redpriest HPDE journal

[///Mobbin]

Originally Posted by admranger

What investments are you making in upgrading the driver? Continuous learning! Do you have data acquisition?

I'm planning to take some lessons with a pro driver at my local track this spring, looking forward to that. For data acquisition I am still running Harry's with wifi OBD2 and a bluetooth 10hz GPS, though I do plan to upgrade to the AIM Solo DL at some point.

[admranger]

Originally Posted by ///Mobbin

I'm planning to take some lessons with a pro driver at my local track this spring, looking forward to that. For data acquisition I am still running Harry's with wifi OBD2 and a bluetooth 10hz GPS, though I do plan to upgrade to the AIM Solo DL at some point.

Sounds like a great plan. Find a coach that can help interpret your data (and teach you how to get the most out of it).

I don't need data acquisition b/c I always drive flat out.

[w00tw00t]

Originally Posted by admranger

I don't need data acquisition b/c I always drive flat out.

yah!!!!!

[thedge9]

Your post form early November...

"Since my last update, I've taken the car on three track days. Had a double day set back in October with Speed Ventures, just getting used to the car again. I brought two sets of tires - Pirelli DH scrubs in 265 size and Hankook RS4s in 275s."

You advised me to try these tires for Arizona given there heat stability and durability. I cannot find them anywhere in 275/35/18. Tire rack says that hankook has them marked as discontinued for this size. Are you running the same size and if so where did you find them? Any guidance would be appreciated.

[///Mobbin]

Originally Posted by thedge9

Your post form early November...

"Since my last update, I've taken the car on three track days. Had a double day set back in October with Speed Ventures, just getting used to the car again. I brought two sets of tires - Pirelli DH scrubs in 265 size and Hankook RS4s in 275s."

You advised me to try these tires for Arizona given there heat stability and durability. I cannot find them anywhere in 275/35/18. Tire rack says that hankook has them marked as discontinued for this size. Are you running the same size and if so where did you find them? Any guidance would be appreciated.

So this same phenomenon occurred with the prior RS3s. Hankook apparently makes these in batches and has them ready for the standard track season to begin in mid-Spring. By later in the year, they are much harder to come by. I'm sure there are some sitting in a tire shop or warehouse somewhere but it may take some time to locate them.

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by thedge9

Your post form early November...

"Since my last update, I've taken the car on three track days. Had a double day set back in October with Speed Ventures, just getting used to the car again. I brought two sets of tires - Pirelli DH scrubs in 265 size and Hankook RS4s in 275s."

You advised me to try these tires for Arizona given there heat stability and durability. I cannot find them anywhere in 275/35/18. Tire rack says that hankook has them marked as discontinued for this size. Are you running the same size and if so where did you find them? Any guidance would be appreciated.

Yeah, very bizarre that they ran out. When I first ordered them I had 275/35/18, and I ordered them straight from Tire Rack. I was going to order a replacement set but couldn't find any anywhere!

I'm currently trying out Federal RS-RR. I think they are probably slightly slower than RS4s, but they seem to have the same wear characteristics (or better). They also have the benefit of being substantially cheaper.

[rymerc]

Originally Posted by redpriest

I'm currently trying out Federal RS-RR.

Looking forward to your long-term feedback.

I like the federals, even the older rs-r but haven't ran them since locals say they're super-greasy at hpde on 3000lb+ 350hp+ car

but good for autox

[thedge9]

Originally Posted by redpriest

Yeah, very bizarre that they ran out. When I first ordered them I had 275/35/18, and I ordered them straight from Tire Rack. I was going to order a replacement set but couldn't find any anywhere!

I'm currently trying out Federal RS-RR. I think they are probably slightly slower than RS4s, but they seem to have the same wear characteristics (or better). They also have the benefit of being substantially cheaper.

That is good to know. I will keep my eye on them for prices going forward. I ended up going with NT-05's as a local tire place had them in stock and the price was not too bad. They are TW200 so I am hoping that they will be close to the RS3-4. I have a track event this weekend so needed to put rubber on my new track wheels.

[Fitzpadj]

^^ I have a set of sticker set of RS3 V2 in the 265/40/18 size. Let me know if you need a set for after this weekend.

[redpriest]

My poor power steering pump finally gave up, so I had to replace it. Also had to do replacement of belts and pulleys, so got that accomplished before my next Grand Prix event at Buttonwillow, lol.

