First Time out with the Race Prepared BMW Z4
Just like a real test day I am here at Kings at 10:20pm on Saturday night running my “blue printed” ScaleAuto BMW Z4 for the first time. Here is what I have learned.
1. Every bolt, and I mean every bolt needs to be secured with blue Loctite. I didn’t put it on the rear axle supports and they came lose after the first 20 laps.
NOTE: The Philips head screws have an interesting head on them that does not mesh with all Philips head screwdrivers so make sure you have a good fit before you force a bad situation and round out one of these screws.
2. When you think you have the screws tight, you don’t. I thought I had the motor mounting clamps and bolts tight but 153 laps later the screws loosened and the motor/pinion backed off of the motor and left the car at a standstill.
3. Be careful in truing the ScaleAuto soft rear tires #SC-4736. These tires worked great when I put them on the car. They weren’t true but I thought that could only make them better. Once again I was wrong. They are like truing very large shore 15 tires. You have to be very careful with them or they will melt/gum up. I was able to true a good pair of them and was looking forward to running them tonight. I was surprised when they did not have the same amount of traction they did before they were true. I was also surprised to see the rate at which they were shedding rubber. They ran like shore 15 tires with large balls of tire rubber building up on them when pushed hard. The tires could run for eight to ten laps before I would have to stop to remove the balled up rubber from the tires.
My best lap time of the evening was 4.529. Time to go home and spend some more time getting the BMW dialed in. Good luck to the rest of you working on your cars.
