# Autocrossing an e90, initial (long) thoughts



## LarryN (Dec 24, 2001)

Sorry in advance for this being a long post. I want to be as accurate as possible.

I took the e90 to an autocross for the first time yesterday. I’m a fairly experienced autocrosser, and to have taken the local (very competitive) BMWCCA seasonal top honors for my class for the past couple of years. I only say this to lay the groundwork that I’m not a newbie at conedom. ***61514;

As for my setup, I’m still bone stock e90 330i with sports package (and a bunch of other non-relevant options). I was also breaking in a new tire/wheel package that I got with the help of Gary from Tire Rack, and from Vulcan tire. I’m running 17x8.5 Kosei K1’s wrapped with Falken Azenis RT-615’s, 245/45/17 front, and 255/40/17 rear. There’s a lot of room for tires in the e90. I will be putting the 255’s up front and get some 275’s for the rear. :thumbup:

This was not a BMWCCA event, which I’m grateful for, as I’m really learning to drive this car effectively between the cones. I ran with the SVT/SHO club, which has an incredible variety of participants. Vipers, Corvettes (3 Z-06’s iirc), a couple of Elises, WRXs, Evos, a handful of BMW’s (2 or 3 M cars, plus a couple E46 330’s), and a bunch of Mustangs, which were mostly SVT versions, lowered, better suspended, and almost all wearing fat R compounds. I would guess that about 70-80% of the cars were R comp shod. Basically, I’m in a field of way more horsepower, more prepared cars. I also found out this morning that they don’t differentiate results based on equipment, so I got lumped in with the R compound/highly modified cars (they don’t PAX at all).

If you are unfamiliar with Azenis tires, they are street tires, albeit pretty sticky, but they do pale in comparison to true R compound tires…

OK, the course was set up on the runways of the retired Fort Devens Air Force Base, which is a great place to run… It has plenty of run off, and ultra wide runways. It was originally set up for much higher speeds than I’m used to in an autocross, and the wound up scrapping the morning times, and reconfiguring the course after they realized it was far too fast of a course to be run with ultimate safety. I was well into 3rd in a couple places (read 70-80+ mph). The other unique thing about the course was that it was a long course. I gauged about 1.5 miles long.

I had decided that I was going to stay in 2nd for the first couple of runs to get used to the car, without having to worry about shifting. Well, on the first run, I was bouncing off the rev limiter in 3 or 4 places. The car seemed really controlled, and as flat, if not more so, than my old e46 with UUC sways on it. I purposely did not try to cut cones too tight, as I had to learn the car’s width, which I learned later does feel a tad wider. The track on this car is almost 2” wider than the e46 I last autocrossed. 

My style of getting around certain elements is to play the rotation of the car, and swing the ass out or get a little drift going to help get around an element tightly, but mostly to set up for the next couple of elements. The e90 was easily flingable, more than I thought it would be, and feels similar to the e46 except flatter. By the time I was on my 3rd and 4th runs, I was driving faster than I thought the car would be able to. Mind you, the e90 is about 80 pounds heavier than the e46, but with my tire/wheel choice, I am nearly identical in weight (maybe even a hair less) than a stock e46 330i.

One thing I immediately noticed was that the car feels a lot more connected to the road, with better steering feel, with lighter, non-runflat tires on it. The second thing I noticed was that you have to be even more judicious on the gas, without a LSD and having more power. It was very easy to light ‘em up going around tighter elements. That took a little getting used to. The benefit is that when not in a tight situation, the car got up and went briskly, very briskly. I think I cracked my lips when I realized this, on a severe case of SAG. 

OK, to not make this even longer, I’ll give you the results... I got 10th overall, and as near as I can tell, 1st (possibly 2nd) for street tires. No M cars beat me, and I finished ahead of both Elises, and few corvettes, and many SVT Cobras. Be reminded that a lot of these cars that finished behind me were R compound, modified vehicles. So, I’m fairly happy with the results. I hit a few more cones than I normally do, but towards the end of the day I was trying to feel the size of the car more. I still have to learn to drive this car better, and I was not taking perfect lines because of that. I’m hoping I get in my groove within the next event or two, but I’m impressed, extremely impressed. The 335i will be a beotch to drive without a limited slip setup at autocross… Next event in two weeks, then an event the following week. I cannot wait.

So get out there and have fun with your e90’s! They are competent, planted, brisk cars, that belie their extra size.


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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

How many cones did you kill?


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## Cliff (Apr 19, 2002)

Needs more tape..










Congrats, Lar :thumbup:


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## LarryN (Dec 24, 2001)

Alex Baumann said:


> How many cones did you kill?


Maybe 6 or 8 total, nothing drastic. I did have a lot of protection though, as Cliff3 pointed out. 

I really had a blast, but it was pretty apparent that I needed to get used to the car. Plus,I hadn't autocrossed since before my ED, which was in May.


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## Mr Paddle.Shift (Dec 19, 2001)

Needs less tape! A few chips won't hurt. The car is meant to take the beating. LoL! 

Btw the Koseis look good on a E90. Lower the car a tad bit and it will be perfect. Btw, these are 17s?


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## LarryN (Dec 24, 2001)

Mr Paddle.Shift said:


> Needs less tape! A few chips won't hurt. The car is meant to take the beating. LoL!
> 
> Btw the Koseis look good on a E90. Lower the car a tad bit and it will be perfect. Btw, these are 17s?


Thanks! They are 17x8.5 Kosei's. I kinda think they look bad compared to the 162's, but they feel a lot better driving with them on comapred to the stock tires and wheels.

I'm definitely going to lower the car a bit.  There are not that many choices out there yet for lowering yet... only a couple of spring manufacturers. I can wait until the winter to do that, I think.


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## cenotaph (Dec 19, 2001)

Oh well. There go my chances of placing well for the rest of the year.  




 

This was a NESHOC event? Any idea if there are any spots left for the next one?


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## LarryN (Dec 24, 2001)

cenotaph said:


> Oh well. There go my chances of placing well for the rest of the year.
> 
> 
> 
> This was a NESHOC event? Any idea if there are any spots left for the next one?


Yes, NESHOC is where you can sign up for it. I think NESHOC was only awarded 1 day this season, so they hooked up with the SVT group, and they both attend each other's events.

BTW, the website states that the event dates are in 2006, but it's a mistake. You're really signing up for 9/25 (which is their last event). I hope you can make it. I had a blast, but it's nice to hang with the regulars. I think Alexi may attend the 9/25 event too. :thumbup:


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