Anita

First I have to say it was great to meet a fellow board member last week, especially at Road America. Here are the pics I took of Rroberts car and his wheels. And please check out his tech post on how his car was prepped, etc.

PICS
http://www.m5board.com/photopost/sho...t=last1&page=1

http://www.m5board.com/photopost/sho...t=last1&page=1

http://www.m5board.com/photopost/sho...t=last1&page=1

RRoberts POST
www.m5board.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=41452

ROAD AM. BBW CCA DE EVENT

What we attended was a 2 day Driver’s Ed event hosted by the Windy City BMW CCA. There were 3 run groups, 1 novice, 1 intermediate and 2 experienced. I drove in the intermediate group. We had instructors, but I received a sign-off on the second day that allowed me to drive solo. I had done one other BMW DE last fall, but at just finished driving the F Body 2 day event solo at Road Am. 2 weeks before. It’s a bit frustrating for me to have an instructor and I hope this doesn’t sound bad, but this was my second female instructor and the topic came up again about me driving like a man. I understand it’s important to learn the line on each course, when to shift, brake, accelerate, all that, but if I just wanted to do a leisurely lap around, I would head out to the Interstate, set the cruise and pop in a CD and ride. At one point my instructor told me to drive straight off the track into the pea gravel ‘cause she thought I didn’t have enough time to stop. Yeah, sure, I’ll drive right off, then I make monkeys fly out of my butt. Another time, after she wanted me to swing real wide after making a pass and I had to dive back in real quick and tight, she wanted to know if I was alright or needed to pull off to catch my breath. I’m like “What are you talking about?” After my first session, I got so frustrated, that I found the two guest instructors from CA who taught the instructors group on Fri and asked if they could ride with me and teach me something. These poor guys probably thought I was nuts, but they agreed and said they would meet me by the pit wall after they got the event chair’s okay. Now I don’t even know who they were and I don’t mean to sound disrespectful, but the one driver was I think an Indy driver and his name sounded like Meemo.

Enough complaining!! I'm too pouty--I just like drivng solo!! The best bits: Double leap frog passing on the front straight going like 110 or 120 (what went past me was a Porsche GT3—Greg is your Porsche still for sale—I think I might just want one of those P’s), running out the brake markers as far as I could stand, pushing my car a little more on each lap, driving solo, having one of the event people make a silly comment about me changing one of my own tires and me kicking in the air at him.

How are other BMW CCA DE events set up? How are groups decided? What did you like/dislike?


R COMPOUND TIRES

Okay about the my Kuhmo Victor Racers—loved the feel of the tire. Such an improvement over street tires!!!! Of course this is my first R tire, so any brand would probably seem wonderful to me. The air temp was cool, 40’s or 50’s. How are R compound tires affected by temp? The same as street tires? How often do you rotate your wheels at the track? I did once. Also, because these tires are not that soft, I drove up on them. Hey, it’s a great was to get rid of tailgaters—spray them with grit and road grudge. Any other advice/tips?

Thanks so much!!

Anita

Lupo///M5

Never ever ever would I buy a white car... except for the M5. It has to be one of my favorite colors for the beast. Stunning pics. Thanks Anita

__________________
'03 Dinan S2 M5 Carbon Black/Black/Birch Blue Trim
AA CAI, StopTech BBK, Eisenmann Race Exhaust, Rogue Octane SSK&WSR, Euro Dash, Rear console Cooler, BlueTooth.

stever

check out Tracquest.com, Todd's events cost more than BMW club, but you get more track time, the passing rules are more liberal, and he's got instructors thay you can really learn something from

R tires have got to be warmed up for about 3 laps -- particularly if it's cold (40F is COLD) -- on the M5 in particular, the front tires and particularly the "outside" front tire (or the tire that's "outside" on a long sweeper) take a lot of punishment -- so the front tires should be swapped diagonally with the rears every track day

let us know how the Kumhos last -- they don't have a great reputation for longevity compared to Toyo RA1s or Michelin Pilot Sport Cups -- you should keep track of the heat cycles (every track session is a heat cycle) -- because at some point they will "go off" and most if not all the wonderful grip will go away (even though there may be tread left as the weight of the M5 really heats up tires and the camber issues that cause the outside wear cause uneven tread temps as well). i keep a computer spreadsheet on the tires, but i noticed one of the experienced P-car guys tallying cycles with chalk or a grease pencil on the tires

Anita

You're welcome! Yes, I think I've only seen like one other white M5 in person and it is a very nice color choice for the M5.
Anita

Anita

stever,

Thanks for the event advice. I'll check into that. Tracktime offers instruction at Road Am, so I' in the process of considering them too. Do you know anything about them? D'oh! I'm just figuring out that I want more substantial instruction. I don't mean to say that I didn't learn from the instructors I've had, both the one's they provide for the track and for the excercises, but the one's I gotten for track don't even drive BMW's, let alone the specific model I'm driving.

