EdCT
03-27-2002, 11:35 AM
Guys,
I was a guest yesterday at Lime Rock Park for a full day of driving and car watching.
Lots of Bimmers showed; mostly e36's and e30's with a handful of M series variants. I and my host had the only e46's. Porches, Vettes, a handful of vintage italian cars (ferraris and lancia)and some surprisingly fast Subaru WRX's rounded out the field.
I had a chance to ride a few really hot laps with instructor Jim Nekos in his highly modified (for safety, but surprisingly-otherwise-stock)1985 M6 track car. Climbing through the roll cage into the temporary passenger seat was no easy feat even with my 5' 10" 165lbs frame.
Jim's a great driver, smooth as silk (and smoothness is the key as we all know, right?)as he feathered the beastly M6 through the wet and slippery turns at speeds that seemed truly unegotiable in the slick, almost freezing conditions (track temp hovered around low to mid 30's all day. More on that later).
At the 1.53 mile LRP, there's a dastardly turn called big bend that leads out to the main straight. Jim took this at 80 and shot out onto the main stretch at 125. We spun once as the track got more slippery. My sensation from my seat was lots of initial understeer (m6's are front heavy) followed by a smooth transition (probably all Jim) into oversteer. The M6 has a nasty throttle off braking problem which was pretty evident on the lightly loaded sections of the track.
Incidentally, LRP, although short at 1.53 miles, is one of the fastest average lap-time tracks in the country- it's almost all high speed turns.
Late in the day, in typical New England fashion, the temp dropped temporarily to freezing conditions while a few guys were lapping. Guys began spinning out and one driver stuffed his pristine e36 M3 coupe head on into a guardrail at turn 5. No one EVER wants to see this happen, but fortunately, he wasn't hurt (physically, anyway).
I had the chance, late in the day, to a few laps in my stock 323i, some observations: In the wet, my car was perhaps as well-suited as any; the stock 205/55 16 conti's had surprising grip, body lean was less than expected and I could set up a nice, neutral drift going through the 2nd and 3rd combinations of slow speed corners. My car felt really good to me, its "old" steering doing a fantastic job of telgraphing every bit of understeer. Our BMW's are GREAT cars.
Even stock.
I intend to put on a set of 225/50's and stay 16. Some suspension mods will be in the works, too.
All in all, a wonderful day at LRP and I suggest any of you who haven't done so should sign up for the BMW club events and see what your car is capable of.
I'll be at Skip Barber in two weeks for the two-day course and report back to you guys then.
Ed
I was a guest yesterday at Lime Rock Park for a full day of driving and car watching.
Lots of Bimmers showed; mostly e36's and e30's with a handful of M series variants. I and my host had the only e46's. Porches, Vettes, a handful of vintage italian cars (ferraris and lancia)and some surprisingly fast Subaru WRX's rounded out the field.
I had a chance to ride a few really hot laps with instructor Jim Nekos in his highly modified (for safety, but surprisingly-otherwise-stock)1985 M6 track car. Climbing through the roll cage into the temporary passenger seat was no easy feat even with my 5' 10" 165lbs frame.
Jim's a great driver, smooth as silk (and smoothness is the key as we all know, right?)as he feathered the beastly M6 through the wet and slippery turns at speeds that seemed truly unegotiable in the slick, almost freezing conditions (track temp hovered around low to mid 30's all day. More on that later).
At the 1.53 mile LRP, there's a dastardly turn called big bend that leads out to the main straight. Jim took this at 80 and shot out onto the main stretch at 125. We spun once as the track got more slippery. My sensation from my seat was lots of initial understeer (m6's are front heavy) followed by a smooth transition (probably all Jim) into oversteer. The M6 has a nasty throttle off braking problem which was pretty evident on the lightly loaded sections of the track.
Incidentally, LRP, although short at 1.53 miles, is one of the fastest average lap-time tracks in the country- it's almost all high speed turns.
Late in the day, in typical New England fashion, the temp dropped temporarily to freezing conditions while a few guys were lapping. Guys began spinning out and one driver stuffed his pristine e36 M3 coupe head on into a guardrail at turn 5. No one EVER wants to see this happen, but fortunately, he wasn't hurt (physically, anyway).
I had the chance, late in the day, to a few laps in my stock 323i, some observations: In the wet, my car was perhaps as well-suited as any; the stock 205/55 16 conti's had surprising grip, body lean was less than expected and I could set up a nice, neutral drift going through the 2nd and 3rd combinations of slow speed corners. My car felt really good to me, its "old" steering doing a fantastic job of telgraphing every bit of understeer. Our BMW's are GREAT cars.
Even stock.
I intend to put on a set of 225/50's and stay 16. Some suspension mods will be in the works, too.
All in all, a wonderful day at LRP and I suggest any of you who haven't done so should sign up for the BMW club events and see what your car is capable of.
I'll be at Skip Barber in two weeks for the two-day course and report back to you guys then.
Ed
