brillomaster Posted October 20, 2015 Author Share Posted October 20, 2015 (edited) Quick update on the old track car... Did Donington a few months back and the car was properly mint - the speed that you can carry through corners now with the new tyres is quite frankly silly. Keeping it pinned down the Craner curves and then taking huge amounts of curb at the old hairpin to slingshot up the other side is great fun. Car is really feeling fast now. And then did Blyton park in august, only a short track but the beemer was going well round there, again great corner speeds, highlight of the day for me was slowing reeling in a lotus elise and him moving over for me - which on a short technical track far better suited to an elise than an old BMW saloon, was quite impressive I thought! Did however have a major problem in the afternoon at Blyton though - the diff started making a horrible whining noise and turns out it had leaked out all its oil... which meant it was day over. Again ken took the car home and sourced a replacement diff, which also has a shorter final drive - we now have a 3.38 diff to replace our old 2.93. Also put through its MOT which required finally patching the hole in the exhaust, and fitting a standard wheel so the airbag and horn work. So next trackday is Bedford GT, this Saturday! Its a track we know very well, but this will be the first time we've driven it with decent tyres, AND we now have a new shorter diff fitted, which I cant wait to try out! Bedford has some long fast sweeping corners which will really show the grip from the new tyres, but also some tight hairpins where the new diff will greatly help will acceleration onto the straights. Theres also a lot of serious metal coming this weekend (GTRs, atoms, M3s, M5s, 911s) so will be able to pit the beemer against serious machinery and see how she does. Not sure whats next for the beemer now - its in a pretty good place in terms of performance, I suspect we'll just be keeping it in brakes and tyres now and enjoying it! in order to get meaningful performance increase now would require major investment in either engine or chassis which would probably be better spent on trackdays. Will try and post some photos and vids after Bedford of how shes looking now. Edited October 20, 2015 by brillomaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nissanman312 Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 I might actually try and get down to this one for a look if it's dry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted October 20, 2015 Author Share Posted October 20, 2015 go for it! We'll be there from 8am til 5pm on Saturday 24th. best plan if you fancied coming along would be aim to get there for 12midday, then you can sign on over lunch ready for the afternoon. Unfortunately the weather is predicting rain from 1pm onwards at the moment, so hopefully that will change otherwise we'll get a chance to try federal 595 RS-Rs in the wet... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 They'll be fine, should be better than the 888s and they're no problem at all. It's standing water that stops these tyres working really, so as long as there's no puddles you'll be immense on them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted October 20, 2015 Author Share Posted October 20, 2015 schweet, suspected it was really only standing water we'd need to look out for, and that should be easily avoided. The alternative if the weather gets really bad is putting on some 50% worn RE040s on the back and some 50% worn Marshalls on the front... really hope it doesn't come to that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 You'd be better off running the 595s and getting used to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted October 23, 2015 Author Share Posted October 23, 2015 well, we're forecast for rain now! only light rain until around 3pm, so hopefully practice in the morning, and then come mid afternoon we'll be tcs off, gracefully oversteering like a boss. maybe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebized Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 schweet, suspected it was really only standing water we'd need to look out for, and that should be easily avoided. The alternative if the weather gets really bad is putting on some 50% worn RE040s on the back and some 50% worn Marshalls on the front... really hope it doesn't come to that! You'd be better off running the 595s and getting used to them. I have no idea what the 595's are like but 50% worn RE040's on the rear I reckon would get you in a right old spin.....multiple times around the track Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 595 RS-Rs are pretty good for the money - last well, work ok when cool and don't go off easily when hot, but you do sacrifice outright grip compared to something like MPS Cups... but then the Cups are about 50% more expensive so who cares!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted October 23, 2015 Author Share Posted October 23, 2015 they've certainly worked well enough for us so far... don't think we need to be cornering any faster, its already quite unconfortable on the plus side with the car handling, when it was on 4 poor tyres it had a tendency to push quite a lot, which I suspect will be a similar story in the wet. the old E36 used to be quite snappy, as did the 330ci, but that had more torque - either way, should be interesting! can always leave the traction control on, remarkable how well the system works even though its 15 years old now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted October 26, 2015 Author Share Posted October 26, 2015 (edited) Well that was indeed an educational day! Started off nice and dry and mild, lots of interesting cars out on track and was having a great time, got heat in the tyres and they were gripping well. Big difference compared to previous tyres we've ran around Bedford, corner speeds a lot higher. Then about 10am the drizzle started - nothing major, just enough to need to wipe the windscreen a few times a lap. Fair enough, tyres have heat in them, so press on much the same. Notice at this point how quiet the track is... Then just before lunch the rain got a little heavier - wipers on all the time now. tyres still responding reasonably well, little bit of understeer in a few places, but generally pretty planted. At this point nearly all the exciting machinery was in the pits, just the cheaper clios/mx5s/MGs out on track now. And then an early lunch for car to car contact, apparently a whole load of glass on the track! After lunch, rain cleared and things brightened up a touch, but actually it seemed that this was the most treacherous... tyres had gone cold, and was like driving on ice at some of the corners - had to really work to not understeer, and then be on the ball for power oversteer. I was loving it, TCS off, sliding the car around, all good fun. Ken wasn't so keen on the slidy conditions though! Then about 3pm the rain started properly. visibility was well down, proper monsoon conditions. But to my surprise, 595 RSRs were better in full on wet that they were in drying conditions - could still keep reasonable pace, TCS off, and now starting to find traction and corner speed, really quite remarkable. Only problem really, which we entirely expected, was standing water... on the back straight were a few patches that you basically had to skate over at about 90... and then the odd puddle right on the apex! All in all the tyres are surprisingly good - if you have heat in them then they're fine with drizzle, but even cold they can deal with rain. of course this may change as the tyres get more