BMW 540I For Track : Yes or No ?

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I know alot of you doing track around summer . i never was that crazy about track, but same time its was cuz i never had enough time for it .

I have a 2nd E39 540i manual that i wanted to part out , but i had this idea if i can keep it and just make it like a track car . I know that its pretty heavy car , but let say if i gonna remove full interior , carpet , sunroof , cut rear sprace for sparetire , remove both catalyc , remove resonator and muffler , remove ac and radio ; i can remove some weight with all this .

Do you think its good car for track ? Is it gonna be enough powerful?

wat you guys doing about cage if car gonna is still plated for the road ?

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I think it can be a nice project since you already have the car and gonna part out anyway. Even if you make a dedicated track, you will be able to sell all the interior, audio, interior trims, ...

The E39 540i weight 3800lbs but it's not heavy due to the chassis. It's all the luxury and options that make it heavy. And it's not too far from an E90 M3 in term of weight.

Once all the weight remove, the stock 280hp is gonna feel more than enough for a novice driver. On the E46 M3 platform, every 100lbs you remove feels like you add 11hp in acceleration but will help a lot for braking and cornering.

If you want to make it really light, you can cut all the extra sheet metal in the trunk and rear door panel, remove window mechanism in rear doors, remove rear glass and replace by lexan, remove the sound deadening inside the car, replace the battery with a lightweight one between 10-20lbs instead of 55lbs, ...

Keep in mind that your car will need some kind of muffler because their is noise restriction at most track. Some are more strict than other. And you want a car not too loud cause if it's not 100% street legal, you don't want to catch police attention.

For the cage, it's legal to have a roll bar/ half cage even on the street. A full cage is not. For track days, lapping, Time Attack, autocross, a roll bar/half cage is fine. Ideally go with a welded to chassis cage, not a bolt-on type because they don't offer the same kind of protection.
 
Trade it for a e36 or e30


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E30 are old and really hard to find a clean exemple. And rear suspension geometrie is not the best. They are fun to drive but I would prefer to start with an E36 or even an E46 non-M for the same price that offer a better platform.
 
Why not? You already have it!

The main goal on track days is to have fun, I'm sure this is possible with almost any car
 
E30 are old and really hard to find a clean exemple. And rear suspension geometrie is not the best. They are fun to drive but I would prefer to start with an E36 or even an E46 non-M for the same price that offer a better platform.

I try explaining this to people and they look at me as if I'm from another planet...
 
I would strip it out, put a hitch on your other E39 and tow it to the track.

That way you don't have to deal with the insurance and plates, not to mention hassle of driving a stripped out car on the street. What you save on insurance and plates for a year would pay for a trailer...

I agree with enough power stock, if you are tracking it power is not everything, reliability is. You have more then enough in your supercharged 5 :)
 
I tracked my stock E38, so you can with your E39 no problem.
Having fun is how you will improve. Besides, you'll learn about weight transfer, and how to improve the smoothness of your racing line.

The only thing that comes to mind after you stripping the car out is how the front end might now be heavier than the rear, thus upsetting the balance.
 
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