E92 M3 ZCP in SCCA Solo F Street

[z3papa]

A friend suggested I offer Jadrice a co-drive into my car but the seat is already taken.

[Wisco M3]

I just picked up my 2011 e92 comp pack w/ carbon roof and DCT tonight. I'm coming from a nationally run BSP corvette, so this will be a bit of a shock for me. I look forward to participating in the F-street battle. Nationals is clearly out this year but a good possibility next.

[z3papa]

Originally Posted by Wisco M3

I just picked up my 2011 e92 comp pack w/ carbon roof and DCT tonight. I'm coming from a nationally run BSP corvette, so this will be a bit of a shock for me. I look forward to participating in the F-street battle. Nationals is clearly out this year but a good possibility next.

Nice pickup. I'm sure we will run across each other in the near future.

[Wisco M3]

Since you're in Illinois have you made it to miller park for many events? Life got in the way for me this year but I'm typically there for Milwaukee region events.

[z3papa]

Originally Posted by Wisco M3

Since you're in Illinois have you made it to miller park for many events? Life got in the way for me this year but I'm typically there for Milwaukee region events.

I made to one this year, the Milwaukee-Chicago-MN challenge on really spent RS3's which did not like the lot and had by far, my worst result of the year but plan on reconvening up there in the future. I'm friends with Bob Gosda who runs up there on occasion in a Shelby Mustang.

[Richbot]

Congrats to Rexpelagi for the Prosolo finale victory!

[z3papa]

John was very fast and clearly the class of the field. It will really come down to him and his co-driver, Bryan H., on who will win Nat's.

[Rassilon]

Had more autox today with euro mdm and sport edc in dry. I am slowly learning how to drive a high hp rwd and start to enjoy it instead of constantly afraid of spinning. euro mdm is minimally intrusive and definitely saved me a few times when I got red headed and applied throttle too fast. I ended up 2.7secs slower than another stock m3 with 265/275 re71r (who indexed #1 today). I guess I probably lost 1.5 seconds or so with my 245/265 Michelin pss but I think the car can go at least a full second faster. However I find it very hard to get heat into pss and it barely came to temp in my last run.

[CSBM5]

Congrats John! Can't wait to see the videos of your runs at the ProSolo. After the week is over, it would be great to hear your thoughts and perspective about the E9x M3.

Regards,
Chuck

[CSBM5]

Originally Posted by edwardgtxy

Had more autox today with euro mdm and sport edc in dry. I am slowly learning how to drive a high hp rwd and start to enjoy it instead of constantly afraid of spinning. euro mdm is minimally intrusive and definitely saved me a few times when I got red headed and applied throttle too fast. I ended up 2.7secs slower than another stock m3 with 265/275 re71r (who indexed #1 today). I guess I probably lost 1.5 seconds or so with my 245/265 Michelin pss but I think the car can go at least a full second faster. However I find it very hard to get heat into pss and it barely came to temp in my last run.

I would strongly suggest that you drop using MDM. It *will* create very bad habits in car control since it is intervening in many instances when you are not aware of any action - perhaps doing one wheel braking when the right combination of wheel angle, g-loading, rate of change of these, etc, reach a threshold level in the software which has zero to do with the action you're intending to create. Every aspect of car control skill acquisition is distorted by MDM, and if you adapt to how the car behaves under its guidance, you will not be able to properly control the car with no nannies...

...and no nannies is substantially faster on any autocross course.

One suggestion would be to look for an Evolution autocross school event in your area (probably would have to be next season).

Regards,
Chuck

[Rassilon]

Originally Posted by CSBM5

I would strongly suggest that you drop using MDM. It *will* create very bad habits in car control since it is intervening in many instances when you are not aware of any action - perhaps doing one wheel braking when the right combination of wheel angle, g-loading, rate of change of these, etc, reach a threshold level in the software which has zero to do with the action you're intending to create. Every aspect of car control skill acquisition is distorted by MDM, and if you adapt to how the car behaves under its guidance, you will not be able to properly control the car with no nannies...

...and no nannies is substantially faster on any autocross course.

One suggestion would be to look for an Evolution autocross school event in your area (probably would have to be next season).

Regards,
Chuck

Thanks for the heads up. It's my first time running with mdm and I was mainly using it to save me from big spins from abrupt throttle applications and focus on getting the line right first as the course was very high speed (with 2 places needing 3rd gear and less than 1 feet from grass/ditch). I will go back to dsc off when the course design is safer or raining.

I went to evo phase 1 last year with my old car and it was super helpful. Unfortunately they decided to skip this year in my region (northwest), hopefully they will be up again next year.

Btw, I am curious if you guys generally run less pressure in the back to help with acceleration and compensate for the lack of camber in the front.

Also when you go into the slow turnaround too fast and the front is pushing hard, do you:

1) add more throttle to induce more rear rotation, and let the front scrub speed off
or
2) brake a bit to get the speed down and then accelerate out earlier due to cleaner exit

[CSBM5]

Looks like Bryan wrapped up a National title in F-street this week at nationals: http://sololive.scca.com/FS.html -- by a pretty good margin too.

