DFW Lonestar Club Dyno Day (pt 1?)

[Mark Williams <williamh@xxxxxxx>]

  owner            car               hp     torque  modifications
  Mark Williams    E30 M3 black      164.8  151.0   Jim C. chip,cam gear
  Mark Hammons     E30 M3 white      142.6  139.5   Jim C. chip
  Jefrem Iwaniw    E30 M3 black      164.4  145.8   Jim C. chip
  Blair Hartsfield E36 M3 black(95)  214.7  211.3   Jim C. chip
  Charles Smith    M Coupe black     293.9  246.4   Dinan Supercharger
  Mark Yujuico     E36 M3/4 black(98)208.2  205.4   stock
  Joey  Salema     M Coupe red       216.2  215.5   stock?
  Scott Shaffer    E36 M3/4 silvr(98)207.4  200.7   Dinan software
  Keith Williams   E39 M5 lt blue    327.7  312.8   stock
  Craig Stevenson  E36 M3 green(97)  220.5    ?     Jim C., ltw flywhl

The Dyno Day event was held at Norwood Auto Craft in Dallas and was a
blast... Cars that were able to be seen in and around the premises were
two Bonneville salts flat cats, a 1600hp Ferrari and a 1200 hp MR2,
a Ferrari P4 race car, Bob's sleeper Jag with Corvette power, many other
Ferrari from 308 to 512TR, a turbocharged C5 Corvette, and last but not
least, a hugely modified twin turbo F50 that was chronicled in 
Car and Driver ins May 99.

Lowell Seaton was present but unfortunately without his E36 M3 so I
took the first slot of the day..  Mark Hammons car was determined to
have some sort of fuel problem when over 6K, and he was rightfully 
disappointed with the results, but alerted to a problem he had 
previously not been aware of..  In other E30 M3 news, Jefrem's car and
mine had identical hp but mine had more torque likely due to the cam
gear... I am pretty sure I heard Jefrem muttering that I need to get rid
of that cam gear until his dyno sheet came off the printer <grin>...
I'll leave it in as long as my car is primarily used for street duty...

Blair H. set the standard for E36 cars early on with his 95 M3, only 
to be bested by Craig Stevenson's car at the end of the day... Craig's 
car has a lightweight flywheel and a Heavy Duty Sachs Clutch, which may
have made the difference on his car.... He also has a unique Bobby Archer
air intake with the filter behind the mesh grille in the front bumper
 cover... (I'd like to see if the airbox temp was different than other 
E36 cars?) Unfortunately torque numbers were not available for Craig's 
car ..more on that later..

Among the M coupes were Charles Smith's stunning black supercharged
car. This car's whine is very pronounced and can be heard from 50 paces
at idle.. Charles will not be sneaking into the house late at night with
that car, but obviously will be powering away from many cars on the street
(In fairness to Dinan, I have also hears some very quiet SC setups as well).
Joey Salema's bright red M coupe was reported to be stock (is Joey holding
out on us?) and was exceptionally strong if so, for a S5x motor..  Richard
George was in attendance as well, and decided to put his car on the machine..
The question was raised, do the M coupes have different gearing than the
M3? Unfortunately no one could say for sure... 

Without a doubt, the BIG DAWG was Keith Williams 2000 E39 M5... This
beautiful light blue car easily took home top honors, and had a torque
curve that was flat from 2000 to nearly 6000 rpm..  The torque curve was
so flat that one could lay a pencil on the page horizontally and cover
the entire "curve" from 2K to 6K.. Impressive!

Dean Schreier stepped up to the dyno  with his beautiful red E36 with 
50K miles (this car looks like it has only 5K!) and promptly put out
so much torque that the machine screamed for mercy and went crying for it's
mommy!!!! Well, maybe not .. Unfortunately, the computer and dyno machine
suffered some sort of technical malady that could not be fixed, as Bob and
his employee tried everything they could to fix it and finally gave up
after an hour...

At least 4 scheduled cars were held over, and there were several 
guys in attendance that decided they wanted to test their car as
well that were disappointed.. Certainly there are some who will want
to go in individually as they waited in line on and may not want to
do so again.. BUT, for those who like spending a whole day milling about
a car shop that happens to have a LOT of Ferrari and BMWs hanging around
I am thinking about tripping the light fantastic once again!

If you are in the DFW area and are interested in running your car at 
DFW Dyno Day.. part II, please drop me a note and I'll put you on the 
mailing list for a new event upcoming soon!

Mark Williams
Dallas, TX

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