Scottish Borders
Its only surface rust so I imagine it will scrub off..I'll take it out today..
Atacama Yellow 35is build thread
- Thread starter B21
- Start date
The season is open..a lot of my trips are multi day or even multi week, often far from support and logistics. The weather can turn and even if you’re great shape sometimes your pals aren’y.
Here’s my touring ‘payload’..in particular order..minor and major detail..
5 pairs of glasses: bifocals clear and tinted, clear no prescription, yellow tinted, plus reading glasses
2 tins boiled sweets
Matching yellow scarf, leather driving gloves
Spare hat and golf umbrella
1kg dry powder fire extinguisher
Android phone with BimmerGeeks Protool , charger pack, spare cables and wifi dongle
3 High performance PMR radios
2 Emergency hi viz vests
1 Hi viz fully insulated water proof jacket
Full size 326M with 235/40 19 Conti SC7..can be used at either end
Tyre compressor with gunk option
Rat tail repair kit
Extendable breaker bar
Car jack
Variety of spanners, screwdrivers, zip ties
Car cover for the cabin in case of roof failure
500mm coolant
500mm engine oil
5 litre petrol
First aid kit
Here’s my touring ‘payload’..in particular order..minor and major detail..
5 pairs of glasses: bifocals clear and tinted, clear no prescription, yellow tinted, plus reading glasses
2 tins boiled sweets
Matching yellow scarf, leather driving gloves
Spare hat and golf umbrella
1kg dry powder fire extinguisher
Android phone with BimmerGeeks Protool , charger pack, spare cables and wifi dongle
3 High performance PMR radios
2 Emergency hi viz vests
1 Hi viz fully insulated water proof jacket
Full size 326M with 235/40 19 Conti SC7..can be used at either end
Tyre compressor with gunk option
Rat tail repair kit
Extendable breaker bar
Car jack
Variety of spanners, screwdrivers, zip ties
Car cover for the cabin in case of roof failure
500mm coolant
500mm engine oil
5 litre petrol
First aid kit
Bought a new (use) idrive controller know of ebay for just £23 !
My 'knob' is wearing out..the paint coating is showing the white plastic underneath due to excessive use..
I toggle the MMI Carplay and iDrive satnav back and forth all the time plus lots of music selections and carplay use..
Finally earlier i drive knobs had 'CD' in the top left..decided that the later 'Media' label more appropriate..
Its the little things in life..hope it works OK..says its made March 2017!
My 'knob' is wearing out..the paint coating is showing the white plastic underneath due to excessive use..
I toggle the MMI Carplay and iDrive satnav back and forth all the time plus lots of music selections and carplay use..
Finally earlier i drive knobs had 'CD' in the top left..decided that the later 'Media' label more appropriate..
Its the little things in life..hope it works OK..says its made March 2017!
At the summit of the picturesque fens
Summer is here so time to change from the winter 5W-30 Mobil 1 ESP which has done about 3k miles over the winter/spring for the Fuchs Pro Race 5W-40 which is better for those TTE500 turbos on a hot summers day. But not so good for long life use so 5k-6k before the winter oil goes in.
Fresh Mahle filter comes with o rings and a new drain crush washer.
All went well apart from muppet here putting the fresh filter housing o ring on the top groove as opposed to the middle groove..result light weep from said housing with engine running!..Good job I checked.
Previously there was some oil in the inside valley of the cam cover...most armchair pundits proffered it was a gasket / cam box leak. I doubted it simply because it look clean and I theorised that it was misdirected oil from an earlier fill / top up.
Anyway paranoid as I am., took of the cosmetic cover to revisit..maybe just maybe the vaguest of oil / dust near the turbos but no obvious leaks.
Ran the engine for quite a while with cosmetic cover off and no sign of leakage.
Ready for a couple of runs this month then Iberia for June!
Fresh Mahle filter comes with o rings and a new drain crush washer.
All went well apart from muppet here putting the fresh filter housing o ring on the top groove as opposed to the middle groove..result light weep from said housing with engine running!..Good job I checked.
Previously there was some oil in the inside valley of the cam cover...most armchair pundits proffered it was a gasket / cam box leak. I doubted it simply because it look clean and I theorised that it was misdirected oil from an earlier fill / top up.
