opportunistic

Fors juvat audentes ("Fortune favors the brave")

It all started when I caught wind of a track day at Thunderhill being put on by a local BMW/Mini dealership, as a sort of customer appreciation day. It sounded like they had very low enrollment and were looking to get more participants. The fact that it was offered for only $100 made it very attractive indeed. These track days usually run upwards of $200. I passed the word on to a few friends. My buddy H used to own an M Coupe and was very interested in going, and he passed the word on to his friend S. S owns an E36 M3 that he had converted into a racecar, and he signed up immediately.

The problem was, neither H nor I actually own a BMW or Mini at the moment. Lucky bastage that H is, he was offered a chance to drive S's racecar. H also wanted to bring his Subaru WRX to the track, but when he contacted the dealership to ask if he could do so, they said they were full. He asked if it was ok for him to drive the M3 racecar instead, or "his" M Coupe that day, and they said sure, no problem. I on the other hand, got totally denied when I asked to bring my MR2 to the track. Oh well, what would you expect for a BMW event right, so I figured I would go up and just bum rides off people, and help as a crew member for the racecar.

Suave guy that he is, H then managed to persuade his other friend who owned an M Coupe to swap cars with him for the weekend. Friday morning, I woke at a mind-boggling 4:30AM, and at about 5:30AM I fired up the IS350 and motored my way up the 2.5 hour drive to Thunderhill. I figured if I wasn't going to drive on track I might as well cruise up in comfort. The Nav system and XM radio kept me entertained along the way. I got there just before 8:00AM and met up with S and H. As we surveyed the paddock we noted with no small amount of exasperation that there several participants that were clearly not BMWs or Minis: among them, a Mitsu Evo, a Lotus Elise, a Subaru WRX, and an older MR2. "I shoulda brought my own WRX!" H vented.

At the drivers' meeting the atmosphere was remarkably relaxed and the registration process consisted of coming up and getting assigned a random number which people then wrote on their side windows with erasable white markers. I had on a whim brought along my magnetic numbers that I usually put on my MR2. You know where this is going... next thing I knew I had slapped the numbers on the side of my car and was heading out on track with an instructor in the beginner's group. I didn't plan to push the car very hard so I thought it would be wise to stay in a slower group even though I had driven the track several times before. One of my instructors was Dick Chang from DynoSpot Racing.

I was very familiar with the track but of course the instructors didn't know that and one of them in particular was somewhat overbearing, he was constantly talking while we were out on track and even put his hands on my steering wheel to "help" me in the turns. I prefer someone who watches what I do and lets me do my thing, and only step in if I am making a big mistake. Anyways after a few laps he was praising my driving and technique, and encouraging me to go faster.

So we come up to turn 2 and I brake a lot less than before. Turn 2 is a very wide, long sweeping high speed turn which cars can probably take at 70-90mph. I was consistently taking it around 60mph but this time, we entered at more like 80mph. I was ready for it and started turning in, and my instructor started freaking out on me. "No no too fast, you're going too fast!" he screamed. If there's one thing I learned from driving a mid-engine car, it's that you NEVER brake in mid-turn -- you will cause a spin if you haven't already started one because that unsettles the car. So I stayed on the gas and tried to hold the wheel steady in the turn. To be honest I thought I had everything under control but his panic got me all worked up and I swerved a little but we finished making the turn and straightened out just fine. He says the stability control probably saved us but I'm not sure -- I thought I was doing just fine until he started spazzing and I didn't see my VDIM/stability light come on. My understanding is that the system would have chimed if it really had to come in and save the day, but maybe I just never heard it amidst all the commotion. Anyways I backed it down a notch for the rest of the session so he could calm down and not have a stroke or something.

Meanwhile H was getting strapped into the race car and took it out for a few laps. I didn't get to ride with him but he said it was loud as hell and stuck like glue to the track with its ultra-sticky race tires. I was going to catch a ride in it with S driving it later in the day, but after one of the afternoon sessions they came back in with a funny sound coming from the motor. It sounded like a valve problem but we couldn't figure out what it was, so the car was done for the day, it was not wise to take it out on track any further until it was looked at. The motor had I believe over 250,000 miles on it without a rebuild, so hopefully it wasn't something expensive.

I took the IS350 out a few more sessions in the afternoon, but took it easy and drove within my comfort zone. I did get the tires to squeal a bit and according to my G-Tech Comp I hit peak lateral Gs of around 0.89 in some corners, but I don't think I ever felt like the car was understeering or oversteering -- it just felt like I was pushing to maybe 80-90% of the car's potential without going over the line, and the car was responsive and predictable the whole time. I think the auto transmission was sometimes selecting an inappropriate gear, like upshifting too soon but putting the car into Sport Shift mode and leaving it at 4 for most of the course seemed to help. I didn't really bother trying to upshift and downshift to get the most out of the engine. At one point I remember hauling down the front straight and breaking 100mph, which was memorable because the speedometer displays a red ring around the gauge when you pass 100mph. I might have got up to 105 or so before having to brake for turn 1.

Tell you what though, I was burning up fuel like a rocket booster. I started one session with about 27 miles remaining on the fuel estimate computer -- that's more than a gallon of fuel. After about 3-4 laps the low fuel light came on and the fuel estimate read 0 miles! Holy fuel consumption Batman, I had to back down the pace and pull off, and cruise cautiously to the fuel pumps at the track, where I was able to buy 5 gallons of 100 octane race fuel for a princely $33. The car definitely didn't need 100 octane but I couldn't risk driving the 4-5 miles back to town to get regular 91 octane gas.

All in all it was a fun day at the track.

5 gallons of race fuel - $33.
A bottle of water from a vending machine - $2.
Sneaking in a trackday and making your instructor scream - priceless.

all my photos from the event: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2102566763