slcook54 - Track Journal

[Bimmer Barney]

Originally Posted by slcook54

Thanks!

I won't be able to make the October SpeedSF dates as the cage will take two weeks and overlaps with that weekend.

Laguna schedule will be:
- 9/14 NCRC (maybe)
- 9/22 with HOD (booked)
- 10/23 with HOD (highly likely)
- 10/31 with Corsa Club (maybe)

Not sure if you've run Corsa Club but my last day was with them. It was a nightmare. Way too many people and only got 4 sessions. I didn't even time most of my laps because there was no point.

[slcook54]

I haven't run with them. It's the last Laguna day before it closes, so its tempting. However, I realized I'm at a wedding and flying back that Monday, so I can't go anyways.

I find the weekdays are much less busy compared to the weekends. And running in open fast also helps.

It's also quite staggering at the correlation between the average type of attendee and the entry cost of the day. This past weekend was 105db and $500 / day, it was like 25% Porsche GT3's and fast / expensive cars all around. When the entry fee is $250-300, you generally see a lot more immaturity.

[spxxx]

Originally Posted by Bimmer Barney

Not sure if you've run Corsa Club but my last day was with them. It was a nightmare. Way too many people and only got 4 sessions. I didn't even time most of my laps because there was no point.

+1

I'm not picky but they're the only group that I'll never run with again, most crowded and sloppy event I've attended.

[Gouki]

Originally Posted by slcook54

Fast Lap

Amazing traction out of the corners, are you running DSC off?

[slcook54]

Originally Posted by Gouki

Amazing traction out of the corners, are you running DSC off?

No. Still running euro MDM. Working up to turning it off soon.

[Bimmer Barney]

Originally Posted by slcook54

No. Still running euro MDM. Working up to turning it off soon.

You hit those lap times with dsc on? The car is definitely harder to drive with dsc on imo. Damn I need a coaching session and some more track days on the calendar STAT!!!

[slcook54]

Originally Posted by Bimmer Barney

You hit those lap times with dsc on? The car is definitely harder to drive with dsc on imo. Damn I need a coaching session and some more track days on the calendar STAT!!!

Ya. It's still on. I think there is a full second when I turn it off. Just not trying to rush it.

[slcook54]

Prior to the day

- Swapped pads to DS3.12 from DS1.11 on recommendation from Essex
- Changed the alignment to -3.5 up front from -2.6. We can only get -2.2 of camber in the rear while hitting our ⅛ inch total toe in target.
- Added Bimmerworld 3mm spacer up front as I was experiencing a bit of rubbing on the strut





09/22/22 - Track Day #14

It was a fun day with Hooked on Driving. Davisca455 and Johal E32 both made the trek down with me. The Open Fast group was littered with Porches, 2 F80 M3's and 2 765 LTs. I felt under powered all day, which has never previously bothered me. The GT3 guys, many who I recognized from prior days, slot into the fast group and then run at mediocre pace. They don't want to let you by and gap me on the front straight. I'm not sure why they are in Open Fast and further confused by why they don't grid in the slower lanes. I was held up a good portion of the day and had a tough time finding open track. I'm on their bumper the whole lap and then after exiting 11, they just blast down the straight and the process starts all over again.




The car felt all over the place, it was sliding and squealing in places it previously wasn't. The car was squirming unevenly during braking. I talked to Tony about this and he said that it's characteristic of the NT01, but also that my hot pressures at 34psi were too low. He told me to move up to 38psi hot. I also learned that it was NASA nationals the weekend prior and there was a ton of gunk left on the track. Despite that, I was able to come within a tenth of my PB in the second session with a 1:42.63.

Given the track conditions, I stopped focusing on beating my time and shifted to concentrating on my lines and sighting further down the track with my eyes. It's amazing how much more speed you can carry when you're not staring at the apex.

This will be the last time tracking the car in this configuration. I dropped off the car with Tony at TC Design on Monday morning, who will doing the following:

Chassis
- TCD ½ Cage
- Race Tech 4100 W&T seats
- Custom fixed floor mounts
- Schroth 2x2 Flexi harnesses
- Hans Device
- Rear seat removal
- Clean up of wiring
- Removal of sound deadening

Ready to under the knife



I also gave Phil at Bimmerworld a call based on several people's recommendations and honestly wish I would have connected with him at the start of this build. He's a great guy to chat with and super knowledgeable. They invest a lot of time figuring out how to set up these cars. I have parts from several manufacturers they don't work with (Ohlins vs. MCS, Alcon vs. AP, SPL vs. Fall-Line, etc.) and it was difficult to follow his lead entirely, but he was flexible in helping work around that. I asked him to help me piece together the rest of my suspension arms, bushings and bearings that I didn't already have. Here's what we ended up with.

