[mocohead]

Here are two video clips after day 1 of the BMW CCA San Diego Chapter Driver's School at Chuckwalla. I'm in a F30 328i that has Hankook Z214 tires and Afe Scorcher as the only mods. Stock brakes, stock suspension, stock everything else.

These videos were shot during the afternoon instructor session. You will see another F30 driven by a fellow instructor. It is impressive how little body roll there is!!



This second cilp is a bit longer but shows some more action. Notice at the end another F30 328i, also on Hankooks. It was the pace car for the Club Race (hence the light bar on top).



The ambient temperatures were 95 degrees, dry and really hot. The stock brakes were fine, but did get a touch soft towards the end of the day. I drove to be cautious of fade, so my brake zones were longer and less aggressive. Since I wasn't running for time, there was no good reason to cook the brakes. But really they were fine.

The afe scorcher was pretty good. I'm happy with the performance, although I do think I was getting some detonation despite running 2/3 100 octane. We will see what happens today, but virtually every car was having heat related issues yesterday so I am not going to worry too much. But as you can see from the videos the car was really quick!

[mocohead]

Here is a better quality video from day 2...should have used less compression for the day 1 videos. Sorry



The second day was run on RFT's as one of the Hankooks got corded. OEM brakes never faded, but truthfully I was not braking that aggressively. The other blue F30 in the videos was another instructor and we had a lot of fun running around out there together.

FYI the cars with hazards flashing were the instructors, the others were the A+ group drivers. Since we instructors were barging-in on the A+ group, we worked diligently to avoid taking track time/space from them.

You can see that the afe scorcher helped a bit as I could close the gap to the other F30 by the end of the straight. But the real difference was tires - I was over 2 seconds per lap faster on the Hankooks than on the RFT's.

It was 92F outside on Sunday and the car never overheated. I did get a CEL (no message on the idrive) that cleared itself after a few drive cycles. My guess is it was temperature related, but I didn't have a code reader with me so all I can do is guess. The car ran fine and never went into limp mode so... no need to sweat it.

I hope you enjoy the videos. Thank you for watching.

[StealYourFace]

Nice- the 328i is a bargain in my mind. How does the clutch feel? And how is the steering on track?

[mocohead]

The clutch is fine...no issues. As for the steering all I can say is that I always knew exactly what my front tires were doing, it was weighted absolutely perfectly, and any loss of "feel" from a hydraulic rack was not apparent. A number of us instructors were driving F30's at various points throughout the weekend, and all of us agreed that the steering is just right on the track! Not a single one of us bemoaned the loss of the e9x hydraulic setup.

[Alpine F31]

Great vids! Thanks for posting. I've never been to that track...it looks like a blast!

[SergioK]

I actually like the steering on the F30 more than my old E46.

Here's my only video from this past weekend...

I actually haven't even had time to watch it in its entirety from start to finish.

Some quick observations about the F30 328i, initial turn-in is simply amazing. The DHP is so worth it... I don't think I'd ever change anything on the suspension. The //M Performance Brakes can dish out as much braking as you want. In one session I got a later than preferred pass and when I dialed in just a tad bit more brake (the amount I'd think would kick ABS in) it just gave me more braking. Love it.

Tires... these Continental run flats actually perform better on track than on the street. They tramline and have quirky characteristics on the street. But once up to temp (according to the TMPS I saw high temps up to about 170f) they stick pretty good, provide decent audible feedback and when pushed have a gradual slip characteristic which makes them very controllable. Another interesting plus, once they get pushed to the point of getting 'greasy', they are quite manageable and easier to control than regular tires. I'm pleasantly surprised.

The N20 engine delivers plenty of power... there's just an ever so slight delay in power but with judicious right foot training you'd barely notice.

I took a student out and he thought my car had been modified in some way. He asked me what I had done to it. So far I told him, fill the gas tank and that was about it.

Oh, and I averaged 35mpg on the way to the track and about 12mpg when on the track. That little turdbo is hungry when spooled up!