I finally had the chance to sign up and participate in my first track event. It was at BIR (Brained International Raceway) in brained Minnesota.
I did a little prep to my car before the event. I changed the oil, spark plugs, coils, walnut blasted and put in motul 600 RBF. I read a lot about the cars over heating so i also removed the splash shields from the underside the engine. Side note on that- driving around town my temps where 10-20f lower than average so i knew it was helping some prior to the track day.
The HPDE consisted of 6 20 minutes session for only $160 which is a steal considering most events are over $350 at BIR.
The first session i took it fairly easy, letting most of the field pass me as i got use to all the turns, brake zones etc.
The second session i started pushing harder and after only 5 laps i got the famous LIMP MODE....pull off turn the car off and back on it goes away. I skipped the remainder of that session.
I decided that i caused the limp mode by idling for 10 minutes while waiting to get on the tack from the second session of the day. So to keep the coolant temp in check i hacked the menu to display to coolant temp and also turned the heat on. We had to drive with the windows down so having the heat on didnt bother me.
Session 3-5 all went very well the coolant temp never went over 100C and the oil temp maxed out at 270F when i was pushing the hardest. The brakes held up well, i was very surprised that i didn't get any fade. The tires would start to get "greasy" towards the end of each session, which in turned caused me to spin out on the 5th session.
The 6th session was cancled due to rain and the previous group getting mud all over the track.
All in all the 335i did great on the track, i think with more practice and some better tires it could be a real animal...maybe also some sway bars to keep the body roll down.
I plan to track it again in a couple months and see if i can beat my current lap time.
Sounds awesome and congrats on getting on the track. If you're going to be working on your car and taking care of the fixes down the line, take a look at the link below to our site's DIY tech articles on the E90 platform. Please let us know if you have any questions!
BMW 3-Series E90 (2006-2013) Technical Articles
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