Doing my first driving school april 20 and NHIS. Getting new Michelin Pilots, xbrace, brake pad, tranny mounts and welded motor mount to support the cross brace.
Any other suggestions??

TIA

Recommendations pre-track:
SS Brake lines if you do not already have them
Superblue brake fluid
Are you sure you want to torch a new set of tires?


Recommendations at the track:
Try not to run your car under 1/2 tank, it will starve for gas on right handers. I've experience this, but I am also running a Group N suspension

My thoughts for now. Good luck!

I track my car quite a bit and I am fond of BFG's g-Force R1A's. I have a set on my '95 M3 and they work great. I bought they from the Tire Rack with a second set of rims, heat cycled, and balance and I can't complain! I would not go buy a new set of pilot's for a track event....$244 for new pilots and $135 for new R1A's you can almost get two for the price of one. It also depends on how serious you are going to get about racking your car. If this is a one time deal (which it does not with the mods you are doing/or have done) with no future plans then stick with street tires...if you are like everyone else that goes to the track then you will get bitten by the bug and the R1A's will come in handy for future events. They should be good for at least three schools since you are new to tracking and will not be as hard as some of the veterans (also depends on the track and its make up and condition). If you get the tires have them heat cycled to prolong their life and keep them stored on their side and out of the sun in a remotely stable environment.

Another thing you might what to think about is a video camera mount. I have installed the I/O port model to my harness bar. It records the good, the bad, and the ugly, but is a great learning tool to help improve driving. The mount is about $95 or so....check their site to be sure though.

Just make sure you prep your car well...brakes checked and changed, oil, ect.....braking at the track sucks...and can make you turn a little red in the face if it is not something big and spectacular like a motor going up on the front straight.

Brian

Thanks guys for the input. I still went with the pilots for now, but if I get the bug, I'll do what Brian suggests! Could not afford all the gear, just tires and carbon metalic brakes with new fulids all around. Doing the novice session Saturday with the real training next Friday.

Jim, if you have not done so already, be certain to change your water pump for a new one with the metal impeller. The plastic impellers on 96 and earlier M3s are notorious for failing!!!
I personally know of two M3s that overheated so quickly ON THE TRACK that the driver's couldn't stop the car soon enough before spinning off the track, one of them kissing concrete. Here's my story, taken from a post back in January:

Waterpump Woes

18 Sep 2000:

I spent last weekend at Memphis Motorsports Park participating in the River City Chapter BMW Car Club high-performance driving school. I was driving my blue BMW M3.

I literally heard it happen while I was waiting on the grid for my run group. I heard the tire squeal, and asked the marshaller, David, what had happened. He was listening to the bits and pieces coming over the radio concerning the yellow flag, mentioning an M3, coolant on the track, overheating, oversteer, etc.

Right away I remembered my incident at the spring driver school back in April. I was exiting the Carousel heading for the kink at 90 mph, just beginning my left turn-in, when I sensed a peculiar oversteer. As I countersteered to correct I was startled by how quickly the rear just snapped around, such that the next thing I knew, I was in a full sideways slide, chassis aligned perpendicular to the direction of travel. I mentally recited, “In a spin, both feet in”, as I buried both feet in the clutch and brake.

By this point, my car was fully on the grass inside the kink, and my head had just naturally swivelled 90 degrees with the vehicle’s yaw direction to follow the car’s direction of travel. I found myself looking through the passenger side window viewing what seemed to be a gush or waterfall of grass, kicked up by the tire sidewalls, flowing over the door and into the passenger window. Just above this torrent, perfectly framed, was a final view of the marshaller’s post, barricaded by its protective ring of tires. At this moment the clutch and brake application took full effect, and my contact patches snapped the chassis to align with the direction of travel, but backwards.

