na14yu / SoCal / 05 NHBP Ep3

[na14yu]

Hi EPers!

I originally joined the site back in 04 and bought my new 05 EP3 brand new in August of 2005. At the time, the EP3 was purchased to be my new daily driver as I also owned an NSX back then.

Now fast forward to 2008 and I've recently sold the NSX and I picked up a BMW 335i. The EP3 has been turned into a very streetable track car.

Here's the mod list for the EP3 as well as some pictures.

EP3 Mod List:

DC5-R 22mm Rear Sway Bar
Zeal Function-X Dampers (12kg front / 10kg rear)
Enkei Racing Series RPF1 17x7.5 + Kumho Ecsta SPT 205/50-17 (street)
Enkei Racing Series NT03-M 17x7.5 + Falken RT-615 215/45-17 (track)
Rays Extended Lug Nuts
Endless SSS Brake Pads front & rear
Goodridge SSS Brake Lines

Carbonetic 1.5-way Carbon LSD
Mugen Oil Filler Cap
Spoon Sports Air Cleaner
Toda Anti-G Force Oil Pan
K20A2 Oil Pump

F1 Spec HID Lighting
Recaro EP3 CTR Seats (red)
Traqmate Complete GPS Data Acquisition system

Attacking the apex


Grip


Rain Man


Hunting a Ford GT


Running away from Ford GT


Red


GPS data acquisition antenna mount


Zeal Function-X


Quick oil changes between track days


The old track car


At speed in the Tochigi Dream Machine


Senna wannabe


Through the esses


Twin Turbo Daily Driver


FMIC FTW

[Tnhatch03]

love the rides man!

[kokopuffs405]

where can i get one of those oil things

[MugsyTheGr8]

do you still have the nsx?

[Mickey]

Wow!!!

[na14yu]

where can i get one of those oil things

Hi there. I bought my oil extractor online from Griots Garage but I have seen them at some other online shops. Just go to GriotsGarage.com and look under Car Maintenance and then Oil Changes.

The great thing about this is that there's no mess and you don't have to jack the car up and get underneath the car.

But one downside is the tube that comes with the oil extractor is too short and you can't keep the oil canister on the ground due to the lack of tubing. You can see I have a tool chest that's propping up the canister and even then the canister is still leaning on the front bumper a little bit. I've been meaning to run to Home Depot or Lowes and buy some plastic tubing and a fitting to extend the length of it, maybe I'll get around to that some day.

The other negative is that it's pretty slow. It can take up to an hour to extract all 4.5 quarts or so.

The instruction manual clearly states that you pump it a couple of times to create vacuum and then you don't have to pump it again. Maybe it was because I had to prop it up and elevate the extractor, but I found that if you don't pump it every 10 minutes or so to keep the thing fully pressurized, then the extraction will slowly tail off. So you can increase the speed of it extracting the oil by giving the thing a couple of pumps every now and then.

I just prime it a few times and go do something else and come back to check on it every now and then.

[Dorachagi]

I really, REALLY like your taste in cars and mods. How does the car feel with your suspension setup, and have you limited your engine mods because your racing in a certain class or just personal taste?
How good does the 335i's engine really feel? I kinda think when I get done paying for the civic and want to upgrade I may look at used 135i's (it'll be a few years, so there'll be some used one then).

[brownryce]

sweet suspension setup. i was considering the zeal coilovers to replace my d2 coilovers. i am surprised the d2 have lasted this long (4 months.)

[Windchaser]

Hey, I remember you. You actually picked up the Function Xs. How does it feel running stiffer springs up front? The corkscrew is the scariest turn on that circuit, I usually slow down to nearly a stop (I've seen so many crashes in that area).

[rolldic]

damn, you got some hot rides!

[Ep3 No.2]

nice seats =OP, atleast i know there getting put to good use.

but with your zeals the way they are pictured did you play with the preload or thats the way they are ?

[na14yu]

I really, REALLY like your taste in cars and mods. How does the car feel with your suspension setup, and have you limited your engine mods because your racing in a certain class or just personal taste?
How good does the 335i's engine really feel? I kinda think when I get done paying for the civic and want to upgrade I may look at used 135i's (it'll be a few years, so there'll be some used one then).

Thanks for the compliments.

I've limited engine mods on the EP just for personal taste. I'm still learning at the track, and out at the circuit it's all about handling and power is only a small percentage of the car's track potential. I figure that if I ever felt that I was getting everything I could out of the EP at the track, then I could swap and/or add force induction to get more power, but I don't think I'll get there for quite a while.

It's easy to add power and pass guys on the straights, but I noticed with the NSX that I wasn't learning as much as I could with a more powerful and more capable track car, so that's why I started to build up the EP for track duty.

Plus there is something sick about passing Corvettes and Ford GT's with a 160 hp Civic running 87 octane gas at the track, so I do get some pleasure out of that

The engine in the 335 is awesome. The 300 pounds of torque comes in at 1400 rpm so there's no lag at all, just a mad rush of torque right when you hit the accelerator. I use to own some V6 twin turbo cars from the 90's that also put out 300 hp and 300+ torque stock, but they had much more lag than the BMW. Gotta love technology.

[EX-FULLRACE EP3]

Beautiful rides.

[na14yu]

Hey, I remember you. You actually picked up the Function Xs. How does it feel running stiffer springs up front? The corkscrew is the scariest turn on that circuit, I usually slow down to nearly a stop (I've seen so many crashes in that area).

Yeah I went with the Function X. Figured I'd try them out and see since there's not a whole lot of info about them on here.

The Function X is okay. I'm currently running stock ride height set to full soft for the street. It's fairly stiff on the poor LA freeways, but it's livable and can be used as a daily driver if you're willing to tolerate a fairly stiff ride. I did develop a couple of creaks which I'm attributing to the stiffer suspension (including the dreaded steering rack issue), but I could be wrong. Everything seems to be holding up well though.

At the track, it's not stiff enough. The Function X are 30 way adjustables and at my last Laguna Seca event I had it set to nearly full stiff with the front at 26 and full stiff in the rear at 30. And even then I was getting a slight bit of body roll. Lateral acceleration was off the charts though because my GPS data logger was showing 1.5g's in some corners.

I still drive this car to and from the track, so I'd really prefer not to increase the valving of the dampers and go with higher spring rates, otherwise it'll probably be too unbearable driving on the street.

I'm going to try another alignment the next time out to see if I can get a little more grip.

Yes the corkscrew is fun, but as you mentioned it's pretty slow so I prefer turns 2, 5, 6 and 9 more than the corkscrew. At least I can make it through the corkscrew in one piece with the EP, which I never seem to do with any of the Gran Turismo or Forza racing games at Laguna Seca! off roading at the corkscrew FTL

[na14yu]

nice seats =OP, atleast i know there getting put to good use.

but with your zeals the way they are pictured did you play with the preload or thats the way they are ?

Thanks for the seats, yes they are definitely being put to good use

I didn't mess with the pre-load, that's the way they came.