[MacklinUSOB]

Last Friday I spent the day with my fellow CCA members running on Lime Rock, and did we had a good day. Weather was excellent with temps between 75-80 all day long with minimal humidity. The turnout was great and I had plenty of time to talk setups during the day, and being the only F30 there, plenty of people were interested to check it out and chat. There were some really special cars in the paddock that day since we shared the track with Lime Rock Club, the trailer parked behind me had TWO new Ford GT's in it, elsewhere a few M235iRs, a GT3 RS, and a large representation of the M lineup of the last 20 years.

I got to finally put my car through its paces since adding many of my upgrades and it exceeded my expectations greatly. I was leaving behind a new Z06 through the esses and got a point by from an M6, momentum car status acheived. Of course they could easily pull back on the straights, but that only made it more fun. Brake/tire temp management wasn't bad, lowering the pace for a lap towards the end of the session was more than adequate to get me back in the right temp range to finish. The balance of the car was very good, excellent turn in with a hint of understeer once reaching the limit. Some increased rebound in the rear and another pound or two of cold pressure in the front should throw that threshold a bit higher to ice the cake (before bushings, rear swaybar, and a diff do next season).

I highly encourage any of you interested in HPDE to give Lime Rock a try.

[enjoythemusic]

Congrats and LRP is a fun little track. Love the location, great place!

[MacklinUSOB]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

Congrats and LRP is a fun little track. Love the location, great place!

It really is quite the place, the short laps are great for HPDE because it gives you so many attempts to nail down the line and improve. The atmosphere is also unlike any other place I have been, almost like its own little motorsport world nestled in the woods of CT. I'll be back on the 23rd with SCDA!

[enjoythemusic]

SCDA is a great group and remember when the old man did them (before he passed away). Am sure you'll have a great time.

BTW, don't forget WGI. There's a track you can reeeeally stretch out and have fun on.

[MacklinUSOB]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

SCDA is a great group and remember when the old man did them (before he passed away). Am sure you'll have a great time.

BTW, don't forget WGI. There's a track you can reeeeally stretch out and have fun on.

It sounds like a real grassroots organization. They also do 4x25 minute sessions vs the standard 4x20 of most other schools, which is good for at least another 15 laps for the day.

I love the Glen, the races this past weekend were very good. Always loved watching from turn 2 up the esses, reminds me a lot of Raidillon at Spa. The Glen may be in the cards for next season...

[MacklinUSOB]

Monday I was back at LRP for another track day with SCDA. Weather reports leading up to the event were bad, calling for thunderstorms all day long. We got lucky, thankfully. Out of my four 25 minute sessions only about a full session was with precip, and only two of them with the driving line being wet. I had more than two full sessions with the track dry.

Since my last visit I had F80 LCA's installed, and man, do they make a pronounced difference on track. The most noticible area of improvement is in the esses, particularly the lefthander to righthander. Since in essence the lefthander is a decreasing radius turn, you progressively add steering as you hit the apex, which is very late. The LCA's allow me to continue to add steering without as much throttle/brake maintenance to counter understeer. This benefit carries through the apex of the righthander, ultimately getting me much more consistent speed onto No-Name. This section of the track is what makes or breaks a good lap time. The second most improved area was in steering feel, detecting understeer has become way easier and overall more reminiscent of my e36.

I will be back at LRP yet again on 8/27 with SCDA for more seat time. At this point I am very happy with how the car performs, I was getting point bys from everyone in my run group aside from the 911 Carerra S in one of the pictures below. A couple clicks of rebound in the rear and I am confident I will only be buying tires and pads for the forseeable future.

Here are some watermarked photos taken by Shawn Pierce Photography of the event that day.

[JG_Coupe88]

Great story and picture, I love threads like this because I'm passionate about taking mine to HPDE'S. 6 speed manual FTW! Nothing better then growing together with your car, getting legit point by's from more powerful cars, and shaving down on your lap times every time you go back. Keep taking car of the car and keep it up! 👍

Here's an old thread of my first track day with my F32 when I had less mods, along with some decent pics if you want to check it out.

https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1466058