The pMak26 ApexObsessed Driveway Track Car Build

[Apex_80]

Awesome build and coming together quickly it seems!

[P3trolPete]

This is awesome!

[pMak26]

Awesome build and coming together quickly it seems!

Thanks, a lot of this build happened over the past year.


With all this COVID going around, I've had a decent amount of time. So another project I've been wanting to do for this car is getting off the ground.

We are 6ft-ish apart. lol




Does anyone want to guess what I'm up to?

[thehounder]

Thanks, a lot of this build happened over the past year.


With all this COVID going around, I've had a decent amount of time. So another project I've been wanting to do for this car is getting off the ground.

We are 6ft-ish apart. lol




Does anyone want to guess what I'm up to?

Steering wheel quick disconnect for smg/paddles.

[pMak26]

Steering wheel quick disconnect for smg/paddles.

Yup.

[Johnvu]

woah, would you every sell something like that? I would love to have that setup for my car!

[pMak26]

Sorry for lack of updates. Been super busy with some other stuff and work. Oh also had a set back, but we'll get to that later. Car is now ready for a track day and I signed up for a shakedown run a month from now.

Mocking up paddles after a PLA print.



Cutting the pieces out of 1/8" plate on plasma CNC at MT Fabrications.


I welded the pieces, shot a coat of black on it and started wiring the microswitches.

I used solid copper line so I could bend the wires and have them hold a shape. I enlarged and slotted the pre-existing hole in the quick release hub so I could feed the wires. No sharp edges were left as I chamfered them all.


For a first shot at this design, I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I have a few small tweaks in mind for when I eventually redo it, but I took this for a test drive and it worked exceptionally well so I'll probably run with it as-is for a while.



Now the set back I mentioned. I am a blithering idiot. After cutting the pieces for the paddles at MT Fab, I forgot to latch my hood. Yes, yes, I'm still kicking myself. Rookie move. I felt pretty stupid about it but luckily my brand new windshield didn't crack. The hood that I have countless hours into getting just right, is toast 😥. The sunroof panel was hit hard enough that it started leaking water (flex seal tape to the rescue!). That same week I found a "carbon" hood. Why the quotes, because 1, I hate carbon hoods, 2, bullshit on them being carbon, almost all of them are fiberglass with one layer of carbon on top. It looks great if you are into that sort of thing. I am not into that sort of thing, but here it is on my car anyway. I don't know if I'll keep this hood. I put the stock hood latch setup back on the car so I didn't make any holes in this hood bc frankly I'd prefer to find a stock Imola hood at some point and put that on the car with some cut outs. And before anyone says "aerocatch latches bro"... I don't like them. But I ordered them anyway and have them already lol. So whenever I decide to put latches back on whatever hood I decide to keep, I'll figure out if I want to use the latches I had on the old hood or go ahead with the aerocatch version. For now, whatever, I just want to get on track.

The fitment is actually really good, but I mounted it with the back end of the hood lifted a bit (kinda like civics and the ricers do) so more air can be extracted from underhood.

[pMak26]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqma...a6V0kJ4TQrlylI

[sc_tr0jan_m3]

where'd you end up sourcing the 275 AR1's? my local shop doesn't have that sizing.

[ShaunG]

I just realized you're keeping the SMG. I have see you have built a custom wheel. Is there a specific reason you built your own VS purchase?

[AXDB]

For somebody who bought a welder and taught themselves to weld those cage welds turned out damn nice. Impressive work.

What machine you run?

[S14]

where'd you end up sourcing the 275 AR1's? my local shop doesn't have that sizing.

Phils Tire Service has a whole heap of AR1's.

[pMak26]

^phils has, and I ordered from Murray Motorsports in Ireland. Shipped fast. They were able to get the 275s before Phils, both should have them now.

I just realized you're keeping the SMG. I have see you have built a custom wheel. Is there a specific reason you built your own VS purchase?

#1, why not? #2 there are options to buy?? I bet they're crazy expensive.

For somebody who bought a welder and taught themselves to weld those cage welds turned out damn nice. Impressive work.

What machine you run?

I wish I was half that good. The cage was professionally done.
I have the Titanium 200 but I have to say, it's a fantastic welder. I've had buddies who have welder for 20+ years come over and do some work and remark how its better than their older miller/lincoln setups. I'm super happy with it, but maybe I got lucky and got a good one.

[pMak26]

Updates: The first track day pointed out a few weak points. First, I didn't even get close to half tank before hitting fuel starve coming out of right hand corners. Being that I'd burn 1/4 tank of gas in one session and I hit fuel starve at the beginning of the second session, I definitely needed to fix this one. In goes the bimmerworld e36 pump to feed the bucket on the stock pump.


Next issue is cooling. The water temp didn't get too hot, but the oil temp, yeeaahh. I was shifting at 7k all day long and holding higher gears just to keep the oil temps in check. The second I ran the gear I wanted to run, oil temp quickly climbed to around 275* before I took measures to cool it again.

So, If oil temps are that hot, we need to cool everything down, including water temp. I've had these turner underdrive pulleys sitting around for a while, so I toss them on. Should keep PS and alternator temps a few degrees cooler by not spinning them as fast and allow the water pump to work in a more efficient range.


Next up, I have a CSF oil cooler, so I'm working out my hose setup now. I'll install and shroud the oil cooler after I have all that nonsense figured out. I also ordered a BMW Motorsports Tstat, so I'll be putting that in too. Cooler water temps should yield cooler oil temps too. Lastly, my splitter dropped about 1/4" after some laps, so not sure what I'm going to do yet. I don't like the look of support rods but it looks like I'll need them. Low priority, but I'll need to figure out a solution for that.

Once those are figured out... more track time!!

[S14]

Next up, I have a CSF oil cooler, so I'm working out my hose setup now. I'll install and shroud the oil cooler after I have all that nonsense figured out. I also ordered a BMW Motorsports Tstat, so I'll be putting that in too. Cooler water temps should yield cooler oil temps too. Lastly, my splitter dropped about 1/4" after some laps, so not sure what I'm going to do yet. I don't like the look of support rods but it looks like I'll need them. Low priority, but I'll need to figure out a solution for that.

Once those are figured out... more track time!!

The CSF oil cooler uses stock lines, it's a 5 minute job to swap the oil coolers out, what about the lines are you needing to figure out?