The Berk Technology 135i gets some upgrades andattacks the EuroTuner Super Lap Battle

[BerkTechnology]

On Nov 12th we made the journey to Buttonwillow CA for the Euro Tuner Super Lap Battle. We did some last minute upgrades to the car which have really transformed the car into what we believe is the perfect dual purpose street/track car.

In case you've been living under a rock for the past 4 years, the Super Lap Battle finals is one of the largest industry events where all of the world's top shops do battle at Buttonwillow CA for the fastest lap time. Cars are transported from accross the country and sometimes accross the ocean to see who can click off the quickest lap time for the day.

A few days before the event, in goes our Berk Technology Track Edition turbo back exhaust, HP Autowerks Quaife LSD and 3.46 diff, Burger Motorsports JB3, Code 3 Performance FMIC, & AFE intakes.

We did some fine tuning of the suspension the 3 weeks prior, on the same track and same configuration. This served as a baseline to compare our the new mods. With only the addition of those pparts we shaved almost 3 seconds off our time. It's only 3 seconds but when you are already competing at such a high level of competition, 3 seconds is HUGE.

We were going up against ER's wide body 135i and a hired professional driver from Turner Motorsports. It was quite a challenge for us but in the end we performed spectacularly. We ended up running only a few tenths of a second off their best times. Our 2.03:996 lap time is an even greater accomplishment when you consider that we're running a street car with off the shelf parts, piloted by an amateur driver.

Staying true to our form of "engineer, test, produce", the Berk 135i recieved a full battery of tests in the harshest of envoriments. The SLB race was the last of a series of live R&D sessions for the car. The last 7 months have been spent strictly working on the BMW 1 & 3 platforms. Trust me, to say we know the 135i inside and out is an understatement. :biggrin:

There will be some track tested and dyno proven parts coming soon to a 135i near you.

We would like to thank our sponsors for their continued support that has made the 2008 season such a great sucess. None of this happens without your help!

KW Suspensions
V-Fiber
HP Autowerks
Burger Motorsports
D-Force Wheels
Code 3 Performance
Gruppe-S Engineering

MORE PICS TO FOLLOW!!!

[modbargains]

Very nice! Looking forward to more pictures and information.

[Evolution Racewerks]

Berk,

Good seeing you guys out again. You guys kept it close again :thumbup:. Made for an exciting day. Yeah both our teams needed to step it up more to be even more competitive against those high HP cars.

I stopped by after the last session to say what's up before we left but couldn't find you guys.

See you at the next event :wink:

[BerkTechnology]

Your car really looked good out there. I really like the new fender flares. Damn.... I need me some 285's too!

The next one's at Buttonwillow in March IIRC. See you guys there!

[Evolution Racewerks]

Thanks!, we're happy with how they came out too.

What happened on the last session? Saw your car pull in early.

Yeah good thing the season is over. Gives me some rest. I'm getting too old to be doing all nighters. Thought we were going to be able to get some sleep this time, but nope, same as always, no sleep.

Time to make some upgrades. Have a few bugs I need to address with the car. Hopefully, Monica will increase my racing budget next year too. Our sponsors were very happy with how everything went this year and we're retaining all our sponsors for next season so that's a victory there. I'm sure you guys will have an even stronger car next year and give us a run for our money again.

The fenders and bumper are coming off and we're going to get them molded and duplicated. If you guys are interested in moving up to the 285's let me know :wink:. I'm sure we can work something out.

See you in March. Hopefully one of us can take a win home for the 1. Look forward to our friendly "rivalry" hehe. Definitely makes the day interesting as we both didn't have a chance to catch that single turbo supra. Are you guys going to be running Redline as well or just Super Lap?

Originally Posted by BerkTechnology

Your car really looked good out there. I really like the new fender flares. Damn.... I need me some 285's too!

The next one's at Buttonwillow in March IIRC. See you guys there!

[BerkTechnology]

On the we ran low on fuel the 2nd to last session and the car sputtered a bit. Right after that we got our first limp as soon as we got out on track. I think that fuel issue is what caused it, we haven't had a single limp with the JB3 until that happened.

