Hard Motorsport E39 M5 ST Race Car

[thedizzle]

That's right, I took an extended leather version M5 and stripped it down for road racing

The ICSCC Racing Conference has a 10:1 WT:HP Ratio class up here (race-st.com) in the PNW that I plan to run it because of the diversity of cars, hp, weight and the friendliness of the drivers who run in that class. From their website:

Intent & Purpose Sport Touring (ST) is a brand new class for the 2010 ICSCC season. The class was created to provide a venue for the growing number of fast IT style cars who did not have a proper class in Conference (ICSCC). In previous years, these cars ran in the "unlimited" ITE and SPM classes against much faster cars. The goal of the class is to create a performance limit for these cars while still supporting a wide variety of vehicles and keeping the rules simple.

Rules at a Glance

• 10 to 1 weight to horsepower ratio (weight w/driver vs dyno proven whp)
• Unibody production cars only
• Maximum 10 inch rim width
• D.O.T. approved tires

My target weight is 3400lbs and 340whp. Heavy I know but this is likely the lightest the car will weigh after the cage goes in. With me in it (and I'm a fat dude, 240lbs) the car weighed 4180lbs w/quarter tank of gas. I do not have a current weight after everything has been stripped out yet but I plan on getting one right before the cage goes in this December. Hoping to have the car done and on a track by May 2011 at the latest.

The Car:
2001 M5 144k miles with a heavy maintenance record including new diff, rebuilt transmission and rebuild heads all within the last 50k miles.

Parts List:
Brembo 355MM BBK (Front only for now) - Delivered
CarboTech Race Pads (front and rear) - delivered
Custom dust shields modified for cooling ducts - almost finished
Brecus Motorsport Feramic Clutch
LTW Flywheel
JIC Competition Coilovers 790/620 - delivered
Built 3.62 rear end
Sparco Circuit Pro Race Seat (ordered)
Vac Sliders/Mounts
Sparco 5 Point 3" Harnesses
Sparco 345MM Suede Steering Wheel (ordered)
Eibach Front Sway (already have Dinan rear)
LTW Battery (odyssey or something)
Custom PowerSteering Cooler
Custom Oil Cooler
New Rod Bearing and Chain Guides for the S62
EVolve MAF-Delete Tune
Custom Front Splitter
Brooks Motorsport Rear CF Wing
Nitto NT01 275/35/18 Race Tires on a 9.5" Wheel still to be determined (currently have 2 sets of tires already and one set of ASA Wheels which I don't think I will use unless except for rain tires)
Safety items (cage, net, extinguisher, etc)
Jaffster Shift Knob
and a ton of other stuff....

Here is how the Beast looked before I came up with this crazy idea...



And after the first day of work...








Temporary wheels





All 500 computers and brackets gone



So sad...



Second day of work and the parts keep piling up













Dust shields gone and away at my buddy's shop for his custom work



AC Compressor gone



Sound Deadening is on the list... working up the motivation to remove it!



Quick Picture I took of the Brembo BBK



Dash gone and sold



the seat but we ordered it in red



And the latest work was removing the rest of the wiring/dash support/heater stuff



Nothing like taking a hammer to a 75k car new




started working on the rear bumper stuff (removing some of the support) and yes I've been to the 'Ring and I conquered it



Work continues tomorrow to remove the sound deadening and other misc parts of the car. Ordering my base/sliders on December 5th and once the seat is installed, off it goes to the cage builder to get an 8point cage installed using 3/4" tubing

[ovlov28]

WOW!!! This is going to be a cool car for ST. I know Mike is doing some more work to his E46 M3 on this off season, he is going to be tough to beat again this year!Shoot me a PM if you need any help with parts, set up, alignments or anything! I work at a shop local to you, and we are well known in the ICSCC world

AND I am a fellow E39 driver!

[thedizzle]

WOW!!! This is going to be a cool car for ST. I know Mike is doing some more work to his E46 M3 on this off season, he is going to be tough to beat again this year!Shoot me a PM if you need any help with parts, set up, alignments or anything! I work at a shop local to you, and we are well known in the ICSCC world

AND I am a fellow E39 driver!

I've probably met you before. I was over there helping them in the pits for the 6 hours of Pacific back in March. I have no unrealistic expectation's for my first year or two in this car especially competing against Mike, Jim, Scott, Eric, etc. Those guys have been doing this for years and they're familiar with their cars and they can flatout drive

I will let you know if I need any help with things. I'm actually over in the Spokane area where, we will have my car and Adam Harding's car running in ST next year. We (nwbmwclub) sponsored Scott Norton's car the last couple of years and he got us hooked on Road Racing.

Thanks for your offer and I will keep you in mind especially when I make my first trip over to Pacific.