Anyway paranoid as I am., took of the cosmetic cover to revisit..maybe just maybe the vaguest of oil / dust near the turbos but no obvious leaks.
Ran the engine for quite a while with cosmetic cover off and no sign of leakage.
Ready for a couple of runs this month then Iberia for June!
So..adjustable camber front and rear on E89s.
By default its very limited, especially on the front.
Geometry wise the rear has a disproportionate camber compared to 'classical' settings to ensure a very tame understeer effect when a muppet boots it on a slippy surface.
In my case with over a dozen significant chassis modifications (M3 control arms, Ohlins dampers, uprated springs, H&R ARBs, Hardrace RTABs and rear bushes, Powerflex rear camber arms, wider wheels, wider tyres, Meyle HD tie rods, adjustable drop links, Quaife LSD etc) the stock GEO settings are not suitable.
What it needs now is much more front camber to stop it understeering and about a degree more rear camber than front....probably around 1.5-2.0 degrees on the front.
I did use some traditional adjustable camber / castor top hats..but..they are fabricated entirely in metal and result in significant medium frequency vibration transmitted into the cabin..as seen on the dashcam video where you can see the camera resonating with the NVH injected by them.
I went back to a set of Meyle HD top hats..but there's barely any adjustment..about 0.5 camber max on the front.
However I did find these babies.. https://k-mac-camber-kits.com/produ...-m-front-cambercaster-strut-tops-192416-1j-3/
These are fully adjustable..and..use an elastomer mount to help isolate NVH as per originals..I'll probably fit them over the winter as the season
is in full flow!
By default its very limited, especially on the front.
Geometry wise the rear has a disproportionate camber compared to 'classical' settings to ensure a very tame understeer effect when a muppet boots it on a slippy surface.
In my case with over a dozen significant chassis modifications (M3 control arms, Ohlins dampers, uprated springs, H&R ARBs, Hardrace RTABs and rear bushes, Powerflex rear camber arms, wider wheels, wider tyres, Meyle HD tie rods, adjustable drop links, Quaife LSD etc) the stock GEO settings are not suitable.
What it needs now is much more front camber to stop it understeering and about a degree more rear camber than front....probably around 1.5-2.0 degrees on the front.
I did use some traditional adjustable camber / castor top hats..but..they are fabricated entirely in metal and result in significant medium frequency vibration transmitted into the cabin..as seen on the dashcam video where you can see the camera resonating with the NVH injected by them.
I went back to a set of Meyle HD top hats..but there's barely any adjustment..about 0.5 camber max on the front.
However I did find these babies.. https://k-mac-camber-kits.com/produ...-m-front-cambercaster-strut-tops-192416-1j-3/
These are fully adjustable..and..use an elastomer mount to help isolate NVH as per originals..I'll probably fit them over the winter as the season
is in full flow!
Ohio
7 litres..best to measure!
After the disaster that befell me..ie my 326M spare wheel does not fit over my Shelby Mustang 350R Brembo 6 pot front caliper..(so even though its not very strong the barrel (Inside) is very thick and despite being 19" doesn't allow bigger brakes to fit that other 19" wheels cope with!
Spare wheel E89 Part Deux Genuine 437M front 19x 9J..Cheapo Chinese tyre 235/35 19.. only used once..rim in very good condition!
Spare wheel E89 Part Deux Genuine 437M front 19x 9J..Cheapo Chinese tyre 235/35 19.. only used once..rim in very good condition!
Here’s a little ditty on how chassis mods affect the E89..enjoy!
E89 chassis package — what each mod does alone, what they do together, and the spring-rate trap
I've put a fair bit into this car's chassis and wanted to write up not just the parts list but how the bits actually interact — because some of them do very little alone and only earn their place in company, and at least one does something the rest of the setup then deliberately cancels out.
The whole thing splits into four jobs, and it works because all four are covered rather than one being chased into the ground:
GRIP / UNSPRUNG MASS — Conti SC7 on APEX ARC-8, 235/40-19 and 275/30-19, 10mm/5mm spacers front/rear. This is the foundation. The tyre is the single biggest grip lever and the SC7 is top-tier, so on a stock car this alone lifts the limit a lot.
The light ARC-8 drops unsprung mass — ride, response, braking, accel all benefit.