Some more pics I found on the internet.

Dream garage! That's the Trackhq.com Lotus who took 3rd in street class with a near stock Elise.

[J Tyler]

^Nice, lots of pictures on that website.

What a fun day!! I'll offer my driver feedback on the car once we get the video up. We have a very nice setup right now. It truly is a perfectly streetable car. It's impressive what BMW has done to build a car that can be made racecar-fast with simple bolt-on mods. A 2:03 at Buttonwillow is seriously fast! For comparison, a stock Corvette Z06 gets around this track in about a 2:02, and a Porsche 997 GT3 is right around the same. Our little 1er is right there with them! - And does it for less money, with way more practicality... very cool IMO.


Stay tuned for the video :roundel:

[adc]

Since the lap time difference between the two cars is small, I am completely baffled as to why one car gets limp modes so consistently and the other doesn't (fuel starvation issue notwithstanding).

There's got to be something else at play there...

[J Tyler]

Originally Posted by adc

Since the lap time difference between the two cars is small, I am completely baffled as to why one car gets limp modes so consistently and the other doesn't (fuel starvation issue notwithstanding).

There's got to be something else at play there...

Yea, I'm curious too. I believe the ER car has more engine work done though? Not sure what exactly, but their engine bay looks very different from the "stock" looking Berk car. Also, I've really babied our car on the track: just one hot lap at a time, with a cool-down lap in between. I never let the oil temp get over 260*F.


I actually got pulled over in the Berk 135i on the way home from Buttonwillow. The CHP had me pop the hood with his ticket book out, but he couldn't find anything to write a ticket for

[Evolution Racewerks]

I think as far as engine modifications we're on the same page. The only engine mod we had is an Injen intake and our Competition FMIC. We were running the stock downpipes with our Competition Series exhaust system. Custom ECU flash. That's it. The engine bay looks more done up because we removed all the plastic. The engine cover as well as the cover over the back section of the engine. With all the covers on, it was trapping a lot of heat in the engine bay. With all the heat related limp modes were having, I just pulled everything unneccessary off. We're also running a Snow Performance Stage 2 meth injection on the car. It's primary purpose is to cool the engine down. Since the car is not tuned for it, with it on, dyno says we're losing around 15-20whp. Again, another move to ensure that we can make a lap without limp mode. Your car was definately faster this time around since we had to drop a lot of power. We're that scared of the dreaded limp mode. With our dual upgraded oil coolers and the cool temps at the track, we weren't seeing over 260F either. VJ had to do cool down laps and shift at 5,000 rpm as well. Whatever it was, no limp mode this time.

LOL. CHP. I was worried about that. Bad experience with CHP on the 5. That's why we drove the car there with no decals on the car and trailered her home afterwards when the decals where on.

Originally Posted by J Tyler

Yea, I'm curious too. I believe the ER car has more engine work done though? Not sure what exactly, but their engine bay looks very different from the "stock" looking Berk car. Also, I've really babied our car on the track: just one hot lap at a time, with a cool-down lap in between. I never let the oil temp get over 260*F.


I actually got pulled over in the Berk 135i on the way home from Buttonwillow. The CHP had me pop the hood with his ticket book out, but he couldn't find anything to write a ticket for

[J Tyler]

Originally Posted by Evolution Racewerks

I think as far as engine modifications we're on the same page. The only engine mod we had is an Injen intake and our Competition FMIC. We were running the stock downpipes with our Competition Series exhaust system. Custom ECU flash. That's it. The engine bay looks more done up because we removed all the plastic. The engine cover as well as the cover over the back section of the engine. With all the covers on, it was trapping a lot of heat in the engine bay. With all the heat related limp modes were having, I just pulled everything unneccessary off. We're also running a Snow Performance Stage 2 meth injection on the car. It's primary purpose is to cool the engine down. Since the car is not tuned for it, with it on, dyno says we're losing around 15-20whp. Again, another move to ensure that we can make a lap without limp mode. Your car was definately faster this time around since we had to drop a lot of power. We're that scared of the dreaded limp mode. With our dual upgraded oil coolers and the cool temps at the track, we weren't seeing over 260F either. VJ had to do cool down laps and shift at 5,000 rpm as well. Whatever it was, no limp mode this time.