Edit: Here is my boy Harding's build thread... http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1508098

He is quite a bit further along then I am (his cage is currently getting installed) but I hope to be right behind him and possibly make the SCR Grand Prix for my first race.

[TOOLEAN]

Why not 10" wheels with 305 or 315's?

You will probably need to throw some serious money at this project to hit your weight target of 3400, not trying to rain on your parade but you might want to start budgeting for lightweight body panels, lexan, and some extensive time with a whiz wheel. Should be a fun project, looking forward to more updates.

[thedizzle]

Why not 10" wheels with 305 or 315's?

You will probably need to throw some serious money at this project to hit your weight target of 3400, not trying to rain on your parade but you might want to start budgeting for lightweight body panels, lexan, and some extensive time with a whiz wheel. Should be a fun project, looking forward to more updates.

Still undecided about wheels/tires currently but fitting a 305 is probably doable on this car with some minor fender work. a 315 is not even an option. For now, I'm not too worried about being the fastest in my class, more worried about getting the car sorted out and running well and then I will start tackling things like fitting bigger tires, etc.

Glass will be replaced with Lexan except in the front, for now. The interior on these cars, if I had to take a conservative guess was probably around 500lbs by itself all combined. Everything is heavy from the door panels to the seats which are easily over 90lbs each. I wish I had a scale to weigh things as they came out, but I still think 3400lbs is doable, or at least close. Worst case scenario I end up a little heavier and I have to add go-fast mods like headers Eventually when the funds are there, I will add CF hood and trunk but for now, I want it on the ground and running so I can finish my rookie races.

We are going to hack out any metal that we can too. Everything from the doors and door bars to the rear deck metal that isn't needed to bumper supports and more. There is a TON of weight in these cars and seeing as I'm the only one in the US that has even attempted this sort of thing on an E39 M5, it's all learning from here on out.

[ovlov28]

There is a fella locally that has an E39 540 that he has down to right about 3000lbs, no interior, and I am fairly sure it still has glass windows in it. 3400 should be very doable.

I did not realize you were over in Spokane! I actually worked with Scott Adare during the 12 hour in Portland this year with Jeff Van Liroups PTG E46. It was a lot of fun working on that car.

For sure give me a ring when you come over to Pacific. We would love to help you out as much as we can

That car is going to be so much fun on track! The nice thing about ST, is that even though the other cars may be lighter, you will have the power and torque avaliable to help you out. Keeping the brakes cool will be a MUST though Carbotech pads are a good choice, I am guessing they are setting you up with the XP-16 cause of the weight.

[thedizzle]

There is a fella locally that has an E39 540 that he has down to right about 3000lbs, no interior, and I am fairly sure it still has glass windows in it. 3400 should be very doable.

I did not realize you were over in Spokane! I actually worked with Scott Adare during the 12 hour in Portland this year with Jeff Van Liroups PTG E46. It was a lot of fun working on that car.

For sure give me a ring when you come over to Pacific. We would love to help you out as much as we can

That car is going to be so much fun on track! The nice thing about ST, is that even though the other cars may be lighter, you will have the power and torque avaliable to help you out. Keeping the brakes cool will be a MUST though Carbotech pads are a good choice, I am guessing they are setting you up with the XP-16 cause of the weight.

I know Scott and Hank well... nice guys. The torque advantage I have over everyone in that class is going to be my only real advantage over them. They will for sure all have me in weight and breaking ability. It will be interesting to see how I compare but I can't wait

[curtnutss]

WOW, it would make me so anxious to tear apart a E39 M5 ! good luck !







subscribed.....!

[M3Rob95]

more pics!

[///M3Augy]

This excites me.

[dirty30]

I would LOVEEEEE for this to be my track car. keep it coming!

[Winchm60]

Looks like an AWESOME project; best of luck with the build!

[Steve J.]

Looks fun...and if you have ever seen the IMSA E34 M5's (Segal ran one that was being stored at Algar a few times in bmwcca) you know these bigger cars can have some impressive performance come out of them!

They still run M5 and 550's in the SuperStar series, obviously a bit more modified, but still

http://www.superstars.it/eng/default.aspx

IMSA E34 spec http://www.bimmerfile.com/wp-content...A-Supercar.pdf

[thedizzle]

Okay quick update.. the car is back on the ground and ready to go towed to my buddy's shop where we will be doing Rod Bearings, Clutch and LTW Flywheel, front and rear bushings including engine and tranny and removing more weight from the car (door bars, excess metal, etc). We will also install our JIC Coilovers, Brembo BBK and Sparco Cicuit Seat.



Sound deadening all removed.. weighed 52lbs once it was dry.







My cage is being delayed a bit as the builder is moving shops. Hoping to have the car to the cage builder now by end of January.

