rouxeny

I know that a bunch of you guys are interested in going to the track. I don't think that we're going to be able to organize our own event in the short term, so I figured I'd start a list of events that we might be able to piggyback onto.

If anybody else comes up with any, please put them up.

From BMW Car Club of America, CT Valley Chapter
www.ctvalley.org
April 16 - Lime Rock Driver's School
April 24 - Road Rally School
Oct 22 - Lime Rock Driver's School
Must be BMW CCA member, membership is about $40.

Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team, Inc
www.cartct.com
May 14 - Pocono Raceway
June 24 - Lime Rock
July 19 - Pocono Raceway
Autocross events in Bristol, CT, 2/4 Sunday's per month through the summer

Sports Car Driving Association
www.scda1.com
March 22 - Lime Rock
March 23 - Lime Rock
April 3 - Lime Rock
May 3 - Watkin's Glen
May 4 - Watkin's Glen
May 24 - New Hampshire International
June 11 - Lime Rock
June 12 - Lime Rock
June 21 - New Hampshire International
August 9 - New Hampshire International
August 10 - New Hampshire International
Sept 27 - New Hampshire International
Nov 5 - Lime Rock

BMW CCA - NJ
www.njbmwcca.org
April 23 - Lime Rock
June 7 - Lime Rock
Oct 16 - lime rock

I'm sure there are more, but I'm pretty impressed with what we have already. I hope we can find one to go to.

Again, if you find anything more, put it up!

rouxeny

Personally, I'm interested in these

BMW CCA CT Valley - April 16
CTCart - June 24
SCDA - April 3 and June 12

I was lucky enough to go to the track at Willow Springs and let me tell you, you have no idea what your Z can do until you get it to the track.

jeff

The June 12th and 24th dates look good to me. I'd really like to track the Z this summer.

whitetrack

iTrader: (1)

Andrew, I think June 24th would work for me. I am already booked with stuff to do in April and May. Could we try to shoot for the CTcart on June 24th? I'd like to make sure we can all see you before you head out to Hawaii.

rouxeny

I'm going to try to do my best to go to a number of these events. I have a week of vacation left, instead of taking it all at once, I may be able to break it up into 7 individual days.....

whitetrack

iTrader: (1)

I just sent a note to the cartct club asking about registration procedures. I also reviewed their website and found it interesting. I hope we can get something together for June 24th. I will post the information I receive back from them soon. They do require the driver to wear a helmet so there will be an expense above the one day event fee.

rouxeny

Yes, everybody has to wear a helmet. Some clubs have helmets that you can borrow...

rouxeny

There are still spots open for CartCT on 6/24.

rouxeny

April 16th with the CT chapter of the BMW CCA is filled....by me! Well, there's one spot left and I'm going to take it.

The guy I'm in touch with seems a little AR, but we'll see how the event is.

John

iTrader: (17)

www.trackschedule.com

Visit the Road Racing forum here as there are plenty of track junkies around!

rouxeny

Hey, thanks for that link, it's pretty much what I was looking for.

John

iTrader: (17)

There's more info on track days here: https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=55544

Commasense also put together a nice spreadsheet of track days as well: http://www.cinergetics.com/hpde2004g.xls

rouxeny

Alright, got my confirmation for April 16th at Lime Rock. Gotta get the car tech'd and find a helmet to buy/borrow.

Anybody know how far Lime Rock is from New Haven? I know we went last year but I can't really remember how long it took, plus we made a lot of that journet at speeds I'm not willing to reproduce. I have to be at the track by about 6:45AM. It might be better to just go the night before and find a place to stay there? Or, I guess I could stay with my friend in Norwalk.

rouxeny

Hmm, looks like it'd be a good idea to stay there, it's about 90 minutes from New Haven.

Nothing worse than getting up at 4AM and then getting lost on the little streets.

rouxeny

Got the car tech'd, and had my brake fluid changed. I'm borrowing a helmet from a guy at work....getting psyched! Hopefully the weather will be good.

