My Mercedes 190E 2.3-16 "Cosworth" build

[Emre]

I had the car up at Tremblant last weekend with the BMW Club of Quebec. It was Canadian Grand Prix weekend, so attendance was pretty light and everyone had plenty of track time. The weather was gorgeous: sunny, dry, and not too hot.

Anyway, here's the 16v in action at my favorite track:





















You'll notice in some shots it looks like the car is smoking a bit. That's because I hadn't seated the dipstick properly and some oil was splashing onto the headers in left-hand corners. Unfortunately, that session was the one in which the track photographer took the coolest pics!

Also, in a few of the pics it looks like the car is squatting hard under acceleration and rolling quite a bit. It's funny, but it feels good from the driver's seat, so I was pretty surprised when I saw the pics. I'll have to check in with the guys from Ground Control to see what they think. May need to reconsider my spring rates.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I drove 450 miles to the track, did 7 or 8 hard sessions on the track over the course of 2 days, then drove the 450 miles back home. The car ran like a top, despite the oil leak for that one session (totally my fault).

[Emre]

I mentioned that the car felt a bit understeery at Tremblant last month. So I took it in to a local race shop that opened recently (Bulldog Motorsports in Clifton) for another alignment. After a lengthy discussion with a couple of guys who have experience on the track with the W201 chassis, my goal was to be able to dial in between 3 and 4 degrees of negative camber up front.







Turns out I had -3 degrees camber in the rear but only -2 degrees in the front. Plus, there was a massive amount of toe-in up front. The GC camber plates don't have a provision for caster adjustment, so we were stuck with whatever we had.

We were able to dial in lots more negative camber up front, but really weren't sure what our goals should be in terms of toe. Considering the suspension design and weight are grossly in line with an E36 M3 on Ground Control suspension, we figured that would be a reasonable baseline. That meant a bit of toe-out.

This is what we ended up with:

FRONT CASTER: +10.2
FRONT CAMBER: -3.3
FRONT TOTAL TOE: +0.08

REAR CAMBER: -3.0
REAR TOTAL TOE: -0.23

I haven't tried it out on the track yet. But just driving around a few on-ramps and things you can definitely feel the front end is much, much sharper on turn-in (I'm sure the toe-out has a lot to do with this). And the car feels more neutral overall; the balance has shifted from gentle understeer to slightly tail-lead.

We'll see how it does on a real circuit: I'll be at Calabogie with the folks from BMW Club of Ottawa next weekend (July 20-22) and then at Summit Point with the BMW CCA NJ Chapter the following weekend (July 28-29).

Can't wait! :bgrin: :woohoo:

[Emre]

So the Ultimate Track Car Challenge issue of GRM arrived today...



Ooh. This is interesting. Looks like there's some 190E content in this issue...



Turn to page 26. More 190E content. But this car looks familiar...



This is the first time one of my project cars got into print. It's just a little blurb, but very cool to me!

[95gizmo]

Emre
I saw the writeup in Grassroots. Congrats. It's always to see a friends car in print!
Ed

[Emre]

Quick update...

Got some Weber 48 DCO/SP side-drafts mounted on a manifold made by Hartmann for their old 190E DTM car. Throttle linkage under construction.

We're also building up a race engine using a Euro block (higher compression pistons) and a pair of cams with a rally profile (relatively low lift and high duration) from Cat Cams in the UK.

New exhaust under construction.

Lexan windows on order.

Will post pics shortly.

[Emre]

Took the car out of storage after a particularly long and nasty winter. Here's the footage from NJMP-Thunderbolt this past Monday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9Nv5qP1M6Y

Tried a couple of different camera angles this time. Also, I cut out all the fluff: no more 20 min videos!

[Emre]

Here's short (<3 min) clip highlighting a minor "Initial D moment" at Calabogie last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKaPN0yR--Y

Those Yoko Advan A048 tires don't take heat very well. And I flubbed the shift a little, so there was a kind of inadvertent clutch kick that started the ball rolling.

[Emre]

Believe it or not, I've been doing track stuff for about 15 years and this was my first ever trip to VIR. I can't believe I missed out on this! What a fantastic place. The folks at Tarheel CCA ran a very tight ship. Tons of track time: I put in 340 track miles (100+ laps!) over 2.5 days. Here are some pics from the event...videos to follow.

The Venue

[Emre]

The Car



My Playmates











Will post videos shortly.

[Emre]

DTM revival at VIR: on track with a gaggle of E30 M3s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_fBXaZ61a8

[s38junkie]

Love it! Great video Emre, thanks for posting. What did you think of the new surface at VIR?

[Emre]

Love it! Great video Emre, thanks for posting. What did you think of the new surface at VIR?

I couldn't say, Mike. It was my very first time at VIR. Loved it!

[Emre]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7fINok_AF8

[Emre]

So, we put the finishing touches on the car in preparation for the first race.

First off, halo seat with fresh FIA stickers:



Harnesses, center net, and window net with fresh SFI stamps:



Fire suppression system and ignition kill switch in place:





Series sponsor decals in place:



Rookie decal on the rump:



Passed NASA annual tech and BMW CCA CR event tech:



Ready to go! Updates from Calabogie shortly.

[Emre]

Finished my first race weekend with BMW CCA CR at Calabogie. I was at the back of the pack, but had a great time. Can't wait to do it again!



















Photos courtesy of Susan Dobson.