My E90 M3 Dedicated Track build (with pix!)

[roastbeef]

There is a fiber optic loop "thing" tied into the lower dash. Check to make sure it is plugged in. I forgot to plug mine back in a while back and the car does all kinds of wacky, inexplainable crap. It's in the drivers footwell.

[roastbeef]

Forgot to attach pics.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

There is a fiber optic loop "thing" tied into the lower dash. Check to make sure it is plugged in. I forgot to plug mine back in a while back and the car does all kinds of wacky, inexplainable crap. It's in the drivers footwell.

Thanks. I’ll take a look.

[Datka]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Nice! Will be fun to hang out!

Which clubs are you guys going with? Havent been at the glen since last year.
Would be nice to hang out with m3 rats out there.

[rhyary]

Originally Posted by Datka

Which clubs are you guys going with? Havent been at the glen since last year.
Would be nice to hang out with m3 rats out there.

https://www.davidmurry.com/event-registration

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by Datka

Which clubs are you guys going with? Havent been at the glen since last year.
Would be nice to hang out with m3 rats out there.

-David Murry
-Trackmasters
-PCA Niagra

[Datka]

Originally Posted by dogbone

-David Murry
-Trackmasters
-PCA Niagra

That's a lot of back to back track days for the Glen lol
So I will see you on Wednesday and Thursday with PCA.
Will be in my silver e92 m3
Never run with these guys before.
Do they really require signed tech form in the qualified shop?

[SYT_Shadow]

Safe drive Mr Bone! The car looks great, the Glen awaits you!!

[dogbone]

Let’s file this one under: holy tropical depressions Batman……

So……..yeah it poured rain ALL DAY today at Watkins Glen…..no laps.

Tomorrow looks pretty dodgy too. Might not get any laps at all for the two day event. Crazy.

Some tropical depression is just dumping rain here like crazy. Unreal. It never totally stopped raining the whole day. Sometimes it was just pourrrrrrring.

No wipers and no rain tires = hang out and be social all day.

Hopefully next week is better.

[fsmtnbiker]

Go rent a shitbox and drive it around in the rain to learn the track! Won't wear the tires or brakes out enough for it to be a worry and at least you'll get to see the track and have a feel for the corners.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by fsmtnbiker

Go rent a shitbox and drive it around in the rain to learn the track! Won't wear the tires or brakes out enough for it to be a worry and at least you'll get to see the track and have a feel for the corners.

Thanks for the tip!

Full disclosure—-SYT_Shadow let me drive his car around the track. And I sat passenger seat on some laps that took the street tires to their edge in the absolutely sopping conditions. I was actually impressed with how well he could brake on the water drenched surface.

(Plus, I have a bunch of time on a sim at that track.)

So, I think I got a pretty good taste/tease of it. Been looking at the forecast this AM—-there’s a chance I could get out there later today. If not, it’s looking pretty good next week.

[OG Shark]

Man wish I was there right now

You guys have fun and be safe!

[rhyary]

Originally Posted by OG Shark

Man wish I was there right now

You guys have fun and be safe!

Just got 40min in the dry, The "dog" should be happy once the track open after lunch.

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: Sometimes you just gotta take what you can get. But the irony of the timing is a tough pill to swallow.....

Today started totally rainy. This tropical depression system was simply churning over us and dumping immense amounts of moisture on the whole region. Apps on the phone were warning about flooding, the lakes were looking pretty swollen. It was just an incredible amount of water coming down. The event organizer said that they've only had two consecutive days of constant rain once in 13 years.....lucky us.....we should go buy a lottery ticket.....

The weather apps were showing that the rain would be totally over right at the end of the event, but there was hope that the track could dry out before it was over.

Around 10AM, it stopped raining and everyone who was not running in the rain started hoping. At that moment, the weather apps seemed to indicate the rain might be over.

By 11:15AM, the whole track was basically dry. I started prepping to go out on track. But I had noticed that SYT_Shadow and his brother had been away from our garage area for awhile.

As I was getting ready to go out on track, SYT_Shadow and his brother returned. I asked them where they had been. They said that a guy we met on day 1 had an on track incident on the wet track and needed help putting his car on his trailer.

So, the three of us went to help get the car on the trailer. We didn't think much of it from a weather standpoint because the track was dry now and we thought the rain might be done. (If I had gone out, I would have had around 45 minutes to do my first session on track before the 12PM lunch.) It took 4 of us over an hour to get the car on the trailer (11:30-12:40). Lunch was from 12-1. The track stayed dry until 12:55PM, and then......it started raining again. And it rained good. Track was drenched again. Tech crews who had put on dry-weather slicks were scrambling to put the rain tires back on. Idiots with no rain tires and no wipers like me just continued to sit there.......like a sad little lost boy in his race suit......

