November 2009 – Had the seats redone and they look great. A-1 Upholstery was able locate 8 yards of Modena leather for an exact match. Olivia’s color combination is one of the reasons we bought her. Boston Green with Modena leather is a rare combo up looks great. Plus most sedans were automatics so to find a rare color option and the 5 speed manual transmission was a no brainer for us. Several of us are going to Infineon Dec 7th. First to run this track and have ContourHD 1080p to record events so will be posting videos by the end of the year for your enjoyment.

October 2009 – Getting ready for the BMWCCA Top Driver Shootout. Only 60 participants will be accepted. Classes no longer exist, the ranking will be based on the number of points your car has been assigned for model and the level of modifications made. Olivia is very modified even thought her driveline remains untouched. With a full TC Kline Double Adjustable suspension with heavier springs, thicker sway bars, wider tires, tuned computer she sits right there with the faster cars. We will try our best at Marina. The largest piece of concrete used to autocross in the bay area right now.

September 2009 – The SCCA Championship Season is over! Diane took STU Ladies while I took 2nd place. Difficult running with the all wheel drive STi with the same sized tire. Next year will have to plan on lightening up the car, myself and better lines to keep the RPMs up.

August 2009 – The 29th and 30th were spent up at Thunderhill. Adrian and I went up with Olivia and his STi. It was 106 degrees on Saturday so top speeds were down about 10mph. Ran higher-octane fuel Sunday and it was cooler as well so back to 125mph don the straight. Car feels really good at speed. Light push with very predictable oversteer when pushing her. For a heavy sedan Olivia is VERY fast and dominated some of the other cars trying to keep up or stay in front. This will be my last year in Solo, the participants are just too slow and waiting to pass slows my lap times down. Her fastest lap time was Sunday in the afternoon with a 2:18 on the street tires. Adrian car was acting up with the tune in it. Exhaust Gas Temps were way too hot and he sat out for a couple sessions. I took him out once and apparently wasn’t fast enough for him. I brake for turns…

July 2009 – Running the larger 255/40-17 Bridgestone RE-01Rs has proven to be difficult. The tires will get slick during the event if we don’t cool them between runs. Olivia is doing really well and will reupholster the front seats in the same leather some time on November when we start wrapping up the seasons. Diane is getting faster has we fine-tune and rebalance the car. Installing a lighter exhaust system doesn’t seem to have made Olivia faster but she sounds better than stock… July 2009 – Running the larger 255/40-17 Bridgestone RE-01Rs has proven to be difficult. The tires will get slick during the event if we don’t cool them between runs. Olivia is doing really well and will be reupholstering the front seats in the same leather some time on November when we start wrapping up the seasons. Diane is getting faster has we fine-tune and rebalance the car. Installing a lighter exhaust system doesn’t seem to have made Olivia faster but she sounds better than stock…

June 2009 – SCCA and BMWCCA autocross events are almost every weekend through the summer. We have learned quite a bit about tossing a 3400lb car around and that updated rotors are a must. The hard braking warps cheap rotors so you have to replace with high quality Brembo, Zimmerman or equivalent. Cooling system is doing really well with the fan delete option. More track days ahead so will keep an eye on oil temperatures. Anything over 210 degrees is too hot.

May 2009 – Several SCCA and BMWCCA events to play in. Olivia has proven to be a great track car. The STi continues to push, she will need some camber plates. Tire pressures help but not enough to place in the strong events. On the 1st we took the cars back to Thunderhill, counterclockwise with cyclone. With a Diane, Olivia turned several 2m20sec times through the dry periods. Once the rain started back to 3 minutes. Adrian drove the Hill for the first time and is now cleared for Solo. We all drove in the SCCA at Candlestick and couldn’t catch the leader in another prepared STi. Lots of gravel made traction difficult but entertaining. The BMWCCA event was on warm concrete and grip was high. 3rd place for the effort but lost to a co-driver brought out to evaluate the current setup. Pete can drive!

