1995 BMW 325i Racer: Trying to Hit a Moving Target

That looks incredibly good!  Man...you are good with a big hammer!!  Nice work!

I realized I've never posted any interior shots. 

I'm working on a very redneck method of logging and live-streaming video, telemetry and timing from inside the car. The data is collected by a first generation AutosportLabs RaceCapture Pro. For now it's directly wired to a Raspberry Pi 400 which is hooked up to that sweet screen provided by John Freund Racing (a UTCC veteran). 

Right now I'm having a little trouble getting the RaceCapture to consistently recognize what track I'm at. But once I get it running more smoothly the plan is the replace the Pi with an old MacBook Pro, set up a GoPro as a webcam, and then combine the camera input with the live data on the driver's screen in an OBS app on the MacBook and transmit like via hot spot. 

Also please pretend you don't see the absolute rats nest in the right hand side of that photo. 

So this is what happens when Ed emerges from the basement of the science building. Nice work!

You call that a rat's nest? Man your standards are high! 

See you at Hyperfest! 

Next weekend is HyperFest. Worked on fixing my broken car as I watched Lando Norris wreck his. 
 

The car now has two motor mounts again, both mirrors and will soon be aligned. 

That fresh windshield looks so pleasing.

Great job out there last weekend! Can't wait for you to have a weekend where you just relax and hang out the whole time like the other guys! 

Man, this thread is a real rollercoaster of emotions and dare I say a bit of an inspiration for our Lemons E36. 

First of all, glad you're ok Ed.

We've had a couple of rough and disappointing races in a row due to mechanical gremlins so we can commiserate with your experiences.   Our car is down for an engine rebuild due to a timing chain tensioner failure three hours into the last Lemon's Block Party.  I imagine we might find similar valve-to-piston carnage since it wasn't making great noises as we were furiously throwing parts at it in the paddock.  In an attempt at rationalizing logic I remind myself that the drivetrain has unknown provenance and 40 hard hours of track time on it.  Anyway, your perseverance is a reminder of how this is all semi-normal. 

Alright, I'm done traveling for now so time for the Hyperfest Presented by GRM update. 

The weather forecast looked terrible in the days leading up to HyperFest. But other than some rain on Saturday morning it was PERFECT. Great to see the GRM crew again.

On Friday all the Spec BMW classes (SpecE30, Spec3 and SpecE46) got their own feature race thanks to BimmerWorld. I almost didn't make it out for this extra track time. I had driven my car over to the tech shed to get a new annual tech sticker since my windshield went bye-bye at the last race. Got my sticker, drove back over to the Spec3 paddock area, shut it down and then the car would not start again. After a few hours of troubleshooting and a lot of help and spare parts from Taylor, Sean O'Hara and Thomas Norton, the culprit (or at least one of them) was finally found to be a bad crank sensor. The sensor was replaced and we were back in business.

That was the extent of the drama for the weekend. Tons of great racing. Lots of good food (Never had ostrich before). I mostly tangled with Alex Wieland and Thomas Norton all weekend. Still need to find some speed.

I had a big doh moment in the Sunday race. Taylor was behind me under a code 35 double yellow. He's quicker than me and his main competition was in front of me. The code 35 lifted as I was going into turn 1. I was in fourth gear and for some stupid, stupid reason I decided to leave it in fourth all the way from there to turn 4. That's usually all in 3rd. In the video you see me put my hand on the shifter multiple times but never actually downshifting. So I chugged along in 4th with Taylor furiously waving behind me to go. The guy he was chasing made up enough space during my stupidity to finish ahead of Taylor. What a bone head move. Clearly there is some driver improvement needed.

One item that's been added to the to-do list is an oil cooling system. Oil temps were getting up around 215 degrees, quite a bit hotter than the coolant temps. Need to bring that down. I'm also a Mocal parts dealer so it's pretty embarrassing not to have my own parts on my car . More to come on that!

And yes I totally look forward to a weekend where I'm not actively flailing on SOMETHING all the time. I feel it coming soon. Next is Summit Point in late June!

In reply to Matt B (fs) :

Ah man. Yep, been there! Especially the "furiously throwing parts at it in the paddock" part. I swear this is what I end up doing at 90% of my track days. Your head could probably do with a refresh anyway. 

Tuning in for more details on your technical wizardry

In reply to trumant (Forum Supporter) :

Well idk if it's wizardry, more like a really poor IOT project with items I happened to have laying around. But here's the thread where the idea was formulated. I think I'm going to attempt my first live stream soon. 

I think we have something like 4 or 5 Pis of various generations in the house. While most of them have been pressed into home audio streamers with DACs I'd love to get one into my car at some point along with a 7" display and build my own "virtual cockpit"

PunchyWrench - Ed Higginbotham said:

Alright, I'm done traveling for now so time for the Hyperfest Presented by GRM update. 