worn, but will see. certainly inspired me that we can run them year round. Will have to see how they respond to freezing conditions in January. Have a few videos of the day, including my one and only spin... last corner before the pit straight, lost the rear and went past the point of return, everyone in the pits would have seen it. but no harm done, stayed on the tarmac! Will post the vids once I've uploaded to youtube. Hopefully Snetterton next, again a track we know well but haven't done on decent tyres before, should be good! Edited October 26, 2015 by brillomaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetpilot Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 I have used 595's in the wet an found them surprisingly grippy and predicable, very good tyre for the money imho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Not often you hear about car-to-car contact on a track day... any idea what happened? Must have been quite a bang to shatter glass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 no idea unfortunately! anything would be pure speculation. A few cars were missing their braking points at that corner though, my guess is someone wasn't expecting a car in front to brake when it did and went into the back of them. But other than that incident everyone was very well behaved! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Which corner was it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 Turn 14 of 17 on the full GT layout, what I like to call it the fourth hairpin... the last left hander before the three rights that complete the lap. Not a usual place for collisions, but possibly the slowest corner on the track, easy to get the back out on the exit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 I know where you mean, good description! No excuse for car to car contact there, clearly someone driving like a numpty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Excellent thread, really enjoyed reading it and it just goes to show that doing track days doesnt have to be expensive! Am sorely tempted to buy an old beemer myself, but I know I just wouldnt get the spare time (be allowed a free day pass) to actually be able to do the track days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjt Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 They'll be fine, should be better than the 888s and they're no problem at all. It's standing water that stops these tyres working really, so as long as there's no puddles you'll be immense on them I have used 595's in the wet an found them surprisingly grippy and predicable, very good tyre for the money imho. Glad you had a good day and that the tyres weren't a handful. I ran 595 RSRs throughout the winter on my old Zed as a daily drive and I found them to be predictable, albeit not a great fan of standing water on the bypass! Videos?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 yeah videos are still taking a while... still need to get the camera setup a bit better as well I keep meaning to do it, but I get distracted by all the driving lol, we did 217 miles in the rain on Saturday! meanwhile, heres a link to a pic (wont let me embed it): http://www.javelintrackdays.co.uk/trackday/index.php?view=detail&id=34181&option=com_joomgallery&Itemid=13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 so was at oulton yesterday... interesting day, summed up mainly by rain! managed to get a session each on a dry-ish track (although tyres were still cool) then the rain came. By midday it was chucking it down. Quite a few interesting moments, had our first excursion into the gravel when ken missed his braking point into Druids - didnt beach it, just kept going. But a new experience none the less. And then a spin on entry to the Brittens chicane when ken did an early downshift to second without rev matching, which unsettled the rear. My sessions werent entirely uneventful - got alongside an MX5 along the start finish straight, but realised he still hadnt seen me and was edging me left onto the grass, which could have ended badly, and then a few drivers with unclear messages, which led to a few strange overtakes round the outside at Druids and Lodge. But overall despite the lashing rain, the car is remarkable in the rain (or should that be the tyres?) can drive round some cars like they're standing still - despite about 70 cars signed on, there were only a handful of cars that were faster than us, which is nice. And reviewing the footage seems my best time was a 2:27, so only a second slower than last years 330ci, despite a 40bhp deficit and lashing rain. given a dry track i think a 2:19 or faster would be achievable. Will have to try oulton park in the dry next year, i still dont like the chicanes but everything else on the track is brilliant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 Heres the video evidence... nothing too spectacular, since TCS was on all day. Somewhere like Bedford where theres nothing to hit then i'd turn it off, but at Oulton park, its just wet grass, then armco - which wouldnt end well, so TCS stayed firmly on! still remarkable how much grip there still is even in the rain - although such was the downpour that aquaplaning was becoming a real risk - and no amount of TCS will save you if there is no grip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted April 12, 2016 Author Share Posted April 12, 2016 Well that's that then.... after 7 trackdays, the engine started making weird noises last time out at snetterton. Still had plenty of oil in the sump, and hadn't used a drop since we've had it (unlike the 330ci) but still, engine noises on a £700 car normally mean its new car time. and we've had 7 trackdays out of it, so happy enough with that. If anyone is interested in trying to repair/break for parts, its on ebay right now, no reserve! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E46-328i-Track-car-Spares-or-Repair-/301925232222?hash=item464c256e5e:g:TLsAAOSwAvJXCrVT so whats next for the track car? well snetterton was in January, and its taken this long to get it on ebay, just haven't had the time! and with holiday and Scotland trip coming up, I wont be available for another trackday until around july, so no rush to replace it yet! Also i'm a little torn as to what to get next - another 330ci would be nice, but kinda fancy a change - although as ever it has to be cheap, ideally around £1000. tempted by an RX8 since a 231 version would be fast and revvy, but would it survive a year of trackdays? usual suspects are MX5 and MR2, but the first is too slow and the second is too impractical, since we really need it to hold a full set of wheels and tools. anyone else have any other suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 RX8 yes, and a stripped one is great fun on track. However at that price point you're almost certainly going to be buying one that needs a rebuild, plus you'll want the Sohn adaptor to feed the engine with separate 2 stroke, plus the Corvette ignition coils etc just to get it to a reliable state. I personally wouldn't buy one that cheap for track use if you're not going to spend money upgrading it to keep it for a while. Clio? Okay so FWD, but different and can take the wheels & tools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted April 12, 2016 Author Share Posted April 12, 2016 could try something FWD for a change, although don't really fancy it... and an RX8 sounds like too much of a risk. annoyingly early high mileage S2000s are still out of our price range, looks like it'll have to be a beemer again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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