[Shotimes] M3 vs. GSX part 2 (long)

[Randy Smith]

> Wow, great video of lunched parts.  Better his car than mine...these are
> way worse than any pix of blower SHO engines that got trashed.  I wonder
> how much boost he was running?

We discussed this today on another forum I'm on.  Someone claims (I can't
back it up, but it's pretty long if it is just BS) this was on another forum
and it's the driver describing what happened and what not...

I was headed to work yesterday morning with my friend Brian. We spotted a
new E46 M3 up ahead on the highway. He was turning right at a stoplight, so
we decided to take a detour.

As we followed suit, I gunned it and got up next to him in the left lane. I
paced him for a couple seconds and gave him a big smile. Just then a
stoplight turned red in front of us and we slowed to a stop. I looked over
at the M3 owner and pointed forward. He acknowledged with a head nod so I
knew it was on.

Brian had grabbed the video camera minutes before and had been taping the
entire event. He kept the camera low so the driver wouldn't see it. We
didn't want to spook the guy out of the race. M3 owners never seem to race
me up here in Northern VA.

The traffic signal for the opposing turn lane turned yellow, then red. I
pressed the accelerator to the floor and my launch limiter kept the revs at
a very noisy 5500 RPMs. I wasn't looking at the M3 owner's face at this
point, but I'm assuming he was getting a bit nervous.

The light turns green and I let the clutch up quickly. I didn't sidestep it,
as I was still worried about my new transmission (I had just shattered my
center differential two weeks before). The clutch slipped ever so slightly,
all four tires gripped the pavement, and I was off with zero wheelspin from
my brand new 225/45ZR17 Kumho Ecsta Supra tires.

The M3 driver was just as alert. He had been inching forward the entire time
and actually began accelerating a fraction of a second before me. This
didn't help him much though. By the end of first gear, which winds out
almost immediately, the M3 was just behind my front bumper.

After a loud backfire (running rich as hell) I granny shifted into 2nd
(still babying the tranny) and wound out 2nd gear. The M3 was falling back
fast and was about two cars behind at this point. Third gear was coming up
and I was excited, because it is definitely my power gear. I found 3rd and
began to pull away even harder, and then it happened.

Screws were thrown into my exhaust pipe. At least that's what it sounded
like. My heart sunk to the bottom of my chest. I knew what the horrible
sound really was. My completely stock shortblock with 78,000 miles finally
gave out.

I hadn't gotten my car to the dyno yet, but conservative estimates were
somewhere just above 450 bhp at the flywheel, untuned. That's about 112 hp
per piston/rod. If you have any doubts about these numbers, just watch the
video of the destruction.

I knew it was going to happen sometime, but I sure didn't expect it at that
moment. I had tuned the car conservatively and was running rich. My EGTs had
only peaked at about 880 deg C, I had no detonation, I was running only 18
psi, and I had not even added any additional spark timing advance. I guess
78,000 miles of hard driving, 50 or so clutch dumps, around 10 drag strip
runs, a few road racing events, ten or so autocrosses did it in.

I limped over to the side of the road as the M3 driver passed me by (laugh
it up guys!!!! ) with an astonished look on his face. I got out of the car
and sat on the grass for a few minutes, contemplating what had just
happened. In retrospect, that was a good thing to do. I didn't need dents in
the side of my door, and I definitely didn't need a broken foot.

So the flatbed came and towed the car back to my house. The beast had left a
lake coolant and oil where she rested. Brian and I went back to the scene of
the disaster later in the day and discovered the bottom portion of a
connecting rod and a thumb-size chunk of iron block. These two pieces were
only a small hint of the destruction we would uncover later in the day after
we removed the cylinder head.

Once we got home from work, we removed the head in just over an hour. What
we uncovered was easily the worst carnage we had ever seen as a result of a
bent connecting rod. The entire engine block and all its internal components
literally disintegraed.

Schrapnel from exploding pistons and bearings was shot out the back of the
iron block into the firewall (which was the loud sound we heard inside the
car). The balance shaft was smashed through the rear of the block, creating
a hand-size hole through which the crankshaft was easily visible. Multiple
connecting rods were bent, twisted, melted, etc. Pistons were completely
mangled and cylinder two had a silver-dollar size hole in the cylinder wall.

All in all, it could have been much worse (really!), as the damage was
localized to the short block. Surprisingly, the cylinder head was untouched,
except two very small nicks on the exhaust valves of the number one
cylinder. No significant metal fragments exited my exhaust, as my exhaust
turbine fins were untouched.

In goes the race block w/ forged internals. This sure was a learning
experience. I was hoping the stock block would hold up for a bit longer, but
oh well.

If you got this far, thanks for reading. Please do not start saying anything
about the validity of any of my comments. Everything happened as I stated it
(to the best of my recollection), and the M3 driver was definitely racing
me. I'm sorry if you don't believe me for some reason.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that! I will post again when we get the block
out of the car and we can remove more pistons/rods/bearings from the oil
pan! Yay!!! I will also post the install of my new motor if anyone is
interested. Let me know if you all have any problems downloading or viewing
the videos. I will be posting them in different resolutions and formats
(hopefully MPG) tomorrow, along with pics of the carnage.