Autox Testing

Sunday, May 17, 2009

We did autocross testing with the local BMW club today. It was a lot fun, and the car definately got a lot of attention. Tech people where not very happy, but they reluctantly let us run after we pleaded our case and made some minor fixes.

I have been having electrical problems with the car since I got it back. It drains the battery, and so consequently it is pretty dead (won't hold a charge long). Need to figure out what the slow drain is.

During the autox, it developed a fast drain. On my first run of the second session, it started sputtering as if it was running out of fuel. We had just put 1/2 tank in so that shouldn't have been it. I was able to finish the run but as I came to a stop it died and wouldn't crank. Hooked up my jump box and it immediatly killed that. We thought it was the cracked battery clamp, so we used a vicegrip to clamp it on tight. That didn't work either but I noticed that the battery was really warm. As I was feeding more of the cable into the trunk I noticed that it cable had been cut as it was getting abraided by the passenger seat and grounding it out. The main positive cable was being grounded. Apperantly that is not good.

We tape it up, put a new terminal on, and was good to go.

Ed and I ended up doing 9 runs each. My best was a 34.2. Ed's was a 33.9. Mike took one run and did a freaking 33.7. FTD was a 30.x, but most of the faster guys were running 33's-34's on R-comps. So I was pleased with our results on old all seasons.

Edit: Got the results back. Out of the 42 BMW's, we came in 8th and 10th. On old All-Season 14" tires! Everyone ahead of us was on race tires. We dominated E Class by over 2 seconds, but we would have come in 2nd and 3rd in any other class ahead of us. We're very pleased with those results. It shows what light weight and good driving can do. Can't wait to see how the car does on sticky Hankook RS-2 tires.


Gauge cluster held on with zip ties and an old car wash mitt.



Battery terminal held securely in place with a vice-grip (no, we where not allowed to run like this. A trip to Autozone was neccessary).



Since they couldn't put a tech sticker on the upper corner of the windshield (there was no windsheild) they put the tech (wreck) sticker in the upper corner of our helmet visors. Sticker is swiss cheesed like our car.


We added an ///M badge to let everyone know our car is Fast!


Ed and I getting ready for the maiden run. Notice the functional orange racing stripe to keep the hood closed (and the spectators looks of disbelief, lol).


Video proof that the car actually works! We were very pleased with the results considering it was on old All-Season tires.


More pics here.