Apr 4, 2009 – BMWCCA Round One and the BMW# did really well with the front sway bar stiffened up to medium. Picked the inside tire up on corner exit but all in all very strong. The Sti continues to push and will need some suspension mods soon if it is to be competitive.

Mar 29, 2009 - SCCA Round #5 we continue to fine tune the sedan. Adjusted tire pressures and she still pushes. The bars were installed and set to full soft on the front and medium on the rear. Will realign and tweak it a little bit more. BMWCCA event coming up and want the class win.

Mar 22, 2009 - SCCA Round #4 Hal and Adrian go out and have fun in STU. It’s the STi’s first time out and just learning the car. Hal just had the bars installed the day before so for both of us it was a learning experience. Apparently it was a good one because we took 2nd and 3rd place that day.

Feb 10, 2009 - Adrian picks up a new toy! He pickup up a 2004 Subaru WRX STi to build for SCCA autocross. This car will be built for STU and run head to head with Hal’s sedan. We will continue to post updated on what we learn with this chassis and what we can do to improve and Subaru’s great design.

Jan 9, 2009 – Track day at Thunderhill! Hal took Olivia up to see how the car felt. Even the instructor said the car was dialed in. After two laps you could feel the grip and she never let up. Tire pressures remained constant and we turned some 2.24 minute laps alone and several 2.30 minute laps with another BMW E30. Conclusion: Olivia is ready to race.

Nov 16, 2008 - Hal took Olivia to her first big event to sort out the suspension and tune it up. The adjustable shocks have only rebound but what a difference. Right turns felt better than left even after 12 runs and several tweaks. We corner balanced her a found the original shop only got it pretty close. We wanted “exact” so we now have Long Acre corner balancing scales! We are exact now and the autocross was very different. Car felt lighter and all from just balancing the car.

Oct 19, 2008 – Hal secured a B Class win in Golden Gate Chapter of the BWMCCA following a tough year of competition. With 11 cars in his class he was able focus and bring home the bacon for MserviceGarage.com! “We have been improving the car’s suspension, tuning and brakes all year trying to gain that advantage. Through custom alignments, better tires and brake setups we just ran better.”

Aug 15, 2008 – Hal and Diane picked up the shop car! Her name is Olivia and she is a 97 M3 sedan, 5 speed with 112K on her. She was rescued from AZ where she was not loved like we will love her and will be prepared for STU in SCCA events and AAA Class for the BWMCCA. The sessions start in November so we have a lot to do before her first showing. This car was the fastest sedan ever made up until the late 1990’s and knew we would race her in SCCA autocross STU at least the first year.” With all the Subaru STIs and Mitsubishi EVOs in that particular class we knew stock parts wouldn’t be enough. We had to modify her in order to be a contender.
Suspension was the first order of business to include new racing rubber and rims. M3s have a staggered setup which means smaller front wheels than the rear to promote under steer. Not the best setup for racing where I need the car to turn in. Replaced the factory rubber and DSIIs with Kosei Racing K1 17 X 8.5 all the way around and mounted Dunlop Star Spec Z1s. We also replace the original struts and shocks with a TCKline Single Adjustable coilover setup to include Vorshlag camber plates to maximum camber/castor adjustability. We replaced other worn out suspension pieces like the control arms, bushings and added some reinforcements to stiffen up the chassis. We run a very streetable -3/-2.2 front and rear camber with moderate toe settings.

Nov 17, 2007 – Hal took C Class in his rookie year at the GGC BMWCCA! Hal has always enjoyed driving but never tried it competitively. “I was able to set the car for driving style and have a good time out there.” “The courses were well laid out and with the six or seven runs you get I was able to pick the courses apart drive fast.” Adrian and I bought MServiceGarage.com to further develop a racing program centered on autocross. Next year we are going to campaign a sedan of some kind to be different and use it as a test platform to showcase our strong desire to build and race competitively.