Fun weekend at Autoclub in Roval-chasing down Porsches
 

Thought I would share with the forum my experience:

First I want to thanK Chris Bialy for setting up the car for me. I drove my Mtech 318ti to Autoclub speedway and glad I did.

Long story short my 911 race car blew a head gasket in the warm up session on Friday. After accessing my options, myself and the guys from Vali Motorsports scrambled to get the 318 set up and teched in time for the next session. We moved the sparco seat around and put in a set of schroth harnesses and quickly rolled the fenders.

Chris had put on new pads and rotors as well as koni's and a TC Kline camber plate that he had on his car. If you know the Roval config at autoclub you know it's a HP car friendly and I didn't know how my little 4 would do. As a point of reference, my 911 is around 300hp, full race car at about 2800 with me in it. I pulled some weight out of the 318 but am guessing with the roll bar it's about the same as 911 with almost 1/3 the HP!


After rolling the fenders to make sure the 3 different street tires (2 dunlops, 1 pilot sport and 1 random michellin) would not rub on the infield and more importantly the big oval. I made it in time for the first session and knew that it would be an interesting session. Let's just say, my old days doing some quasi drifting with my mechanic and track buddy (Michael Essa) made for some fun.


I was wringing everything I could out of the little car and it was responding pretty well....at least through the infield. My arm got tired from pointing by the big hp cars...Gt3-check, gt3rs-check, 996 turbo-check, 991 turbo-check, fully prepped 911 race cars - check. All of them ran by me on the straights like I was sitting still.....BUT in the tight playground section...they couldn't hang! In fact, I chased a couple of them down! Once we hit the big front straight it was a joke...I couldn't get over 112-115k max and I know from my 911 that 140-160mph is pretty easy to hit.

So for 2 days I drove my little red 318ti and mustered up a best time of 1:12. By the end of Saturday, I couldn't get under 1:15 no matter how hard I pushed. I figured there was a lot of money guys in the pits and they would be taking off tires that were "too slow" for new ones...I was right. I found a pair of nitto's that were not totally thrashed. I slapped them on for Sunday and was able to rip off a lot of low 1:11's. I know for sure that 1:10 and even 1:09 was in sight if I could get a lap in without having to point someone by but since it was a time trial and not a race I figured to chill and make sure I could still drive the car home! :)


Bottom line: Very very impressive handling and 2nd/3rd gear tight sections were really hooked up. I might take out some more weight but would really like to throw a s52 in. My buddy Paul Kramer has been driving his Mcoupe race car over 15 years and we are talking about taking his engine and stuffing in the car. thanks to all on the forum and looking forward to future updates, Jason ps. the starter was flown in from Milwaukee and he talked to me before every session...he also has a 318ti and was blown away when he discovered I had the original engine in with no mods.

Pleasure to have helped out a fellow enthusiast and glad to hear how much you enjoyed the car!

A few more details on the suspension set-up:

TC Kline Camber plates
Koni Single top adjustable struts/shocks front and rear
AKG spring perches, coil-over sleeves and adjusters up front
450# Hyperco front 2.5" ID coil-over springs
M3 front strut housings
E36 M3 Bilstein PSS9 progressive rate rear springs

well there you go...I can turn a wrench and do the basics but I leave the specifics up to smart guys like Chris and Vali Predescu (for Porsche).

Knew there were a few more things going on with suspension....

Fender flares and weight savings will be inexpensive mods and are coming next.

Great info, thanks for sharing. Gives me a real baseline to compare against as I'm going to be driving this course during Bimmerfest in May, and it seems very short compared to the tracks I'm used to running on (Laguna Seca, Sonoma, Thunderhill). How long is the course?

are you using the roval or just the infield? the Roval is about the same length as chuckwalla at 2.8 miles but 21 turns and a ton of straights....major HP track and not that technical.

does that help?

Yes, the course we are running is the Roval course. I'm going to be running my swapped ti that day, and it seems like a good fit for that setup.



Thanks!

With that amount of horsepower you should be 1:55-1:58 range