[z3papa]

Got back yesterday from Nat's after arriving to catch late action from the Pro on Saturday. John really lit it up at the Pro and took class. For the main show, we had pretty heavy rains the night before and early a.m. which affected FS as we were 1st run group rolling out on the East course. With little to no wind and the mostly cloudy skies, the course draining was very slow. The course was very flowing, much faster in design, and was what I would describe as a speed tolerance course. Many folks were having issues gauging the grip or lack thereof with times dropping throughout the run group as drivers sorted out the problem spots. I purposefully put out a 8.5/10 recon run my first run which paid dividends as later I had confidence to keep pushing harder and harder. Ended day 1 with 60.3 on a run where there was a minuscule semi-dry line in some areas. I left everything out there putting the car in 4 wheel drifts, redlining in the highest speed area and taking advantage of my later start position as I had a co-driver. This end up putting me in 4th ahead of more talented drivers.

On day two for the much busier West course, I employed the same strategy and had a "decent" first run of 66.4 but knew there was at least .8 to 1 sec out there for me. Problem was every time I'd be more aggressive, I'd pick up time in some spots but lost time in others whereby I never found the time I knew was there. Ended the day in 5th about .05 from 4th and 1.2 back from 3rd and the podium.

I should state clearly - John aka Rexplegi definitely deserved to be higher in the standings than I. He was so dominant throughout the year, and if he has jumped in front of me, I would have been more than proud. He is/was very generous to give Bryan H. a ride in his car, and I can't help but think this affected him.

[Maypo]

I had the pleasure of working station 2 during FS, and I thought z3papa did some excellent driving out there.

The nasty-wet east course had a power section near me that drivers were unable to exploit fully because of the slow drying conditions and big puddles just preceding my area. Despite efforts by drivers to avoid that standing water, moisture was carried onto the fast line throughout the group.

The west course was "pinchy" and would punish you if you didn't respect its demands. One of the demon maneuvers was right in front of me, and it was interesting watching the struggle between aggression and discipline play out as each driver worked through the turn.

Congrats to the BMW contingent, including the E46 boys, for taking command of the class for 2015.

[z3papa]

Not so funny thing about the east course and the area I think you are referencing is my very last course walk, I mentioned to someone that the correct line is right through a deep puddle as there was an imperfection in the surface there even when the site was dry which was last to dry. I asked which side of it he intended to drive on to avoid the deep water and he said Strano said to drive through the puddle and hold your line. Sure enough, on my last run I was blasting through there in a slight 4 wheel drift praying the car would hold as I rolled throttle. It was either going to be epic fail or a run where my skirt was lifted.

[Maypo]

Yup, that's it.

[Neuner]

Anyone autocrossing a DCT car? any issues w/ reliably engaging launch control? thanks!

Looking for an E90 & undecided on transmission. Thinking the DCT would make for a nicer daily & the shorter 3rd/4th + quick shifting magic would make for a faster laps @ the occasional track day. My only reservation is being able to get the thing to launch on command, thoughts?

[Honda]

Originally Posted by Neuner

Anyone autocrossing a DCT car? any issues w/ reliably engaging launch control? thanks!

Looking for an E90 & undecided on transmission. Thinking the DCT would make for a nicer daily & the shorter 3rd/4th + quick shifting magic would make for a faster laps @ the occasional track day. My only reservation is being able to get the thing to launch on command, thoughts?

No issues here on DCT..sometimes there would occur a leak from gaskets but thats typical from BMW lol

I would go with DCT because the manual on e9x M3 doesn't feel right specially for 1-2 shifts.

[CSBM5]

I have no issues with the 1-2 shift.

The DCT adds 50 or so pounds to the car, so at a tour event or Nationals, it is dead weight hampering you versus 6MT cars.

[Neuner]

Are you guys using launch control or find it isn't necessary? Reading the manual, sounds like there are requirements for temperature (probably good) & distance driven - I can see the latter being difficult to satisfy between grid & the course..

Drove an F80 & couldn't get it to engage LC at all, car had a TPMS fault though - could that inhibit LC? Does the E9x have the same feature?

[Richbot]

Launch control isn't going to be necessary for solo. Just do the floor it in first method. Might bog a little on launch compared to a hard 6MT launch at 3500-4k rpm, but you'll make up all the time lost on the 1-2 shift. On E9x's, all "launch control" does is dump the clutch at a certain RPM. It does not modulate the throttle for you in any meaningful way, so really it's "burnout control" on an autocross lot with, usually, very low grip, and street tires to boot. Some people use it for drag but a prepped drag strip is worlds away from the grip at a typical autocross site, and there isn't a turn in 100 feet unless something's gone horribly wrong...

20 kg penalty for DCT - 46lb, that's per BMW's specs. On the F80, the weight penalty is more like 80 because the 6-speed is lighter than the E9x 6-speed while the dCT remained about the same. I wouldn't choose it but I don't think it's going to slow you down much being located low and central either

[z3papa]

I've have virtually no issues with 1-2 shift and any issues were simply because of a different clutch pick up point from my last car. No big deal.