[mocohead]

Spent yesterday out at Buttonwillow with the Central Cal BMW CCA. I got to instruct in a nice e36 M3, and in a nice Audi A6 2.7t driven by an Audi Club instructor. Temperatures were in the oh-hell-this-is-way-too-freakin-hot-to-be-out-here range, which means it was well over 95F, and at times hovering around 104.

My car is stock and it did very well. No overheating (even with the A/C on full blast), no limp modes, no CEL...nothing. 3 gallons of e85 were added to the tank at the start of the day and I had no detonation despite the high ambient temperatures.

Admittedly I didn't get that many laps in my own car, but when I was on track it was always with at least one student, and frequently two. I did get some minor brake fade but this configuration of BW is hard on brakes, with a number of sharp braking zones right on top of each other.

At the end of the day the A and B students had a combined track session so I went out to play. It was fun getting an entire train of e9x M3's to point me by!

Another interesting note - this was the first car I have driven on BW that could get power oversteer coming through the button hole (turns 2 and 3). That is a very slow, tight uphill off camber corner that usually makes cars plow and push like crazy. My typical path around that corner involves WOT all the way, allowing the understeer to help with the track-out. In the 328i I got on the throttle as I usually do, and son-of-a-gun if the back didn't step out! To me that spoke volumes about the amazing balance of the F30 328i.

What a great car! We are really lucky that BMW built us something that can be such a good daily driver, and yet so competent on the track.