The Silver Bullet on a "Road Course"

[TheNeek]

Well I got Project M42 onto a road course for the first time ever. It is an old air strip between Phoenix and Tucson. It was part of the SCCA solo II thing, but we weren't using the usuall parking lot. Supposedly the track was made for the FBI and CIA to do "defensive driving and hostage situation training". I had a little chat with a security guard out there. Sadly I don't have pictures because image devices were not allowed on the site.

Here's a link to course layout: SCCA Pinal Park

Jbob came down from phoenix to go for 9 laps around the course (I got one re-run). We made it around the 1.2 mile track with added slaloms to stop cars from jumping in a fastest time around 93 seconds. Which works out to about 47 miles per hour. I expect official results to be posted within the week. Just had a great time and wanted to thank Jason for making the trip all the way down just to ride around with me in the hot sun. Hope you had fun talking with Jake and zipping around in my ride; I know I did.

Any takers for rides next month? Same course.

[jbob]

silber bullet = : :
i had an awesome time at the autox and chillin with u guys afterwards. yeah it sucks we couldn't take pics (but ya know what, the guard never checked or even asked....hehehe, so maybe we can sneak some cameras in next time )

eventho the road surface wasn't the best (lots of dirt & gravel, especially outside the racing lines), i think nic's car pulled around (if not more than) 1g thru some of the tight flat turns.

nic was spankin most of the cars there : including z06 vettes, wrx, s2000.....hehehe, beat jake's e30 m3 by a second

i would definately love to go next month.....hopefully i'll have my own helmet by then (haha, thanks jake for the loaner ).

also, thanks again for fixing those threaded collar pieces (i owe ya guys).....the ground controls & koni's are installed, and the ride is awesome! (and they're surprisingly easy to adjust the ride-height). the car isn't all the way lowered (i have about 3/4 to 1 inch more to lower), and the car has around 3.5 inches of clearance all around

[E30 toy]

I had a lot of fun too, besides cleaning out the dirt out of my interior from my 'controlled 007 spin'. If I had only remembered to turn off the ABS! Anyways, I think it was a sorry excuse for a road course, but the closest I have ever been on besides Mt. Lemmon. In fact, due to the 2 crashed cars, I think Mt. Lemmon may possibly be a safer surface... Anyways, I'll do it again and encourage other E21 owners to come down. I have enough work to get ANOTHER set (third set of Falken's in a year) before the next one. Jason- In my defense, Nic ran another 4 runs than I did and his tires aern't bald. I am not saying that what Nic did wasn't impressive, it was, although I think it is unfair to compare THIS time. But it's all fun and games until someone slides off course and hits a tree! Nic did awesome as I have suspected long ago before all his mods, just check out: http://www.bimmerboys.com/webpage/re.../autocross.htm

[BetaTested]

I wanna come with you guys next time I won't run, but I'd love a ride, or just to watch

I wouldn't dare run the course on the stock rims and tire size. My cheap-o's like to buckle under when I pull turns tight. Rash on the side walls is a BAAAD thing.

[TheNeek]

Yeah it was REAL tough to squeeze a little more out of the car having the two cars crash on course. I really was frightened in a few turns. I started to back off. But just the sheer number of times I ran around the course let me figure it out. It's kind of like playing a brand new drivng game on Playstation II. You have to memorize the track. If you got out of that racing line (like I did and went for a little dirt excersion of my own) you were almost totally screwed. I can't wait for the next one though... Sure was fun to run on a street and not just some maze of cones.

P.S. Jake and I try not to compete against each other. We celebrate in each others victories but don't compare our car to the other.

[jbob]

hehehe, 007 spin

yeah that's true nic had twice as many runs....also, the later groups on the course probably had a better advantage compared to the first group (the one jake was in) because w/ more & more cars running on the track, they gradually cleared the road from all the little rocks.

yeah i agree, it's not much of a road course (mt lemmon definately has better & i think smoother asphalt), but i guess a cool thing about the course (if they don't change the layout for the next autox), is that u can only better your times with each additional run.

[e21pilot]

Originally posted by BetaTested
I wanna come with you guys next time I won't run, but I'd love a ride, or just to watch

I wouldn't dare run the course on the stock rims and tire size. My cheap-o's like to buckle under when I pull turns tight. Rash on the side walls is a BAAAD thing.

Dude you need more air in your tires thats all

[TheNeek]

Here is a link to the results from january's event. My fastest times are on the "time only" runs. Jake is planning on picking up a new set of Azenis for the next auto-x (he gets about 6 to 8 thousand miles on a set). Should be a little more fun for him with some tread under the M3. Jake's tires were almost gone at the last event.

Here's the deal for visitors. I need names, and I can probably only take a few people. Once I pre-register I'll find out who can go and who can't.

[JAlfredPrufrock]

I'll go.