The Z is almost ready for the season!

The battery was charged and works well. I just mounted the new tyre setup - Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric 6, in stock dimensions.
The only remaining thing before I get it on the road is to change the transmission oil - it's original, with 20k miles, but the car is 15 years old so I figure it's about time to change it. I'm going with stock 75w85 GL-4 oil, but unfortunately not Redline, as it's not available here, so I bought Mannol.

Alright, transmission oil changed! And what a super easy job it is, I completely forgot that the viscosity of transmission oil is WAY thinner than the differential oil - OS Giken oil is 80w250 and it's horribly thick, it takes ages to pump it via hand pump, while transmission oil being only 75w85, goes super fast. Changing it was a breeze.
Tomorrow registration, can't wait to go for a ride! :driving:

Went for another ride today, the new tyres are just ridiculously grippy.

https://i.imgur.com/oOEyNtsh.jpeg

Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric 6, 245/40/19 front and 275/35/19 rear. They inspire a lot of confidence, tell you to push the car more and more, it's just silly. I went on a small roundabout that I often go through, it's very tight and where I would usually encounter crazy understeer, these tyres just grip and grip, it's silly. Incredibly good tyres.

https://i.imgur.com/d1Uzhylh.jpeg


Also, managed to finally test the new final drive gearing. The car feels a LOT quicker, especially third gear. In moments where I would definitely grab a second gear, now it's super enjoyable to use the third gear. Also, tested highway driving, at 130km/h it's at 3200rpm, so it's not too high revs at all. So far it seems like 4.08 FD was an excellent choice.


And one more stylish pic of the Z

https://i.imgur.com/fNn4WF9h.jpeg

Handsome Z!

Thank you!

In th meantime, last weekend had a drive to the coast and back (not much, some 200km) and was driving alongside a fella in an e92m3 (414hp 400nm). We did a few rolling start pulls, I was curious just to see whether there will be any difference now with the shorter final drive. To my surprise, the cars were equal! Last year when I tried the same test, the M3 was always pulling away, it was obvious that the Z can't match it...but now it's almost as if they were completely toe to toe. Start from zero would probably be heavily in BMW's favor, as with launch control and automatic, I can't match that...but rolling from 50 it's pretty much dead heat.
Very cool to see that the car is now quicker, and I'm not just imagining it.

It must be feel so great! Nice

This week I had a chance to visit a new (for me) racetrack, the PannoniaRing in Hungary.

The track is just amazing, supposedly one of the safest tracks in the world, as dive zones are up to 150m long. The track is wide and visibility is good. It is however, pretty technically difficult, with almost 20 corners and some being very dependent on the entrance of the previous corner. Really an awesome track all in all.

I had a mixture of wet and sunny weather, with luck of having only a handful of cars join me for the whole day, so I could really play around with pushing the car further and further over the limits. Culminated in doing a few high speed skids, fastest ones being top of third gear around 130km/h.

More here:

Forgot another point, you can see the car sliding in the video, the current setup (for anyone interested, and for my future reference) is:

Rear ARB set to medium
Eibach Pro Lowering kit -2cm all around
Toe and camber arms set, front camber -2°, rear camber -1.4°. Rear toe just slightly closed at only 0.02°
GY F1 Assym 6 tyres, 2.5bar all around 245 front, 275 rear

This gives the car slightly oversteery handling, but very predictable and very gradual - in both slipping and regaining grip. If there is desire for a quicker lap time, the rear ARB should be set on soft. The rear camber I think should be left as is.

Last weekend there was a hillclimb race on the nearby hill. I'm not too keen on risking crashing the car going full gas, so I registered, put a drift wheelset on and just had a bit of fun :)

You wheeled it pretty good! :D

Woooo what a summer it was - still not the end of it though!

So, I haven't been posting a lot last several weeks, as we've been on a roadtrip through Italy (car hitting 40.000km!), where we did around 3000km, also hitting the Varano de Melegari racetrack. I'll make a separate post on that topic, but today I want to just post the KW V3 coilovers update first.



