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Brakes, PeeKay's tight butt, guano, and more...

On Brakes:
- ----------------
Lately someone has been bashing Cool Carbons. Others defend them. One
thing I've learned is the irreproduceability of brake results. For ex:
PeeKay has Porterfield R4 racing pads. So far, no rotor scoring, not too
much dust, a little squeal. Carl Buckland reports that these same pads
ate his rotors to pieces, so he'll never use them again. PeeKay's uncle
went through two sets of OEM pads and rotors, destroying each in a
single track session. Yet others have had no such problems on their
M3s... So go figure.

On PeeKay's tight butt:
- ---------------------------------
Ever since the coilovers went on, we've been, tight in the rear end, so
to speak. The suspension is stiff, of course, but driving over bumps
would cause the rear of the car to fly off the bump and slam down like a
ton of bricks. As I reported in my last post, this made my first
post-coilover trip to SIR exciting to say the least. I've talked to
Korman numerous times about this but they've been as perplexed as I
have.

Two nights ago it came to me: The Korman adjustable rear sway bars don't
use the same mounting method as the stock bars: no adjustable swaybars
can. This is because the stock bars have a little 90-degree bend in the
end, resulting in a little rod that sticks through the end link bushing.
The end link then bolts up to the trailing arm. As the swaybar flexes
with suspension movement, the rod inside the end link bushing rotates.
The end link doesn't need a more "secure" attachment, because the rod is
long enough that it can't slide off.

But adjustable sway bars have holes, just like the front sway bars, and
you have to bolt the sway bar to the end link bushing. When I got the
bars, I was a little vexed that Korman hadn't sent any mounting hardware
along. I went out and bought a small gear puller, and without too much
trouble removed the end links from the OEM sway bar. Then I ran down to
Eagle Hardware and bought some metric fasteners of the right size and
bolted the end links to the sway bar nice and tight when I installed the
bar. 

O the bliss of ignorance.

What happened, as any first year ME student would spot instantly, was
that the sway bar was binding against the bushing, in effect increasing
the spring tension of the rear suspension. It was an interesting way to
increase roll stiffness at the rear, but of course not the right thing
at all. Yesterday when I got home I shot under the car and loosened the
nuts as far as I dared (don't want them coming off, you know) and
immediately drove the car over the City of Redmond's on-going research
track for buckled pavement. What a difference!!! The car is still stiff,
but it tracks over bumps instead of flying. O frabjous day! Callooh!
Callay!

On Guano
- --------------
This stuff is lethal. Here in the Pacific NW we don't need acid rain, we
have fir trees. The birds eat the seeds from the pinecones and the poop
is has a pH acidic enough to eat through bank vaults. As soon as it
lands, if you don't neutralize it with some water or baking soda or
something, it starts disolving your clearcoat and then attacks the paint
below. Once it's done its damage, you're hosed. Been there, done that...
(on my wife's Volvo 850, not on one of my cars!).

More
- -------
Got my copy of the SCCA rag Sportscar last night and there was a picture
of the list's own Ben Griesler (at least I think that's how he spells
his name): tech writer for Chilton's and famous rallyist in the Team
Terra (I think) E30 M3 on his way to a win somewhere. Kudos Ben!

Also, I don't know whether you guys are aware of it, but Autox great Bob
Tunnell is currently beating the pants off Porsche 993s in SCCA A Stock
in his 95 M3, and his wife Patty is doing the same in A Stock Ladies...
Who says BMWs can't autocross? Tomorrow and Sunday the Solo II National
Tour comes here to Seattle and I intend to cheer Ben on to victory.
PeeKay will be trying to keep its owner from being embarassed: since
there's no Novice class in the National tour we will have to run in ASP
against the RS Americas and tricked out Elans. CArl Buckland will also
be there running against wickedly fast Hondas in CSP.

I'll send out a report after the event and the drinking afterwards are
finished...

John Browne
BMW ACA Puget Sound Chapter
BMW CCA
95 ///M3 LTW (PeeKay)
95 ///M3
91 iX (Spunky the Brave Little Car)