brackethead

I'm going to Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, AL, this weekend. The Alabama BMW CCA is hosting a driving class HPDE this Saturday and Sunday, Aug 30-31.

Anyone in the area feel like joining me? The club told me yesterday there are still spots open, and you don't have to have a BMW. Go to http://albmwcca.org for more info (click the Event Registration link on the left side).

I'm really looking forward to it. Barber looks like a great track from what I've seen and heard. Come out if you can!

dwnshift

iTrader: (1)

Its a fun track for the Z..........
We ran officially a 1 40.0
unofficially we ran a 1:39.6

dkmura

iTrader: (64)

Steve-

Sounds like a great time! I'm considering traveling to a number of tracks this fall to run my Z and Braber is certainly on the list. Two questions:

-Is the Alabama BMW club making you buy a full BMW CCA membership to run the event?

-Do you know of any other track days at Barber in Oct-Nov that Z's are allowed at?

brackethead

This weekend at Barber was a blast! The ALBMWCCA put on a great, fun, and safe event. That's an awesome facility. Feels like a country club, and the track is a hoot.

I didn't even get close to 1:40, I'm sure. Considering my Z is all stock I did pretty well, though. The corkscrew going through 7 and 8 is my favorite part.

There were two other 350Z's there. Met both of those guys. One just got a bunch of NISMO mods (exhaust, S-tune susp, and wheels/tires) and was running in my group. ::Hey Dave!:: He was keeping up with me by Sunday afternoon!

I will definitely go back to Barber as soon as possible.

brackethead

Technically no, but I had to pay more than the BMW CCA members.

Not right now -- I'm looking, though. There's a PCA event Oct 11-12 but their web site says registration is closed. I don't think PCA usually lets in others makes anyway. If you find anything, let me know!

John

iTrader: (17)

Hey Steve, good to hear you had a good time. I've been wanting to check out that track ever since it opened earlier this year. It definitely seems like it has a park-feel to it, especially with all of those sculptures scattered around.

Can you tell us more about the track? For instance, information about the turns, camber changes, elevation changes, et cetera...

brackethead

OK, John, I'll see if I can do it justice.

I haven't been to that many tracks, but Barber definitely reminded me of Mid-Ohio. It's a technical track with lots of complex turns, not really a HP track. I think my top speed on the front staight was only 100 mph or so.

There's a lot of elevation changes and blind corners. Seems like almost every turn is on an uphill or downhill slope, comes at the crest, or comes after a downhill/uphill transition.

Take a look at the Barber track maps to help make sense out of my comments: http://www.barbermotorsports.com/map.html

Turn 1: fast, downhill left-hander. This track wasn't too hard on my brakes -- this is one of about 5 real braking zones. Had trouble getting the right turn-in point. My instructor had me apexing early (earlier than I would have on my own) and tracking out to the right edge.

Turns 2 & 3: transitions from downhill to uphill between T1 & T2. I was taking a line from the center of the track at T2, decreasing radius until T3 apex, feathering the throttle all the way through, and then tracking out wide onto the flat curbing coming out of 3.

Turn 4: the end of 3 is the lowest point on the track, and the hill coming up to 4 is big and fast! I was WOT coming over the hill through 4. Had to be careful here not to lift off throttle because the car got real light and drifted to the left after cresting 4. I was almost redlining in 3rd before the crest, but made sure not to shift until I floated over the hill and settled.

Turns 5 & 6: the hairpin. You're going slightly downhill into 5 for this left-hand hairpin. Hard braking going in here. I tried various lines and entry speeds here. The one that worked best for me was just to enter nice and slow right of center, and use the Z's torque to power out of 6 uphill into the short straight before 7.

Turns 7 & 8: the corkscrew. Big fun! Seven is a pretty fast right-hander, and then 7a and b are physically two small turns on an extreme downhill. But the fun part is you turn in for 7, a little early apex, and just go straight through 7a and b, up over the left curb and braking hard before the bottom of the hill. It all happens real quick. Once you reach the bottom you're in 8, and it's full throttle up the hill for the back straight.

Turns 9 and 10: this is a kink in the back straight. A little pucker factor here because you carry so much speed through. The key for me was to early apex 9 and try to straighten out this chicane. Feather the throttle in 4th but don't let up too much -- big potential for trouble if you get loose here. Track out wide to the left after 10 and come back to the far right to set up for 11.

Turns 11 and 12: A quick left-hander followed by a right-hander. This confused me at first, because it looks like 9 and 10. But if you treat it like 9 and 10 you'll be in trouble -- I came in too fast here once and had to escape into the grass coming out of 12. I got sideways but luckily didn't spin or hit anything and ended up back on the track pointed the right direction before 13. <whew!> When I got it right, I braked a good bit before 11, late apexed 11 to get set up for 12 which is a fairly sharp right-hander.

Turn 13: After 12 you crest a hill and it's blind coming over into 13. After 12 you come across right-to-left blindly over the hill to set up on the left edge for entry into 13. The entry for 13 is downhill, and the apex is uphill if I remember right. You carry a boatload of speed through 13, with no brakes! I didn't feel confident in doing this until I rode with my instructor in his E36 M3. It's a true roller-coaster feeling, with the compression at the bottom going through 13 and then momentum carrying you up the hill.

Turn 14: I don't think I ever got the hang of this one. You're coming up the hill from 13, still going real fast. I stayed close to the inside (right) of 13 all the way through, which took me straight toward the outside of 14. The pit entrance is right here, and I was headed just off to the left of it. This reminded me of turn 10 (I think) at Mid-Ohio, the right-hander before you enter Thunder Valley. You're getting set up for a sharp right-hand turn, but your momentum is taking you to the left, and you need to brake hard in a straight line before you run out of space and go into the grass or the pit-in.

Turn 15: Luckily this one came fairly easily to me. It's a downhill 3rd gear left hander that puts you out on the front straight. The front straight isn't too long, so you don't get much time to rest.

That's a lap at Barber. It's a busy track -- you're always turning or climbing a hill, it seems. Loads of fun!