Yea, I only started racing in Bimmers in the past 4-5 years. For 15 years before that it was all Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs and other domestic fare. Haven't raced in a Corvette since we sold our 2005 Z51 - man, I miss these cars! So effortless to go ridiculously fast in. They are no BMW, though - the seats suck, the shifter sucks, the car is huge x huge yet has no interior room and poor visibility, and its heavy (3200 pounds). But I guess it was fast enough.

The tires were pretty mush shot but it put down a good 100.1 sec run in the morning (I coned that one away). The afternoon runs were all slower due to the +25°F temps and everyone seemed to be down on power and grip. I was lucky to clean up to a nearly identical 101.1 run, I guess. Should have fixed the harness to fit me, though. I'm bruised and beat up from slamming into the console. The in-car video runs are hilarious - they all show the driver getting thrown around like a rag doll.

Didn't take a ton of pictures, but here's 60 of the ones we captured: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/gallery/5435341_wotHf#332360796_nXYKs

Thanks to Dean for letting me race his Corvette and good job on the course. (you don't here me say that often, heh!)

Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com & www.ast-usa.com
"Alpha" E36-LS1 (XPrepared/G Class "No Class") '97 M3 (STU/F Class), '91 318is (STS/C Class)

Here's what can happen with OEM rubber trans mounts (above). This is from our E30 BMW after running it all day at the MW autocross last Saturday... We were running it with the stock rubber transmission mounts (until we had more poly mounts in stock). Big mistake. The OEM mounts (in the top left picture) are VERY stretched. These sloppy rubber mounts allowed the whole transmission to shift sideways about 3/4", which bound up the shift linkage, which caused for a missed shift, which EXPLODED the clutch... This is why we make competition transmission mounts.

At left... no more friction material?? At right... that black powder is all that's left of the stock clutch

This was the result. Luckily it didn't damage the motor (Money $hift). We put our new poly transmission bushings into this car last night(along with a new clutch, new oil pan gaskets, new motor mounts and some other bits). I'd normally blame bad shifting but I was driving it at the time and it was just bound up so badly it couldn't go into gear. Simple upshift under lateral load. It had been giving the other 3 drivers of the car fits all day, so I took a practice run in it after the competition was over. Of course is explodes on me.

Our new 95A and 80A durometer thru-bolt transmission mount design works on all E30s (except S14/M3) and all E36 and all E46 manual transmission equipped cars. Call this insurance.

Just finished the clutch and oil pan gasket repairs at 2 am last night... just in time for the SCCA Houston Divisional event this weekend. I'm going to run it in STS while Amy runs it in STS-Ladies, as our Alpha car (XP classed) is apart for paint. I haven't raced it since January so I hope I don't make a fool of myself at the Div!

Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com & www.ast-usa.com
"Alpha" E36-LS1 (XPrepared/G Class "No Class") '97 M3 (STU/F Class), '91 318is (STS/C Class)

Sorry to see that happen but I guess its good that it happened after the timed runs or better than happening down in Houston this weekend .

Those stock mounts are trash even when new ...the only stock mounts worth running are the E21 mounts. Even though my red E30 is all 100% stock I opted to run the beefier E21 mounts when I swapped from a auto to manual trans .

M3 Adjuster (7/20/2008)

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hancheyb (7/16/2008)

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There's a dealer in San Antonio that seems to have several base package '07s. Don't forget the DKG 335i Coupe comes out in October.

DKG?

Dual-clutch transmission, but we just found out that only the rest of the entire planet gets it and the U.S. does not (at least for 2009).

-Sean "Redwood" Martin
Redwood's Car News - http://www.vorshlag.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4
'99 Steel Blue 328i