This was the first major outing for the bimmer in a while as i no longer use it on the road everyday. We took two support vehicles mainly because after the track day had finished, me and my brother needed to get to bristol and the bimmer back to Salisbury.
We got there at 8.30 in the morning and it was freezing still, literally. The track however was dry and no ice or frost present on the surface. The tarmac was grippy and fairly smooth and consistant for what effectively is an airfield. We signed on, having three drivers for my car, me my brother and the old man.
We had the usual safety briefing which lasted 30 mins then some pace laps to get the ball rolling. Keevil starts off with a straight follwed by a chincane which you can take at 60+mph if you are feeling brave. This then leads onto another straight were i could just push a 100mph, hard on the brakes for the hairpin. Then another straight were you reach 70, little lift off the throttle and then nail it round a 40 degree left hander. Then all the way up to 100 if you get a good exit speed. Hard on the brakes, right hander where the car wants to understeer unless you dab the throttle a little. Through a few cones that make you weave, a shallow left then into a hairpin right and you are back on the start finish.
The competition was....good shall we say. An evo fq400, a rs500 cossie,a ev0 6 tommy makinen edition x2, 2 very quick tvrs, numerous rapid elises, a porsche boxter
, a bmw m5 3.8, a bmw 320is(left hooker of course),a caterham seven-cossie powered, a couple of nobles, a mk1 and mk2 mr2(the mk2 one being pretty rapid). I passed the pounce boxter once which was pleasing, perhaps a muppet behine the wheel? Also passed a girly later toyota mr2 and various other cars. I even kept the rs500 behind for a lap but i think he had a bit of a moment on a hairpin and enabled me to pull a bit of distance on him. I think the reason i didn't overtake more was because one i was sharing the driving with other people and two because i only did short stints as it was open pit and liked to give the car and brakes a chance to cool properly.The trustly old bimmer never even got above 2/3's hot either with good boost and oil pressure maintained all day. Perhaps this was due to me coming in quite often?? The brakes are all standard, discs pads the lot. But i did change the fluid the yesterday, and to be honest i was shocked at how good they were. No brake fad worth mentioning. They did stink the first time i came off the track, but that was probably due to getting rid of the "glaze" on the pads. I think given more abuse for longer time periods would have resulted in me pressing the floor, but as it was my first track day I took it fairly easy.
Had a few "moments" with some on boost corners, namely exiting the hairpin at 70mph with the tail wiggling and squirming all over the shot, but keeping it all together. I blame the small turbo creating to much torque
. Thanks very much to all the guys that helped me prepare for this track day in another thread. Some very useful advice that was hindered throughout the day enabling me to get myself and the car home in one piece. Overall i absolutly loved the day it was well organised. A few pictures and vids to follow in a few days, don't think there is alot of me in anything, we were to busy caught up in the day.
So if you are thinking about taking your car to a track, please please do it, you won't regret it. If a e30 turbo can survive a trackday why can't your 318is, 320, 325 etc. And the buzz that you get once you've kept that rs500 behind you or nearly lost it at 100mph is awesome. Undescribable to be honest.
I'm a total convert, i was warned they are addictive, time to get saving for the next one.
Jon
