Question:
And my overall greatest joy was to put my new red 2002 330xi (all-wheel drive) through it’s paces on Sunday and smoke all the M3’s and Porsche’s who had a tough time getting any traction coming out of the turns. I never realized how much extra traction the xi gave me. My instructor sounded like the guy from the ‘Home Improvement’ show…..he kept saying "more power". I think he enjoyed riding with me as much as I enjoyed driving. This car was like a rocket in the rain.
Just wait until it’s dry!
Response:
I noticed that you have the auto. How was that on the track ? Did you use the steptronic gear changes or the "sports" mode ? I’ve been a bit reluctant to drive my 325i on a track becuase I used to drive a manual WRX and had heaps of fun with that on the track and thought the BMW might not be up to scratch.
Hey, Peter, did somebody give you a *brainectomy*? *ANY* car on the track is better than *NO* car on the track! Use that BMW the way it was intended to be used. — C.R. Krieger "Don’t argue with ‘em, dear; they’re beneath our dignity." – W.C. Fields
Response:
Regarding the automatic transmission, I learned some things at the track…… Regardless of which mode you’re in, drive, sports drive or M1 thru M4, the transmission will shift up when you hit red line. I knew it would in drive and sports drive, but never wound up the rpm’s so high in manual that I’d let if shift on it’s own, I would always shift it before it got to the red line, so I didn’t know it would shift by itself. The automatic worked great but I can definitely see how a manual transmission would be much more fun and much faster on the track. (But then there’s the rest of my life sitting in a bunch of traffic, driving the kids around, going to the mall, when I could kiss my Steptronic…..I guess life has it’s trade-off’s). On Saturday, dry track, I used sports drive almost all day. I was amazed at how much tug and pull there was on the steering wheel going through all the turns and I have to admit it, I was a little afraid to take one hand off the wheel to shift with. I was so glad I had an automatic and didn’t have to worry about shifting. I was paying enough attention to where I was driving and didn’t want to worry about switching gears. Can you say ‘white knuckles’? But on Sunday, wet track, I shifted in manual mode a lot, almost all day. First of all we weren’t going as fast and there was a major difference in the tug and pull on the steering wheel because we were sliding a lot more around the turns and there was a lot less friction between the tires and the track. So on the wet, I felt a lot more comfortable hanging on with only one hand and shifting the lever. And secondly, it was my second day and I was a lot less nervous about this whole ‘track day’ thing. So part of it was less tense and part easier to steer. I think the transmission rarely went into 5th gear. Even on the straight, it was still in 4th gear at 110. On the twists and turns, I used 2nd and 3rd in manual mode. Coming out of the last turn back on to the oval, I would usually be in 2nd and let the car automatically shift to 3rd and 4th through the banked turn and the straight. I know, I can hear it now, all of you out there with stick shifts are going to think I’m somewhat a candy ass by admitting I was glad to have an automatic, but at least for this first go around, it was nice not to have to worry about finding entry points, apexes, and exit points, braking, accelerating, braking and at the same time clutching and finding the right gear. The automatic was nice. One less thing to worry about. And for those of you with M3’s and Porsche’s, believe me, when it’s dry, I’ll eat your dust. On Saturday, dry day, I was going around the banked turn on the oval portion of this track at about 75 mph (the track is an Indy-500 type track, complete banked oval with a road course in the infield). There were a few places on the banked turn with 4 parallel skid marks leading directly into the wall and a big splat mark where someone hit it. I saw those every lap. After the banked turn was the straight away and the max I hit on it was about 115 mph. It could have been a little less or more, but doing 115-ish and having to hit the brakes hard (I mean HARD), let off and do an immediate left hand turn into the infield, didn’t allow me a lot of time to stare at the speedometer to see exactly how fast I was going. My mind was on not wrecking the car, not killing my instructor and not personally dying. My top speed was of little concern at the time. I talked to a guy with a brand new M3 about how fast he was going (since I thought I was flying) and he told me he was doing between 105 and 110 on the banked turn and would be doing between 135 and 145 at the end of the straight away before he turned into the infield. I was a little less cocky after that conversation. I have a major heightened respect for the M3’s and Porsche’s in this world. My car is quite cool, but they are awesome. But on Sunday, wet day, they couldn’t catch me. I started out last in a pack of about 12 cars, we all got started about 5 seconds apart. After about 2 laps I had passed everyone and my instructor and I were on the track almost by ourselves. I remember telling him, "this is like playing golf on a Tuesday afternoon….nobody in front of us, nobody behind us". After 3 or 4 more laps, I caught up with the pack again….they were still going slow, fish tailing around every corner and probably quite surprised to see me again. But by then, our 20 minutes was up so I couldn’t lap them. Another cool feature on Sunday, wet day, was my rain sensing wipers……great tool. Flip ‘em on and forget about ‘em. (Sounds like one of those slow turkey cooking commercials from the pocket fisherman guy.) One rule for the weekend was that both the driver’s and the passenger’s windows must be down while you’re on the track. The