Well I couldn't resist the desire to track the beast, despite it's portly stature and daily driver status. So I signed up for a weekend HPDE with the BMW CCA
National Capital Chapter. Unfortunately that was dialed back to a single day due to family obligations, but what a glorious day it was.
The event was held at the
Shenandoah Circuit of
Summit Point Raceway.
Here is a shot overlooking the paddock area, the classroom building, and part of the skidpad that was wet down periodically throughout the day.
I was a little hesitant to bring a behemoth of this weight to an HPDE, but in the end it performed flawlessly, exceeding my expectations.
I decided to not make any major modifications to the car for my first time out other than swapping the pads for the Pagid Yellow RS19's. I want to thank Jon and Dan at
Vivid Racing for sourcing these pads for me with only four days left before the event. I ordered them a month before but Pagid missed the boat on shipping, so I had to scramble at the last minute. Dan and Jon found them for me and shipped them out immediately and I received them on Friday before the Saturday event. Great customer service from Vivid Racing ... I highly recommend those guys for your modding needs.
With the Pagids in place, I didn't experience any brake fade all day, even though the track has two straights where speeds hit around 130 MPH followed by heavy braking to ~40 MPH again and again.
The Shenandoah Circuit is a fairly technical track with 22 turns, including a Karousel banked at 20 degrees copied from the Nurburgring. The M5 felt way more nimble around the track than it has any right to at > 4000 lbs. I left EDC on the 'Normal' (middle) setting all day. I have a pair of H&R lowering springs in my garage, but decided not to install them yet. I'm glad I didn't as I was very impressed with the stock suspension.
Since it was my first time tracking this car and had never been on this track, I was in the slowest run group (D). However, I didn't get passed in any of my sessions. I did pass a number of E36 and E46 M3's, as well as a 997.2 C2S that was pretty fast on the straights. There was also a GT30R turboed STi in my group, but we never had any time or open track to play with each other. He was supposedly putting down 410 whp and would take off like a jet on the straights.
All in all, it was a great day ... well organized by BMWCCA NCC, and filled with comraderie from fellow racing enthusiasts. I can't wait for more! Ideally I really want a dedicated track car, but until that time I will continue to track the M5 ... an unbelievable car that serves duty as my luxury daily driver, punctuated by awesome acceleration when requested and now a track whore as well
.
Here's a sequence of pictures coming through a downhill off camber turn before one of the straights:
Here I am about to pass a 997.2 C2S (I swear!):
Here's a nice sequence of an E39 M5 passing an E30:
A cool shot of the STi:
A nice older SL Mercedes leaving the facility over the bridge:
Some fun on the skidpad:
My ancestors were in attendance:
as well as a very cool early Alpina:
A sweet old 914-6:
A number of these pictures were taken by a friend of mine so thanks and credit to him ... they are all completely unprocessed ...
.
so it becomes a huge opportunity to hone your skills.
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