BMW M3 Turbocharged - Project BMW M3

With the blue 112-octane fuel in the tank, the car performed admirably-no hesitations all day whatsoever, and at just 8 psi my M3 was still more than I could handle. Exiting the second-gear radius of turn 2's Off Ramp was a hoot, trying to "feather" out of the apex without power oversteering. And on more than one occasion I nearly missed the left turn after the Riverside sweeper, leading to the Lost Hill turn also known as Magic Mountain-yeah, that left turn before Magic Mountain where we all go flat out. The car pulled with such fury exiting Riverside in fourth gear, a couple of times I almost had to bypass the left-turn dogleg to Magic Mountain and rip through the coned-off, West-Loop straight where the dragstrip is located. Although this track is not known to be a super high-speed track, I was still seeing speeds in excess of 125 mph.

The big Brembo brakes seemed to be the star of the show at the AROSC event. Most people's first question after walking up to the car was, "Whoa! Are those like 14s or what!" They performed extremely well throughout the weekend, even with the street/sport pads I was using. I know they stayed cool, because my pedal was firm the entire time. Next time I'll install some race pads and test the difference.

To test the differences using BMP Design's brake ducts, I kept the driver's-side air duct installed and took out the passenger side. Even though my ducts are routed differently than ultimately desired because of the intercooler piping being in the way, I still saw around a 35F drop in rotor hat temperatures with the brake duct fitted. Without the intercooler piping there, I'm sure I could get a much more direct flow and much cooler temperatures.

Before I did any laps with my Forgeline/RA1 combo, I went out with my street Fikse/Bridgestone S-03 setup to work up to speed and to see if there was a noticeable difference with the RA1s. I was extremely impressed with the S-03s' performance. Even though the fronts were only 225s, the excellent turn-in feel was further amplified with a little trail-braking, which was safe-the large rear wing and 255/35-18 S-03s out back helped the rear stay firmly planted. But when I put the RA1s on, the difference was intoxicating. I saw an increase of up to 4 to 5 mph on the Riverside sweeper, and the switchback turns of 3 and 4 (AKA the "Cotton Corners") were so much more exhilarating. Braking performance was noticeably improved throughout the course thanks to the extra grip of the RA1s.

Trail-braking with this setup was a little touchier, since I had the same 225s on the rear as I did in the front. Coming in too hot into Turns 3 and 4 (I was well into fourth gear before entering the Cotton Corners) caused the rear to kick out a few times under trail-braking, more so than I am comfortable with. But I think the BMP Design rear lower control arms will help with that when I crank down the rear's camber a bit to balance out with the front's, which was set at about -2.8 degrees thanks to the Ground Control camber plates.

Even though the weekend saw temperatures well in excess of 90F, the water temp stayed at just below half the entire time. The oil temp, on the other hand (I'll talk about my gauges later) was getting warm after a few laps-remember, the turbo is oil-cooled. Even though it's reportedly good for 300F, I made sure the Redline Oil stayed under 260. Still, this car needs an oil cooler before I get back out in this summer heat.

So, how did I do in the time-trial? Not too badly. I placed second in my class behind a trailered, 450-bhp Dodge Viper with 335/35-17 Hoosier slicks and performance parts to boot-he beat me by less than a second, so I wasn't too upset. One of these days I'll have Project M3's suspension all dialed in, and, with a little more practice, it will be a different story. For the time being, I'll keep the boost at 8 psi on the track, which is good for about 300 to 340 wheel horsepower, depending on the weather-plenty of juice for me.