Lots of tough competition, every one of my track friends is getting so fast, so it's hard to keep up! I managed to do a 1:53.711 on Pirelli DH tires though. I'm happy with that result, although there looks like there's a few tenths I can shave to get down into the 1:52s.

No aero, + 100 lb passenger + 40 lbs from chair/seat mount:

[redpriest]

84 track days before I had a booboo:



Car's fixed and I have my E46 at Bimmerfest this year.

[admranger]

Originally Posted by redpriest

84 track days before I had a booboo:



Car's fixed and I have my E46 at Bimmerfest this year.

Glad your car is back together and you weren't hurt. Nice dog too!

Ummm, furiously knocking on wood, but no car damage on track (except when I was racing...). Year 23. You may catch my total number of track days in a few years though...lol I suppose I should go back in time and count them up one of these days.

Does it count as only one day when I some buddies and I rented the original version of spring mountain for a day. My wife came in after running around for an hour...alone on track. She just got bored. We had no corner workers. No ambulance. Just a bunch of crazed lunatics thrashing our E30's to death. I think the evosport guys (before they were evosport) had an E36, but I can't remember. It wasn't playing nice with them that day and they spent a lot of time fixing it.

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by admranger

Glad your car is back together and you weren't hurt. Nice dog too!

Ummm, furiously knocking on wood, but no car damage on track (except when I was racing...). Year 23. You may catch my total number of track days in a few years though...lol I suppose I should go back in time and count them up one of these days.

Does it count as only one day when I some buddies and I rented the original version of spring mountain for a day. My wife came in after running around for an hour...alone on track. She just got bored. We had no corner workers. No ambulance. Just a bunch of crazed lunatics thrashing our E30's to death. I think the evosport guys (before they were evosport) had an E36, but I can't remember. It wasn't playing nice with them that day and they spent a lot of time fixing it.

Yeah, the whole day thing is kind of arbitrary - especially when with Speed District I would do 8 sessions in a day, just go out every hour for 20 minutes. It's like an all day marathon, haha.

I think I did 90 1:25-ish laps one day during a private track day at Thunderhill West; the second time I went out there, also private track day, I was so sick of the track by the end of the day I never want to go there again! lol.

[admranger]

Originally Posted by redpriest

Yeah, the whole day thing is kind of arbitrary - especially when with Speed District I would do 8 sessions in a day, just go out every hour for 20 minutes. It's like an all day marathon, haha.

I think I did 90 1:25-ish laps one day during a private track day at Thunderhill West; the second time I went out there, also private track day, I was so sick of the track by the end of the day I never want to go there again! lol.

Two of the most fun extended track sessions I've ever done were "enduro" races. First was at the Vegas speedway roval course (before they raised the angle of the banking). It was a night race in August from 9-Midnight! Shared my car with Ralph Warren and Monty Sidhu (RIP) for the 3 hour event. I anchored the event due to my inexperience at the time (we let Ralph start the race b/c he was and still is an uber good driver w/tons of experience even back then). Finished the race with all four Toyo RA-1's corded. As Ralph said "PERFECT!". We each drove for an hour that night. The temp when I finished the enduro was 100 deg F and it felt cool compared to the temps during the day -- yes, we ran races in the day too. In Vegas. In August. I'm not that bright...

Second fun session was a black Friday 2-hour enduro at Phoenix Int'l Raceway roval. This one was more of a challenge b/c I drove the whole thing myself. Even though temps were cooler by a long ways, PIR is rough as hell and there are actual corners that can kill you if you f'up (seriously, an E36M3 driver died racing there when he spun and hit the wall, driver's side (backwards). PIR requires some focus. It was a hoot though. Had a great time and the Phoenix folks put on a good show.

Since this is your thread, redpriest, I'll toss this right out there: you need to start racing.

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by admranger

Two of the most fun extended track sessions I've ever done were "enduro" races. First was at the Vegas speedway roval course (before they raised the angle of the banking). It was a night race in August from 9-Midnight! Shared my car with Ralph Warren and Monty Sidhu (RIP) for the 3 hour event. I anchored the event due to my inexperience at the time (we let Ralph start the race b/c he was and still is an uber good driver w/tons of experience even back then). Finished the race with all four Toyo RA-1's corded. As Ralph said "PERFECT!". We each drove for an hour that night. The temp when I finished the enduro was 100 deg F and it felt cool compared to the temps during the day -- yes, we ran races in the day too. In Vegas. In August. I'm not that bright...

