Just completed a driving school at
Calabogie Motorsports Park on July 17-19, 2009, organized by the
Ottawa Chapter of the BMW car club.
While not a member, the event was open to anyone who wanted to attend.
The event had over 170 registrants for the 3 day event.
The track is a fairly new facility about 1hr west of Ottawa, Ontario.
It has a really smooth surface as it is new, and most importantly has a variety of turns, and elevation changes to keep things interesting over the 20 turns, and 5.05km.
Having owned the e39 M5 for over a year, I decided that it was time to "Blow out the Carbon".
I prepped the 4000lb behemoth for the track based on my 1 year driving on the street, and what I wanted to get out of the track day.
Not kidding anyone - the M5 is not really a track day toy - it is principally an Autobahn car, suited for high speeds rather than corner carving.
I found the stock suspension was perfectly adequate for the track - sure there is some roll, but nothing scary. The primary tendency with a staggered stock tire setup 245/275 is understeer - which is fine for now - forces me to approach tight corners "slow in, fast out".
At 4000lbs I was able to overwhelm the stock brakes on the street - despite posts on this board indicating that they got away with stock brakes. I had the dust shields in place, but the vents opened up (wonder if that actually does anything)
What I did do was put a stoptech ST-40 BBK with PFC-01 pads up front, remove the shield - keeping a small section for the lower ball joint as per Dave Zeckhause's recommendations, and standard Axis ULT street pads in the back.
With the stock suspension allowing plenty of weight transfer, the oem rears were more than up for it resulting in pretty even braking, even when trail braking into high speed corners. New ATE Type 200 fluid, and SS braided lines and RP fluid in the tranny and diff.
New oil - Lubromoly 0W40, and that is about the extent of the prep.
Running on pretty crappy nexen N3000 tires would keep my corner speeds down, and have the benefit on being easy on the chassis.
First session learning the track was a disaster. I had the instructor drive the car for 2 acclimatisation laps, but being 20 turns I couldn't remember the lines. I was being passed by everyone! I thought to myself "This can't continue as I had to represent the e39 M5 power"
Not being at the track before I was in the intermediate run group - fine with me for this car. Fortunately with the help of the instructor ride along, I was able to learn the line and get the speeds up. On my second session I was the one doing the passing in our very large group. Fortunately the track being over 5km long, you didn't get caught it too many trains.
By the end of the second day I felt like I was getting about 7 or 8/10th's of what the car was capable of with the setup it had. The tires were howling in unison on just about every corner, I would be braking later into corners than most others thank's to the awesome ST-40 and PFC-01's (although brake jutter was a problem for a while - thrust arm or traction strut bushings?, pad deposits etc. but were not present in the later sessions). After the first session I disabled the crappy DSC as it just really blows. It remained off - even in the rain session for the rest of the event (usually off on the street too). I was getting to the point of starting to play around with the throttle to control yaw angle - knowing that the car I was driving was my ride home. No spectacular drifting was performed, but things were progressing (stock suspension takes a while to settle after a drift.)
No cars outside of R-compound track day specials were requesting point by's in my run group. E46 M3's? not a problem - which was surprising considering most of them were running with either much better street tires, or R-compounds. Even in the turns (except the tightest) I would hang with them.
Oil temps did move around a lot during a lap - which I found very strange. Running mid point 210 to about 5/8 mark.
Highest speed that I saw at the end of the straight was just over 200kph. Coolant temp needle right in the middle.
Fuel numbers were around 125L/Hr.
There was an E60 M5, and he couldn't gain anything on me despite him stating the P500 button was pressed.
We did get a comment from one of the guys there as the e39 and e60 M5's passed together down the main straight with V8, and V10 M engines (both with DINAN exhausts) that both cars produced the best sound out of everything there.
996 GT3, various 911's, Z4's, E46 M3, M3 CSL, E30 M3's, E90 M3, E92 M3's, Noble, Radical, GT-R, Viper, Z06, various gutted and race prepped 3 series, S6 V10, Mini's with 250 whp, lots of different hardware.
Great track - although there are some corners that really challenge such a heavy car. The course only required 2 gears - 3rd and 4th, the torque was sufficient to pull out of corners at 3000-4000rpm. Only real complaint was the lack of turn in grip due to tires and understeer. It would be more fun it this was dialed out a bit for those tricky decreasing radius turns.
The e39 proved to be an entertaining ride - the grunt to pull out of corners, the high speed stability, the predictable handling - even in the rain with DSC off.
Upgrades? Given that this car is my DD - I am not going to wreck the comfy ride on our crappy pot-hole roads.
275's all around, Stickier street rubber, and rear sway bar. Sure the 275's may sacrifice some steering feel (M5 doesn't have much to begin with on the 245's), but should dial out a lot of the understeer.
When the stock suspension gives up the ghost - then comes either DINAN Stage one Koni's or some other street biased suspension GC?
If you ever get a chance to get up to Ontario - go check out Calabogie - the area is nice, and the roads leading up to the location are great driving roads. The facility is new, the track is billiard table smooth. Most of all - the track is great fun.
Not as fast as Mosport, but I think way safer with better run off areas, and more interesting selection of linking turns.
IF you have never taken your car to a track - what is holding you back? On the road, you will NEVER be able to fully realise the potential of the car. I think it is a great venue to experience what separates the M from the standard cars.
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