow!



Steve was being very circumspect around the corners and giving the car and it's vast power a lot of respect, but on the straights the acceleration and power was mind bendingly fast.

However, I am not a great lover of the engine noise - it is very mechanical - chains, gears, pulleys etc all wirring and clattering just behind your head. A BMW V10 sings when you rev it but this is very different - you do get a sense of great power and strength but it is not an aurally captivating noise. Indeed, Steve said when he gave his Dad a lift in it for the first time - he asked was it broken :-) LOL

Later that afternoon I had a problem manifest itself with the new brakes - lots of juddering under heavy braking. so off I went to Ring Racing to see if there was anything they could do? We had a look and the disks when hot were just touching the calipers - yeuch!!!!

Without the right shims there was nothing they could do :-( so I had to put up with it. Unfortunately, this eventually warped the disks and the problem got worse. I eventually ended up using the brakes less and less and adjusting my driving style to cope with this by doing cadedance (is that the right spelling?) braking. This somewhat took some of the fun out of driving.


John from Munich agreed to take my car out and we would do some tuning of the Alpha N now that the Carbon Fibre airbox was fitted. After 2 hours of going up and down the same hill he had completed the remapping. By the way Jake was going up and down the same hill as he had to have two large washers welded into his exhaust to bring his noise level down from 104dbs! in order for him to get back on the Ring.


After this the M3 was running even sweeter so the brake problem was even more of an issue I took it to another garage on the Sunday afternoon, one that Eric (an American Air Force guy) who lived in the area knew of. We were able to fit shims in the Calipers so this meant the disks were no longer touching them, but the warping was still there at high temperatures. There is always something isn't there.

The Ring is a road which demands great respect and things can go wrong very quickly even with modern super cars with all the latest electronic "gizmos" on board. For example this BMW M6 is having a bit of a problem in probably one of only a few areas where there is runoff. The driver "collected" the car adroitly and did not touch a barrier - Phew!!!!!




However, some people were not so lucky - there were about four Golfs which had terminal contact with armco - fortunately all the drivers were OK.







A more expensive contact with the Armco in Briedshied Bridge was had by a driver of a Porsche 911 GT3 - the driver was OK but the car was dead.


One of the Golf's belonged to a friend who has been very philosphical about it and is already planning the build of his next Ring car.....

You get lots of exotic cars turning up at the Ring including about five Ferrari 430's arriving together - all red of course. A 360 turned up during the day as well but unfortunately he contacted something on the way round and smashed the nose and one of the front radiators - ouch!

On the Sunday night the Nothloop forum (http://www.northloop.co.uk/) had organise a massive dinner event in Adneau and about 50 - 60 people turned up. I had paid my deposit to join the festivities but after a long day on the Ring - it competely slipped my mind and I wandered aimlessly down to the Pistenklause where I bumped into Steve and James and joined them for dinner and Italian wine fest. So I paid for two dinners that night but only ate one of them :-(







I spotted a car I had never seen before - a new Opel convertible - it looked pretty good from the front and the rear as can be seen from the pictures.

I particularly like the rear view with the flying buttresses behind the driver and passenger roll hoops.

























On the Monday - everyone seemed to go mad - and there were stoppages all the time - but no one was seriously hurt. At one point going round the Ring I counted 6 seperate incidents with all the recovery vehicles on the Ring at the same time...... There was even a stoppage for a BBQ which had gotten out of hand at the side of the track :-)



The day ended with a ride in another Steve's BMW CSL and the final lap was in Jake's BMW 320is which he had rebuilt in a mamouth effort shortly before coming out. We got round to Briedshied Bridge when the petrol light came on (you do not want to run out of fuel on the Ring!) so we came off filled up with fuel and then rejoined to finish the lap....



A final meal and drinks with some buddies down the Pistenklause and early to bed for a very early start in the morning ----- 630am yawn......................



Uneventful drive to Dunkirk - well that was apart from the freak accident in Belgium! A white van had crashed into the central concrete barrier - entirely demolishing a whole section of concrete. A Volvo estate with three bikes on the back which had been following the white van spun around while trying to avoid the carnage. It then went backwards into the hole in the concrete and landed up off all four wheels on top of the hedge in the middle of the two rows of concrete blocks! The white van had jumped the concrete and was in the fast lane of the other side off the motorway facing the oncoming traffic. Nobody seemed to be seriously hurt, but what a bizzarre accident.



I arrived at Dunkirk on time for the 1200 ferry only to be told I was not due to be on the ferry until 1000pm that night? I got on though and had an uneventful drive home through England.



Now all I have to due is get the car ready for it's next outing next week at Pro Drive, but that is another story.

M3 Upgrades

M3 Upgrades February/March 2007

Well the Carbon Fibre Airbox arrived and has been fitted as you can see from the picture.

The picture is of the car on a rolling road so that we could tune the car's engine to take advantage of the new bhp and torque.

The CF Kit comes with a new brake master reservoir which needs to be mounted on the strut tower - that is the white bottle with the black top in the photo. the power steering reservoir needed to be moved as well.

The rolling road is registering 201bhp! :-( which is disappointing and I cannot believe it - I am not in denial it is just that the car keeps up with similar powered cars on the track. I will check it out over the coming months.

The performance is better than before and it makes a glorious noise - off to the Nurburgring over Easter so will post on how it performed after that trip.

The other upgrade that I have just completed is the bigger brakes - 6 pot calipers and 13" disks. This was not straight forward either as it involved people from Montreal, California, Kent and Berkshire in the UK! It also involved buying two sets of new wheels to fit over the new brakes - he ho....... here is a picture of the new brakes fitted to the front

Awesome don't you think - the stopping capability is unbelievable.

Here is an example of one of the sets of wheels I bought to fit arount the Big Brake Kit - as you can see there is not much room around the caliper.......

And here are the other wheels Team Dynamics Pro Tech 1.2's with R888's fitted and in the car ready for the Ring trip - don't they look the Dog's Dangleys :-)

With the other two in the boot.

Excels at Donnington

Have a look on Google via the link below - a group of Excel owners off the Excel site below decided to meet up - as the numbers of these cars is diminishing and there are even fewer left on the road. someone posted on one of the forums recently that they had got the information from the DVLA that there were only 50 road registered in the UK! :-(

Google link

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4872620939630019590&hl=en-GB

Lotus Excel web site

http://www.lotusexcel.net