The spacers widen track; a bit more front track relative to rear adds turn-in bite, and the scrub-radius change adds steering weight at the cost of a little kickback. Everything else is essentially building a chassis worthy of this rubber.
BODY CONTROL — Öhlins R&T, springs up from 60/70 to 80/96 N/mm, +2-3 clicks, plus H&R bars with the rear on its hardest setting. More on the springs below.
The bars add roll stiffness without the single-wheel ride penalty springs carry, and rear-on-hardest is the deliberate move toward rotation.
PRECISION / FEEDBACK — this is the big one, and it's what makes the other three worth paying for.
Lemförder M3 (E90) front wishbones with a monoball on the tension-strut link; Epytec RTAB plates plus Hardrace RTAB and rear-knuckle bushes; Powerflex rear camber arms; Meyle HD top mounts and tie rods; Bemsee adjustable drop links.
The M3 arms add static camber and stiffer joints; the monoball kills fore-aft deflection and caster squirm under braking, so turn-in goes immediate and linear.
The RTAB work stops the rear toeing-out and stepping under braking/power —highest value-per-pound fix on the platform.
The camber arms are mainly the
enabler for -2° rear.
The point of all of it: stiff springs on soft bushes waste
the gain. Remove the compliance and the wheels finally do what the alignment tells them.
DRIVE — Quaife ATB. Torque-biasing, kills inside-wheel spin, lets you actually deploy the torque, adds stability under power, and doesn't lock on overrun so it stays road-friendly. With this car's output, near-essential.
THE SPRING-RATE TRAP — this is the bit worth reading. The quoted 80/96 are SPRING rates.
What matters is WHEEL rate, and wheel rate = spring rate × MR².
Front strut MR is ~0.96 (MR² 0.92); rear is ~0.723 (MR² 0.52) because the rear linkage mirrors the E85/86 trailing-arm geometry.
Run the numbers:
- Front: 60 → 55 N/mm at the wheel; 80 → 74
- Rear: 70 → 37 at the wheel; 96 → 50
So two things. First, "96 rear" is NOT a rear-stiff bias — at the wheel the front is stiffer than the rear by 1.47:1. Anyone reading 80/96 and expecting a tail-happy spring balance has been fooled by the linkage.
Second, the upgrade is near-proportional (+33% front, +37% rear), so it barely shifts steady-state balance — it just flattens the car and quickens it.
Rotation is NOT coming from the springs. It's coming from the rear bar on full plus the -2° rear camber. That's the ideal place for the balance lever to live, because the bar is a 30-second roadside
change with no spring fighting it.
Too eager on a trailing throttle? Soften the rear bar one notch before touching anything else.
Damping follows from the same maths: the front is the highest-wheel-rate corner AND runs the high MR, so the front dampers do the most work.
If the ride goes harsh, front compression is the first adjuster to touch, not the rear.
SETUP — I raised it back to roughly stock non-M-Sport height (keeps roll centres and bump-steer in the design window) with the RHS 5-10mm lower to corner-balance out my driver weight on an RHD car.
That asymmetric drop is exactly why the adjustable drop links are essential rather than optional — drop one side on fixed links and you preload the bars asymmetrically, reintroducing the cross-weight you
were trying to remove.
It also means the car HAS to go on scales at its real weight (mine's 1,640kg measured) with ballast on the seat. Set by eye it's as likely to hurt as help.
THE LIMIT — front end. Highest wheel rate, lowest static camber (-1°), least camber gain at the taller height.
That's a deliberate road-first compromise — gentle front understeer is the safe way to run out of grip on the road.
If you track it and find turn-in understeer, front camber (-1.5 to -2°) is the lever, not the bars — the bars are already doing the balance job.
Net: flat, sharp, communicative, traction-biased. Stability and drive over knife-edge rotation, at a firm ride and clearly higher NVH from all thespherical/poly/monoball hardware.
Happy to answer questions on any individual part.
E89 chassis package — what each mod does alone, what they do together, and the spring-rate trap
I've put a fair bit into this car's chassis and wanted to write up not just the parts list but how the bits actually interact — because some of them do very little alone and only earn their place in company, and at least one does something the rest of the setup then deliberately cancels out.