[DrBobOh]

I'm so stoked on this build!

Get the ASA's off there!

Pumped to see more of this build- keep it up!

[thedizzle]

Okay time for some hardcore porn action...

I can't believe how light these are compared to stock. I read somewhere around 14lbs/corner lighter than stock. May have to see if Brembo will give us a rear set too :ohnoes





JB Racing Flywheel courtesy of Aaron and me telling him he doesn't need it for a street car



Love how comfortable this is... I've been sitting in it while playing Forza haha





Sparco Suede 345MM Wheel



Pads again courtesy of Aaron



And the real porn begins... I think these are the best looking Coilovers on the planet for the price. I'm sure they will perform as good as they look too

[Steve J.]

What type of coilovers are they? Look into using Tender springs with this setup.

[thedizzle]

What type of coilovers are they? Look into using Tender springs with this setup.

JIC Competion with custom spring rates and valving just for our setup.

[TOOLEAN]

Make sure you upgrade the bolts on the lower mounting point, if you are running a true coilover in the rear. What camber plates will work with those front struts?

[thedizzle]

Make sure you upgrade the bolts on the lower mounting point, if you are running a true coilover in the rear. What camber plates will work with those front struts?

JIC makes their own camber plates that came with them.

And it comes with upgraded bolt grades already.

[Eddy@ApexRaceParts]

regarding wheels and tires,

275/35/18 is a common square setup. I've had a few customers get our 18x10" et25 wheel for the E39. With camber plates up front 285's should be possible as a local racer with a track preped E39 m5 is running those hoosiers.

The biggest problem you're going to have is those coilovers. The cross coilovers end up having major wheel/tire clearance issues up front because of their design. The body is height adjustable instead of just a standard adjustable spring perch. Because of this, the spring perch and spring don't sit above the tire, but next to it, and the body of the shock is wider then other manufacturers. All this results in much, much less tire clearance. I've had customers that can only clear stock wheels and tires once a Cross setup is installed. Just and FYI.


We have two added APEX ARC-8 sizes coming out in the next 2 months~ so the following would be good options (we'd have to custom machine the center bores for the E39 applications, but we've done it before)

18x9.5" et22 - TBD
18x10" et25 - 19.95lbs
18x10.5" et27 - 20.45lbs

[thedizzle]

regarding wheels and tires,

275/35/18 is a common square setup. I've had a few customers get our 18x10" et25 wheel for the E39. With camber plates up front 285's should be possible as a local racer with a track preped E39 m5 is running those hoosiers.

The biggest problem you're going to have is those coilovers. The cross coilovers end up having major wheel/tire clearance issues up front because of their design. The body is height adjustable instead of just a standard adjustable spring perch. Because of this, the spring perch and spring don't sit above the tire, but next to it, and the body of the shock is wider then other manufacturers. All this results in much, much less tire clearance. I've had customers that can only clear stock wheels and tires once a Cross setup is installed. Just and FYI.


We have two added APEX ARC-8 sizes coming out in the next 2 months~ so the following would be good options (we'd have to custom machine the center bores for the E39 applications, but we've done it before)

18x9.5" et22 - TBD
18x10" et25 - 19.95lbs
18x10.5" et27 - 20.45lbs

Thanks for the info. A 285 isn't an option for the NT01 which is what I plan to run due to the climate/longevity of the tire compared to the rest. I'd love to try and fit a 305 on a 10" but I may have to run with 275s for now until I have the money/means to really try and fit a larger tire. If that's the case, I'll just deal with it and drive like a madman

Keep me updated when on when you might get some proper fitment for my M5 and maybe we can work something out

And on another note... I'm on week 3 of of my 4 month diet/work out plan and I'm down about 18lbs since I started. When the season starts for me, I hope to be around the 190-200lbs range.

[dradernh]

And on another note... I'm on week 3 of of my 4 month diet/work out plan and I'm down about 18lbs since I started. When the season starts for me, I hope to be around the 190-200lbs range.

Where can I get this?

With that weight & power, make sure that you use all effective aero available to you under the rules.

[thedizzle]

Where can I get this?

With that weight & power, make sure that you use all effective aero available to you under the rules.

It's a simple formula: 1500-1800 calories a day, don't eat after 8PM (I've been eating before 7PM), walk/run for 2-3 miles on a treadmill at an incline of 3.5%-5% 5 days a week or more (I've been doing 7 days straight and then one day off but I'm finding that my surgically reconstructed knee isn't liking this so I'm going to scale it back a bit). Good luck

I plan on running a Brooks Motorsport CF Wing and a LARGE front splitter/undertray. I hope this is enough to keep this large car on the pavement.

[eldercaddy]

hey if your knees are hurting you try nike shox they changed my life