Second fun session was a black Friday 2-hour enduro at Phoenix Int'l Raceway roval. This one was more of a challenge b/c I drove the whole thing myself. Even though temps were cooler by a long ways, PIR is rough as hell and there are actual corners that can kill you if you f'up (seriously, an E36M3 driver died racing there when he spun and hit the wall, driver's side (backwards). PIR requires some focus. It was a hoot though. Had a great time and the Phoenix folks put on a good show.

Since this is your thread, redpriest, I'll toss this right out there: you need to start racing.

Cost is the issue here I think. I'm not sure I would want to race any of my cars unless it was an endurance build, and for the others, I would need to build a spec car; which is very tempting. I've already quoted it out how much it would take roughly, ~ $25k probably total to build a spec e46, then I would have to make sure I had enough money to operate it *and* replace it if I had to - maybe in the future.

Financial priorities

[redpriest]

Time to wake this thread up again. I've been dutifully keeping my track day records updated in the very first post, but I've been mostly driving my E46 M3 so I didn't want to litter the forum with posts from those track days.

My E92 has been sleeping for a year - I haven't tracked her since December of 2017, and now it's 15 months later. I hadn't even really driven the car either, so the car has sat for months as well.

With the Bimmer Challenge 2018 season over, it was time to get ready for the next season - I decided to revive my E92 and take her out.

While the E46 is a fantastic car, I was breaking parts left and right, as well as experiencing Anti-Icing ABS mode frequently. With my E46's brembo brakes, unless you are disciplined and ease into the brakes, you can trigger the ABS anti-icing mode, which leaves you with far less braking power and the inability to escape from it (pumping the brake does nothing).

My Vegas crash into the dirt was the result of such an event - I didn't recognize it for what it was until I started getting it frequently.

I have been spoiled for so long on my Essex AP Racing kit, you really miss it when you are driving with cars with inferior brakes. I never even worried about whether or not the brakes were there in my E92. In my F82 and E46, I had to constantly manage my brakes, and it led to inconsistent braking points at times.

Not to mention which, the running costs of the Essex kit are far less. The rotors cost ~ $700 for a pair and last 25-26 track days on my heavy E92 which has no brake ducting.

On my E46, 300 pounds lighter than my E92, I went through a set of Brembo Type 3 slotted rotors in 7 track days, and those set me back $1300. The Stoptech replacements I sourced were far cheaper at roughly the same cost of the AP rings, but these only last me 12-13 days before you start to see really pronounced crazing which means a crack is inevitable. This is with brake ducting!

I won't drive my E46 in anger again until I get an AP racing BBK, lol.

[redpriest]

My 98th track day overall, and Round 1 of Bimmer Challenge is at Chuckwalla. Also, Round 1 of the renewed PhiloManilo challenge with M3 Number 86 , who has been, until recently, with aero and Pirellis. I've had to listen to him trash talk me for a year since he's been posting faster lap times in a different class of car.

Now this year we are on relatively even footing since we are in the same class. No aero, "street" tires.

Chuckwalla has been relatively unlucky for me. It's a 1000 mile round trip for me, and the track is out in the middle of nowhere near the Arizona border, with the nearest town being 50 miles away. If you break down you are in for a long trip home.

I've driven all this far several times and then shredded my dedicated track tires in 1-2 sessions and then had to switch to street tires. In my E46, the first time I came out here my alternator started to die. Fortunately I was able to complete that track day and get home.

The next time I came out, my throttle position sensor (TPS) died. I've had this TPS problem before, but it was in the top mounted (easily accessible) position and that's a 5 min swap. Unfortunately, this problem was buried underneath the intake manifold of the engine. I spent that entire track day with the help of my friend Serhan stripping the manifold off and swapping the part with a ready spare. I was able to set a terrible lack of power lap in the morning just to get on the board for points, and spent the next 5 hours disassembling the car to get to the TPS. The clamps attaching the intake hoses to the engine were the biggest pain - they are "one use" and require a special tool to easily unclip. Ugh.

My luck continued with this track day. After a lot of last minute preparations (I had to get the car smogged and street legal - which was a tremendous pain getting the readiness sensors to register), I was on my way with a 9 hour journey. On hour 5, I got a SES light. Oh boy. I read the code, and ALL 4 of my camshaft position sensors were bad. WTF? I had just replaced two of these the last time I came out.