And the rain kept coming.....a solid squall hit at 2:15PM. I was like, if this doesn't stop in the next 15 minutes, I will have no hope of getting on track at all for the whole 2-day event. Well, the rain stopped right at 2:30PM. And then, the sun peaked out from behind the clouds, and the wind picked up a bit. And.....the track started drying again. We had seen in the morning, it took a little over an hour for most of the track surface to dry. I thought, if we can just be done with the rain, the track could be drivable by 3:30. That would give us 1 hour before the event ended at 4:30.

The rain stayed away and the driving line started to dry out. At 3:30PM, I said that's it, I'm going out. The track wasn't dry all the way around, but I didn't care. I was happy to work on sections of the track.

So, I go out at 3:30PM. Most of the track is quite drivable, but certain sections were still wet. But now we had a bunch of cars on track, which helps accelerate the drying process. I ran for 30 straight minutes, just trying to get a feel for the place. Then I was finally overheating and low on gas. Came in. Got gas, and went right back out. Had about 25 minutes left for the whole event. Started turning laps. And put down a half decent lap as my last lap while the engine was overheating. Phew....I'll take it.

Suffice it to say that I've just started digging into Watkins Glen. Endless stuff to work on. And the track never totally dried out. Ran a 2:06 with oil temps approaching 300ºF and the dash complaining. Will be curious to see what I can put together next week.

Oh, and the event ended and literally a few minutes later a brilliant sunshine came out.....whatever....

Impressions of Watkins Glen from two sessions:
-Quality of the pavement surface is excellent. One of the best I have ever been on.
-Many of the turns are very momentum-based---long wide rounders. If your car is heavy, it's gonna hurt. A light car can really excel there. Buuuuuut, you need horsepower at this track because there are a lot of straight sections, and if you don't have power......you're hosed.
-Working the big elevation gains at High Plains Raceway really prepped me nicely for the elevation work at WGI. No problems there.
-Turn 2----gotta work on carrying big speed through there. The car can take it. Now I gotta be able to take it.
-Bus Stop is an interesting feature. Gonna have to work on the line there.
-I practiced this track on the sim. I'm finding I can brake later in real life than in the sim. Put it on the list of things to work on.

This was the first event that I attended with SYT_Shadow, his brother and rhyary. I hope it's not the last! I really enjoyed everyones company. Because we were trapped in the garage for so much of the event, it was two days of lively conversation. I don't know how it was arranged, but the four of us were all pitted together in the garage. That worked out great.

Looking forward to next week. Hope I can keep putting down more hot laps.

[SYT_Shadow]

It was great to finally be able to track together, even if it only lasted one hour! I hope the track Gods shine on you and you have a great next week!!

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: Yup, two hurricanes in two weeks....

So----yeah......I was fighting the rain again today at Watkins Glen. I mean, why stop with one hurricane when you can have two? In just one short week, I have become an unwilling expert on the drying patterns of the Watkins Glen pavement surface. For anyone that's curious, the braking zone for Turn 1, the braking zone for Turn 8, the braking zone for Turn 9, and the outer edge pavement on the exit of Turn 9 are the four places on the track that are last to dry. (Some of the berms are questionable too after the rain.)

It rained overnight, so everything was still drying in the morning. But it WAS drying. No rain in the early AM. At 8:45AM, I had to do a check ride with Trackmasters. It went fine. By the way, the Trackmasters people are very nice. I am enjoying their format. (This Trackmasters is different than the one on the West Coast.) (btw, David Murry was also very nice last week.)

My first hot lap session, I did a 2:04. My second hot lap session, I did a 2:00. I was feeling like I was starting to sort some stuff out. I was excited to get back out there and try for sub-2:00. And then the rain started around 11AM. And we couldn't get it to dry out and/or stop sprinkling until 4:15PM---with only 15 minutes left on the day. (I tried going out earlier, but the track conditions were too wet.) So, I go out at 4:15, and run into traffic. Did a 2:01 and the checker flag came out---day was over.

Tomorrow's forecast is 0% chance of rain. I'm looking forward to that. Might even break out the new tires tomorrow.

[dogbone]

Let's file this one under: A day of ups and downs.

As promised, there was no rain today. Today was a day full of brilliant sunshine and almost 90ºF.

Since it was going to be warm, I had a plan set to get things done as early as possible. The first session of the day was an hour long---8:30-9:30. I decided I was ready to run the new Pirelli DH, but I didn't want to run them my first time out. So, my plan was, run from 8:30-8:45 on scrubs to get my head in the game---do 2-3 hot laps and come in. Let the car rest for a bit, swap tires to the new DH, and then go back out around 9:15AM and catch the last 15 minutes of the session. My hope was that most people would be done running by the end of the hour-long session.

So, that's what I did. The track was very crowded at 8:30AM. All the laps had significant traffic. Didn't care. Ran on the scrubs and came in just before 8:45. Swapped tires and then waited until just before 9:15. Went out on the new DH and did my best to find a gap. Unfortunately, on my warm up lap, I let a Supra GT4 factory built race car go by. I know this car is quick, so I let him by, buuuuut he was exiting the track. Darn it. So, as I come around the final turn, I can't get down to the apex because he's sitting there......whatever. I decided I had to go for it. I knew the track was empty in front of me, so I got on it. Ran a decent lap and got a 1:58.2.

