UPDATE 2021 – “Nordschleife-BTG”: 7:11 min in the 321 hp BMW M3 (E36) with KW Competition 4A / KW V5 Racing – and your heart beats faster

During the track day of Trackdays.de in June 2020 Photo Ring Race Shots

Imagine how sick that is, while many people are always trying to get more engine power first, many passionate Trackday Drivers working on completely different things. Maximilian Kurz, from Bavaria, is one of those who put the right screws on and revealed that a BMW M3 E36 has the potential for a BTG time of fewer than 7:20 minutes at the Nürburgring Nordschleife – with a factory engine!

Autumn 2019: Approaching the 7:22 min BTG time and still with KW Competition 2A on board. Photo neki1_shots

In autumn 2019, he was already making history within track day enthusiast groups. At an official track day, he achieved an impressive “bridge-to-gantry” time. For those interested, click here to go to the blog post on which we presented Maximilian’s M3 in a little more detail, but in mid-June 2020 he attacked again – but how?

Archive picture from autumn 2019

For this purpose, he did his homework in winter 2019 / 2020 and improved two things: The old ABS was replaced by the BMW E46 M3 unit. The control electronics are controlled via motorsport software from our KW Sales & Service Point Schmickler Performance.

But there was something else that happened. Maximilian did a major performance upgrade on his BMW M3 (E36), which weighs less than 1,300 kilograms. No, the S50B32 is in stock shape, and the Bavarian still dreams of a carbon airbox. With the help of Raeder-Motorsport Maximilian “pushed” the 321 hp strong BMW 3-series Coupé in a way to “GT3 motorsport level”!

Current GT3 suspension technology in the wheel arch

Since we introduced the first racing dampers with displacement pistons, our so-called Solid Piston Technology, in November 2017, we have built up a comprehensive delivery program with these shocks. These dampers, which can be independently adjusted in the low-speed and high-speed ranges of the compression and rebound stage damping, are now available for more and more motorsport vehicles and road cars.

KW Variant 5 with Solid Piston Technology

We have already adapted this solid piston technology for the first road applications, such as a new adaptive KW DDC plug&play coilover suspension and the KW coilover suspension Variant 5. You can find more about this here on the blog. But for all those who don’t have time to read: even a suspension kit makes you faster and a well-adjusted coilover suspension kit unleashes the full potential of your car!

In the words of Maximilian: “With the KW suspension, my BMW has unlimited grip! On the Nordschleife, the 321 hp has simply not enough power. But with the suspension, many corners can be driven 10 km/h faster and sometimes even faster!”

After some tweaks on the setup in fall 2021 BTG Time is now 7:11 min

In Summer 2021 Maximilian killed his lovely S50B32 BMW M3 stock engine. Now in Autumn he is back in the Green Hell with another straight-six stock engine. “It is the old stock S50B32 from a friend the only thing changed are a carbon airbox, but we didn’t change anything on the mapping”, said Maximilian. Also, on YouTube one or the other commentator is stunned how high the cornering speeds are with the KW Competition 4A racing suspension in combination with the Dunlop Direzza Semis. Okay, that was a bit too short now. Let’s try to describe this complex topic a little bit more detailed.

As you have surely noticed on Maximilian’s snapshots during the installation at Raeder Motorsport, the KW Competition 4A (KW V5 Racing) looks completely different from the old KW Competition 2A coilover suspension.

Very old KW Competition 2A Racing Strut for BMW E36 M3

But before we get a friendly hint with a shock housing from our colleagues in the motorsport department, we’d like to tell you that names like “KW Competition 4A” are just a generic term. A small hint for all of you who are wondering why clicking on Raeder Motorsport in this blog post always ends up on the homepage of Manthey Racing. Already in 2013 Raeder Motorsport merged with Manthey Racing.

The front axle shock absorber in upside-down design with four-way adjustment.

Since the BMW E36 has MacPherson struts, the front axle has an upside-down (kind of inverted mono-tube) suspension. The reservoir is connected to the shock via a hose connection. On the rear axle, the dampers do not have a piggy pack and the shock housing is made of a special aluminum alloy. The exact name of the front axle suspension is KW TTSP30R 4A 40P USD (TT = TwinTube, SP = SolidPiston, 30 = 30 mm solid piston diameter, R = expansion reservoir, piggy pack, 4A = four-way adjustable, 40P = 40 mm damper cartridge, USD = Upside-Down, inverted monotube).

At the M3 semi-trailing arm rear axle Raeder Motorsport installed the KW Competition 4A (KW V5 Racing). This damper or the so-called KW TTSP35 4A damper does not have an expansion tank. The housing is made of a special aluminum alloy. Compared to other damper technologies, the valves of our Solid-Piston-shocks are separated from the damper working chamber. The in-line or side-mounted and offset able valves for the low-speed and high-speed forces of the compression and rebound stages can be precisely adjusted with 18 clicks each.

The special feature is also that we can work with much lower gas pressure in our dampers. What is brilliant is that we still achieve a very precise high-frequency function even with a low valve lift. In other words, Maximilian can drive his M3 better over curbs and his BMW will not be slower or harder to control. With the new SolidPiston technology, it simply drives better.

Please fasten your seatbelts for the YouTube video

In mid-June 2020 Maximilian drove the impressive “BTG time” of 7:17 minutes at the track day of Trackdays.de and that despite traffic and as you can see in the video, one or two overtaking maneuvers. “I still dream of a completely free lap,” sighs Maximilian. “According to the Raeder Guys, there is still a lot potential in the car with this shocks.”

Photos private, Ring Race Shots (1x)

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