Crap. This was happening just outside of LA on I-5 where you climb up the big mountain near Grapevine. I was 300 miles into a 500 mile trip. I cleared the codes to see if it would happen again. After a couple of power cycles, it showed up again. After debating the merits of continuing on, I decided to do it. I'd drive to the cabin I'd rented at the track, and see if it showed up the next morning. I could definitely feel a loss of power.

The next day, I started the car and the SES light did not show. Maybe a good sign? I did the first session, but once I came back to the paddock, it showed up again. It was hard to judge whether or not I was lacking power or not, since I hadn't driven the car in over a year and didn't really have a good reference, but it felt like it. StripclubDJ helped me read the car, and cleared the adaptations. Maybe this would do the trick for session 2? He also suggested I change the battery; the battery was the original OEM battery from 2010, and since the car had been sitting in storage for a year without a tender, I'm sure it was on its way out.

For session 2, I set my best time of 2:01.08, which was easily a second faster than my best E46 time, and 2 seconds faster than the last time I drove out here with my E92. Problem seemed to be fixed? I also had the fortune to be lined up behind Serhan (black E46) and Simon (orange E46), who both know what they're doing here. Simon's E46 and my E46 are pretty even in terms of car and driver at most tracks, except at Chuckwalla where I'm at least two seconds slower than him.

Chuckwalla is a pretty technical track that rewards patience - I have the tendency to want to early apex these long double apex turns, and since I'm not here often, it's hard to get used to it.

[redpriest]

After the 2nd session was over, I was pretty elated with my lap time. The SES didn't come back on after I cycled the car, but I wasn't going to take any chances. It was right before lunch and there's an extended down time interval. I decided to trek the 50 miles to the nearest town to buy a replacement battery (after making sure it was available). I chose a Duralast H8-AGM - it is roughly comparable to the OEM battery.

I drove out there and proceeded to swap out the battery. I figured I might be able to make my 3rd and last counted session but it was taking a while to disconnect everything. I also had a scare where I sparked the distributor connector before remembering I should have disconnected the negative terminal.... The damn thing is also really heavy. I wasted probably 5 minutes trying to fruitlessly pull the thing out before realizing there was a plate that kept it bolted to the floor. Oops. I replaced the battery and gave them the core so I could collect my $20 refund and not have to lug around a 70 lb battery in the car.

Battery installed, I made my way back to the track. Fortunately I didn't seem to fry anything after sparking the distributor; I have bad memories of my FRM module going out in Vegas a couple years back which ruined that track day. Unfortunately, I had taken too long so I missed out on my 3rd and last counted for time session.

I did run the final session of the day, but I was 2 seconds slower. Also, the SES returned, but only on bank 1. Cleared it. Next day, started the car up to return home, another SES. Fuel pressure sensor improbable. Ugh!! Cleared that one too. Drove 500 miles. Multiple power-on power-off cycles, lots of stops for gas and rest. No more SES? Problem solved?

Lesson learned - shakedown car prior to 1000 mile road trip when the car has been sitting for months.

165k miles on this car now.

[roastbeef]

so whats the deal with the e46 brakes? that brembo kit doesn't care for race pads and it trips the abs too easily?

were you faster than kimmer?

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

so whats the deal with the e46 brakes? that brembo kit doesn't care for race pads and it trips the abs too easily?

were you faster than kimmer?

Not entirely sure. With the Brembo kit I'm using PFC pads, was using PFC-01 and PFC-08 and got it with both. When I let Brian drive my car, he triggered it too, and he doesn't get it at all with the stock brakes.

And yeah, I put him in a body bag - 3 seconds faster, haha.

[dogbone]

Originally Posted by redpriest

And yeah, I put him in a body bag - 3 seconds faster, haha.

oooooh, themmz is fightin' werds!!

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by dogbone

oooooh, themmz is fightin' werds!!

I mean I'm in a heavier car, on blown shocks, slower tires, and slept two hours and fifty minutes after drinking quite a bit of whisky, had check engine lights reset multiple times and haven't been back in two years to CVR. Throw in the fact I have about one third of the seat time he had last year and his confidence is astounding. But it's ok.

It's only the first event. He had a good win.

Plus side for me is I already surpassed my total point score all of last year in my first event.