I decided to run the tires one more time in the second session of the day. I'm 0.5 sec faster than the 1:58.2 by the bus stop. And then going towards Turn 8, I caught a Porsche that pointed me by but didn't lift. I committed to passing him but had to approach [the right turn] T8 on the right side of the track. Argh. Scooted around the turn as best I could, but lost significant time. The lap was still a 1:58.4.

Here's the 1:58.2:

Knowing that I was in 1:57 territory twice, I was really set on trying to put it all together and get a 1:57. I went out one more time on the new DH. While approaching T9, the car dumped into limp mode. AHHHH! I stopped in a runoff area on the outside of T9 which made me very unhappy, so I actually reversed and moved towards the flag station to get out of harms way. I was safe there. It was near the end of the session so I waited until everyone came in and then I limped it in.

I scanned the codes and it was my favorite code----mastervac plausibility. argh. I looked in the wheel well and-----the wires that go to the brake booster vacuum pump were all severed. That darn wire has frayed on the tire like 3 times now......

I immediately ran over to The Little Speed Shop guys who have a shop at the track and asked if they could help. They said they could deal with all the wiring stuff by the end of the day. They got really busy and kept pushing my car off. Finally, they got to it. He fixes all the wires, starts the car, and still.....limp mode. The brake booster vacuum pump was not coming on. After staring at it for a bit, the tech wondered if a fuse going to the vacuum pump may have blown. It took him awhile to find it, but a fuse was blown. Replaced the fuse and the car popped back to life! So, it looks like the car is good to go. I'll drive it tomorrow and see.


So-----now the story of this trip is about to get a bit more complicated. Months ago, when I originally planned this trip, today was supposed to be my last day on track and then I was supposed to head home. But when the weather was looking bad, I booked Wed and Thurs this week as a backup plan which would delay my returning home by a couple days. Wellllllll, yesterday, SYT_Shadow texts me and says, "hey since you're out here, why don't you just come with us to VIR for Fri/Sat/Sun?" uhhhhhhh that's almost 600 miles from here....and the wrong direction when considering where I live. So, of course, like any track junkie, I call my wife. She was supportive! So, I started looking into it. SYT_Shadow was able to get me into the event. So-----instead of tracking on Thursday, now I will be trailering to VIR.

Yes yes, I know I'm crazy. But doing this helps me in two ways:
1. It saves me 6 days of trailering across the country to do VIR in the future.
2. Watkins Glen has done a great job of illustrating that weather can really bite you. If I planned a VIR trip in the future, I could never guarantee the weather several months prior to the event. But this event this weekend, I could look at the weather and know that it's not going to rain. It will be hot though.

The new Pirelli DH should still be in very good shape to put down a good lap once I learn the track. And I have plenty of scrubs with me.

So, I'm doing it. Crazy.

[b4hand]

Oh man, I'm hyped to see this thing run VIR!!

[fsmtnbiker]

Awesome! Making the best of it. Very interested to see what you can run around VIR.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by b4hand

Oh man, I'm hyped to see this thing run VIR!!

Originally Posted by fsmtnbiker

Awesome! Making the best of it. Very interested to see what you can run around VIR.

haha yeah I've been curious about VIR for a long time. Last year, I did a lot of sim laps of VIR because we were supposed to go there in 2020, but covid crushed all that. I haven't run any sim laps of VIR recently, but I still feel like I have the track in my head, so that's good.

I will do my best to learn the track on Friday. And then, I'm guessing Saturday I will put the good tires on and see what's possible. Even though I have Sunday as well, I am planning on only staying part of the day on Sunday so I can get the drive back home going. We'll see.

PCA Potomac is putting me in an intermediate run group. I think I may have a chance at the Advanced group if I can prove myself out there. I don't care what run group I'm in on Friday because I'll simply be learning the place. And I've found that if I go to grid early, I can get two hot laps, which is all my car can do at full pace anyway. So, I'm not concerned about run groups right now.

I was able to rent a room at the track. There was only one room left in the whole place, so I took it. It was nicer than what I would normally book for myself, but I didn't want to stay 30 minutes from the track.

I'm considering taking a route through Washington DC because that's where I grew up and I still have family and friends there. Would be nice to see a few people, even if very briefly.

haha while I'm sitting here writing this, I'm just laughing at myself. What an adventure.

[turbo_joe]

You will love VIR it’s an awesome track. I went for the first time earlier this year and heading back next month for Hyperfest. Low 2 minutes would be a great pace for your first visit. I got down to a 2:04 leaving plenty on the table.

[rhyary]

VIR it is.
We expect nothing else but adding 3 more trackdays when opportunity presents itself.