Nurburgring DN10 track day report - E46 M3


stevenEK9

trackattack
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
4,250
So, my DN10 report.......

I was fortunate enough to have a week and a bit off before heading to Germany being between jobs (severe post Nurburgring blues today for my first day at the new job :sad: ), so had a heap of work to crack on with

- Fresh MTF / diff oil / engine oil
- Front drop links
- Front pads (RS29's)
- Geo (more aggressive front camber, set rear coilover heights after fitting the cage)
- Trim rear of the car
- Brand new set of cups
- Polish and wax (had to look pretty for Jochen and his team :lol: )

So the car was looking pretty sweet and all set to go












So me Ali (M3) and Richie (R26R) set off for the Hull Ferry where we met up with some other mates and some familiar faces on here (Nige / Matt / Edward) - just made it in time :lol:

Unloaded the cars at Eddies place and decided I fancied a couple TF laps to warm up / refresh myself, so headed up to registration for 4.30 sharp then hit the track for a couple laps before briefing

Took Richie out for 1 lap then Alec (red S1 106) for 1 lap, neither of them have driven the Nordschleife before so a good chance to do some sight seeing before the sighting laps the next morning

Steaks up at PK with the rest of the lads we were over with, few beers then bed for a sensible hour before the first day

Me and Rich headed up and caught the end of the sighting laps, cool shot FS got of the 2 of us out, me leading the way to try and help show Richie the lines



First day was so so..... Brand new tyres and front pads so wasn't entirely happy with the car, couple bits of oversteer which were easy corrected right enough, BUT by the end of the day the car was starting to feel fantastic, all set for day 2! 16 laps completed on day 1

Couple pics back at Eddies, took all the wheels off to check everything over, rear coilover spring platforms had loosened a bit on the threads so nipped them up, not a drop of oil used or anything, smashing!



Richies car needed nothing



At DN9 we ran Ali's and my car back to back and could really see a difference in how flat my car cornered running the CSL roll bars, so since then Ali has fitted an adjustable H&R bar - headed to Germany with it set midway but after the first day set it full stiff :clap:



Left the cars for the night and met the lads for some pizza and beers



Day 2 and what a difference, from the first lap out the car was feeling awesome. More grip with the added track temps and more confidence to be fair, it's a shame i can only really afford one trip over a year!!!

Shame it was busy and hard to get a clear lap, but the way I was flashing most GT3's out the way (quite a number of them were a tad reluctant to move over, but there were some real fast ones out there I had either good laps with or got smoked by :lol: ) i'm sure on a clear lap i would have been 7:50 odd

a couple laps I got Thursday morning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI48vcjxr6U

[video=youtube;cI48vcjxr6U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI48vcjxr6U&list=UUG2owJgUZL_xmeqcfnV0mmA[/video]

and some brilliant pics courtesy of FS :D

away to join the track



















Now this last pic was on my very last lap of the day, caught up with Al Clark in his GT3 and his mate in the silver 911 turbo (would have loved to see the flyby of us up the straight nose to tail doing 150+), I had done 3 laps but thought **** it, one more lap!

Busy lap so was quite content with sitting behind Al and enjoying a good fast lap, once the red flags showed there was plenty thumbs up and waving all round from me / Al / the boy in the M3 wide body behind me - what these days are all about really, going out and having a great time!



20 laps done on day 2........

Car ran brilliantly, the cooling mods worked very well! ran the car on the service menu for each session out so I had a digital temp readout - hottest the coolant hit was 105 after 4 laps out being stuck in the dirty air behind Al, but generally saw between 85 and 92 which is great

Plans for the car now? Bigger oil cooler will keep temps stable about 100deg (was seeing about 115) which will keep coolant even more stable also with the lack of heat soak also. Diff is sounding a bit knocky so could do with a rebuild over winter and I need to sort out the mountings for the front bumper.......



Being a rep bumper you can see it pushes the arch liner back a bit and I wore heaps of the liner away through the foxhole compression :lol:

Didn't particularly enjoy the first day, but the second day more than made up for it! Roll on DN11 :win:
 
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Brilliant right up! cant wait to get back over there. Been considering selling my 9 for a while to replace it with either a 996 carrera or a e46 m3, everytime i see your car i know which way im swaying...
 
Awesome write up and media to go along with it. Car looks mega! After being at the Nurburgring too this year I think it would be hard for even the most loyal Japanese enthusiast not to want/appreciate the heavy German machinery.
 
Very tasty mate! I love it!

Would you mind pm'ing me a break down of your cost for e46 to date ;-)
 
Great write up Steven! Car looks sweet!
 
Awesome, very jealous that I have not made it there myself yet

Where did you source the ARC-8 wheels? I priced them from the states when I had my M3 and they were quite pricey when you add shipping and import tax

Did you have team dynamics on the car before?
 
Awesome, very jealous that I have not made it there myself yet

Where did you source the ARC-8 wheels? I priced them from the states when I had my M3 and they were quite pricey when you add shipping and import tax

Did you have team dynamics on the car before?

yeah i did

CF8E0F51-95EC-4ACE-8354-C3924F1C664E-605-000000B102D05E90_zps73b8b660.jpg


the TD's were only 9" wide which isn't ideal with running 265's all round, the Apex are 9.5" which helps keep the tyres from squirming on track. the offset of the Apex wheels also means I can run 3 deg camber on the road up front to reduce wear as I knock it up to 3.75 deg for the track. the Apex are ET35 with a 5mm front and 10mm rear spacer

bought them brand new from Turner Motorsports, CA tech in the UK sell them now but even paying the import duty it worked out a bit over 100 quid cheaper going the route I did

at only 8.5kg a wheel they are 1.5kg lighter each than the TD and 4kg lighter than the oem 18's :shocked:
 
the TD's were only 9" wide which isn't ideal with running 265's all round, the Apex are 9.5" which helps keep the tyres from squirming on track. the offset of the Apex wheels also means I can run 3 deg camber on the road up front to reduce wear as I knock it up to 3.75 deg for the track. the Apex are ET35 with a 5mm front and 10mm rear spacer

bought them brand new from Turner Motorsports, CA tech in the UK sell them now but even paying the import duty it worked out a bit over 100 quid cheaper going the route I did

at only 8.5kg a wheel they are 1.5kg lighter each than the TD and 4kg lighter than the oem 18's :shocked:


The Apex are an awesome wheel, I would def own another E46 M3 and the Apex would be the wheel of choice! The car looks great and I'm sure it feels right at home out there :nice:
 
Car is still looking great mate!

Nice trip to the ring again it seems, nice one!
 
Cracking post! I need to get a dn date booked up next year!
 
Saw you going round mate. We had a so so first day, new tyres and brakes also, had to roll the rear arches in the pitlane. Car was bouncing over all the bumps far to stiff. But able to press on a little in the afternoon. Second day had a new tyre fitted first thing in the morning due to a punture, then whilst scrubbing the new front tyres, the clutch failed. Gutted.
 
Not a fan of the ring but your M3 looks like it belongs in those photos, some tasty mods :nice:
 
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