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Tracked my stock 335i Coupe today
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04-06-2007, 07:05 PM | #1 |
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Tracked my stock 335i Coupe today
Today was a CT Valley Chapter BMWCCA driving school at Lime Rock Park. The temperature reached a scorching high of 35 degrees, a full 20 below "average" for CT this time of year. Oh well, at least is was not raining! There were even a few snow flakes floating around the track.
To give you an idea of my ability as a driver, I'm in the "Intermediate" group. There are two groups below me and one group above me. I have driven solo in the Intermediate group as well. I'm in the top 1/3 in my group. My 335i is absolutely bone stock, with 3,500 miles on the odometer. After an oil service yesterday I inflated the tires to 40 front and 38 rear and was off to the track at 5:45am. The front left tire got up to 50lb after the first session, even at those cold temperatures, so I backed out 4lb per tire after that. My first session was at 10:00am and it was still in the 20s. The tires sure took a while to find any grip, but after a couple of laps they were as warm as they were going to get. The 335i has a TON of torque and it was actually fantastic around the circuit. Lime Rock is a VERY technical track, with every corner being important to drive properly. If you don't do hit the apex' right and keep up your exit speed...you're going to lose a lot of momentum. Overall, the car was very fun on the track and held it's own against 911's and M3's. The brakes were more than adequate for Lime Rock and I never once experienced any fade at all. Lime Rock is pretty much a 3rd gear track with only a single shift into 4th and back down again needed. I never hit the rev limiter at all. On the back straight, even with a really good run in, I never got to 7,000 rpm before needing to brake for the uphill. I found that driving with the DSC partially disabled (one press) was fine for me. It only interrupted at the crest of the uphill where the car gets light. It also saved me one time when I missed an apex at the downhill and went in too fast AND off line. No DSC and I may have gotten a wheel off. At the end of the front straight, I was going about 125 - 130 mph. The front left tire takes a beating at LRP, but the run-flat's held up just fine. I'll be back there in a month for another day and hopefully the weather will be MUCH better. The oil temperature was never a problem, always staying in the same range that the car runs in on regular street driving. I burned 12 gallons of fuel in about 80 miles.
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Bob ///Margolis
2013 335i xDrive – 6-speed, AW, M Sport Line, Cold Weather, Dymanic Handling, Premium, Technology, 403M, Black Grills, Carbon Caps, Performance Exhaust Last edited by bmargolis; 04-06-2007 at 07:55 PM.. |
04-24-2007, 01:59 AM | #5 |
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The 335i manual sedan has already been tracked at Willow Springs by e90member AlVin. He came in at number 6, beating out his friend's E46 M3. His car was the first street car, the first 5 cars were for track only. He was stock as well, on OEM runflats!
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04-24-2007, 03:46 AM | #7 |
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How fun! I wonder if 330is are fun track cars also!
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05-28-2007, 09:26 PM | #9 |
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Got my new E92 335i last week, and am planning to do the NJ BMWCCA at SPR in late July. How did the runflats hold up? Do you think you took say, 1/10th out of the tread? More/less?
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2011 X5d Platinum Grey/Oyster/Bamboo/+lots of stuff
2006 911 Carrera S - 6MT - Seal Grey/Black/Sport Seats/Sport Exhaust/Sport Chrono/Nav Gone: 2007 E92 335i - 6spd - MontegoBlue/Black 2003 E39 530i - Auto - Black Sapphire on Black Gone: 2001 325Ci - 5MT- TopazBlue/Black Trackday Count: 10 |
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05-28-2007, 10:40 PM | #10 |
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Yeah, I took my totally stock car to the Reno/Fernley raceway for a two day even last month...it did ok...but the car pushed really badly..I needed to adjust the pressures but didnt and it resulted in my tires getting chewed on the outside edge pretty badly. My next event I will be in Utah sharing my buddy's car...a stage 3 B7 platform Audi A4...then I will probably be back at Sears Point with my car in October. Decided to sell my race car...so my BMW will be my only track car now.
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05-28-2007, 10:42 PM | #11 |
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I should take a shot of my runflats...I lost way more that 1/10 of my tread...with a two day event in Nevada.
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05-28-2007, 10:46 PM | #13 | |
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Quote:
what did you think of fernley? are you running with the www.hookedondriving.com group? I've run with those guys at laguna, buttonwillow and thunderhill, and they put on a good event imo |
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05-29-2007, 07:40 AM | #14 |
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05-29-2007, 08:38 AM | #15 | |
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The hooked on driving event is run by David Ray...I use to race with him in Spec Miata..so I know him relatively well. I have yet to run with them..but got close a couple of times. I would probably ask if I could instruct.
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