I wish we had some pics from yesterday's testing, but the schedule was tight on time. Here's a couple recent shots of the car for now.

Back from testing yesterday. The ONE performed marvelously. Alex and I played with a couple different shock settings, and flogged the car with no limp mode issues. All in all, a pretty smooth test...although, at one point, my hand ran into the boost gauge while shifting to 5th, and then I hit the windshield wipers. You could say that I was excited. The poor runflats screamed the entire time. They really suck. Good thing we're running on proper tires for One Lap (Micheline PS2s). Friday can't come soon enough!!!

I am back form the VIR World Challenge race. Fortunately, we did a lot of testing and had awesome cars! Unfortunately, we put a TON of time into getting them totally figured out and the Wednesday test day we used previously to dial in the 1 was spent mostly on the WC cars, so our time was cut short. We were pretty close and fast out of the box, but we are setting it up to be pretty racey, so that can also be pretty dicey if not perfected. So, it is good, but not as good as I would want.

I sent Alex and Vic some springs and they are getting into some testing. Tonight I make the test plan and send the junior engineering team out to the track next week...

In an effort to diagnose why the ONE goes into limp mode, Alex and I installed a boost gauge. Next are the under-car neon lights....uuh no.

Installation wasn't too bad. After taking the cowl apart looking for a good place to drill in the firewall, we decided to run the plastic tubing for the gauge through the shifter.
The tubing connects to the blow-off valve with a T-fitting (all included in the kit) .
A couple of zip ties later, and voila - boost readings. It's not a permanent install, but it still looks relatively clean, and serves our purposes.

Prior to next weeks testing at Summit Point, we are switching to Castrol Motorsport 10W60 in order to keep turbo heat in check. At $10.50 a qt from the dealer I expect to be scraping frost from the engine block.

Sweet,
I just got off the phone with Jens Scott, of BSR Racing. He has agreed to let Alex and I on track at Summit Point for a short testing session next week. We still have to sort out spring rates, and shock settings. James shipped us some different springs to play with .... looks like I'll need to break out my Fred Puhn book on making a car handle. I'm not used to messing with spring/shock settings, since Spec E30's are all un-adjustable.

Honestly, it will be tough to stick to business. Alex and I are more likely to spend the entire session just trying to scare the snot out of each other. It's his car ... so advantage Vic :)

Vic and I are headed up to Summit Point to adjust springs, compression and rebound. Still trying to get the rear to everyone’s liking.

Let me start this blog off with an introduction. I'm Vic Hall - Spec E30 veteran, and general madman for this trip. I'm the guy in the backseat, wearing a race-suit and a sombrero egging on the driver to do donuts in the police parking lot. My logic is that cops love donuts.

I'm proud to say that I'm not easily scared or intimidated. In the past year, I've had some butt-clenching moments - some of the highlights (or lowlights...) include:
- A massive helicopter-style wreck in Turn 3 at Summit that totalled my racecar (not my fault)
- Losing brakes on the front straight of Summit at over 120mph - and driving off into the skidpad
- A spin on the back straight VIR at over 100mph in the rain

None of those hair-raising moments prepared me for my first test-drive in the One. Alex stopped by my house this past Friday, and we went for a nice easy drive around the block. Yeah. Not quite. The car is fast. It's faster than anything I've ever driven, and it's faster than anything I've ever been a passenger in. My first impression when I floored was "This isn't TOO wild..." and then the turbos kicked in. That first thought lasted all of 0.5 seconds. The power just comes on smooth and nasty, kind of like an Isaac Hayes hit. I found myself clenching the steering wheel just a little too hard - reminded me of the first time I autocrossed.

In 5 minutes of driving this car, I am in love. I cannot WAIT to get it on track. Don't mistake my cries for mommy as fear - it'll be pure enjoyment.

When I picked up the One at VIR James had warned me, several times, that the car drove nothing like my SpecE30 race car—“the gas could not be treated like an on/off switch.” In a low power momentum car there is little feathering of the gas. Ninety percent of the time you have either the middle or right peddle to the floor.

At BeaveRun, I headed James’ warning and decided to run the first few laps with the traction control on. The electronic nanny was fairly intrusive and kept me from doing anything injudicious. In that first session, I was most struck by the Performance Friction brakes. James had said that they were perfect for OLOA because with its three laps and done format, cold stopping is at a premium. So taking him at his word I tore down the front straight on my first lap and stomped on the brakes way later than was prudent. They hauled the car down without any drama or complaint and I easily made the turn.

My second time out, I went with the DTC function and my nanny now allowed all but the most hooligan of driving styles. Power could be applied, or over applied; until the car was just on the verge of swapping ends and the fun would come to an abrupt end as the car said ENOUGH. I next pulled out of the pits full of confidence and traction control disabled. Between turns 4 and 6 there is a 90 degree right immediately followed by a very steep uphill section. Coming out of the turn I mashed the gas and power poured to the rear wheels. I immediately noted that my rear bumper was trying to pass me. Many of the car magazines have complained about the One’s lack of a limited slip rear. Apparently BMW chose to protect the M3’s performance advantage by making it difficult for a One to put the power down coming out of corners. Diffsonline has solved that problem. At no point did I experience ANY inside rear wheel spin. They did a great job in a very tight window of time.

Overall, the car ran very well. The JRZ suspension is very neutral and extremely confidence inspiring. There is still some suspension sorting to do as the rear end is not as planted as we would like over broken and rolling pavement and the engine is going in to limp mode after it gets very hot. Issues we will (hopefully) address before May 2nd.

I would give a description of the power being made by the Active Autowerke software and Riss Racing down pipes but I think that Vic wetting himself said it all.

My neighbor, friend, fellow SpecE30 racer and co-conspirator in this plot, Vic Hall, and I have been talking about building a car for One Lap of America for the past year or so. We were unable to settle on the best platform, within our very limited budget, until we began reading great reviews of the new One series. We talked about our options for about 30 seconds more before settling on the One and immediately went to James Clay at Bimmerworld for help.

James had done our Spec E30 build and provided tons of advice over the years. From the moment that we laid out the idea James was IN and making plans. I ordered a 135 with the sole intent of being the fastest BMW in this year's One Lap of America. No small feat considering that BMW has become a sponsor of the race and entered a new M3 to be driven by a BMW Performance Center Instructor. With better brakes than the M3, a couple hundred pounds less ballast and a twin turbo motor ripe for performance software it seemed like the perfect car to take on BMW's “premier” sports sedan.

I ordered mine with humiliating the M3 as the deciding factor in most decisions: no nav/iDrive, no comfort/cold weather package, sports package and an unsuccessful attempt to delete the sunroof.I picked up the car and the same day drove to BimmerWorld for the transformation. In a short couple of weeks the guys at BimmerWorld had built what is likely the first highly tuned and fastest One in North America.