[reposted from Bimmerfest]
Took the M out to Lime Rock Park yesterday for the first time in 2011. It was a fantastic day - 65 - 71 and sunny. I was running my new wheels/tires and brake pads - Apex ARC-8 18 x 10's, Carbotecch XP-12 brake pads and Nitto NT-05 275/35/18. This was a great set up! I met with Paradocs and there was a couple of other M3s running too. I didn't film until the last session, so I missed a good chance with 3 M3's running head-to-tail for several laps.
The first session was a bit hairy, I was put in Intermediate 2, which was full of race cars getting an early season shakedown and passing on any straight, which was interpreted as passing anywhere. I was getting used to my set-up and I was getting dive bombed by Miata's and every other f**king thing coming into the corners - it was a close to racing as I have ever come, and they were in race cars and rentals and I was in my daily driver. On top of that, these aren't the best race drivers either (me included) so I spent the whole session looking in my mirrors looking for nutters... if they were dumb enough to put themselves in that spot, what are they going to do next! My favourite was looking for the apex of Turn 1 and seeing a Mazda Miata next to my wing mirror! Anyway, I moved groups to Intermediate 1, which was much more civilized! It was good to blow the cob webs off. I need to slow down a bit and work on lines etc., I had more lines through Big Bend and the Esses than Shakespeare! I was getting a little over 130 on the speedo on the front straight. I had a pucker moment near the end of the session where I went far too deep into Turn 7 at the bottom of the Uphill, right into the spoogle of rubber and dust...I have seen race cars end up in their and it hasn't ended well. I got away with one!
I am off to VIR in a week or so...
Here's a clip of me chasing a tuned Corvette in the last session. He had about 445 RW HP against the 360 of an M3, so I could not keep up with him on the straights, but could carry more speed through the corners. I chatted to him afterwards and he was having fun too - he was a big fan of the M after driving one at the PDC - so we hugged it out!
The M is awesome. I threw it about all day on the track, pack up and drive off like nothing happened