COTA coming up!

[PrimeBMW]

Originally Posted by mastek

Lots of crashes. Including a nice new e92m3 full race car build = $$$,$$$

That's a shame. Why all the crashes? It looks like there is plenty of run off, dry track right? New track....people jacked up?

[PrimeBMW]

Originally Posted by mastek

Here's a pic of the fastest BMW @ COTA, belongs to a certain national champion and popular software tuner. e46m3 with an s65.
Faster then any e92m3 in the Continental Challenge this year.

no surprise there. the continental tires are 3 generation old Hoosiers. even with equal tires I would think the e46 m3 with a s65 would be faster.........at least I hope so as a s62 or s65 swap might be in my future.

[jml]

Originally Posted by PrimeBMW

That's a shame. Why all the crashes? It looks like there is plenty of run off, dry track right? New track....people jacked up?

Race start gone wrong. I think he swerved to avoid a front row car that missed a shift on the rolling start and hit another car. Hit the outside armco about 200 yards from T1 at about 60mph (bounced off back to center of track). Took them 45min to repair the fence before they would let a group go back out.

That car was the nicest BMW race car I've even seen. No expense spared. I feel bad for the owner, and glad he walked away.

Overall, that was a very well run event (save for COTA screwing us out of 2 hours of track time by forcing the track cold at 5pm instead of the contract terms specifying 6pm).

Very few incidents. I think the worst DE incident was a E92M3 DCT that blew his motor going into 12 and caught on fire. As we drove by we were commenting on the gold wheels on a black car....but those were not gold wheels, it was oil.

[bigjae1976]

That was the only crash that I heard of. Otherwise pretty uneventful. The surface was so grippy I'm thinking it makes the drivetrain work overtime. My coolant temps on my E46 would be touching red by the 3rd lap. Probably didn't help being stuck in traffic.

Overall it was a great event. I think BMWCCA has a good chance of being invited back...at least they didn't seem to hurt their chances. Let's hope!

The rain session was my favorite. IMO, that really shows the quality of the track. But stay off the T1 rumble strips in the wet! First time around T1 not in traffic, almost got bit.

[SpiralOut]

Originally Posted by bigjae1976

That was the only crash that I heard of. Otherwise pretty uneventful. The surface was so grippy I'm thinking it makes the drivetrain work overtime. My coolant temps on my E46 would be touching red by the 3rd lap. Probably didn't help being stuck in traffic.

Overall it was a great event. I think BMWCCA has a good chance of being invited back...at least they didn't seem to hurt their chances. Let's hope!

The rain session was my favorite. IMO, that really shows the quality of the track. But stay off the T1 rumble strips in the wet! First time around T1 not in traffic, almost got bit.

Nice save!

[TXmtrhed]

Originally Posted by jml

Race start gone wrong. I think he swerved to avoid a front row car that missed a shift on the rolling start and hit another car. Hit the outside armco about 200 yards from T1 at about 60mph (bounced off back to center of track). Took them 45min to repair the fence before they would let a group go back out.

That car was the nicest BMW race car I've even seen. No expense spared. I feel bad for the owner, and glad he walked away.

Overall, that was a very well run event (save for COTA screwing us out of 2 hours of track time by forcing the track cold at 5pm instead of the contract terms specifying 6pm).

Very few incidents. I think the worst DE incident was a E92M3 DCT that blew his motor going into 12 and caught on fire. As we drove by we were commenting on the gold wheels on a black car....but those were not gold wheels, it was oil.

I was at the top of the T1 hill taking a group tour of the track and we waited around see the start of that race. Couldn't believe that there weren't more cars involved. Team was from CA and this was their maiden race -what a bummer. There were at least 2 other race cars coming back on flatbeds on Friday too but not as bad. Unfortunately, the red flag ate into our group's chance to drive the M6 Gran Coupe's from the BMW Performance School so the performance center drivers gave us some hot laps in those instead. Lot of fun!

The worst DE incident had to be the e46 that hit the wall at T12 on Friday. Very pretty instructors car that had some sort of mechanical that caused it to lose control under braking.

JML, nice meeting you, too bad you had to trailer your car early. Agreed that it was a great weekend at COTA. The only other complaint I heard was the instructors not knowing who their students were on Saturday - something I'm sure they'll fix for next time. Pretty funny (for me) to see all the instructors running up and down the cold pits looking for their students.

[yandy]

Originally Posted by bigjae1976

That was the only crash that I heard of. Otherwise pretty uneventful. The surface was so grippy I'm thinking it makes the drivetrain work overtime. My coolant temps on my E46 would be touching red by the 3rd lap. Probably didn't help being stuck in traffic.

Overall it was a great event. I think BMWCCA has a good chance of being invited back...at least they didn't seem to hurt their chances. Let's hope!

The rain session was my favorite. IMO, that really shows the quality of the track. But stay off the T1 rumble strips in the wet! First time around T1 not in traffic, almost got bit.