The whole thing splits into four jobs, and it works because all four are covered rather than one being chased into the ground:
GRIP / UNSPRUNG MASS — Conti SC7 on APEX ARC-8, 235/40-19 and 275/30-19, 10mm/5mm spacers front/rear. This is the foundation. The tyre is the single biggest grip lever and the SC7 is top-tier, so on a stock car this alone lifts the limit a lot.
The light ARC-8 drops unsprung mass — ride, response, braking, accel all benefit.
The spacers widen track; a bit more front track relative to rear adds turn-in bite, and the scrub-radius change adds steering weight at the cost of a little kickback. Everything else is essentially building a chassis worthy of this rubber.
BODY CONTROL — Öhlins R&T, springs up from 60/70 to 80/96 N/mm, +2-3 clicks, plus H&R bars with the rear on its hardest setting. More on the springs below.
The bars add roll stiffness without the single-wheel ride penalty springs carry, and rear-on-hardest is the deliberate move toward rotation.
PRECISION / FEEDBACK — this is the big one, and it's what makes the other three worth paying for.
Lemförder M3 (E90) front wishbones with a monoball on the tension-strut link; Epytec RTAB plates plus Hardrace RTAB and rear-knuckle bushes; Powerflex rear camber arms; Meyle HD top mounts and tie rods; Bemsee adjustable drop links.
The M3 arms add static camber and stiffer joints; the monoball kills fore-aft deflection and caster squirm under braking, so turn-in goes immediate and linear.
The RTAB work stops the rear toeing-out and stepping under braking/power —highest value-per-pound fix on the platform.
The camber arms are mainly the
enabler for -2° rear.
The point of all of it: stiff springs on soft bushes waste
the gain. Remove the compliance and the wheels finally do what the alignment tells them.
DRIVE — Quaife ATB. Torque-biasing, kills inside-wheel spin, lets you actually deploy the torque, adds stability under power, and doesn't lock on overrun so it stays road-friendly. With this car's output, near-essential.
THE SPRING-RATE TRAP — this is the bit worth reading. The quoted 80/96 are SPRING rates.
What matters is WHEEL rate, and wheel rate = spring rate × MR².
Front strut MR is ~0.96 (MR² 0.92); rear is ~0.723 (MR² 0.52) because the rear linkage mirrors the E85/86 trailing-arm geometry.
Run the numbers:
- Front: 60 → 55 N/mm at the wheel; 80 → 74
- Rear: 70 → 37 at the wheel; 96 → 50
So two things. First, "96 rear" is NOT a rear-stiff bias — at the wheel the front is stiffer than the rear by 1.47:1. Anyone reading 80/96 and expecting a tail-happy spring balance has been fooled by the linkage.
Second, the upgrade is near-proportional (+33% front, +37% rear), so it barely shifts steady-state balance — it just flattens the car and quickens it.
Rotation is NOT coming from the springs. It's coming from the rear bar on full plus the -2° rear camber. That's the ideal place for the balance lever to live, because the bar is a 30-second roadside
change with no spring fighting it.
Too eager on a trailing throttle? Soften the rear bar one notch before touching anything else.
Damping follows from the same maths: the front is the highest-wheel-rate corner AND runs the high MR, so the front dampers do the most work.
If the ride goes harsh, front compression is the first adjuster to touch, not the rear.
SETUP — I raised it back to roughly stock non-M-Sport height (keeps roll centres and bump-steer in the design window) with the RHS 5-10mm lower to corner-balance out my driver weight on an RHD car.
That asymmetric drop is exactly why the adjustable drop links are essential rather than optional — drop one side on fixed links and you preload the bars asymmetrically, reintroducing the cross-weight you
were trying to remove.
It also means the car HAS to go on scales at its real weight (mine's 1,640kg measured) with ballast on the seat. Set by eye it's as likely to hurt as help.
THE LIMIT — front end. Highest wheel rate, lowest static camber (-1°), least camber gain at the taller height.
That's a deliberate road-first compromise — gentle front understeer is the safe way to run out of grip on the road.
If you track it and find turn-in understeer, front camber (-1.5 to -2°) is the lever, not the bars — the bars are already doing the balance job.
Net: flat, sharp, communicative, traction-biased. Stability and drive over knife-edge rotation, at a firm ride and clearly higher NVH from all thespherical/poly/monoball hardware.
Happy to answer questions on any individual part.