Home » Posts tagged 'BMW CCA' (Page 4)
Tag Archives: BMW CCA
NCC BMW CCA Fall HPDE, 2009
The GeorgeCo BMW powered by Beano put in a strong performance among higher horsepower cars this past weekend at Summit Point. The three-day school on the Jefferson Circuit was the last track weekend of the year for the National Capital Chapter.
We’re finally figuring out the skidpad and sustained oversteer. The key is to stay in second gear, dial in some mild understeer, as the front hooks up, wait, then blip the throttle. As the rear comes around, countersteer and hold the throttle steady.
Temperatures on the car were good all weekend. Tirewear has been fairly even. We’re getting some rubbing in the front on the new swaybar but that may be only an issue at full lock on the skidpad.
The biggest issue of the weekend is the ugly song the differential began singing on Saturday. We checked the fluid level and color and both were good. Temp was fine. It may just be in the last throws of death. Time to start checking craigslist.
Final Session, Part 1.
Final Session, Part 2.
Things to remember about this car on the Jeff counter-clockwise:
- Turn 1: max entry speed; stay on the crown; trailbrake; put in lots of steering input; carry speed up the hill; don’t worry so much about track position for turn 2, just be back on-line for turn 3.
- Turn 4: brake mid track; wait for the front to hook up; long apex; unwind the wheel on exit
- Turn 5: stay mid track to avoid dip on entry; trailbrake slightly; head for accessroad; lots of steering input at the apex; avoid the patch; full gas well before apex
- Turn 7: double apex. Brake late to carry speed up the hill, but don’t go deep; trailbrake; get on the throttle early; late second apex
Chapterfest and SCCA Event 6, 2009
Chapterfest marked the end of the Summer for the GeorgeCo BMW Powered by Beano. The annual event sponsored by the National Capital Chapter of the BMW Car Club of America brings together the diverse sub-groups of 6,000+ member chapter into one event. It features a swapmeet, shine & show, good food, and of course autocross.
There were some beautiful old cars in the show as well as quite a bit of questionable carbon fiber bits on newer cars. And this:
Not exactly my thing, but to each his own I suppose. I think that audio system costs more than my car. And it probably has more power too… There were some interesting non-BMWs too. I always like to find dubious aero bits:
No video from the autocross. Another autocross season down, another dead video camera I’m afraid. I’m going to have to invest in a solid-state recorder of some sort. The course was more challenging than it appeared during the course walk. The course designers decided to use the lower lot at Baysox Stadium this time. To get there and back, the course has to pass through a couple of islands in the parking lot. That risk means designing very slow sections before the entry to the pass through. This caught out a lot of people, but since going fast by going slow is what the GeorgeCo BMW Powered by Beano does best, it was no problem for us. Rain spoiled the times for the fourth heat runners, but running in the second heat, we managed to take first in class, solidifying our position going into the season finale next month.
Sunday brought the sixth championship event for the Washington DC Region of the SCCA at FEDEX Field. In this series, we’re running the GeorgeCo Gas-X MINI in the Street Mod class.
The only car on street tires as well as the only true daily-driver in the mod-till-you-drop Street Mod Class, the GeorgeCo Gas-X MINI has a significant disadvantage to the stripped-out, higher horse power cars in the class running on competition tires. That is, until it rains. We almost achieved greatness yesterday. Almost. It rained heavily during the fifth heat. At the start of the sixth and final heat, the course was very damp and slick. At the start of the second of four runs, the GeorgeCo Gas-X MINI was in the lead. Unfortunately, the sun was still shining and the course was drying and we saw our advantage slip away. Nonetheless, the car ran well and the course was challenging. Perhaps just as interesting were some of the other cars that were at the event.
And the Beat Goes On
It was a beautiful morning for an autocross. The National Capital Chapter of the BMW CCA held another points event at the MD State Police Training Facility in Sykesville. I was eager to get the BMW back on the road, so I gave it a try, even though the U-joint beats the drive-line like a madman. The 16 inch MINI wheels and R-comps are a bit too tall for the E30. I can’t quite get lock-to-lock without some rubbing in the wheel well. In the future, I’ll have to stick with the RA1s on the 15 inch wheels instead.
The steering rack performed flawlessly. It’s probably psychosomatic on my part, but it seems easier to steer and more responsive to input. Maybe that’s because the system is holding pressure and not just pumping fluid into the boots. The drive-line is something I’m going to have to deal with. I think I progressed backwards today: my fastest run was the first one; slowest the last. I found as I went on, that the vibration became worse and by the end, I couldn’t give it full power without shaking the whole car.
I also managed to finally finish painting all of the calipers last week. Red calipers must be good for .2 secs a run…
Update: 6/14/09. Just checked the results and I won my class!
Thanks to the NCC website, I just got some photos of the Stealth in action last week at Sykesville. There are a couple of things to note in these photos. The first one is under hard braking, just turning-in to a fairly tight right turn, body roll isn’t bad and the front doesn’t seem to be really loaded.
The second thing I notice is how much better the paint looks on the door and front fender than the rear quarter panel. That’s because I haven’t painted the rear quarter panel yet. I’m also thinking that if I really want to stick with the whole black-out theme, I need to tint the windows and paint the chrome trim black as well.
NCC BMW CCA HPDE Shenandoah Circuit 5.29.09
It was a beautiful weekend to be at the track. (Actually, there are no bad weekends to be at the track. Except maybe when it snows — been there, done that.) Except for a brief deluge, it was sunny and warm all three days. I really appreciate the Friday IA days. I get more track time in that one day than I do in the rest of the weekend. So much in fact, that I almost ran out of gas.
The two videos below show the last run session on Sunday for the A Group. The groups all had about 12 students each which was an ideal size for this track. We were also fairly close in speed, with a few faster than the MINI (OK, most) and a few slower. This was also the first time I’ve run with another MINI on the track that wasn’t driven by an instructor. It was cool to see the difference in performance between the R53 (mine) and the R56. With about 20% more torque, the new turbo really pulls away on the straight.
The skidpad was interesting. I don’t know what BSR has done to it, but you’d think a skidpad was supposed to be slick. This one had an amazing amount of grip, even when soaked. We were hitting speeds above 42MPH before getting any understeer. It wouldn’t be a problem except there isn’t much run-off area when you start to spin or push outside of the wet zone. I managed to get the MINI to oversteer by increasing the pressure differential between the front and rear tires. When the tires were cold, it really came around with just a throttle lift. When the tires were hot, we had to induce it with the E-brake.
First Autocross of 2009
The autocross season got off to a soggy start on the Triple Skid Pad at Summit Point. The NCC had their first points event of the season on Saturday. I’m running a street-tire class in the BMW this year. The rain meant I had a good chance of scoring well.
I was fastest most of the morning session and ended up fourth in my class. The three ahead of me all ran in the afternoon when it was dryer. The course was partially under water. The surface is new and slick. The run off areas are muddy and deep.