Man! nice save!, that could've been ugly, looks like fun in the rain.

[jml]

Originally Posted by TXmtrhed

The worst DE incident had to be the e46 that hit the wall at T12 on Friday. Very pretty instructors car that had some sort of mechanical that caused it to lose control under braking.

That was not an instructor's Car. But I can't say who it was, special guest...etc.

Originally Posted by TXmtrhed

JML, nice meeting you, too bad you had to trailer your car early. Agreed that it was a great weekend at COTA. The only other complaint I heard was the instructors not knowing who their students were on Saturday - something I'm sure they'll fix for next time. Pretty funny (for me) to see all the instructors running up and down the cold pits looking for their students.

Likewise!

There were a lot of cars and long long lines to race up and down looking for students. I really liked the way they ran the grid though. Nice to drive directly out of the garage onto grid. Part of the confusion was that there was no consistent way to comunicate changes to the instructors on Sat. I learned of a change on Sat AM when the student came a found me and introduced herself - this was after I got my assignment. That happened because she switched groups so that her husband could drive (they shared a car and didn't communicate that to the CDI beforehand.)

[llis]

What a great track! What a lot of fun!

[signes]

Ilis/others that went: Any pics/video? More thoughts on the track, event, etc?

[gobuffs]

The event was fantastic, but I am bit biased.

Disliked turns 6, 7, 8. Turns 1, 11 and 12 are really slow. Turns 13, 14, 15 aren't not my favorite either.

Likes- 16-19 is AWESOME. The esses are great fun too.

[ThunderMoose]

Originally Posted by gobuffs

The event was fantastic, but I am bit biased.

Disliked turns 6, 7, 8. Turns 1, 11 and 12 are really slow. Turns 13, 14, 15 aren't not my favorite either.

Likes- 16-19 is AWESOME. The esses are great fun too.

Bruce - I assume you raced. How did you do?

[gobuffs]

I ran the first 2 practices and qual on Friday and had some overheating issues after qual- enough that the car went into limp mode. But I qualified 11th. The cold start issue was a bit worse when trying to get to grid for race 1, so I started at the back. Good thing as I would been in the middle of the major incident. 2nd race my codriver did as I was tired. Saturday I was setting up the podium stuff so my codriver ran qual and the feature race. He finished 6th. Sunday I lined up for qual only to see the heavens open up so I aborted. Started the race from the back. Was on slicks and had to tip toe around. Passed people on back straight and made it up thru the field. Turned it over to my codriver. We finished 14th I think?

[ThunderMoose]

Sounds like you guys ran a great weekend! Job well done!

[gobuffs]

Thanks. It was an event that was 6-7x as many people as we normally have. It was tough but was well worth it.

[Voltigeur]

Originally Posted by gobuffs

The event was fantastic, but I am bit biased.

Disliked turns 6, 7, 8. Turns 1, 11 and 12 are really slow. Turns 13, 14, 15 aren't not my favorite either.

Likes- 16-19 is AWESOME. The esses are great fun too.

I agree: an amazing day. A privilege to drive an FIA spec track.

For me I enjoyed: sweeping down from 1 -> 2 ; rumble strip slalom 3-5; then 6 - 9. Did not do well on 10.

50/50 on 11; same 12.

I too really loved 16-19: could use throttle and feel the edge.

Rainy Sun AM slowed me down and - frankly - made me drive better. Could concentrate on line and braking points.

Hat tip to Steve and all the rest who made the day happen; including those who vented when it was cancelled.

Also, thanks Steve (BMW Austin) for the much needed hydration - 3 pallets of water.

-- V

[bigjae1976]

Originally Posted by gobuffs

The event was fantastic, but I am bit biased.

Disliked turns 6, 7, 8. Turns 1, 11 and 12 are really slow. Turns 13, 14, 15 aren't not my favorite either.

Likes- 16-19 is AWESOME. The esses are great fun too.

Yes, job well done! I knew BMWCCA would keep things pretty uneventful in a good way. The lack of incidents makes it an honor to be part of the event...not an embarrassment.

Actually, T1, T12, and T20 piss me off. T15 is fun because you can really rocket out of there.

I see everyone go wide setting up for T15. I just go straight and caught up to quite a few people.

Originally Posted by jml

Likewise!

There were a lot of cars and long long lines to race up and down looking for students. I really liked the way they ran the grid though. Nice to drive directly out of the garage onto grid. Part of the confusion was that there was no consistent way to comunicate changes to the instructors on Sat. I learned of a change on Sat AM when the student came a found me and introduced herself - this was after I got my assignment. That happened because she switched groups so that her husband could drive (they shared a car and didn't communicate that to the CDI beforehand.)

I wanted to take you up on the instruction but I had one assigned. Sorry I missed meeting you. I had my family there so I was tending to them.

Originally Posted by yandy

Man! nice save!, that could've been ugly, looks like fun in the rain.

I don't think I would have hit anything but still glad I saved it!