Das Race: My '97 M3/4/5

[Jake]

Some action shots (thank you Tom and Garrett!) and video of the fast laps!

Saying hi to Rob & Kristin's attack dogs:



The Technicolor Rollcage Squad:







[youtube]5AOf1giN0xU[/youtube]

[*insertusernamehere*]

The Technicolor Rollcage Squad:

Lol

[Jake]

Mileage: 154,100 or something like that

I had a bit of a grumble going on when I put the car through left hand turns at Hyperfest and figured it was time to do the front wheel bearings, as they came from Jim's wrecked GTS2 car and were new at the time... 2+ years and many, many jumped curbs ago.

Ordered 2x bearings from FCP Euro. Only one showed up - though I called them this morning and they are overnighting me a second.

The process of bearing removal was easy enough. Borrowed the gigantor socket (46mm) from DJ and he was kind enough to give me the adapter to size it down from a 3/4" drive to 1/2". I realized that my breaker bar had gone missing, so off to Home Depot for (nothing but the best in Chinese crap) a Husky 1/2" breaker bar. Said bar promptly sheared apart as soon as I applied torque to remove the wheel bearing nut. Sigh. Ruined the bar and adapter. HD gave me my money back but it was a time suck to deal with them. Went to Sears, got some slightly-better-Chinese-crap Craftsman breaker bar and adapter, and the nut came right off.

The bearing exploded when I pulled it off. I know that's kiiiind of expected given they are just pressed together, but there were some plastic-y bits that came out with the bearings:



Definitely not normal and based on the racket it made, it was very due for replacement:

[youtube]SALsw8g2NZk[/youtube]

Only other snag I ran into was hammering the new bearing on. Didn't realize that the old inner race was still stuck on the spindle so I couldn't get the new bearing more than halfway on. Oops. Got the old race removed and the whole car is back together now. I'll have the other bearing in my hands tomorrow night and plan on doing that work shortly, so the car will have both front bearings replaced before Summit in a week or so.

[JPolen01]

Went to Sears, got some slightly-better-Chinese-crap Craftsman breaker bar and adapter, and the nut came right off.

My craftsman bar has never done me wrong. That sum bitch broke the axle nut loose on the accord on more than one occasion without missing a beat.

[HAULN-SS]

Y you no have air tools by now??? <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/AIRCAT-1150-Killer-Torque-2-Inch/dp/B007WQQ90A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464710898&sr=8-1&keywords=aircat+impact">http://www.amazon.com/AIRCAT-1150-Kille ... cat+impact</a><!-- m -->

haven't found anything yet that'll hold

[Jake]

Summit Point "D-Day Dogfight" - June 2016

Early gate entry FTW, especially after sitting in traffic on the Beltway and Greenway.



This weekend was hot. The track was slick, everyone's tires were performing at sub-optimal levels, and we all ran "a little slow." Nevertheless, I tried using some of what I learned from my last visit to Summit in April and pushed harder. Was able to spend all weekend running through T4 (the chute) with no brakes, just a brief lift off the throttle before getting back on it to go down the hill. Moving the driver's seat closer to the wheel really helped with brake pedal control and I was far more consistent with my braking on the front straight.

The car was a bit pushy at times. I was able to correct maybe two-thirds of it by changing my driving style, but a portion of it was seemingly unavoidable due to the lack of grip.

My Hoosiers are getting old (I believe they are from 2012 or 2013, no idea on heat cycle count) and while I could continue to run 'em until they cord, I'm wondering when it's appropriate to replace. Good old debate on if I'm fast enough to bother with new Hoosiers, versus being held back by the old ones. I'd like to continue doing some work using my street tires, getting faster on those, as I think more gains in technique are to be had there.

Best lap of the weekend was a 1:28.7, which I'm pretty happy with given the heat. It's still a second or two faster than my previous best, though I arrived on Friday night with a goal of a 1:27.x. Next time!