reasons were so you could easily give hand signals when being passed (the car being passed has to ‘point’ the passing car ahead or you can’t pass), when entering the pit area and the final reason (which was a little unnerving) was so they can more easily pull you out of the car when you crash……lovely. Windows were open on both the dry and wet day. Convertibles had to have their tops down. A Z3 driver and a Boxter S drive wished they had wipers on their helmet visors. What a riot that whole weekend was! If any of you accountants, attorneys, office workers out there who use their BMW’s to go to work, drive to the grocery store or just use if for normal life duties (like I do), if you get a chance to do a driver’s It’s a life long remembrance. Tom Allen – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – My track day here in St. Louis was about 2 weeks ago. It was a 2-day event and included eight 20-minute track sessions and some very informative classroom meetings. What a great time! After I got home, I wrote the following e-mail to the board of directors of the St. Louis BMW Club that put this whole weekend together. I thought I’d share it with all of you on this newsgroup. If any of you ever get a chance to do an activity like this, go for it!…..what a great way to enjoy your car. I’m sure most of you out there are not race car drivers and have never done anything like this, as I hadn’t. But after you experience a weekend like this, you’ll have a great appreciation for the people who race cars for a living. What a HOOT! The driving school cost $250 per driver and was worth every penny. Tom Allen My son and I just attended the 2002 Driver’s School over at Gateway International Raceway. For all of those members of the St. Louis BMW Club that were involved in putting this thing together, I say, "Thank You". My son and I had a trememdous time! The emotions that we experienced during the school went from laughing hootin’-n-hollerin’ to fear to winning the Super Bowl. The dry Saturday session was just as much fun as the wet Sunday session. The speeds were much faster on Saturday, the braking was quicker over a shorter distance and the cornering caused much higher g-forces. What a great time Saturday was. I wore down a bit of tire tread and brake pad but the car came out in perfect shape. Standing on the brake pedal at 115 mph at the end of the straight-away getting ready to turn left onto the road course raised my blood pressure every lap. Driving in the rain on Sunday was a little intimidating at first but proved to be just as much fun. Those controlled sideways slides taught both of us what this car can do in the rain. Our instructors were top-notch. They weren’t hot rodders, they both had a ton of experience and they both guided my son and I through the entire school based upon our individual driving abilities. The radio communicators were a trememdous help. I don’t know what it would have been like if we had to yell back and forth to each other. I guess my anticipation prior to the school was that the instructors and I would use hand signals or just talk loud, so the communicators were a great relief. Communicators may be assumed during a school like this, but I personally didn’t know we’d have them. Thanks for providing them! As I said in one of the classroom sessions, my two goals for this weekend were to have a life-long father/son bonding experience and to not wreck my new car. Both were realized. But now my son thinks his Honda Accord is a piece of junk and wants me to buy him a BMW……yeah right! And my overall greatest joy was to put my new red 2002 330xi (all-wheel drive) through it’s paces on Sunday and smoke all the M3’s and Porsche’s who had a tough time getting any traction coming out of the turns. I never realized how much extra traction the xi gave me. My instructor sounded like the guy from the ‘Home Improvement’ show…..he kept saying "more power". I think he enjoyed riding with me as much as I enjoyed driving. This car was like a rocket in the rain. What a GREAT TIME we had and I sincerely thank all of you for your efforts putting this thing together. We can’t wait for the next session! Tom Allen Pictures of the track session are available at the following link, click on the picture link at member name ‘Tom Allen’. http://www.stlbmwclub.com/members1.shtml
Response:
I noticed that you have the auto. How was that on the track ? Did you use the steptronic gear changes or the "sports" mode ? I’ve been a bit reluctant to drive my 325i on a track becuase I used to drive a manual WRX and had heaps of fun with that on the track and thought the BMW might not be up to scratch. Peter
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – My track day here in St. Louis was about 2 weeks ago. It was a 2-day event and included eight 20-minute track sessions and some very informative classroom meetings. What a great time! After I got home, I wrote the following e-mail to the board of directors of the St. Louis BMW Club that put this whole weekend together. I thought I’d share it with all of you on this newsgroup. If any of you ever get a chance to do an activity like this, go for it!