The weather forecast looked terrible in the days leading up to HyperFest. But other than some rain on Saturday morning it was PERFECT. Great to see the GRM crew again.

On Friday all the Spec BMW classes (SpecE30, Spec3 and SpecE46) got their own feature race thanks to BimmerWorld. I almost didn't make it out for this extra track time. I had driven my car over to the tech shed to get a new annual tech sticker since my windshield went bye-bye at the last race. Got my sticker, drove back over to the Spec3 paddock area, shut it down and then the car would not start again. After a few hours of troubleshooting and a lot of help and spare parts from Taylor, Sean O'Hara and Thomas Norton, the culprit (or at least one of them) was finally found to be a bad crank sensor. The sensor was replaced and we were back in business.

That was the extent of the drama for the weekend. Tons of great racing. Lots of good food (Never had ostrich before). I mostly tangled with Alex Wieland and Thomas Norton all weekend. Still need to find some speed.

I had a big doh moment in the Sunday race. Taylor was behind me under a code 35 double yellow. He's quicker than me and his main competition was in front of me. The code 35 lifted as I was going into turn 1. I was in fourth gear and for some stupid, stupid reason I decided to leave it in fourth all the way from there to turn 4. That's usually all in 3rd. In the video you see me put my hand on the shifter multiple times but never actually downshifting. So I chugged along in 4th with Taylor furiously waving behind me to go. The guy he was chasing made up enough space during my stupidity to finish ahead of Taylor. What a bone head move. Clearly there is some driver improvement needed.

One item that's been added to the to-do list is an oil cooling system. Oil temps were getting up around 215 degrees, quite a bit hotter than the coolant temps. Need to bring that down. I'm also a Mocal parts dealer so it's pretty embarrassing not to have my own parts on my car . More to come on that!

And yes I totally look forward to a weekend where I'm not actively flailing on SOMETHING all the time. I feel it coming soon. Next is Summit Point in late June!

First off Ed, I will trade 1000 second place finishes to have you out there racing with us! I love your energy and tenacity and what you bring to Spec3! It's my fault I was behind you anyway, so don't beat yourself up over it! 

Consider it payback for me lending you a bad crank sensor! 

PunchyWrench - Ed Higginbotham said:

In reply to Matt B (fs) :

Ah man. Yep, been there! Especially the "furiously throwing parts at it in the paddock" part. I swear this is what I end up doing at 90% of my track days. Your head could probably do with a refresh anyway. 

It's hard not to question whether or not we picked the right platform for budget endurance racing, but it is such a nicely balanced chassis that the memory of actual track time keeps me going. 

I just realized that is starting to sound like an abusive relationship. 

Oh well.  Back to throwing money at it.  Like you said, the head probably needs more attention than a timing chain tensioner.  You also made me realize we completely skipped the subframe reinforcements.  (We're not actually BMW guys plus we really don't know what we're doing in the first place)

In reply to Matt B (fs) :

I do think it is a great platform for budget racing. I have a penchant for breaking things and even though there's always some sort of issue, it hasn't forced me to miss a race since I switched to E36s. 

And yes, the chassis reinforcements are a good idea.

Do you guys race anything besides Lemons? I used to double-duty a 944 in Lemons and NASA.

trumant (Forum Supporter) said:

I think we have something like 4 or 5 Pis of various generations in the house. While most of them have been pressed into home audio streamers with DACs I'd love to get one into my car at some point along with a 7" display and build my own "virtual cockpit"

If you can find a good Racecapture Pro for sale somewhere and then get a nice screen from John Freund you should be able to recreate what I currently have. It's predictive lap times are fun to have in the car. Autosport Labs has a discord server that is pretty active. That's probably a great place to find a used racecapture unit.

Made a new windshield banner. You like?

Love it! How about a "THIS SIDE UP" banner on the rear?

I see 2x4s. Whatcha buildin'?

jimgood said:

I see 2x4s. Whatcha buildin'?

Building a big ol tire rack to move all my stacks of tires off the floor. Trying to get more organized. Shop is a disaster. 

PunchyWrench - Ed Higginbotham said:

jimgood said:

I see 2x4s. Whatcha buildin'?

Building a big ol tire rack to move all my stacks of tires off the floor. Trying to get more organized. Shop is a disaster. 

 I know the feeling.

I recently got 8 wheels with tires out of my garage and am so happy to have reclaimed the space!

PunchyWrench - Ed Higginbotham said:

Made a new windshield banner. You like?

That should get some smiles. 

Not sure what I'm more impressed by: How well you repaired the car or how well you and your dad both did this past weekend at Summit!