I recently read a great article by the inimitable Ross Bentley, which highlighted some of the shortcomings of HPDE instruction. As a seasoned instructor and driving coach, Ross included many excellent ideas for better ways to coach and train new drivers. Train the Trainer: Monkeys, Late Apexes & Classroom SessionsWhy...
Sorry for the dramatized title. However, that is exactly what we'll be doing today. Recently, at Roebling Road Raceway, Carlos Mendez and I got to drive the same car, on the same track, in the same conditions. I had the distinct advantage of being the owner of the...
It's nice to be back after taking August off from RE. Some work was done on the #73 E30 (which is for sale!), but I mainly focused on prepping the E90 for test days and GLTC next year. Sure, the car came to me basically in race-ready condition,...
Frequently I will come across a vague setup advice question along the lines of: My E36 understeers. How much front camber should I run? A question like this is needlessly restrictive (why camber?) and hard to answer accurately. There are so many missing variables, such as:
Last week's GridLife 2024 announcement marked the 52nd post here on RE. It was the completion of my commitment to do 1 year of weekly posts. I'm ready to keep pushing forward with the site, but before doing so, I want to see if I am...
Today marks the one-year anniversary of RE, and we're thrilled to share some exciting news about the upcoming race season. Carlos Mendez and TJ Lathrop are taking a couple of BMWs racing in GridLife Touring Cup.
My very long-time friend, Mike Burroughs of StanceWorks fame, recently posted a video declaring that he hates the nearly-perfect S54 E36 he has owned for 17+ years. This is an E36 that, by all measures, is one of the nicest out there – and it has been for the better part of two decades.
Racing and large egos go hand in hand. Over the years, I've seen drivers make questionable, sometimes flat-out dangerous moves to gain a position in a low-stakes club race [prototype and GT car tangling 2-wide at 130mph through Bishops Bend; one of them got air-lifted]. I've...
We are in an era where almost all professional race cars are official "factory" cars produced by the marque, as opposed to customer-built creations that started life as showroom production cars. It wasn't that long ago that teams had to build, develop, and campaign their own...
I love nerding out about roll cage design. Door bars in particular. There is something almost voyeuristic about seeing part of a roll cage through an open door. While a roll cage alludes to protection in a rollover, in wheel to wheel competition you are more likely to get hit...
I've been modifying cars for over 20 years now (it will always pain me to say that). Thus, I've probably known about string alignments for at least 18 years. It was not until recently that I started doing them myself.
Say the letters "PTG," and any E36 fan will immediately have a mental image. Prototype Technology Group campaigned their BMW-contracted E36 M3 program to great success in the mid-late 1990s. The GT3 class cars featured distinct bodywork, impressive development, and legendary drivers (Bill Auberlen and Boris Said, amongst...
What is an OEM-style shifter? On most manual transmission BMWs, the shifter linkage consists of a sub-assembly that includes it's own "carrier", selector rod, and shift lever. In addition, there are some bushings and shims involved to keep things tight. The pivot "cup" and...
As detailed in my recent post about Tire Parity in NASA Racing, there are new rules for NASA's power to weight racing classes (ST and TT) intended to create better parity between the bevy of tire choices. Thankfully these new rules are not based on manufacturer's...
Over the years, my track experience has mostly been relegated to the E30 chassis; up until recently, the only other platforms I had driven hard were an E36 on track and a GR WRX at autocross. While the E36 featured some very notable improvements in suspension design and chassis dynamics...