So, ever since I bought the car, I thought it was too soft and too high. I didn't wanna go all out immediately, and I went with the Eibach Pro Lowering Kit, which lowered the car -2cm in the back, and -2,5cm in the front. It also stiffened it approximately by 10%. It worked well, I can't complain, but I was always a bit annoyed that the car was just too low for my taste.

For comparison's sake, stock car:

https://i.imgur.com/33sXkHch.jpg


The car on Eibach Lowering Kit (keeping the stock shocks):

https://i.imgur.com/AyUXvg0h.jpeg

It looks phenomenal, but I think the front is just a TINY BIT too low.

Performance wise, it was much better than stock. Less body roll, better handling. It did mean however, a LOT of being careful around potholes, any curbs larger than 3cm, and so forth. The underbody was ready to scrape on anything.



So then a few months ago I finally decided, after I worked on all other parts of the car that I initially planned for (brakes, diff, exhaust, cooling) that it's time for the last major upgrade, and that was sorting out and getting big boys suspension parts.
After thorough research online, I decided to go for KW V3, as I figured they should definitely give me what I want, and they should last the car's lifetime. Also, I'm not gonna break the bank, so let's do it.

I'll post a full update on how I did the install in case anyone's interested, but for now I want to post current setup pics and impressions:

https://i.imgur.com/yV1UdLLh.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/8m9szaph.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/wCHJY28h.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/KvQGLhRh.jpeg


This is now the height I actually wanted from the start. About 1.8cm lower than stock, but that's it. No need to go full slam, I want performance first, fashion second.
So, looks-wise, it's finally perfect.

Driving-wise.....oh man.
I'm a newbie when it comes to detailed setup of rebound and bump/compression, so last several weeks I've been studying how these settings impact the car's handling, and I think I wrapped my head around it well. Right now the car is on stock setup, from full hard: Rebound 9 clicks, Bump/compression 6 clicks. I thought it only makes sense to start from factory settings as baseline, and go from there.

The ride is now yet again stiffer, about additional 10-20% from the previous Eibach setup, I can't estimate better. It's harsher, but it's not "my kidneys hurt" harsh.

But handling....it's a LOT better. First thing I can feel well is that whenever there is a hole in the road, the car regains grip a lot faster. The rebound works much much better with these shocks and corners that usually started slipping around 120km/h, are now completely planted with same speed. I didn't yet go and test the limits, but generally I have a feeling now as if I'm driving with even better tyres (they're the same, of course).

So, my plan now is to now experiment a little bit with different rebound rates, 2 clicks at a time, and noting down differences I observe. I do feel like it's already perfect, but I want to see what's the actual impact of changing these parameters.

Tested out the coilovers thoroughly in the Dolomites where we went on a roadtrip. I firmed up compression another click, and kept rebound the same, that's the current setting at it seems like that might be the default for me.

Enjoy a video montage from the dolomites:

Finally did the last anticipated upgrade, the brakes.

I was thinking about the brake upgrade for quite some time, also which brakes would be the best option for me, and I came up with the following combo:

DBA 5000 T3 rotors
EBC RP-1 pads (front and back)

I also picked up EBC Bluestuff NDX pads for backup, because I already had those and they felt really good.


https://i.imgur.com/10Cllkrh.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/roD3CXwh.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/fAlLFFMh.jpeg


Will try them in the following days when the weather gets better, and proceed with mating and bedding in procedure.

Amazing rotors, have DBA5000T3 front and 4000 in the back.
You can definitely feel less unsprung weight in comparison with OEM rotors.

I have paired it with Carbotech XP12/XP10 pads. They are amazing for track, but probably overkill for street drive. I would recommend to try XP10/XP8 next.

I didn't have experience with EBC but I know it is pretty good pad brand.

Happy to hear good experience with the rotors. I kept the rear ones stock, as they're in brand new state. I did put the racing pads all around (EBC RP-1) which after some mating feel quite normal.
So far I did just a few dozen miles, pure city driving, as I wanted to have a lot of easy stop and go's, just to work the pads and rotors together. After a few more of those, I'll do the proper bedding in for the pads, including high speed stops (Fade 3 procedure per EBC's instructions).

Might be overkill for street, but my car sees a fair amount of mountain driving and track use, so better be on the safe side.