Budget BMW Track Car. Prep YOUR car for the race track!
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TechTranscript
00:00Hello, fellow car lovers and potential track enthusiasts.
00:07I'm going to turn this car into a budget track car.
00:11The reason I'm making a budget track car is because, well, I'm actually on a budget.
00:17This video is going to have two purposes.
00:18One, I'm going to show you what I have been doing to my BMW and where I think I'm going
00:23to go with it, building my budget track car, and two, I'm going to show you how you can
00:28start getting going tracking your own car.
00:31If you haven't considered tracking your car before, I strongly recommend that you seek
00:34professional instruction because I'm not going to be responsible for you spinning off the
00:38track and blowing up into a giant fiery inferno of molten metal and 91 octane.
00:44So as usual, don't listen to me, do your own research.
00:47But here's what I've been doing.
00:48Let's get started with what I think to be probably the most important thing that I've
00:52done so far and the most important thing that you will do to your potential track car.
01:00So the first thing I did was get a solid set of tires.
01:03You might notice that I'm using my OEM rims, two reasons.
01:06One, they're a little bit beaten up and two, you don't want to use a set of unknown or
01:11reps replica aftermarket rims.
01:14I trust the OEM rims that BMW makes to be durable and to be able to go up to high speeds
01:20properly.
01:21So I got a set of reps to use every day because I'm on a budget, as I said.
01:26I got BFGoodrich GeForce Sport Comp 2s.
01:30Now you don't need to get a dedicated track tire right away.
01:33I got these because they're still very good, but I can use them every day if I need to.
01:38And they are actually quite grippy and they're a dedicated performance tire that have a high
01:41speed rating.
01:43So that's very important.
01:44You want a tire that can go up to and past 150 kilometers an hour, right?
01:49So that is a very important aspect.
01:51The rubber that your car runs on is going to make a massive difference for you on the
01:54track and I find that this is a very big safety issue.
01:58You do not want to use cheap rims and you do not want to use tires that have been repaired
02:03or been patched or have had holes or anything in them.
02:05You want a good set of tires.
02:06It doesn't mean you can't use just the stock tires that come in your car, all season tires.
02:10That's fine.
02:11They just won't have as much grip.
02:12It's up to you, right?
02:13But this is what I did.
02:14And the next thing you're going to want to do is upgrade your brake pads.
02:16I just put StopTech Street Performance Pads on the front of this car.
02:20You can watch that review right here.
02:22And I found that that made a massive difference for how many laps that I could do in a row.
02:26Lap six, all right, there's 150 kilometers an hour, full braking.
02:33As I said, I'm on a budget, so I couldn't afford to do, you know, like a five piston
02:37big brake kit all the way around my car and you don't really need it because this car
02:40doesn't go very fast, to be honest.
02:42So if you're just looking to go out and track your car safely, you really are going to want
02:46to consider upgrading your brake pads.
02:49Now proper brake maintenance is also really important too.
02:52You want to make sure that you have bled the brakes or you've had them bled by someone
02:55who knows what they're doing.
02:57You do not want any air in the system.
02:58If you don't have a high quality brake fluid, then what will happen is the brakes get so
03:02hot you actually develop micro bubbles in the brake fluid.
03:05Micro bubbles are air.
03:07And when you have air in a brake line, the brakes don't work.
03:10Brakes that aren't working are a really good way to make best friends with the Armco on
03:14Turn 5.
03:15So you want to make sure that you have done proper brake maintenance, you've got a good
03:18fresh set of pads in there.
03:20Get someone to check the brakes out professionally because you really want to be able to stop
03:23on the track.
03:24And you don't want to find out the hard way why I'm so passionate about this.
03:28Now I'm very excited to start telling you what I've done to my engine to make it track
03:32ready.
03:33What I have done is I have fixed it.
03:36So basically there was a lot of little things here and there when I bought the car that
03:40just needed to be fixed up.
03:41I did some stuff to the cooling system.
03:43I had some power steering leakage.
03:45If you're going to start tracking your car, don't get too wrapped up in power mods, oh
03:50I need this intake, oh I need to get this chip tuned.
03:54Just make sure the car is working properly because tracking a car puts so much stress
03:58on it.
04:00You're constantly running it near the red line, shifting really hard, everything is
04:04just working overtime for all the laps that you're doing.
04:07So just make sure your car is working if you're actually going to start tracking it.
04:12What I'm going to do soon is I'm considering, I might eat my words on this one, putting
04:17a cold air intake in here because I talked to a guy at the track and he had a very similar
04:21engine to this and he said he got 11 wheel horsepower with a cold air intake.
04:25I don't believe that.
04:27So stay tuned and you're going to hopefully see me put a cold air intake on here and see
04:31if it actually works in the real world, if I can feel a difference.
04:35So my current suspension setup is Hotchkiss sway bars in the front and the back, both
04:39adjustable, and the OEM sport suspension.
04:43Now, I find that the sway bars are a really good way to get into a position where you
04:47can tune the balance on the chassis of your car.
04:50So when you go to the track the first time, you're going to find out that your car either
04:52oversteers or it understeers way too much.
04:55With adjustable sway bars, you can start to dial in how much grip you want in the front
04:58and the back and that's a really good way to control where you want your car's handling
05:02balance to be.
05:03The other way to do that is with proper coilovers.
05:05I don't have enough money for those because to get good track coilovers, you're looking
05:09at $2,000, right?
05:11There are cheaper coilovers out there, but I wouldn't recommend them for track usage.
05:15Sway bars are like $600-something in Canada, which with the exchange rate right now, that's
05:21like the price of a slice of pizza in the States.
05:24So you might as well do those and that's a good way to start adjusting your chassis.
05:28So another thing that I've done for my budget track car build, which isn't necessary but
05:32is a very welcome addition, makes shifting really, really quick and easy, is a UUC lightweight
05:36flywheel.
05:37You can see that review here.
05:39And I think what's coming up next, which I've just ordered, is a quicker diff for the rear.
05:44So not a limited slip diff, but just a different ratio, so it's going to change kind of how
05:48the power goes.
05:49And as I said, I'm going to try that cold air intake and kind of see how that goes.
05:52And then in the future, I think I'm going to do some lowering springs.
05:55I'm going to try and drop it down and I'm going to investigate whether or not you can
06:01put lowering springs on stock shocks.
06:03There's a lot of controversy out there on whether or not this is a good idea.
06:07So I'm very interested to try it out to see if my shocks are going to blow or if it's
06:13going to be fine for long term.
06:15I'm very interested to try that out and I'm very interested to see how much the car improves
06:18lowering the center of gravity a little bit.
06:21So please subscribe and follow along as I turn this car into a budget track car.
06:27Hopefully I'm going to do things right and I won't make mistakes, but if I do, you don't
06:31have to make the same mistakes when you try and track your own car.
06:34So stay tuned as I start doing my next steps and modifications with this car to turn it
06:38into something that is really, really enjoyable on the track, can also be used every day,
06:43and doesn't break the bank.
06:45See you later.