Hello again;
Following on from last year, antandpete once again put their pedal to the metal in the 2005 Gumball 3000 Rally. With prior knowledge of what is 'Gumball', we spent the full 11 months build up to 05 preparing and organising to once again be:
"The most organised Gumball team of all time" - Alex Roy at the Trafalgar Hotel in London.
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| Our BMW Diesel Power d3 was the first area that we looked at improving. In 2004 it performed without a glitch and we could not have asked for more. However as with everything in 'antandpete' world, why be content? the possibilities are endless! We started our own Research and Development program on the car as there is no company in the UK that was willing to take on our challenge with the devotion that we needed. So, we spent most of our time abroad in particularly Spain and Portugal researching what those crazy Europeans had been doing to their oil burners and it became quite clear that the 100bhp per litre mark was the goal |
| During this time, we also assessed the other areas of the car that we could improve on. First up was to retrofit the BMW DVD navigation system as the TomTom GPS nearly got launched on more than one occasion during 2004. It was a relatively simple process; remove the whole passenger side and boot interior trims, install the wiring loom, connect everything up and put it all back together again. It took us just over 5 hours to complete and after a trip to BMW to re-code the car, all was working. Next we installed the BMW Sport Brake Upgrade kit for the 330d to give us M3 spec stopping power |
| As you probably know, our V-max in 2004 was 154mph (254Kmh), so we set to work on how to increase this. Changing the rear diff ratio proved a bit of a pain as it was already very long at 2.47, so instead we opted to increase the rolling circumference of the tyres. To do this we purchased a set of genuine BMW M3 CSL alloy wheels and fitted oversized Michelin Pilot Sport tyres. This easy change allowed us to not only hit a higher top speed, but also reduced the un-spung weight at each corner due to the lighter wheels and brakes. |
| During all of this, Performance BMW Magazine got hold of what we where doing and where very keen to do a feature on our 'd3' with its intended magical 300bhp. Rightly, we where a little secretive of our plans, so we agreed to get back to Iain when we where in a more finalised state with the engine. From here, we really took off. In early 2005 we had all the information that we needed to start fettling with the heart of our project. First off we commissioned a midlands company to build a massive front mounted intercooler to our agreed spec. Next we looked at the fuelling and found that the BMW control unit has a pre-determined limit built in that we could not exceed, so we where limited as to how far we could go. We carried on in our quest and next up we upgraded the Turbocharger, exhaust system, intake system, fuel injectors and a few other bits and pieces. |
| Once we had everything back, we started to re-build the engine with the new items and then finally started testing. With the new items installed and the same ECU map, the d3 ran as smooth as before, with no smoke at all and the same kind of power, so next up came the re-mapping. This was all done real time on a dyno and this is where the niggles started, as we progressed past its 2004 Gumball 250bhp mark we found that things where not acting right. As with all R&D, some changes work and some don't! its just sods law, that its always the last item you check that will be causing the problem. Anyway, issues resolved, on with the experiment. Our aim was a very smooth long lasting power curve that would not deliver a huge hit of power in one go, but kept building for as long as possible |
| After a considerable amount of time on the dyno, we broke the 300bhp mark, after some more tweaking, we settled on 304bhp and 720Nm of Torque! (standard E46 M3's have 365Nm and E39 M5's have 500Nm) It was time for the first test drive! all was looking good! Our first experience of the new d3 simply blew us away, it had the pulling power of a Scania, combined with the V8 sound of an SL55 in a 4 door family saloon car. Wow, did it fly. 1st gear was useless at full throttle and made the DSC light explode, 2nd gave acceleration I had never felt before and then it was time for 3rd and this is where the Diesel really shines, you see, Diesel's are all about Torque, not rpm's like petrol cars, so the higher the gear the more you get. |
| We ran the d3 in this form for over a month with no problems at all and where very surprised that the standard clutch held up for so long having already done 1 hard Gumball, so we decided from more of a damage limitation exercise to search for a upgraded item. This proved once again to be a foreign import job as no-one in the UK made an upgraded clutch for the 330d with this much torque. We imported a custom clutch kit from the USA of all places as they had already designed a replacement kit for the standard car and where willing to build an application for our car. 3 weeks later we removed the gearbox and fitted the replacement. To our amazement, there were no hot spots, no blue colouration and no serious signs of wear. With the new clutch fitted by the end of April, we were ready for Gumball 2005! The only problem was getting used to its on/off tendencies; it was a royal pain in the ass! and the only part of the car that we had to live with not being as 'BMW' shall we say, as the rest of this awesome car. |
| On Wednesday 11th May 2005 we started our journey down to London for the starting parties. We travelled down with Paul and Dean who again drove their red 'H1 HFS' Ferrari 360 Spider number 26. We arrived at the Trafalgar Hilton on the Wednesday night and once again partied like it was 1999. The next day was the official signing on day where we met more of the other Gumballers and parked our by now very well known Diesel along side the Gulf Porsche GT3 of Nils and Nitro from GT3000. |
2004 Gumball 3000 and 2005 entrants. BMW Diesel Power #097 |
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