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NCC BMW CCA HPDE Summit Point, August 2011
After a bit of a summer break, GeorgeCo was back at the track with the National Capital Chapter of BMW Car Club of America to instruct for 3 days at the Summit Point Main Circuit August 5-7, 2011. We ran the GeorgeCo E30 Powered by Beano on Friday and the GeorgeCo Blue MINI on Saturday and Sunday. I had two students this time out. My A Group Student was in an E36 M3 and my B Group Student was in an E30 much like mine. Both accomplished GeorgeCo’s Objectives for any Drivers’ School: 1–Have fun. 2–Learn Something. 3–Return home with your ego and your car undamaged.
The MINI is sporting a couple of new mods designed to improve brake cooling and reduce flex under braking. For the brake cooling we took a trip to the local Ace Hardware to get some ducting. Having previously removed the fog lights from the bumper cover and cut a hole in the wheel liners, we connected the two with some ducting to improve air-flow behind the wheels. At the Shenandoah in similar weather in June we saw brake caliper temps in excess of 650 degrees. This weekend, temps stayed below 600. Tough to say if it was from the improved ducting or just the differences in the two tracks, but $15 for a little insurance is well worth it. To firm up the chassis you will notice the red convertible chassis braces in the photo above. Not seen is the lower stress brace that reinforces the link between the sub-frame and frame. This was on sale a few months back so we snapped one up. Install is dead easy and can be done in about 10 minutes.
We got a break in the harsh summer weather we’ve been having here in the Mid-Atlantic and took full advantage of it with 3 glorious days at the track. We had a bit of rain on Saturday afternoon which spiced things up a bit as seen in this first video.
But once we came to grips with the lack of traction on the transitions to the patches, lap times dropped down to within a couple of seconds of our times in the dry. After the rain, the track never had the same level of grip as it did on Friday, but it did give us a chance to try out a new camera angle with the GeorgeCo RePlayXD camera.
We’re also still perfecting the Helmet-cam, but this video gives you bit of an idea of what is meant by keeping your eyes ahead of your hands. Watch for the head to turn before the turn-in point in the corners.
More Home Depot Racing Parts
I have always hated exterior bits that serve no real purpose. Faux brake vents; solid grilles — that sort of thing. The stock MCS rear bumper has two fake grilles that have always driven me nuts. With the way the bumper cover is designed, the rear valance hangs down in the airflow coming under the car. It always looked like you could just open up the grilles and let the air flow through the bumper. But things are never as easy as they seem.
The first thing you notice when looking at the rear of the car is that there is a lot of heat shielding. With the stock “2-ball” design, this made sense, but once you’ve converted to a single sided exhaust, you really do not need all of that shielding or the exhaust hanger on the unused side. Once I painted the new bumper, I thought I’d try to experiment with airflow through the bumper. I started by modifying the heat shielding on the exhaust side to flow better toward the outlet. On the driver’s side, I trimmed the heat shielding back and channeled the airflow directly toward the vent. I’ve been running without vents at all for a couple of months. From most angles, you really can’t tell anything is missing, but when you are directly behind the car, it just looks wrong.
I tried looking through the usual online catalogs for a low cost, free venting solution, but all seemed outrageously priced to me. Enter Home Depot. Since I had an extra set of vent grilles, I decided to break out the jig saw and dremmel and see what I could come up with. After a couple of experiments, here’s what I produced. It’s not going to win me any concourse competitions, but from 5 feet, they look pretty good. They are made from the same gutter-guard material as my front grille, so it provides a certain low-budget symmetry I should think.
MINI Scoop Grille DIY
I found that the intercooler hood scoop tended to scoop up leaves, bugs, and cigarette butts. Maybe it was just because I was doing a lot of driving in NJ (sorry). I saw a MINI catalog featuring a grille and thought I might try to make one myself. Putting a screen to keep the junk off of your intercooler will sacrifice a certain amount of air-flow and I suppose there is some risk of having snow and muck block it as well, but if it’s that cold out, I don’t think it will matter. I much rather have to stop to unclog the scoop than pay for a new intercooler. (And as I would later find out at the track, it helps keep the rubber klag out as well.)
Remove your air scoop by removing the two screws and two bolts that hold it on. Take care not to let the trim piece fall from the hood. There is a gap between the scoop and the trim piece that seems to have been built for this purpose. Trim a piece of cardboard to get the right shape then cut out a grille from a piece of $2 Gutter Guard from the Home Center. Paint the edges with flat black paint to prevent rust. If that’s too complicated for you, send me $5 and I’ll mail you one. Motor on.