This week I was going to write a post about goals for 2023, but truthfully, I have never been much of a goal-setter or a New Year's resolution type of person. While I do think that the holidays and the dawning of a new year are a good...
We're just a few days away from 2023, so what better time for a retrospective on the year gone by? Next week we'll set some goals for 2023, maybe even with some guest contributions! In the mean time, this is RISING EDGE's top 6...
Please pardon another sim racing related post. My planned trip to Sebring last weekend didn't happen, so sim racing is all that I've been able to do since my last NASA event in early November. When I first bought my racing simulator, I guessed that I...
Last week I took part in a conference call about the future of R3VLimited. For those that aren't familiar, R3VLimited is one of the oldest and largest E30 forums left on the internet. As with most forums, it has been dying a slow death, and I for one...
SpecE30 is dead. Long live SpecE30. Alright, so not completely dead, yet. But it's headed that way. Let's discuss why. Availability For the better part of two decades, donor cars were $500-1,000. Not anymore. Clapped out rollers can command $2,500+. Decent running cars seem...
The penultimate NASA event of the 2022 season was at Carolina Motorsports Park (CMP). I was excited to drive CMP, because it is only an hour from me, but after a year and a half in Charlotte, I hadn't driven it yet! Thankfully, I was not disappointed. Moving...
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...
When I was younger and didn't have the finances to race real cars, I raced radio controlled cars instead. Specifically, I raced electric 1/10th-scale touring cars on outdoor asphalt with rubber tires (they were also raced indoors on carpet with foam tires). The cars were highly adjustable,...
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...
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...
SpecE30 is dead. Long live SpecE30. Alright, so not completely dead, yet. But it's headed that way. Let's discuss why. Availability For the better part of two decades, donor cars were $500-1,000. Not anymore. Clapped out rollers can command $2,500+. Decent running cars seem...
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...