I'll try to take some pics...obviously not while I'm driving.

rouxeny

So, no pics, I didn't bring my camera. The event was pretty fun, much better organized than the one I had been to prior. There were probably 60 or so cars there, from my solitary Z to numerous M3/M5's, a few Porsche GT3's, a few Vipers, a bunch of Z06's, a number of dedicated stripped track cars. At least 30% of the cars were not BMW's, so I didn't feel too left out. I ran in the novice group, which was appropriate as that's what I am. There were a few 530's, older M3's, a RSX-S, various 3 series's, a Maxima, kind of a motley crew in that group. We did four runs, which were each about 15-20 minutes. They seemed fairly short, right when I started to get the feel of things, it was time to pit.

Lime Rock is a well maintained track, seem to be fairly reasonable run off areas, although a few cars did get dinged up. My first two runs I got stuck behind some 530's so I basically spent the time learning the line. I innocently thought that learning the line would be more obvious, that after a few laps, I'd have it down, and that a lot of it would be inutitive. Boy was I wrong. My 3rd and 4th runs were better, traffic freed up and it felt less like freeway driving. Most of the course is done in either 3rd or 4th gear, though I did hit 5th at the end of the straight. For the first two runs, I stayed in 4th almost the whole way through. Traffic was slow enough that I really didn't need to shift, it was kind of nice removing one variable.

As for the whole experience, I learned two things. First of all, you car can handle way way more than you can, and second, that the driver always is more important at determining performance than the car. As for the first, I ran with TCS/VSC on for the first three runs and never saw the slip light once. I'm on new tires, which really helped and obviously I didn't push the Z anywhere near it's limits. I turned them off for the last run and noticed basically no difference in performance or handling. My biggest fear was obviously of doing damage to the car, that's basically impossible unless something uncontrollable happens like the car in front of you spins or drops oil on the track, or if your own car sufferes some big mechanical failure. It was nice to know that I was learning a lot and pushed my driving abilities but that the car had a lot of safety room left.

As for the second, I went for a ride with my instructor in his old M3, (not sure of designation, but the boxy one before the E36 version) which has all of 190 hp. Obviously, he tore around the track at speeds that I couldn't even imagine, he got about the best out of those 190 horses. I wonder how he would have done with my car.

Great experience, highly recommended for all the rest of you. You'll be amazed by what you and your car can do. Definitely go with an instructor, it'll be that much more enjoyable.

whitetrack

iTrader: (1)

Andrew, I didn't see your posted track times. Did you get under 60 seconds? What was your top speed?

rouxeny

Ha, I have no idea what my track times were. I don't think they had anybody recording. As for my top speed, I hit about 105, maybe 110 going down the main straight. I'm positive that could be done much much faster, while riding in my instructor's E30 M3, we hit somewhere around 115-120, and he's definitely got less hp. Of course, he had a lot more speed coming into the straight, and he hit the brakes way way way later. I'm not sure how fast the GT3's, Ferrari's and 911 Turbo's were going on that same straight, but it seemed a heck of a lot faster than just 120.

I'm looking for another day to go.

John

iTrader: (17)

Good to hear you popped the cherry and had fun! Seems to me that you went in with the right mentality, and understand what your current limitations are. A lot of people jump into it with a hot-shot mentality, which many times ends up in them pushing the limits too early, frequently resulting in a balled-up car. Remember that there's no rush to move up through the ranks, take your time, listen to your instructor, and set reasonable goals for each track event (and communicate them to the instructor). Sounds like you did all of those... good job!

You got a ride in an E30 M3, definitely one of the best handling cars ever produced. If he had R-compounds, then he can take much more speed into the corner than any street tire. I wish I had started tracking cars with a momentum car, like a Miata, because it teaches you to be smooth and carry as much speed through the corner as possible.

You're right about the instructor part. When I'm not on track, I try to get as many ride-alongs as possible, and with different people. I've noticed that many instructors sign off their students for solo driving very early, which I don't recommend for a Novice or most Intermediate drivers, as there is always something to learn.

So when are you going to hit the go-fast-crack-pipe again?

rouxeny

I'm working on it, but it seems like I'm a little late for a lot of events. They seem to fill fairly quickly.