Thank You For The Tip! (e) (archive)

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: : If anyone is interested, I installed the camber correction bolts on my ///M last Friday. The bolts, combined with the Dinan shock/spring setup I run yielded -1.9/-1.5 degrees camber. The car definitely has quicker turn in and is a lot easier to push into an oversteering attitude with the throttle. I will be paying real close attention to the bolts as some people (including my mechanic) think that they could possibly loosen with the heavy use they see at driving schools and autoXes. If they do loosen considerably within the 3k oil interval I run I will probably drop them and flip flop my camber plates (3 hours labor!). But for the $5 in parts and the 1/2 hour installation I couldn't pass this up as a good way to see if I like the extra camber. My initial thoughts are that this is a great setup- the small camber increase means the oversteer has to be specifically induced as the car maintains a fairly conservative nature.

: : I also had the Dinan anti-sway bars installed at the same time. In short, if you autoX or track your car these are a must. The performance increase is substantial as the car exhibits very, very little roll and has a much more solid feel to it - as such the car can be placed much more confidently in a turn. But this isn't the reason I would recommend the upgrade. The main reason is that the Dinan installation involves welding in reinforcements to the mounting tabs (which commonly bend on the ///M's) and upgrading to heavier duty brackets. The new end links also use a cotter pin to hold everything in place to prevent the dreaded "sway bar popped out" phenomenon that people have experienced with the stock bars when the car is jacked up. It is one of the few places that BMW didn't over-engineer and is in my opinion a big weakness for people who like to play with their cars.

: : All these toys were ready in time for my first ever autoX event (I have participated in high speed driver's schools at Sears Point and) Laguna Seca. The autoX was a blast! It was a strange contrast to road tracking where the key is keeping the car balanced. I felt downright naughty as I learned that the key to autoX is to learn how to upset the balance of the car. Unfortunately we only were allowed 3 one lap runs, so I never really got to know the course very well... my time were 49.8, 47.5 and 45.2 seconds. I quite humorously ripped my shift knob off of the rod for my very first shift on my very first run and had to run the course with the newly created budget short shift kit (Ron Stygar has nothing to worry about here, I definitely don't recommend running without a knob!) Chalk that up to nerves and liters of adrenaline.

: : Last but not least I got meet another fellow boarder, Lester. It was nice to meet you... I hope we play again soon!

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