As for the Kuhmo's I be more then happy to give you follow-up on them. My apologies, but I should have made it clear that I was driving the M Coupe last weekend. So if you still want, I'll still give you the tire feed-back.
And tire rotation is restricted with that car--it has to be front to front, rear to rear. Any advice on when switches should be made under those circumstances?

And thanks for all the advice you gave me!

Anita

stever

the M coupe will also benefit greatly from enough negative camber front/rear to really use track tires -- if you're going to track this car regularly, Ground Control coil-overs would make a big difference even if you don't use spine-rattling sping rates.

if you're consistently running track(s) in one direction, switching L/R every two days may be useful. After the tires have worn 1/3 to 1/2 on the outside you can have them re-mounted L/R. But with Kumhos you've really got to watch the wear and heat-cycles as i'm not sure they will last more that 4 track days (and maybe not even that).

Pilot Sport Cups cost more than Kumhos but are about as fast and should wear a lot longer (even though i have some concerns about life under the weight of the M5) and Toyo RA1s will definitely wear longer if not quite as fast. Unless you're racing for time or money you'll probably be better off with Cups or RA1s. R tires are consumables so you'll have an opportunity to experiment and it's very worthwhile to keep some records.

I just invested in my own Chatterbox -- tired of instructors who have forgotten theirs or have worn out the connectors (if your're only hearing half of what the instructor says it's not very useful) -- and allows me to take experienced racers for a ride (DE rules permitting) -- i've also made a point to find the good M3 guys and stick to one or two instructors for each DE day (although a P-car guy gave me some really useful advice at my last track day -- in fact the car-specific stuff doesn't really come in until you reach a fairly high level - however avoid the Spec Miatia drivers as they don't know about brakes)

You must have a video mount as it's the only way to get lap times with the BMW club which doesn't allow lap timing otherwise. Tracquest and some other groups put out Hot-Lap senders in which case a Hot Lap Timer is great. Lap times are the only way to tell whether you're really improving or not -- and will show problems like tires going off.

i haven't paid much attention to the midwest and east coast track groups, but i'll try to put together a list over the next couple weeks and post

Redshift

RE: super high tire pressure and heat problems, I plan to try filling my RA1 tires with nitrogen so that the pressure stays relatively constant - should be a HUGE help on the M5, which tends to drastically heat up the tires even on relatively mild days. I started pressures at high 30s and came off track in the mid 50s on some tires and high 40s in the others. Yikes! Nitrogen won't change by more than a few psi at most from cold to hot, making it easier to dial in the right settings and "forget about it" later.

__________________
Brian - CCA #273611
Tarheel BMW CCA Street Survival Chief Instructor
03 540iT Sapphire Black - 01 M5 LeMans Blue - 02 330Cic Orient Blue - 94 M3 w/S50B32 Imola Red 08 F800ST Blue

*** Parting out entire 03 CB/Imola/Black M5 *** - TONS OF PARTS AVAILABLE

stever

where do you get nitrogen?

this would be a huge help with the Cup tires which have a very narrow pressure range

Redshift

Have to call around town. I still need to talk to the racers to get the real scoop on how the entire procedure is done. I would imagine it has to be done at the tire shop - not sure how they get all the air out and fill with nitrogen, but we should research on the SCCA message boards and perhaps someone there may be able to help.

__________________
Brian - CCA #273611
Tarheel BMW CCA Street Survival Chief Instructor
03 540iT Sapphire Black - 01 M5 LeMans Blue - 02 330Cic Orient Blue - 94 M3 w/S50B32 Imola Red 08 F800ST Blue

*** Parting out entire 03 CB/Imola/Black M5 *** - TONS OF PARTS AVAILABLE

Anita

stever,

Again, thanks so much for the info. I will keep records on my tires. And I like the idea of experimenting with the different R Compound tires--something I've wanted to do, but I've had to watch my budget a bit!

Also, I'll check the alternative ways to time. Right now, I have to pay my son $20 for two days of hand held timing, done with a Walmart cheapy timer!

Greatly look forward to what track info you find for my area. I've driven my M5 at Blackhawk twice last year in highspeed autox events--which are not hard on the car at all--minimal prep. But an all day lapping event is coming up there sponsored by the P's in June. Not sure which car to use for that. Gotta buy an SA helmet too. Any ideas where to get those? I'm going to try Kelley-Moss first--I need to be able to try it on somehow or be able to return it easily if it's mailorder.

Anita