OK, I'm officially jealous. That M3 is
exactly what I wish I had time and garage space for. I'd
love to have an event car. Maybe in a few years.
Event Log - April 19, 2009
Brandywine Motorsports Club / DE Valley PCA Autocross #1
Ran my D Stock 325i ZSP on 2-year-old Bridgestone RE-01Rs. They're my most-of-the-year daily driver tires so they have thousands of heat cycles on them. The car is bone stock and has 50,000 miles on it.
About 45-50 cars showed up, with an extremely wide range of conditions and preps. Some of the standouts:
- Spec Miata racecar
- Factory Five Cobra Daytona Coupe
- Genuine Caterham 7
- Z06 C5 Vette
- Camaro SS
- MGB with a Camaro 3.4l V6/5spd transplant
- '84 bazillion-mile stock Rabbit diesel (non-turbo)
- C-class AMG (I think C-class; the smallish sedan one)
- Couple of older 911s, from well-restored to complete track rat
- Half a dozen Boxsters/Caymans
- Half a dozen Super-dorifto-JDM-yo 240SXs
- Couple of AW-12 MR-2s, one roachy, one clean
- Numerous of Miatae, from stock beater to well-sorted supercharged
There were a number of novices at this event, as well as some seasoned vets. My only in-class competition was a 2004 330i ZHP, which was gorgeous. The owner had done numerous track days but was low on autox experience.
The course was fun, if not huge. It was actually shaped a lot like the Carrol Shelby CS logo:
Start was at the checkered flag bit, and at the dead end of the S was a 180 U-turn around a single cone, whereupon you ran the course backward to exit near the start area. Of course there was a little more wiggle to it than that but that's the basic configuration. Laps were ranging anywhere from 75 seconds for the slow down to 57 or so seconds for the quick. FTOD was the Camaro SS, actually, somewhere in the low 57s. I never got to see that guy run because I was in the same group, but he must have driven it really well to beat some of the other iron out there. I didn't see what rubber he was running. Most fun looking car out there was a beater E30 that was not especially quick (or slow) but looked like an absolute ball to drive.
I was in the middle run group and we got 2 sets of 2 runs each. There were lots and lots of DNFs because of people getting lost on course. It was actually a fairly straightforward layout with very few tricks and I was somewhat amazed at how bollixed up many people got. People were zooming all over the place and going way off course to go through gates they shouldn't have been anywhere near.
I did not get any DQed runs because I guess I had walked the course enough to follow it. On my second run I got one cone at an apex right near the exit. My driving was pretty smooth, though I probably could have pushed a lot harder in some areas. My times fell over my 4 runs (65.mid", 64.6" + 1 cone, 64.low", 63.335"). I won D Stock over the 330i who was about 2" behind me.
One of the more-or-less stock Miatae, running R-comps, lost it on the slalom (across the top side of the C above). The back end stepped out and he braked too much and spun, backing the car up onto a curb right into one of the flag stations, killing a fire extinguisher and hanging the car up. Luckily he did surprisingly little damage and we were able to lift it off easily enough. Other than that there were no damage incidents though some of the slammed 240SXs looked ready to fly out of control at any moment. The guys in the Cobra, Zo6, and SS all showed remarkable restraint in not spinning, since it was not a very open course.
Overall it was a hoot and I think I drove better than I ever have, looking ahead, braking early, and driving smoothly and proactively. Unfortunately this is a small group and there are no real instructors. I'd love to have some real in-car feedback.
