We are excited to announce Turner Motorsports as MW3 Motorsports’ premier sponsor for the 2011 season. Long before this, we had begun leveraging the R&D they’ve done on their own race cars to improve our own. Here’s an example of the work they did to prep the new E92 M3 for the 2011 Rolex Sports Car Series season (GT class). The result is a work of art to us. It’s inspiring, to say the least. Something to aspire to, yes?

• Jeff and his brother-in-law Dennis, welded in the M3 frame reinforcement kit on the underside of the E36.
• This, among other parts, came from one of our newest sponsors: Turner Motorsports.
• Then came the cage from Micah, at Titan Specialty Metals. It has proven to be more than we all expected, the quality and structural support produced in 10 days is beyond what we all expected – thanks, Micah!
• Now the E36 is off to paint, which brings on the newest member of sponsors to the MW3 Motorsports stable.  Michael’s Auto Body started with the car last week.  We’re excited to have them join the MW3 team and after having the car for less than 30 minutes they superseded our our expectations by having the entire rear end of the car stripped to metal. That’s gettin’ it done!

Back in January I wondered, what performance mod can I do that won’t break the bank? Turns out, the answer was simple: stainless steel brake lines. I want to make sure my E90 M3 can stop when & where I say it should. I’m a big believer that stopping is at least as important as going. There was a small snafu by the local installer (who shall remain nameless) where we learned it’s not as devastating as you might think to put brake fluid where the power steering fluid goes. (Don’t worry we had it flushed immediately. The Beast is fine.) In the end the rubber OEM lines were replaced and I’m confident this was a worthwhile upgrade.

A couple of weeks later new tires arrived. Driving on the Blizzaks was certainly cushy. Not what you would call exciting though. It was like Christmas Day all over again when I got home from work and saw the new Bridgestone RE-11′s sitting on the doorstep. I had done a fair amount of research and decided on the RE-11′s due to several reviews commenting on the stiffer sidewall (compared to the PS2′s I wore out in 2009). I stepped up the size a bit too: 255′s for the front and 285′s on the rear. It’s possible I started purring when I rolled them into the garage… True to form, mounting them was an adventure because of those sidewalls: they’re so stiff they broke the tire mounting machine. Once on the wheels though… I’ll just say there was some bargaining (begging?) going on every time the forecast was for sun. Blizzaks… RE-11s…

While temporarily satisfying, these little projects only whetted my appetite for one – just one! – day at the track. We tried to set up private instruction. It was as if Mother Nature had some sort of personal agenda. Each time: snow! Even last week was blizzarded out of contention. Like I said. Insufferable. Excruciating. Torturous.

No matter. I am an optimist. The Beast has a new set of shoes and the weather has to cooperate eventually!

- christina

I did some research on paint and found a caliper paint made by VHT paints. The VHT caliper paint is designed for the custom detailing of brake components. According to VHT, it is heat resistant to 900°F (482°C), which should be good enough for track use. If this paint doesn’t withstand to the heat of track duty, they make another coating good to 2,000°F.

Before attempting this 4 hour adventure, I decided to see how much info I could get out of the manufacturer. According to an anonymous source at Brembo, the best way to re-coat their calipers is to leave the calipers on the car, scuff the clear coat with a 320 or higher grit paper, and paint right over the existing paint. The anonymous source said that the brembo factory coating makes a great primer for re-painting. They re-inforced not taking apart the caliper and re-painting as it can damage some of the internal components. As with any paint job the prep work is the most important. The bulk of the time is spent taping and masking.

After the prep is done, all you need is three coats of paint and two or so of clear. In between the third coat of paint and the clear, our decal master Jeff stuck on hi-temp vinyl brembo decals. So blah blah, instead of going through this step-by-step, check out the photos below.