Took the car up to Foerst Motorwerks today… it looks like the heat-shrink fell victim to the severe heat of the TMS World Challenge headers. The wiring for the O2 sensors came in contact with itself, which explains the intermittent nature of the problem. It was SERIOUSLY a pinhole size hole in the heat-shrink.WORST. TIMING. EVER.
I bought some new Bosch O2 sensors, and Matt got it all wired up and back in running order. I haven’t tried to pull those ABS fuses again to allow use of my MAX hydro-brake… I will wait until after the event on Saturday to mess with it. The car seems to be running in tip-top shape… AND – the SES light is OFF?!?!
Luke over at Running Life just did a cool writeup about me and my deth black tyre killer!rnClick here to check the article.Thanks Luke!
I stumbled across my old Nokia 3650 which had a 16mb SD card in it. To my surprise… it had a slew of old photos and video on it from around 2002-2004. A fun trip down memory lane for sure.
My best friend Hooman when he was working at United BMW in Roswell.
Random shredded Bridgestone at GTE.
My Corolla preparing to fail emissions miserably.
My car on the lift at the OLD Batlground Engineering.
One3 Creative computer upgrades.
My good friend Michael at Jack in the Box after GT Live in 2004.
My 330i loaner car and Jason Greene’s ’64 Impala outside the old One3 studio.
My Corolla feeling sleepy the night I bought it.
On stage the last night I played with my old band: Katapolt.
New transmission for the e46.
My Corolla… freshly panda’d.
The Autopower rollcage for the e46 that was promptly returned to have a full custom cage built instead.
These photos were in this order on the phone… it looks like the vinyl gets washed off at Cactus Carwash.
Superior erecting. That’s right.
Panda managed to snap a shot before the car ran into more ECU issues forcing and early retire at Southeast Drift’s Triple Threat II. This was one of two passes that the car was operational for. So frustrating.
Tom and Tripp from Spitfire Studios asked me to come out and do some driving for a project they are working on. With a marshalling yard at our disposal, a giant white backdrop set up, and a huge crane in place… it was definitely going to be a rad shoot.My buddy David Jones was kind enough to let me borrow his (sick) Mustang.
With all my car troubles at Road Atlanta… I was worried about the e46 running well enough for the shoot. I didn’t want to leave an entire film crew stranded if my car decided to act up again. THANKS DJONES!!!
Tripp prepping the Red One. This camera is lightyears beyond GNAR.
The canvas. The footage will be keyed out in post… so the white backdrop will help immensely.
Lights… camera…
Tripp and Tom firing from the sky.
They’ll wash off.
My brother Jamie came out to the shoot. He is attending the Art Institute in Atlanta for film. Expect big things from this guy in the near future!!!rn.
Lunch was GREAT!
Setting up for the last take.
HUGE thanks to Tom and Tripp for having me out to drive, and to the entire crew for all their hard work!! I think the finished product will be sick!
I got a chance to do some more stunt driving for Spitfire today! More details soon…
Perched for attack.
Matt Foerst and Michael Sarol watching as someone hit the kitty litter.
Hanging out with Matt and my buddy Dennis Mertzanis.
Erin Sanford trying to diagnose fuse issues.
More diagnosing and attempted repair at the line.
A couple snaps through the horseshoe at Road Atlanta while the car was operational.
A snap of the e46 landed on SpeedHunters. I don’t think I have met Mike Garrett, but I do appreciate the kind words!!!
“Speaking of looking good, here’s Andy Sapp’s sexy E46 BMW. This car was at Road Atlanta to take part in the small FD ProAm event that was held alongside the “big league” competition.”
rn
My carbon fiber roof spoiler went flying off the car in-tow to Road Atlanta. Who knows were it fell off, or if it is in one piece. That wing looked so rad. I miss it. I want to get another one… but the mounting point had such a minimal contact patch with the glass that it was hard to keep it on there well. I’m not surprised it fell off… especially since I was doing 90 to get to tech on time.
This image sums up my weekend. So what the hell happened?As of now… it looks like the hydro e-brake may have played a role. I was advised by a BMW tech that I could pull ABS fuses, and not trip the car into limp-mode. He said ABS electronics run independent from the motor, so I’m fine. WELL… ABS has 4 fuses… which (I think two) are shared with DSC. I pulled the fuses, and tested the e-brake. It locked up the rears… no problems, right? Wrong. I didn’t get a chance to really test the car out until I was at the top of the hill at Road Atlanta. The e-brake worked fine… but the car was totally in limp-mode and wouldn’t rev past 5K.I rush back to the truck, we replace all the fuses and reset it with a battery disconnect. The car ran fine the rest of practice. Problem solved, right? Wrong. My first qualifying run… I floor it out of the gate. The car was in limp-mode. I flipped a bitch right back to the truck. From this point on… we can’t get the car out of limp-mode. We reset the ecu, clear OBD2 codes, and think we get it out of limp mode… allowing me to redline 1st-3rd gear into 10a… then BAM… back into limp-mode. I almost threw the car into the wall (on accident) because of this shit. VERY VERY DANGEROUS.
Why does something go wrong with this car EVERY YEAR at Road Atlanta? I’ve had this car since 2001 (new)… and it has never… EVERRR gone into limp-mode. Not once. Then I get to the top of the hill on race-day, and I’m stuck with an inoperable car that was totally killing it the week before during practice.Every project with this car has basically been a giant pain in the ass, and I’m pretty much furious with it. I knew running that e-brake was going to cause problems… it was too easy. Standalone seems to be what I need to bypass all the computational over-thinking I don’t even want in the car… but at this point I don’t want to spend any more money on it. All I want to do is thrash and have fun… but I am so pissed at the car right now.
If I drove poorly and fumbled it… fine. I can live with that. But to have the car shit out on me and not let me make a single qualifying run is a spit in the face.
Ride along in/on the e46 for 3 practice runs at Road Atlanta from the locals-only practice sesh the 28th.
Keep your hands in the car. Don’t touch anything.