Suspension

- 3DM conversion from Track Day kit to Dedicated Track kit, 685/1000 Swift Springs and revalve. TCD overnighted the kit to Barry and he turned it around in 24 hours, TCD just received the shocks back today and can now proceed with the tear down.
- Bimmerworld solid subframe bushings
- Bimmerworld trailing arm bearing set
- Bimmerworld rear camber arm bearing kit
- Fall-Line rear camber shim kit
- Fall-Line race toe link
- Fall-Line front sway bar end links
- Fall-Line rear sway bar end links
- Fall-Line billet aluminum trailing arm set
- Hotchkis sway bars
- Powerflex urethane front and rear differential bushings
- SPL Rear Upper Wishbones/Guide Link Arms
- Alignment and corner balance



I can't wait to get the car back and am looking forward to shaking it down at Laguna on 10/23. That will be the last Laguna day before it closes in November for resurfacing. I'll be running Thunderhill East for the next 6 months.

Brakes

Many have likely seen my frustrations elsewhere on the forum with the AP 9660/9449 kit. The Ferodo DS1.11 only lasted for ~4 days. I've switched to DS3.12, let's see if that helps at all. After talking with Phil, he said that people often regret getting this kit and should have probably just started with the 9668 kit from the get go. I don't really have the energy to rip the entire system out and move to Alcon. When these rotors are toast, I'll swap to the 9668 kit and sell the 9660 kit, which allows for a 25mm pad compared to the 18mm pad on the 9660.

The rear pad taper is also extreme, not much to do here aside from flipping the pads and inspecting the calipers to ensure the pistons aren't sticking.



Aero

Drawing inspiration from berns and talking with Phil, I also picked up the Bimmerworld Aero kit including the ducted front splitter and ultralight wing. The wing is currently backordered and projected to be two months out. I'm in no immediate rush to get the aero on, but will toss it on in the coming month. I'm also interested to see how ducting will prolong the life of the front pads.





Misc Items

- My Fall-Line DCT pan is leaking, VT ordered me a new gasket and we'll toss that on before the next Laguna day. I'm not sure why it's leaking, when it was only installed recently.

I'll be doing a maintenance overhaul in November including:
- Spark plugs
- Fuel breather valve
- SLON Vanos cover
- Injectors
- M Power Motorsport TA's

[slcook54]

Fast Lap. Didn't grab third gear coming out of T6 and slogged it up the hill in 4th gear. Lost a lot of time there.

[wyatth]

Absolutely mental!

[roastbeef]

very nice corkscrew execution.

[berns]

Nice update. NT01's are known for having grip for a while, but they are also known to be super squirrelly. Sidewalls made of rubberbands. Put a proper 200tw or better on there and you'll be blown away.

2.5-2.6 out back is pretty much perfect, so keep working your way there.

Are you running with traction on? Sounds like it was interfering sometimes putting the power down.

Between the damper upgrade, new arms/bushings and some weight reduction, you're going to unleash an entire new side to the E92.

[slcook54]

Originally Posted by berns

Nice update. NT01's are known for having grip for a while, but they are also known to be super squirrelly. Sidewalls made of rubberbands. Put a proper 200tw or better on there and you'll be blown away.

2.5-2.6 out back is pretty much perfect, so keep working your way there.

Are you running with traction on? Sounds like it was interfering sometimes putting the power down.

Between the damper upgrade, new arms/bushings and some weight reduction, you're going to unleash an entire new side to the E92.

Ya. I'll likely move to the 660, RE71RS or Conti ECF next.

Car is still running in Euro MDM, close to turning it off. Definitely before adding the aero.

[berns]

Originally Posted by slcook54

Ya. I'll likely move to the 660 or Conti ECF next.

Car is still running in Euro MDM, close to turning it off. Definitely before adding the aero.

Turn that crap off so you can better understand what the car is doing. It's insanely invasive. I was forced to run an event with it on (ripped the wires) and it was the difference in 6 seconds around Chuckwalla.

[spxxx]

Originally Posted by berns

Turn that crap off so you can better understand what the car is doing. It's insanely invasive. I was forced to run an event with it on (ripped the wires) and it was the difference in 6 seconds around Chuckwalla.

+1... It's pretty much impossible to learn car control with any pre-2020 TC active, plus you'll be way faster.

[Gouki]

I echo others comments here, you've got a very nice set up, and were significantly faster and more consistent than me when we happened to be at Laguna together. Turn that traction control off in dry conditions and you'll love the car even more. You're more than capable to run with systems off if you're putting in 1:42s.