[youtube]GSj9c_CAlzQ[/youtube]

Had a really great time hanging out with everyone in the paddock, too. MM representation was strong - very cool to see track weekends seemingly making a comeback among the student crowd. Keep it up, guys.

On to Dominion in late July!

[Jake]

Proving drivers-meeting-itis is alive and well, all these years later:



Brapbrap.



"Hey Taylor I'm gonna bounce your new car off of redline for a couple minutes, that sound good?"



Discussing the most ideal way to drive 25 mph in a circle with hazards flashing:



More brapbrap.

[JPolen01]

Can you pace with the top down? Not like that fabric is going to help you if you somehow rolled it during once?

[Jake]

Can you pace with the top down? Not like that fabric is going to help you if you somehow rolled it during once?

Yeah, I could pace in a dump truck if I really felt like it. No real rules there. But the sun beating down was brutal so I was happy to leave the roof up

[SlimKlim]

What did I even smile for?

[Senor_Taylor]

Glad to see my car making the rounds. It's more popular than I am.

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[Senor_Taylor]

Is this better, Joey?

[rherold9]

Is this better, Joey?

Lol that face

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[*insertusernamehere*]

Which one of the faces? Cause the Miata is grinning its ass off for that pace lap lol.

[Jake]

July 2016 "Dominion Dash" - Dominion Raceway

This was the inaugural race weekend for Dominion. They had hosted a few small club events on the road course leading up to this NASA weekend, but our event was the first test of the course, the facility, and the staff.

My drive down on Friday was pretty sucktastic - right about 2 hours to go 55 miles down I-95. Route 1 was no better. But, I eventually made it past the clusterfuck of traffic and took my exit. The track entrance is about 500 feet off of the highway, which is awesome for those of us who tow. No tiny back roads = win.



I showed up and unloaded around 4 PM on Friday. The "main" paddock is fairly small, but there is also a giant gravel-ish lot that is paddock space and not too far from grid. The circle track's infield was also available as paddock space and does connect to the main paddock. Unfortunately MM didn't get to paddock as a group due to our staggered arrival and nobody knowing the lay of the land. Next time, though. It was easy to drive/bike around the place and nothing is truly very far away.

Took a track walk with a few people as the sun set and got to see things up close.





A few of us decided to check out the local Mexican restaurant, which is about a mile down the road and delicious. And cheap. Definitely going back next time. I was super excited for this burrito smothered in queso.



After dinner, we ended up in the main building, enjoying "dueling pianos" (aka two guys taking turns playing decent and occasionally trashy music) and some cold beers. The building is really nice, and overlooks the course. The second story is where the bar and grill are located, alongside the little gift shop. Plenty of space for everyone to hang out - there are enough views of the road course both inside and on the outside deck.



On to the driving...



Saturday was my "feel it out" day. The track itself can look pretty unnerving from various videos floating around, and I was pretty nervous to get out there. A few laps in, though, and my comfort increased quite a bit. The walls that appear close on video are indeed close in person, but they're not something you notice after a few laps. The layout of the course is really fun - kind of like a bigger Shenandoah with longer straightaways, if you've been there - and rewards a good line as well as low-to-medium horsepower cars.

The track is not done making improvements to the road course. I chatted with the GM and he plans to add curbing in many places as well as (potentially) some more pavement or runoff. The runoff right now sans-curbing is all dust and rock, which is just thrilling when someone in front of you goes off and you have a Days of Thunder moment driving through the dust cloud.

Everything seems to be ideally late-apexed, save for the last little chicane before the tunnel, which is a somewhat blind early apex and perhaps my favorite turn on the track.



Our high Saturday afternoon was an indicated 104*F in the pace car. Sunday morning was my best chance for a "hot lap" before ambient temps got too high, eventually reaching an indicated 101*. I went out and ran 4 seconds faster than my Saturday best, laying down a 1:39.02. Christina hauled the mail and set a 1:36.xx which was fantastic to see. My ancient Hoosier R6's really gave it up in the heat and I suspect they really have nothing left aside from ride-along type of laps at 6/10ths. Zack sold me a lot of new tires, so I'll be replacing the Hoohoos before our next event in August at VIR.



