Well, the off-season is officially over. After over five months on the sidelines, I dusted off the cobwebs (literally and figuratively) at Carolina Motorsports Park a couple weeks ago. Here are a few thoughts and lessons on my test day. The Rust Is Real This was the most extended break...
Apex was founded in the late 2000s but gained traction in the mid-2010s. Their first model, the ARC-8, bore an eerie resemblance to the BBS RC. Catering to the BMW street and track enthusiast crowd, the ARC-8 was pitched on competitive prices, reasonable quality control, and various widths, offsets, and...
The off-season (also known as sim racing season) is winding down, and we've secured the bag with a packed Gridlife Gold Pass. We hope you'll come out and say hello if you're near these events! Gridlife festival events are sensory overload for car nerds....
No new article this week, but I've got something even better—RE's brand-new Downloads section is live! Instead of cranking out another post, I've been heads-down putting together a collection of helpful racing resources just for you. It took a lot of work, but...
Race car auctions on Bring a Trailer are a great place to see a lot of detailed views on special cars, like this M2 CS Racing (CSR) that sold six months ago. The gallery includes three hundred and fifteen photos of the car! While I know very little about standard...
My racing off-season is winding down, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven't reached any of my goals yet, but I am still working towards them. This will have been a five- or six-month break, and I needed it after last year's off-season. Will I...
My very long-time friend, Mike Burroughs of StanceWorks fame, recently posted a video declaring that he hates the nearly-perfect S54 E36 he has owned for 17+ years. This is an E36 that, by all measures, is one of the nicest out there – and it has been for the better part of two decades.
Racing and large egos go hand in hand. Over the years, I've seen drivers make questionable, sometimes flat-out dangerous moves to gain a position in a low-stakes club race [prototype and GT car tangling 2-wide at 130mph through Bishops Bend; one of them got air-lifted]. I've...
We are in an era where almost all professional race cars are official "factory" cars produced by the marque, as opposed to customer-built creations that started life as showroom production cars. It wasn't that long ago that teams had to build, develop, and campaign their own...
I love nerding out about roll cage design. Door bars in particular. There is something almost voyeuristic about seeing part of a roll cage through an open door. While a roll cage alludes to protection in a rollover, in wheel to wheel competition you are more likely to get hit...
I've been modifying cars for over 20 years now (it will always pain me to say that). Thus, I've probably known about string alignments for at least 18 years. It was not until recently that I started doing them myself.
Say the letters "PTG," and any E36 fan will immediately have a mental image. Prototype Technology Group campaigned their BMW-contracted E36 M3 program to great success in the mid-late 1990s. The GT3 class cars featured distinct bodywork, impressive development, and legendary drivers (Bill Auberlen and Boris Said, amongst...
What is an OEM-style shifter? On most manual transmission BMWs, the shifter linkage consists of a sub-assembly that includes it's own "carrier", selector rod, and shift lever. In addition, there are some bushings and shims involved to keep things tight. The pivot "cup" and...
As detailed in my recent post about Tire Parity in NASA Racing, there are new rules for NASA's power to weight racing classes (ST and TT) intended to create better parity between the bevy of tire choices. Thankfully these new rules are not based on manufacturer's...
Over the years, my track experience has mostly been relegated to the E30 chassis; up until recently, the only other platforms I had driven hard were an E36 on track and a GR WRX at autocross. While the E36 featured some very notable improvements in suspension design and chassis dynamics...
