Dan's track day to race car progression thread

[rix313]

That’s interesting I’ve got Templar polycarbonate windows so I’ll check out his website again.

[DanThe]

Fast forward to July and we had x5 race meetings confirmed
X2 20 minute races per meeting on the same day starting mid August, so it was time to get some scales under the wheels and make sure I was at the required weight post race, with the tank drained of fuel this is the figure I arrived at

And again with my arse in the drivers seat

Bang on target
My minimum weight is 1120kg so anything less post race would result in disqualification, hence draining the fuel out, so even if I ran out of fuel and coasted into the pits on the last lap id still be legal weight

Managed to get a track day in July at Oulton to test out the new setup, due to covid rules the cafe was take away only which meant the rear spoiler could finally be put to use

Rained all day so was using the Rainsport "wet tyres" and then dried up the last hour, which gave me 10 dry laps with the AR1 "dry tyres"
The car felt planted, really really good, I was massively impressed with tyre feedback, they felt as good as slicks and id put in some really good lap times, I was on par with the championships previous years lap record, great result!

[DanThe]

Now on the countdown to the first race the last few niggles were being ticked off the list, main one being graphics/stickers so I enlisted a sticker expert for the mandatory decals

The other bigger stuff was exchanged for money

Fantastic job too

I realised a few days before race day I had a problem with the mandatory rear sun strip

Once id looked through the rear view mirror I noticed I was left with about an inch of view..
So peeled it off and gave it the kitchen scissor treatment! Came out well with not a bubble in sight and gave me 3 to 4 inches of view

[DanThe]

Brands Hatch race day

Id never driven Brands before mainly because of the distance to get there, we had a full grid of 35 cars and it was raining, so was under a bit of pressure
I decided it would be wise to qualify at the back of the grid with the slower cars and take my time to find a bit of space and get a feel for the track so had a pootle round in qualifying and somehow managed to qualy 26th position, very slippery with lots of wheels spinning and cars going sideways

1st race had to be restarted due to a big shunt after the first corner, an E46 M3 cut out and was left stranded, plenty narrowly avoided it but with the reduced visibility an unfortunate compact rear ended it making a right old mess of them both

After the clean up and restart I started to get the feel for the track after a few laps and made up a few places, finished 18th overall and 6th in class
This is a compilation of some videos my mate took, starts off with the formation lap



2nd race started 18th and finished 13th overall and 4th in class, it had stopped raining about 30 mins previous but was still damp and slippery in places, fortunately id changed to the dry tyres as the track did pretty much dry up before the end of the race, had a good few overtakes and started to get my foot down, will have to get some track days in here its a great track



At the end of the 1st meeting im 4th in class and overall 10th position

[martauto]

I got goosebumps watching them and strangely felt really proud .

Nice work dan, any more this season ?

Mart.
(Do you have an e30 zone sticker on the car ? )

[rix313]

I'm going to have a look at my rear window strip now as I'm sure mine wasn't that wide

Last one at Donington this weekend then, there a chance for you to jump a couple of places in the standings?

[DanThe]

There has been x4 rounds already Mart, Brands was August 15th, im just slow at updating the thread

The November Donington round has been cancelled due to "lockdown" Rich, now being held on 12th December if the "lockdown" is removed when expected

[MrBenn2]

So next was a day out in February at Anglesey, fantastic track in a fantastic part of the world, its worth it just for the scenery alone.
Another great track day with the car performing brilliantly, short video below, you can see im catching even clearly faster cars on the brakes and through corners

I've just been catching up on this thread. This video is awesome Dan, great driving and as you say, making some much more powerful cars look slow

[DanThe]

Thanks Alex, I ought to catch up on this too and do the info for the other 2 rounds I raced

[DanThe]

So after Brands we went to Oulton on the first weekend of September, I love it here, my favourite track and only just over an hour away so ive had plenty of practice over the years and was really looking forward to this race!

It was raining early on but by the time we were out for qualifying it had stopped for about half an hour and dried up nice

Qualified 9th overall and 1st in class, beat the previous lap record too although it doesn't count for qualy

Qualifying footage here



I didnt upload the 1st race footage as it was pretty boring for me, I had faster cars in front and managed to pull a good lead from everything behind so was a lonely race, finished 5th overall and 1st in class, got the fastest lap for class also which gives a bonus point, was ahead of plenty of faster cars on paper, 2nd place in class was 20 seconds behind

Live footage below, start watching from 1hr 49min for Race 1, the commentary talks about the series/grid and even gives a bit of E30 love



I started 5th for race 2, again the faster cars left me behind and I left everyone else! Slightly more interesting as I had a bit of a race with an M2 car that started from the back and eventually caught me up and passed me a lap before last, go back to the above link and watch from 6hr 43min, bit of talking about the grid and then get lots of E30 love and footage on the green flag lap
Finished 6th overall and 1st in class, again another lap record so more bonus points, this left me as the class leader at the end of the round and joint championship leader

Went home with 2 trophies and a massive grin as you can imagine!

Heres my in car footage from race 2 and some photos

[MrBenn]

Love the commentary

"Oldest car on track I would imagine"

"Still got road number plates and a novice cross on the back, so for a number of reasons its a very impressive performance"

[DanThe]

Few more photos, these are all taken by Jon Elsey who is the official photographer, amazing quality, definitely some of the best motorsport photos ive ever seen

And one of the tables at the end of the round

[MrBenn]

Really nice pics. You need that guy at the next track day to see if its still lifting the inside wheel

[JungleGus]

Nice work!! Car is looking excellent.

What suspension setup are you running?

[DanThe]

Gaz Gold Gus, word on the street is they are pants

It will lift the inside wheel even more this year Alex, im certain of it

[rix313]

I really wish I took the E30 to Oulton. Only time I’ve driven there, I rented one of Neil’s cars which had a bloody suspension failure at island bend. Then race two was saftey car because someone threw it off on the first lap and we had 15 minute safety car for a 20 minute race.

[DanThe]

Get booked on this year Rich

Little video someone sent on facebook of the 1st lap of race 2

[rix313]

Hopefully I'll get a track/test day up there at some point.

[JungleGus]

They seem to do the trick! What sort of spring rates?

[DanThe]

Ive just changed to softer Gus, not tested since but was previously on 'I think' 700lb front and 280lb rears
Dropped to 650lb front

[JungleGus]

Are the rear's "true" coilovers? That sounds pretty firm (at least comparing to http://e30performance.info/viewtopic.php?t=1357) at the front and pretty soft at the rear - interesting.

Which sway bar setup?

[DanThe]

Yes proper coilovers, depends which one on the list you want to compare them too, obviously any standard inboard rear springs are going to need to be a lot stiffer due to leverage. You also need to bare in mind my car weighs just over 1000kg and is built for race circuits, you would usually expect any aftermarket setups being specced for road use as a starting point