I want SMG. I don't heel toe or rev match much, figure it would be a cool project. What do I need if this could even work? S52, obd I conversion. Probably going stand alone if that makes a difference.

Ping scottn2retro. They run SMG in their HP car. Ralph Warren usually drives it. It's not a conversion but they have SMG experience.

Jay

The DME has to be able to control the motor and the tranny....doubt it can be retrofitted to an S52 (if it can, it will probably requires barrels of money).

That's what I'm figuring but wouldn't the euro e36's mate up bolt pattern wise? I can get it to work, it's just electronics. I've done dumber/ harder things probably! Does anyone know how they "talk" to each other? The euro engine was OBD I right?? And lastly, do they use hydralics?
Gobuffs is sitting reading this and shaking his head.:D
It's a LOOOOONG boring winter in the NE!

My experience with SMGII was that it was fragile, difficult to fix, and expensive. I suspect SMGI is similar.

Have you tried an extended gas pedal from http://www.ultimatepedals.com ? I've found that mine enable me to rev match downshifts with incredible ease.

Phil, just get a hewland and call it a day...

Hah - I've thought about the same thing myself - I don't mind heel and toeing but I hate having to not being able to dedicate a foot to the brake pedal like in the karts.

I'm assuming it more complicated than coming up with some way for the SMG's DME to blip the throttle at the right time? Something makes me think a zillion little sensors would needed to be added to the typical OBD1 setup...

I want SMG. I don't heel toe or rev match much, figure it would be a cool project. What do I need if this could even work? S52, obd I conversion. Probably going stand alone if that makes a difference.

SMG... one more reason for something to go wrong which takes away from drinking beer after the races are over.

Give me a couple days and I will teach you to heel & toe. It is really easy to do. MY wife learned while driving the e36 M3 to and from work in her high heels. You don't normally even waer high heels, so it should be even easier.

Vince

That's what I'm figuring but wouldn't the euro e36's mate up bolt pattern wise? I can get it to work, it's just electronics. I've done dumber/ harder things probably! Does anyone know how they "talk" to each other? The euro engine was OBD I right?? And lastly, do they use hydralics?
Gobuffs is sitting reading this and shaking his head.:D
It's a LOOOOONG boring winter in the NE!

Yes it will bolt up. The SMG is the same as the Euro 6 speed and they all have the smae bolt pattern as the 5 speed. Yes, the Euro motors are OBDI. Yes they use hydraulics. I am sure it CAN be done, but the cost/benefit just isn't there IMO. The Euro 3.2 had an SMGI option available.

I love going through the gears, and getting my braking points spot on.

There is an SMG for sale in classifieds, pick it up and start tinkering :)

I bet you can get it to shift with direct input easily, actuating the clutch/shifter, although as far as safety checks (like downshifting at 8000rpm, and downshift blipping), you'd need to crack the ecu and figure out how to give it signals the oem ecu gave it.

I was interested in this project too, because after driving the 360 challenges, paddle shifting is amazing, full time left foot braking is also very cool. But after i've seen SMG issues on cars, and the electronics headaches i'm sure it would give, I decided to ditch the idea.

Your best bet is to get a sequential (hewland, hollinger, etc), and get a paddle shifter for it. Not sure if motec can handle downshift blips, but it can certainly handle the upshifts, and I bet the downshift blips would be easy if you had DBW enabled, which motec can do. Just fork over about $40k in parts/setup, and you'll be good to go ;)

I don't know anything about SMG I, but from our experience of racing and SMG II car for the last two seasons, here are my comments:

I love our car, especially since we figured out that SMG problem that we chased for like 4 months last year, but if I do another e46 M3, it will be a manual. It was designed as an add-on to the OEM tranny and not something designed for the rigors of racing.

Now having said that, I would consider an SMG for the future cars where the SMG tranny is designed from the ground up as an SMG tranny (proper cooling, etc.).

It will be easier and cheaper to learn to get better with your manual tranny.

If you really, really want an SMG car, either go the route SteveJ recommends or get a car that has it already and turn that into a race car.

Basically, what it comes down to is you need to learn how to heel/toe :)

The SMG in a racing application is a crack at a cheap alternative to a proper sequential...which just spells money, headaches, repairs x10.

Agreed with everything above.

Either go all the way and jump into SM with a Hewland/Xtrac/EMCO, etc or just learn how to heel-toe :D

-Ted

Time to get the high heels out.:( I just checked the SCCA rulebook and I can't use it with a US motor in GT. Crap. So what about a straight S54 swap with everything attached? I think the biggest factor to me not heel toeing is being busy trying to slow a stock non abs sytem and not flat spot my tires, I'm always having to pump it up.

So invest your money into Bosch M4 ABS instead of SMG. MUCH better winter project!

My experience with SMGII was that it was fragile, difficult to fix, and expensive. I suspect SMGI is similar.

Have you tried an extended gas pedal from http://www.ultimatepedals.com ? I've found that mine enable me to rev match downshifts with incredible ease.


SMG I is worst. Here in Brazil, we have many Euro E36 M3 SMG I, in BMW CCB ALL, I mean, ALL M3 SMG I know, broke the SMG at least one time, and they are low mileage cars, the last one broke with 25.000mls, cost the price of his car to fix. The SMG oil pump is one of problems.

Believe me, forget SMG in your track car.

So what about a straight S54 swap with everything attached?

I don't think it's that easy - I think you'd have to have all the electronic boxes and harness from the SMG car as well - and then there might still be something missing. :(

You can go from SMG to Manual swap if you go to stand alone electronics (or try swapping all the electronics over from the manual car - not recommended).

As far as I know, I do not know of any cases where someone has successfully swapped over full OEM SMG to OEM Manual or vice versa.