My last mental snapshot was that of the marshaller’s post filling the window, with my car sideslipping directly toward it. My brain was still processing the snapshot when my eyes refocused forward through the windshield, sliding backward, no longer able to see where I was going, only where I was coming from. Processing complete, I urgently sensed that I was still traveling toward the marshaller’s post, backward, and I pressed harder on the brake, hoping I would stop before the impending collision.

I came to rest, facing the Carousel that seconds earlier I had just negotiated. I saw the other cars slow above strands of grass dotting my hood. The marshaller approached, asking if I was ok. I nodded. He directed me to move my car to the paddock, and I tried the ignition. The car wouldn’t start. It was then that I noticed the coolant temperature gauge, needle pegged at the top of the now-glowing red section. The motor had overheated.

Upon inspecting under the hood I noticed a spray pattern on the hood lining, beginning just above the radiator cap. At first we were puzzled, because all the coolant hoses appeared intact, with no coolant leaks, even though droplets of coolant still clung to the engine valve cover and engine block.

Jerry Rhodes, our chief instructor, was gracious enough to give me a tow home, where I set to work making repairs. First I replaced the thermostat, thinking that could be the culprit, with no such luck. Then, I removed the water pump, and my suspicions were confirmed. The plasic impeller had become brittle over time. Numerous cracks decorated the disc and blades, and the entire impeller spun freely on its spindle such that while the pump shaft spun, the impeller now remained stationary, not circulating the coolant.

1996 and earlier BMW 3-series cars are known for water pump failures around 30Kto 100k miles. Mine just happened to let go exiting Turn 2. I figure it failed while I was accelerating, full throttle, down the main straight through 124 mph toward the Carousel. My guess is that the thermal load from extended full throttle, and the latent heat build-up, caused the temperature of the now-stagnant coolant to rise very quickly, before I could notice while negotiating the Carousel. The resultant rise in cooling system pressure caused the radiator cap pressure blow-off feature to trigger just as I entered the kink, venting coolant underhood and onto the track, beneath my rear tires, causing the sudden loss of rear traction and oversteer.

I replaced the waterpump, thermostat and housing, and hoses myself with no trouble. It took me 5 hours to do the job, without the help of the Bentley repair manual, but with several phone calls to my local BMW mechanic, who coached me thru. I could repeat the job trackside in about 2 hours, now that I'm familiar with it. Total cost for parts was about $120.

As long as your plastic impeller is still intact on the shaft, it should be a simple job. If the impeller has shattered/fragmented, sending plastic bits throughout the cooling system, then that's another story :o[ Better have a qualified BMW mechanic do the job in that case.

Special tools/techniques required:
34mm box wrench - needed to remove the radiator fan. There's a reverse-threaded 34mm nut behind the fan attaching it to the waterpump shaft, which needs to be removed by striking the box wrench with a mallet to break it free, then unscrew normally.

The water pump is removed only by screwing two 10mm bolts into holes on its face. These bolts will contact the face of the motor surrounding the water pump, and gradually press the pump out of its housing. DO NOT attempt to remove the water pump by pulling on the shaft.

For easier access to the fan and pump I decided to remove the radiator from its mount. I just unclipped the plastic clips holding the radiator in and lifted the radiator out, placing it on top of the motor, out of the way. I didn't have to remove the smaller overflow hoses, only the two larger coolant hoses. Use a small flat screwdriver in slots to unlock the plastic clips holding the radiator in place from the top front.

It is highly recommended that you replace the thermostat as well. Inexpensive part. I found mine sticking slightly due to a scored shaft. Also, the thermostat housing is plastic. It must be replaced, along with the gasket. Consider replacing with an aluminum housing from Active Autowerke.

Jim,

I was lucky that mine failed at that part of the track, sending me into the grass instead of into concrete!! The other guy wasn't so lucky. His INSTRUCTOR was driving and even noticed the overheating condition as it was happening. While attempting to slow down and stop the car, the pressure-relief feature activated, spilling coolant beneath the rear tires. They had managed to slow to about 30 mph before this happened, and they were STILL unable to avoid tapping the concrete wall and dinging the right-front fender.