This was my best time.

[DrFerry]

Just a suggestion I used to give my students:

Find a remote or an abandoned parking lot, or unused large patch of asphalt, and go there when it's raining or just after it has rained.

Drive the car in large circles of a fixed radius progressively increasing your speed until the rear starts to step out. Add throttle to keep the car in a slide while adding some opposite steer angle and learn to steer the car with the gas pedal (drifting). Learn how much gas is needed to maintain a set yaw angle. Learn how rapidly must the steering be returned to zero when grip returns? Learn how much throttle is too much as well as what happens when you rapidly lift the throttle in a drift (spin). Learn how to trip the car into a slide by pitching it with simultaneous steering and brake and then rapid throttle applications. In the parking lot you can learn safely some basic car control before turning MDM off at the track. Some liquid soap spread around the parking lot drifting circle also helps reduce surface coefficient of friction i.e. slippy. This exercise can also be done in the snow. IF you really want to go fast take a car control class. I believe BMW now offers one in CA and so do Porsche.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a3...ol-experience/
.
BMW Performance Center M School Classes just down the road from me in Greenville SC and in Thermal CA.
.
https://pds.eventsbmw.com/?location=...387.1665750932

[derbo]

Originally Posted by DrFerry

Just a suggestion I used to give my students:

Find a remote or an abandoned parking lot, or unused large patch of asphalt, and go there when it's raining or just after it has rained.

Drive the car in large circles of a fixed radius progressively increasing your speed until the rear starts to step out. Add throttle to keep the car in a slide while adding some opposite steer angle and learn to steer the car with the gas pedal (drifting). Learn how much gas is needed to maintain a set yaw angle. Learn how rapidly must the steering be returned to zero when grip returns? Learn how much throttle is too much as well as what happens when you rapidly lift the throttle in a drift (spin). Learn how to trip the car into a slide by pitching it with simultaneous steering and brake and then rapid throttle applications. In the parking lot you can learn safely some basic car control before turning MDM off at the track. Some liquid soap spread around the parking lot drifting circle also helps reduce surface coefficient of friction i.e. slippy. This exercise can also be done in the snow. IF you really want to go fast take a car control class. I believe BMW now offers one in CA and so do Porsche.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a3...ol-experience/
.
BMW Performance Center M School Classes just down the road from me in Greenville SC and in Thermal CA.
.
https://pds.eventsbmw.com/?location=...387.1665750932

Lol. CA = no rain. CA = no snow either.

Haha, but I expect slcook54 will be on a skidpad soon.

[DrFerry]

Originally Posted by derbo

Lol. CA = no rain. CA = no snow either.

Haha, but I expect slcook54 will be on a skidpad soon.

But I thought the CA Sierras were famous for skiing and the Baha peninsula was often hit by monsoons.. Oh well there's always the track paddock parking lot to experiment in.

https://www.planetware.com/californi...-us-ca-407.htm

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...nia_hurricanes

[leftfootbr8king]

Originally Posted by DrFerry

Just a suggestion I used to give my students:

Find a remote or an abandoned parking lot, or unused large patch of asphalt, and go there when it's raining or just after it has rained.

Drive the car in large circles of a fixed radius progressively increasing your speed until the rear starts to step out. Add throttle to keep the car in a slide while adding some opposite steer angle and learn to steer the car with the gas pedal (drifting). Learn how much gas is needed to maintain a set yaw angle. Learn how rapidly must the steering be returned to zero when grip returns? Learn how much throttle is too much as well as what happens when you rapidly lift the throttle in a drift (spin). Learn how to trip the car into a slide by pitching it with simultaneous steering and brake and then rapid throttle applications. In the parking lot you can learn safely some basic car control before turning MDM off at the track. Some liquid soap spread around the parking lot drifting circle also helps reduce surface coefficient of friction i.e. slippy. This exercise can also be done in the snow. IF you really want to go fast take a car control class. I believe BMW now offers one in CA and so do Porsche.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a3...ol-experience/
.
BMW Performance Center M School Classes just down the road from me in Greenville SC and in Thermal CA.
.
https://pds.eventsbmw.com/?location=...387.1665750932

Dr Ferry, are you in SC?

[DrFerry]

Originally Posted by leftfootbr8king

Dr Ferry, are you in SC?

Yes, I'm in Greer. Where are you in SC?

[leftfootbr8king]

Originally Posted by DrFerry

Yes, I'm in Greer. Where are you in SC?

Nice, hope to see you around VIR or CMP. I'm in Charleston.