Hi All,

I have been hitting the track pretty hard this season with my c32 and I just wanted to share my thoughts and what I learned about the car and my own driving skills during this. This is from a logbook that I keep so I must warn you that it is a very long post. Only read if you are having trouble sleeping or enjoy torture.

First off my c32 is completely stock. It has about 18k miles and I have the stock michelin pilot sports with about 5k miles on it. The brake pads are stock as well with about 60% pad left. I did put ATE superblue in for brake fluid.

So in the past month I have done the following. I will post writeups of each day as I get time to write.

Day 1 - BMW CCA - Lime Rock Park
Day 2 - Evolution AutoX school
Day 2 - Test and Tune Session - New Hampshire International Speedway
Day 3 - BMW CCA - Lime Rock Park
Brake Pad Change - Did it myself too - will post a full writeup
Day 4 - Test and Tune Session - New Hampshire International Speedway
Brake Fluid Flush
Day 5 - BMWCCA - New Hampshire International Speedway


Writeup of Day One

Day 1 - BMW CCA - Lime Rock Park

This is my first real track day so I was excited and nervous as well. I had autoX once with the c32 and other than that I really had no idea what this car can do on the track. There were a ton of BMW's there and some porsche's and a few exotics there as well. Very nice people. The track itself is just awesome. It is one of my favorites because it is so scenic and there is a lot of margin for error with plenty of runoff areas. Seems simple but deceivingly difficult. Also, lots of areas for the c32 to use all of its high hp to catch up the lost ground in the corners. I had so many BMW owners and some porsche owners come by and admire my car. They said it sounds very nice and looks awesome going down the track.

My first run of the day was pretty good. My instructor was the head of the autoX program so he is a really good driver. The hard part on a new track or any track for that matter is to figure out where to brake and where to turn. Thankfully BMW puts out cones that help to figure that out. So I was able to get a pretty good bead on the line. The instructor took my car out for a couple of laps and first thing he said was this car has sooo much power. It is so powerful from 30 - 100 and just keeps pulling all the way to 120 which is the top speed I hit at the end of the main straight.

The real highlight of the day was one of the former chief instructors of the BMW club took my car out in the instructor run group. Now he is an accomplished bmw club racer and races grand-am events so he is just an awesome driver. All I can say is wow I never realized how much the driver makes a difference. With the AMG we were sticking on a Porsche Turbo for 2 laps (suspension mods too) - now this car was being driven by an instructor as well so it is a pretty good driver. And then he made one mistake coming on the turn-in before the main straight and it was all over. We passed him on the straight at 130 - totally sweet.

The biggest lesson of the day - The driver makes a world of difference. Power really doesn't matter as much as being able to carry speed in and out of a turn. This car can come out of a turn pretty fast and it really helps on a track like lime rock.

My friend shared his comments about the car. The car understeers quite a bit and the throttle pedal response is not great. Also the drive-by-wire programming makes for a disconnected feel when accelerating out of curves. The speedshift is ok but still no substitute for a manual tranny - paddle shifters would help as he was not comfortable using the tiptronic. He definitely thinks the car needs more grip in the front. Also when braking on downhill the car shifts too much weight to the front and the rear becomes pretty loose. The ESP kicks in when accelerating hard on the uphill section of the track even if it is off. Strong brakes but does experience fade. Recommends upgrading to steel braided lines and better performing pads.

However despite its shortcoming he said that it would take me at least a year of hard driving before I could even approach the limit of what it offers. He said the chassis is well built and quite stiff. The suspension is soft but still good for larger tracks. The car forces you to drive smoothly or else you will lose a lot of time. Pick the line and stick with it because adjustments are hard due to the understeer. He said it is a good platform to learn on because it is auto and I can focus on the line. All in all he was very impressed with the car and said that it can handle anything you would ever want to do on the street and still a good platform for driving schools.

However, if I want to compete with this car that is a whole different story as there will have to be many things to sort out in the chassis. In his opinion this is a street car and an amazing one at that. It can be fast at the track but ultimately still a street car. This is not so bad considering that he even considers the new m3 as primarily a street car.

All in all a great day and learned a lot of things.

Prasith

 

boah, great story. Like it a lot!

Can't wait to have my Brabus Springs installed next Saturday..

 

Nice read. Keep'em coming.

 

You should videotape the instructors' run. I'd like to see the race against the Porsche.

 

man, you're doing all this sweet stuff and you didn't tell me???

I PM'ed you awhile back. I'm going to limerock this weekend and hope to pick up some good info in setting up my nissan nx2000 for ITA. I hope to take the c32 on track but i think it's a slow go around if i'm allowed.

anyway, please pm me, let me know what's up.

 

awdman - I left you a pm.

Yes a video camera mount is tops on my list for things to get for the car.

I plan on going to watkins glen in a few months and I will have my buddy drive the car and tape it to see what a c32 can do with an awesome driver and fast track.

Also if anybody is in the new england area and wants to do some open track sessions let me know if we can get enough people together we can have a private day at the track with instructors. We would get tons of track time it would be cheaper than the schools and way more fun.

Prasith

 

Prasith32, nice write up! Our fellow C32 owner, BMW instructor, is or will be at NH for a BMW CCA event. I'll forward the link to him to see when exactly he'll be instructing. Maybe you can hook up with a ride in his Renntech springed C32.

Every been to Mid-Ohio? MBCA National event, Starfest 2004 is here this year:

http://www.benzclub.org/

I know there will be about 7 C32s with about 9 drivers...bring your race tires or just enjoy the historic track. I'll have my new digital camera too so maybe we can mix scene for a nice video.

Norm
Bordeau/Merlot

 

I have rims and kumho for sale for C32.
Call 1-800-328-8239 Ex415 for price.

 

I will be instructing for BMW on June 7 at NHIS. See you there or call me at 1-800-328-8239 ex415.

 

sound like a great story!