…..what a great way to enjoy your car. I’m sure most of you out there are not race car drivers and have never done anything like this, as I hadn’t. But after you experience a weekend like this, you’ll have a great appreciation for the people who race cars for a living. What a HOOT! The driving school cost $250 per driver and was worth every penny. Tom Allen My son and I just attended the 2002 Driver’s School over at Gateway International Raceway. For all of those members of the St. Louis BMW Club that were involved in putting this thing together, I say, "Thank You". My son and I had a trememdous time! The emotions that we experienced during the school went from laughing hootin’-n-hollerin’ to fear to winning the Super Bowl. The dry Saturday session was just as much fun as the wet Sunday session. The speeds were much faster on Saturday, the braking was quicker over a shorter distance and the cornering caused much higher g-forces. What a great time Saturday was. I wore down a bit of tire tread and brake pad but the car came out in perfect shape. Standing on the brake pedal at 115 mph at the end of the straight-away getting ready to turn left onto the road course raised my blood pressure every lap. Driving in the rain on Sunday was a little intimidating at first but proved to be just as much fun. Those controlled sideways slides taught both of us what this car can do in the rain. Our instructors were top-notch. They weren’t hot rodders, they both had a ton of experience and they both guided my son and I through the entire school based upon our individual driving abilities. The radio communicators were a trememdous help. I don’t know what it would have been like if we had to yell back and forth to each other. I guess my anticipation prior to the school was that the instructors and I would use hand signals or just talk loud, so the communicators were a great relief. Communicators may be assumed during a school like this, but I personally didn’t know we’d have them. Thanks for providing them! As I said in one of the classroom sessions, my two goals for this weekend were to have a life-long father/son bonding experience and to not wreck my new car. Both were realized. But now my son thinks his Honda Accord is a piece of junk and wants me to buy him a BMW……yeah right! And my overall greatest joy was to put my new red 2002 330xi (all-wheel drive) through it’s paces on Sunday and smoke all the M3’s and Porsche’s who had a tough time getting any traction coming out of the turns. I never realized how much extra traction the xi gave me. My instructor sounded like the guy from the ‘Home Improvement’ show…..he kept saying "more power". I think he enjoyed riding with me as much as I enjoyed driving. This car was like a rocket in the rain. What a GREAT TIME we had and I sincerely thank all of you for your efforts putting this thing together. We can’t wait for the next session! Tom Allen Pictures of the track session are available at the following link, click on the picture link at member name ‘Tom Allen’. http://www.stlbmwclub.com/members1.shtml
Response:
My track day here in St. Louis was about 2 weeks ago. It was a 2-day event and included eight 20-minute track sessions and some very informative classroom meetings. What a great time! After I got home, I wrote the following e-mail to the board of directors of the St. Louis BMW Club that put this whole weekend together. I thought I’d share it with all of you on this newsgroup. If any of you ever get a chance to do an activity like this, go for it!…..what a great way to enjoy your car. I’m sure most of you out there are not race car drivers and have never done anything like this, as I hadn’t. But after you experience a weekend like this, you’ll have a great appreciation for the people who race cars for a living. What a HOOT! The driving school cost $250 per driver and was worth every penny. Tom Allen My son and I just attended the 2002 Driver’s School over at Gateway International Raceway. For all of those members of the St. Louis BMW Club that were involved in putting this thing together, I say, "Thank You". My son and I had a trememdous time! The emotions that we experienced during the school went from laughing hootin’-n-hollerin’ to fear to winning the Super Bowl. The dry Saturday session was just as much fun as the wet Sunday session. The speeds were much faster on Saturday, the braking was quicker over a shorter distance and the cornering caused much higher g-forces. What a great time Saturday was. I wore down a bit of tire tread and brake pad but the car came out in perfect shape. Standing on the brake pedal at 115 mph at the end of the straight-away getting ready to turn left onto the road course raised my blood pressure every lap. Driving in the rain on Sunday was a little intimidating at first but proved to be just as much fun. Those controlled sideways slides taught both of us what this car can do in the rain. Our instructors were top-notch. They weren’t hot rodders, they both had a ton of experience and they both guided my son and I through the entire school based upon our individual driving abilities. The radio communicators were a trememdous help. I don’t know what it would have been like if we had to yell back and forth to each other. I guess my anticipation prior to the school was that the instructors and I would use hand signals or just talk loud, so the communicators were a great relief. Communicators may be assumed during a school like this, but I personally didn’t know we’d have them. Thanks for providing them! As I said in one of the classroom sessions, my two goals for this weekend were to have a life-long father/son bonding experience and to not wreck my new car. Both were realized. But now my son thinks his Honda Accord is a piece of junk and wants me to buy him a BMW……yeah right! And my overall greatest joy was to put my new red 2002 330xi (all-wheel drive) through it’s paces on Sunday and smoke all the M3’s and Porsche’s who had a tough time getting any traction coming out of the turns. I never realized how much extra traction the xi gave me. My instructor sounded like the guy from the ‘Home Improvement’ show…..he kept saying "more power". I think he enjoyed riding with me as much as I enjoyed driving. This car was like a rocket in the rain. What a GREAT TIME we had and I sincerely thank all of you for your efforts putting this thing together. We can’t wait for the next session! Tom Allen Pictures of the track session are available at the following link, click on the picture link at member name ‘Tom Allen’. http://www.stlbmwclub.com/members1.shtml