On Track April 2009 – Firebird International Raceway

I decided it was time to get my Dakar Yellow BMW M3 back on track. Here’s 2 videos from my sessions I am happy with. the First is from my rear-facing camera:

This was shot in the dark from the rear window:

here is a quick tour of my car at the track:

I bought a new set of racing tires Nitto NT-01′s and snagged a nice set of BMW Motorsport double spoke rims, lightly curbed – cheap on craigslist – perfect race wheels.

The event NASA-Arizona www.nasaaz.com has a really cool once yearly motorsports mecca type event! Some say it tops hot import nights. It combines a full track day with Modified Magazine’s annual Tuner Shootout… that runs into the night. Exotic cars are shown off, dance music completes the ambiance (in fact, a full-DJ competition ensued this year). People who have never gotten to drive on track get a taste of track driving with an instructor in a Hyperdrive on a side track. Drifting is on another side tarmac area. it’s a 3-ring circus of car stuff!!! A really fun crowd too.

And another video from my front camera:

So this is where things got interesting. Just after my first run in HPDE 3, I parked the car and headed to my download session. When i came back and realized I would need some gas – I started the car and headed to the Love’s down the street. When I let the clutch out to back out… it made a screech noise… and then again out the driveway. My imagination jumped to a clutch bearing or other horrid things. But after sitting at the gas station fora few minutes, the return trip was fine. SO I jumped into session 2.

Upon my return, i once again parked the car. No signs of trouble! Well when I went to move the car again… horrible screeching again. So Jeremy and I started poking around and he exclaimed “look at the serpentine belt!” it was shredded down to only about 1/4″ as we looked further, it appeared it was resting on just a forged post from the block.

We glanced around the paddock to see if there was another E36 nearby… the nearest being Gary Dalgarn’s. We weren’t acquainted at the time. He propped open the hood of his… and as suspected – his had an idler pulley… that was now missing from mine!!! How is this possible?!?!?! Good german engineering… kept the belt on track everywhere. Amazingly that sprocket just evaporated without any drama! didn’t take out the fan or anything else. Amazing.

Even more amazing when Gary says, “Oh we have one of those, oh and a belt” The next thing I knew, there was 4 BMW techs jumping in under the hood, right on the spot!!!! And to top it all off, Jeremy and I were treated to a burger and hot dogs lol Sara and KT showed up just in time to help do a run to get a new A/C belt too and the next thing I knew, the car was back in action. Thanks Gary…. Greg, Grant, Graham for getting your hands dirty on a weekend, and making my last run of the night!!!!!!! Visit them at www.ultimateautoworks.com.