[mocohead]

I recently had the opportunity to drive my Sportline 6MT and a customer's no line 328i automatic on the infield road course at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

No line - What an amazing package the F30 is right off the shelf. First I will comment that I was instructing in the novice group in an E90 M3. The owner of this no line 328i passed my student virtually every session. Because of the F30's excellent corner speed and exit speed, the M3 couldn't catch the 328i on the straights! It was interesting to observe.

Driving the no line was great. It was light, nimble, tossable and incredibly quick. Grip from the all season tires was remarkable. Power was just right rendering the car SO EASY to drive on the track. The brakes felt great, transmission shifted perfectly and...OMG the balance of this chassis is truly impressive.

6MT Sportline - I only got to drive one session because like an idiot I cross-threaded one of the rear lug bolts changing wheels so my day was done at that point. However during that one session I was just giddy. Like I noted with the no line car, the balance of the F30 328i chassis is unbelievable. There is none of that dramatic understeer like in my e92 335i and the power delivery was so smooth that getting on throttle early and aggressively barely upset the chassis. Because the weight is all centered toward the middle of the car, it rotates perfectly and has just the right amount of weight transfer.

There are two critical weaknesses - brakes and alignment. Unlike older versions of BMW's, the alignment pins at the top of the front shock towers do not seem to allow removal for more negative camber. The only solution is going to be camber plates. The lack of negative camber in front destroyed the outside shoulder of my tires so we really need to deal with that.

Regarding brakes I did a small mod to try to help cooling. I cut out the rear half of the dust shields and added some Porsche GT3 brake scoops (modified a bit) to the rear control arm. While I ordered some custom CarboTech RP2 brake pads for this event, they did not arrive in time so I was using the OEM pads. Despite it being 108 outside and my running with the most advanced students and instructors, on very sticky tires, the brakes never faded. Still we need better cooling and the aftermarket really needs to come out with pad choices for our cars.

Here is a video shot from my spy sunglasses (really.. $20 from ebay). It is short and I had to lower the quality for uploading but you get the drift. Note that the students paid to be on track so I let slower cars pass out of respect for their time.

Enjoy!