[Hegemony]

We went out on Saturday. The track is a 1.33 road course. Here's an arial shot:

http://www.tgprace.com/tally_aerial2.jpeg

Was my first time doing anything larger scale than SCCA autocross. Had a great time. The Atlanta Mustang club hosted, but there were several 350z's, G35's, C6 Z06 vettes, a heavily modded 911 turbo, a porsche cayman, an M6 and me.

Only recorded a couple of lap times, was pointless as I was running in a slower group at first. I was more concentrating on learning the course, the lines, late braking, and getting comfortable with my car. Best time of the day was ~1:07 recorded by the heavily modded 911 turbo. That's a sick car with a great driver. The best time that I recorded was 1:13.5 after I got out of the slower group, and I'm still on factory run flats with stock brakes.

Car mods: Custom exhaust, Billstien PSS9s, UUC Sway Barbarians, and Procede v1.45 (track only, of course.) I also had the car corner balanced and alignment done with me in the car on Friday. The alignment is outside factory spec. We added negative camber and made the toe more agressive. It's way better for track than factory, but will cause some inner tire wear over time. I will post the specs on that later.

I can't say enough about how good the PSS9's and the Sway Barbarians felt. I only had them set to 4 in the front and 6 in the rear, and I had guy's with dedicated track cars commenting on how smooth the car looked going through the right-hand decreasing raidus.

I'll try to get pics linked, and at least one person took video of me screaming by on the back straight.

-Hegemony

[DrewKo]

Wow that's great stuff...how did the Cayman do?

[Hegemony]

The best lap that I'm aware of for the Cayman was ~1:13. These guys are all great friends of mine and they were pushing for me to get into the A group since I was running roughly the same times as him. That made me feel pretty good since the Cayman has Porsche's carbon-ceramic brake kit on it and is several hundred pounds lighter than our 335's stock. To his credit, he hasn't been on the track in over 3 years, and to my credit this was my first time out

I got home late and didn't get a chance to put my specs together. I'll do that when I get home tonight.

The better C6 Z06 vettes were running about 1:10-1:11. I was hitting about 105 on the straights and these guys were getting to a little over 110.

[kevbh]

Thanks for posting. I used to read about this track when I was active on the motorcycle forums, but have never been out there. I'd love to see any pictures or video if you have time to post.

I'm looking forward to my second HPDE at Road Atlanta next month. Who do you AutoX with?

[Hegemony]

Honestly, I don't. I went to a couple of events, including a beginners course, with a mini group a couple of years ago when I had a G35 coupe. I was lamenting with a friend last night that we aren't more involved in local track groups.

I'm a little leary of road Atlanta. Those concrete walls don't seem very forgiving to beginners.

EDIT: here's an in-car video from the cayman

[Hegemony]

Also, here's a pic of me just after turning in to the late apex of the decreasing radius.

[bartman32]

Nice shot. But you have to get rid of those front amber reflectors. eww.

[ward]

Originally Posted by bartman32

Nice shot. But you have to get rid of those front amber reflectors. eww.

some people don't want to spend money on it if the mod doesn't make the car perform better

[Hegemony]

Funny thing is, it took me a good 20 seconds to see them once I read that post. That has to be positively the last thing that sticks out to me looking at that pic. I'd sooner comment on the grass in the foreground.

Different strokes I guess.

[DrewKo]

Yeah, your car looks strong in that turn; i can barely see much body roll. How did your temps run? I assume your 335i has the oil cooler and is it manual?

[Hegemony]

It's a manual, temps were within my normal operating range (250 or less.) We were on for 15 minute sessions.

[rpiopio]

Good golly that looks fun. Is this your daily beater too? The closest thing I get to that is the loop-de-loop onto our highways.

[kevbh]

Originally Posted by Hegemony

Honestly, I don't. I went to a couple of events, including a beginners course, with a mini group a couple of years ago when I had a G35 coupe. I was lamenting with a friend last night that we aren't more involved in local track groups.

I'm a little leary of road Atlanta. Those concrete walls don't seem very forgiving to beginners.

EDIT: here's an in-car video from the cayman

I completely understand your hesitency about driving at Road Atlanta with the concrete walls. They moved a few of them back a little through the S-curves when they repaved over the winter, but I still have nightmares about what might happen coming through turn 12 onto the front straight. Still though, if you focus on driving at your own pace and leave room for error, I think it's much safer than my drive to the track (I285).

I enjoyed the Cayman's video. Looks like a good track to visit - not too fast and there appears to be some room for run off it things get all wrong.

I'll be autocrossing this Sunday with the BMWCCA at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds. Stop by if you're interested in spectating. If the folks guarding the gate give you a hard time (unlikely) just tell them you are meeting me there (Kevin). If you want to ride along just bring your helmet.

[Hegemony]

OK got my stats finally

Front to back weight distribution with me in the car (I weigh about 190 with the helmet et al):
Total Weight: 3707
Front: 1892 51%
Back: 1815 79%

Left: 1866 50.33%
Right: 1841 49.66%

Front Camber: -0.7 (left and right)
Front Caster: 7.2 (left and right)
Front Toe: 0.09 (left and right)

Rear Camber: -1.8 (left and right)
Rear Toe: 0.12 (left and right)

Rpiopio, yes it's my daily beater.

Kev, what time? I can probably stop by for a bit just to meet people. I met Minsoo up at America's Best when I was getting my alignment/corner balance done.

[DrewKo]

Man, I would meet you guys out there, but I'm in SC for business all weekend. As soon as my body kit comes in though (in about 3 weeks), I will attend some of these events. If one comes up that you think would be interesting, you could post it in the SE section of this forum.

[kevbh]

Originally Posted by Hegemony

Kev, what time? I can probably stop by for a bit just to meet people. I met Minsoo up at America's Best when I was getting my alignment/corner balance done.

Tough question to answer regarding time. I usually get there around 7:30 am to sign the waiver, go through tech, and start walking the course. They should have the first car on course by 9:15 am, but have done a little better than that the last couple of events. The problem is, I don't know which run group and work group I will be in. There are three different groups, so depending on when you come by, I might be working the course, standing around, or driving. E90s have been few and far between, but there will be two white ones there. I'm number 120. My buddy ATL_Architect will be driving the 330i. I'll keep an eye out for you. If you see me in line to drive, just grab you helmet and come on over. The event is usually done by 2:00 pm or so if things are going smoothly.

Minsoo recently added a new Z4M Coupe (the hard top and "M" version of the Z4, whatever you call it) to his collection. He also has a Z3M Coupe and an S2000. I have serious garage envy.

Hope to see you on Sunday.

[Fartpimpson]

Nice shot

[kevbh]

Originally Posted by DrewKo

Man, I would meet you guys out there, but I'm in SC for business all weekend. As soon as my body kit comes in though (in about 3 weeks), I will attend some of these events. If one comes up that you think would be interesting, you could post it in the SE section of this forum.

July 7th and 8th at Road Atlanta is the next BMWCCA driving school. There's lots of great eye candy at these events and you can watch (and hear!) them running the track at full speed. Since I'm only a student, I won't be able to give anyone a ride on the track. On the first lap of each session, a pace car leads everyone around the track. At the last event, a salesman from United BMW Roswell was doing the pacing in a new X5. He was taking anyone with him that was interested, so a friend of mine rode with him one time. It wasn't exactly a "hot lap", but they were moving along pretty quickly and he got to see the track up close and personal.