LOL. CHP. I was worried about that. Bad experience with CHP on the 5. That's why we drove the car there with no decals on the car and trailered her home afterwards when the decals where on.

Good to know.

Fred, I wouldn't say our car was "faster"... Our cars were pretty darn close, and I think VJ and I really wrung everything out of them. I followed VJ around for a bit out there: VJ was a bit quicker through the middle of corners because of your KW ClubSports and 285 Neovas vs our KW V3 and 255 Direzzas, but I tended to catch him a little under braking and a little on corner exit. The straights seemed pretty even. Overall, obviously, we were right there with each other all day long

[BerkTechnology]

Originally Posted by adc

Since the lap time difference between the two cars is small, I am completely baffled as to why one car gets limp modes so consistently and the other doesn't (fuel starvation issue notwithstanding).

There's got to be something else at play there...

I don't know either. If it wasn't for the fuel starvation the car would have a perfect track record of zero limps on 5 track days. We'll chalk up the first limp due to my error and not the car's fault.

[BerkTechnology]

Besides the aero kit parts, notice anything different? :wink:

[Evolution Racewerks]

Yeah, our brakes were not at 100%. Had air in the ABS module that for the life of me I could not get out. VJ went offroading once because of it. Luckily only damage we incurred was our passenger side plastic guard broke into a couple of pieces. Yeah your LSD definitely gave you an advantage over our stock diff on corner exit. He could not get power down until he cleared the turn and we lost a bit of time because of that.

From our perspective, it looked like you had a slight advantage in the straights. If not, I'm still happy with that cause I dialed back a lot of power output the night before on the dyno so that we can run consistently :biggrin:. After I resolve our limp mode issue completely, I'm going to be bring full power back up.

Originally Posted by J Tyler

Good to know.

Fred, I wouldn't say our car was "faster"... Our cars were pretty darn close, and I think VJ and I really wrung everything out of them. I followed VJ around for a bit out there: VJ was a bit quicker through the middle of corners because of your KW ClubSports and 285 Neovas vs our KW V3 and 255 Direzzas, but I tended to catch him a little under braking and a little on corner exit. The straights seemed pretty even. Overall, obviously, we were right there with each other all day long

[Evolution Racewerks]

The stickers? hehe.

Wheels?

Originally Posted by BerkTechnology

Besides the aero kit parts, notice anything different? :wink:

[WAY]

The boot (trunk) lid looks like the profile of a E46 CSL...is that it?

[J Tyler]

Originally Posted by WAY

The boot (trunk) lid looks like the profile of a E46 CSL...is that it?

Don't think so... :wink:

[J Tyler]

Originally Posted by BerkTechnology

Besides the aero kit parts, notice anything different? :wink:

Ok, now I wanna know... spill the beans!!

[WhiteOut]

Cut out rear diffuser?

[Smallbodybimmer]

^^Thats what I was gonna say!

[J Tyler]

Originally Posted by WhiteOut

Cut out rear diffuser?

Originally Posted by Smallbodybimmer

^^Thats what I was gonna say!

They did cut out a hole in the rear diffuser, because it was actually coming off during the high speeds (145mph) of California Speedway...!

[HP Autosport]

Originally Posted by BerkTechnology

Your car really looked good out there. I really like the new fender flares. Damn.... I need me some 285's too!

The next one's at Buttonwillow in March IIRC. See you guys there!

When are you going testing again? I would like Jeff to drive our project 335i and let us know what the thinks of the car! It may be a bit quicker than the 135i and handles better with near proper spring rates and geometry.

If he likes how our project 335i handles, we can duplicate that on your 135i and hopefully you can catch and even beat ER next year!