What did you do for your M3 today?

[ridebikes]

Question. Why bother with a CARB legal tune when you have headers and aftermarket cats?

What usdmej said. Banking on missing it on the visual - the local smog shop doesn't do much other than plug into the computer. No intense looking around. Fingers crossed, it is a risk!

[zzyzx85]

Was that clockwise 13 configuration or something else?

Yep, it was good ol' 13CW.

[Nate047]

What usdmej said. Banking on missing it on the visual - the local smog shop doesn't do much other than plug into the computer. No intense looking around. Fingers crossed, it is a risk!

Gotcha, so in that case why not just get a contemporary tune and reflash for smog? My understanding is plug and play tunes have come a long way since Dinan did theirs for this car 20 years ago. Reason I ask is because I'm considering tune options myself, wondering what's worth it and what isn't as far as gains, and also effort to reflash if need be.

[Nate047]

Yep, it was good ol' 13CW.

Right on man. Great track and great baseline layout. There is a lot of time being left on the table with that car doing 2:17 assuming it was dry. Did you record any in car video?

[zzyzx85]

Right on man. Great track and great baseline layout. There is a lot of time being left on the table with that car doing 2:17 assuming it was dry. Did you record any in car video?

Unfortunately I didn't have my GoPro but I might have dashcam footage haha. I'll check it out later today.

I'm still not very confident driving the car hard. I think the street tires, meh brakes and brake fluid, and overall lack of experience with this car was what was keeping me from going faster. I'm certain the times will drop as I get more comfortable with the chassis on the track.

[Nate047]

Unfortunately I didn't have my GoPro but I might have dashcam footage haha. I'll check it out later today.

I'm still not very confident driving the car hard. I think the street tires, meh brakes and brake fluid, and overall lack of experience with this car was what was keeping me from going faster. I'm certain the times will drop as I get more comfortable with the chassis on the track.

For sure. Just takes time and confidence, the car is probably completely fine as is. But I feel you. It's actually good to learn on tires like that because they break away smoothly, warn you as you're getting close to the limit, then you can go past it, spin or go off or whatever, and learn to be faster. Too sticky a tire will be like a crutch and allow you to get away with bad driving habits.

Also a nice thing about BW CW13 is that while it can bite you like any track can, almost all of it is dirt runoff. There are only a few places that people really end up in bad shape during regular track day, non wheel to wheel racing situations.

[ridebikes]

Gotcha, so in that case why not just get a contemporary tune and reflash for smog? My understanding is plug and play tunes have come a long way since Dinan did theirs for this car 20 years ago. Reason I ask is because I'm considering tune options myself, wondering what's worth it and what isn't as far as gains, and also effort to reflash if need be.

Good question. I heavily considered it, but there are so many question marks around the 'checksum' stuff (see the CA/LA thread)

I could have missed it, but I haven't seen anyone confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that a contemporary tune will pass nowadays. It's probably a moot point since I'm running a non-CARB legal cat set up, but since my smog guy seems to just plug in the computer, my biggest fear is being sent to the ref.

My thinking is that running a tune from Dinan gets around that. It's not ideal, and I'm well versed in how old school their approach is. But at my level of M3 enthusiast, the idea of flashing/unflashing, etc. gets a little hairy vs. doing it once, even if it's a compromised tune.

If 3+ CA forum members were able to confirm they were passing with a modern tune with no issue, I'd gladly reconsider.

[zzyzx85]

For sure. Just takes time and confidence, the car is probably completely fine as is. But I feel you. It's actually good to learn on tires like that because they break away smoothly, warn you as you're getting close to the limit, then you can go past it, spin or go off or whatever, and learn to be faster. Too sticky a tire will be like a crutch and allow you to get away with bad driving habits.

Also a nice thing about BW CW13 is that while it can bite you like any track can, almost all of it is dirt runoff. There are only a few places that people really end up in bad shape during regular track day, non wheel to wheel racing situations.

Yeah, we've always encouraged our newbie friends to go out to BW for their first track events. All that nice fine Bakersfield dust/dirt makes for safe run-offs.

I actually wished the tires "talked" a bit more. They seemed eerily quiet...up until I lost it 🤣. I remembered my RS3s were more chatty at their limit. Still, I appreciate these tires as they held up to the abuse pretty well and provided a good lesson/practice in car control.

[nahvkolaj]

Good question. I heavily considered it, but there are so many question marks around the 'checksum' stuff (see the CA/LA thread)

I could have missed it, but I haven't seen anyone confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that a contemporary tune will pass nowadays. It's probably a moot point since I'm running a non-CARB legal cat set up, but since my smog guy seems to just plug in the computer, my biggest fear is being sent to the ref.

My thinking is that running a tune from Dinan gets around that. It's not ideal, and I'm well versed in how old school their approach is. But at my level of M3 enthusiast, the idea of flashing/unflashing, etc. gets a little hairy vs. doing it once, even if it's a compromised tune.

If 3+ CA forum members were able to confirm they were passing with a modern tune with no issue, I'd gladly reconsider.

I talked to the shop I take my cars to for smog, an import auto guy, and he said that pre-2008ish cars have been harder for the state to get good data on. On my list of things to do while I wait for Skinz is to flash the DME half of the CSL SMG logic, which should change the checksum for sure. Then I’ll see what happens when smog comes around (if I haven’t done the manual conversion by then). But that won’t be for another year and a half.

[Albino09]

Been real productive lately. Broke my clock adjuster when I took it out of storage after winter, so I bought this neat 3D printed part from ebay for like $15 and followed this youtube DIY. Worked like a charm, I have a working clock again!

[Mayan-Viking]

Been real productive lately. Broke my clock adjuster when I took it out of storage after winter, so I bought this neat 3D printed part from ebay for like $15 and followed this youtube DIY. Worked like a charm, I have a working clock again!

That's really cool. Nice find. Good to know.

[bemami]

M3, GT3 goodnight!


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[DoubleSidedTape]

New ashtray cover/sunglasses holder.

[repoman89]

Ran a tap through the four seat mounting holes and bought new bolts — sigh of relief that they now thread in smoothly by hand. Took the seats out yesterday and I couldn’t get the bolts back in. ECS claims bolts are NLA for some reason but my local dealer had a bunch.

[zzyzx85]

Ran a tap through the four seat mounting holes and bought new bolts — sigh of relief that they now thread in smoothly by hand. Took the seats out yesterday and I couldn’t get the bolts back in. ECS claims bolts are NLA for some reason but my local dealer had a bunch.

that's good to know. I bought a tap and die set after I did my seat a few week ago. 1 bolt was starting to crossthread but taking the tap to hole and die to the bolt to clean up the threads made it thread in much easier. I also saw the seat bolts were "NLA" so that pushed me to buying the tool set.