[SP33DRCR]

I drive a 2009 e92 M3, and although I've had the car for a few years I've just started taking it to the track about six months ago. Yesterday was my tenth track day, and my fourth at the awesome Mazda Speedway Laguna Seca (this one was with Hooked on Driving). The other six were at Thunderhill. I thought I'd post my experiences.

My lap times have been improving steadily, and yesterday I dropped a lot of time. My fastest lap, in the second session of the day, was a 1:45.32. Not too shabby. Here is a video of my faster laps, on the tail of a white Porsche GT3, with a lap time of 1:46.47. [u2b]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCbaB76Oeq0[/u2b]

The car is basically stock. I did put "lowering springs" on it, which reduced the ride height a bit. Cost a couple of hundred bucks. And I went to 18" wheels (ended up with the Volk Racing TE37SLs) and Toyo Proxies R888s (265/295) for the track. Kind of pricey, but it allows me to stops the harsh wear and tear to the stock wheels.

The tires have awesome grip, but can be difficult to dial in properly. My first session of the day yesterday was actually pretty crappy, and the last session they were getty greasy again: [u2b]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHtr-IkvTeE[/u2b]. Lots of fun, tho.

I am now on my third type of brake pad, and continue to have issues. Started out with CarboTech XP-10s, and pretty much got the braking system so hot that I melted the brake line where it attaches to the caliper in the front-left. The pads were toast after one day. I changed to the CarboTech XP-12s, and although they felt really great especially when really pushing them hard, they also lasted one day. Just tried two sets of Pagid RS-19s. First set lasted three track days, but I ended up burning through one set yesterday. Maybe its time for me to upgrade to a big brake kit.