Bralley let Christina and I use his E46 328iC for pace car duty all weekend and it performed admirably. I treated it like a police-spec Crown Vic (lots of idling, AC blasting, with bouts of full throttle acceleration) and it never faltered with the AC set at 59*. What a champ, especially at 213k miles.



My car handled the heat very well, all things considered. I have my temp gauge set to go off at 210*F and that's fairly conservative. Even in the mid-day Saturday heat, I was keeping temps around 212-215* which I felt was safe-ish. I personally was getting pretty exhausted by midday Sunday and chose to call it quits after two timed sessions. The track wasn't getting any grippier, my tires were a mess, and I had a moment where I just lost focus and caught myself just before I drove entirely off track for no reason.

Definitely a very fun road course and facility with a lot of potential to get even better. I'm excited to get back there in two weekends (instructing for Dub Deliverance) and in a competitive capacity again in October! Hopefully cooler temps then will be advantageous.

M3 updates...

I need new brakes on both axles. My plan was to stick with Performance Friction, although I have a few hundred dollars in Hawk Bucks to use. I know some friends like the DTC-60 so I may try a set of those.

Tires, as mentioned above. Going to have one set of Hankook C51's and one set of BFG R1S's. They're all pretty new (only 3 heat cycles on the Hankooks) so hoping between the two, I'll have plenty of tire for a while. And of course, I'll also keep my RS3 street tires for storage and whatever sort of practice/bullshittery I want to use them for. And rain, I guess.

All the tires mean I need wheels, so.........



They'll be here Friday.

Next up...

August is going to be insanely busy and I'm pumped for it.

• Dub Deliverance at Dominion - August 6/7
  
• Chump Car 24 Hour Enduro at VIR - August 13/14
  
• NASA at VIR - August 20/21

[rherold9]

The 60s will do just fine. Just be wary of the harsh initial bite when they get warm as you can lock up fairly easily. I daily on the 60s for my front pads and they really aren't all that loud as some people say. The only time they were real loud was when they were semi-warm on track. No noise once hotter. They dust though. That's for sure.

Glad you were able to take me around in the pace car. Didn't seem as bad as it is on video and it's almost as wide as vir in some places. So I eat my words about the track. Safety should improve as time goes on I hope. Curbing like you said I hope is in the near future.

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[Jake]

Oops, forgot the video...

[youtube]yqoMaEPFf6I[/youtube]

[ScottyB]

brand new fresh track under that sky? oof. nice.

glad you were wise to your body's limits in that weather. heat is no joke and it sneaks up on me all the time. finding your brain checking out on track has got to be both incredibly jarring and almost relieving, to know you're clearly getting a signal to tap out without a second guess. nice times, fresh rubber should net you a nice gain!

you aren't kidding about August...do you even have time to catch your breath? this is when having a reliable, proven race car really pays off...

[Jake]

brand new fresh track under that sky? oof. nice.

glad you were wise to your body's limits in that weather. heat is no joke and it sneaks up on me all the time. finding your brain checking out on track has got to be both incredibly jarring and almost relieving, to know you're clearly getting a signal to tap out without a second guess. nice times, fresh rubber should net you a nice gain!

you aren't kidding about August...do you even have time to catch your breath? this is when having a reliable, proven race car really pays off...

Thanks Scott, that's just an iPhone shot that I pumped up a little bit :wink:

As far as August... yeah, let's hope she holds together. I can't see why not, especially given the new tires and brakes that I'll slap on. Should probably change the oil. There is some leak (either oil or power steering fluid, I think PS) that leaves a spot on the ground but isn't bad. Maybe I'll check that out.

Also, it hasn't been washed in a few months. If the humidity holds off tonight, I may try for at least a quick rinse...

[rherold9]

Have I missed your future plans with this?

Are you planning GTS, ST, or?

Any time frame?